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Historicon News Flash from HMGS East

Mister Nizz

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Released: Historical Miniatures Gaming Society East Announces Legion of Honor, Scruby Award Winners

Bel Air, MD (May 11, 2009) -- The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society East (www.HMGS.org) will present the Society’s lifetime achievement award -- the Jack Scruby Award - to Todd Fisher of Chicago, IL at the 25th annual HISTORICON ™ 2009 conference to be held July 16 – 19, 2009 at the Lancaster Host Resort and Conference Center in Lancaster, PA. The Jack Scruby Award is presented bi-annually by the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society East (HMGS) for distinguished service to the hobby of historical miniatures gaming. HMGS is a non-profit educational organization that promotes the study of military history through historical miniatures gaming, seminars, grants, and conventions.

The Scruby Award is named after the late Jack Scruby, one of the first to make a critical contribution to the growth and promotion of the hobby and industry of historical miniatures gaming in the U.S. The award recognizes individuals who exhibit the same selfless service and incomparable contributions to the hobby as exemplified by Jack Scruby.

Todd Fisher has contributed to many different fields of historical miniatures gaming. An avid wargamer and dedicated Napoleonic scholar, Todd has organized and assisted in organizing a number of game conventions, the most notable is Little Wars, sponsored by the HMGS Midwest chapter, which Todd was also instrumental in organizing. Perhaps Todd’s most famous achievement was the Emperor’s Headquarters (EHQ) that he started in 1990, a wargaming super-shop that gamers drove hundreds of miles to visit, and which undoubtedly inspired many of the successful historical shops in the country today. Todd also formed the Emperor’s Press, which published not only wargaming rules, but also many serious scholarly works by respected historians, including Christopher Duffy. Todd was editor and publisher of Napoleon Magazine and has served as a retailer, publisher, and manufacturer, producing a number of historical figure lines under license. He has also been involved in the artistic end of the hobby, the art of game design. Todd has been closely associated with the various editions of Empire, and was central to the development of the new Revolution and Empire rules, in addition to designing the popular medieval rule set Revenge.

Todd is the Executive Director of the Napoleonic Historical Society, and in that capacity, he has led tours of the Napoleonic Sights of Europe for over thirty years (he was one of six original inductees in the International Napoleonic Society.) He has authored several books on the Napoleonic period, including The Napoleonic Wars, which is used as the textbook for many graduate courses, written articles that have appeared in international journals, and was the chief historical advisor on the Peabody award-winning “Napoleon” for Public Broadcast System (PBS).

“Todd’s incredible accomplishments in the field of historical miniatures gaming -- from conventions, education and retailing to publishing and game design -- make him an outstanding recipient of the Jack Scruby Award,” said Pete Panzeri, president of HMGS.

HMGS Legion of Honor Awards

Elected to the 2009 HMGS Legion of Honor are Don Perrin and Philip Viverito whom will be inducted during the Scruby Awards Dinner, Friday night at HISTORICON ™ 2009. The Legion of Honor inducts individuals for their significant personal accomplishment in one or more fields of historical miniature gaming.

Don Perrin of Williams Bay, Wisconsin is publisher of Historical Miniature Gamer Magazine and president of True North Miniatures. He was also the publisher and editor for James Manto's Men-at-Arms medieval wargame. Don served with the Canadian Army for 10 years, retiring as a Captain in the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Currently, Don works with the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre of Canada to train Corps Headquarters in NATO, the European Union and the African Union for peacekeeping operations. He has published eight novels and has authored or edited a host of card games, miniatures games and role-playing games, including the Dragonlance d20 Campaign Setting, the Star Trek Original Series Collectible Card Game, Uncle Duke's Napoleonette Rules for 15mm Napoleonics and the Sovereign Stone Role Playing Game. Don has also served as president of the adventure game industry's trade organization GAMA, and has consulted for games and toys with Hasbro, Mattel, Origin Systems and Scenario.

Currently, Don devotes his time to printing other peoples fine miniatures games (such as Test of Battle Games' Command Decision: Test of Battle, LMW's G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T and Holy Hack, Sam Mustafa’s Might & Reason and OGDW's General Quarters), through his company Quality Print-On-Demand. He helped organize many conventions, including HISTORICON, Little Wars, REDCON, and RockCon, is publisher of the award winning Historical Miniature Gamer magazine, North America's only historical miniatures magazine, and continues to promote and play historical miniature games.

Philip Viverito of Tonawanda, New York is a prolific writer, historian, game-rules author, game-master, figure painter, master terrain maker, event organizer, and HMGS supporter. He began creating model buildings and relief maps focusing on various historical periods from Classical times to modern times model in junior high school and was so successful that he was invited to lecture on historical topics to other classes. After graduating Niagara County Community College and then Niagara University with a BA in history, he began building larger, award winning dioramic presentations for gaming conventions. He was contracted to do an architectural display for Amherst Historical Museum, Amherst, New York. Later he designed and created a series of seven miniature buildings depicting the development of The French Castle for The Old Fort Niagara Association, Youngstown, New York. In addition, he assisted in cataloging photographs for the Association's librarian. This led to other photographic assignments for the Fort. He was also responsible for the care and preservation of the Canadian Power Company's photographic archives and collections, eventually creating a photographic history of the company that was donated to the Canadian Government collections. Other commercial endeavors include photographic work for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian and the Niagara Falls Public Library Local History Department. Phil and other authors have their game systems, scenario books and The Classical Hack Newsletter published through LMW Works, which he co-founded.

Phil has traveled extensively through out the U.S. and Canada putting on demonstrations and seminars using his models as a backdrop, bringing history to life in miniature. Phil is noted for his speaking engagements as a former Smithsonian Instructor, having participated in The Legacy of Hannibal Program at the Tunisian Embassy in Washington, D.C. His other speaking engagements include the Origins War College, Buffalo School System D’Vouville Campus and The Biblical Archeological Society (Buffalo).

“We congratulate Don and Phil on their accomplishments and welcome them into the Legion of Honor,” said Pete Panzeri, president of HMGS.

HISTORICON is the largest historical miniatures gaming convention in the United States. Each year, thousands of avid gamers descend on what the New York Times has described as the "mother of all war gaming conventions." The event features thousands of attendees (adults and children), hundreds and hundreds of games, the world's biggest war game hobby shop, painting events, and a special awards celebration. Other HMGS events include the annual “Fall In” convention to be held Nov. 6 – 9, 2009 in Gettysburg, PA, “Cold Wars”, to be held March 11 – 14, 2010 in Lancaster, PA, and “Historicon 2010” to be held in Baltimore, MD next July.

For more information on HMGS, visit www.hmgs.org.

For more information on HISTORICON, visit www.HISTORICON.org.