FALL IN! 2008: It was a good time!

FALL IN 2008 has come and gone, and I have to say I'm really enjoying this show these days, maybe more than the others-- it's mellow, laid back and the crowds aren't overwhelming like they can be at HISTORICON. I showed up late on Thursday, but early enough to schlep tables with Andy Turlington. I was volunteering for this one, and had been assigned a nice enough task-- working the front desk at the exhibitor's hall. One nice part of this job is that you get to see EVERYONE at a convention if you work a dealer's hall. Less nice, is you seem to be "away from the action" most of the time. So it goes. Me, I liked it, but I like schmoozing with people.

I don't know beans about attendance numbers, how well we did with the money, etc. So I can relate only the anecdotal stuff.. Bob from RLBPS told me he had his best Friday at FALL IN, evah! I saw some new dealers present, from the puzzling "I'll renovate your basement" guy to a couple new boardgame dealers. The folks I talked to seemed very pleased with the amount of business they were doing. Another BIG intangible-- you couldn't find a parking spot at the All-Star on Saturday for love nor money, unless you went way back in the back forty to a "lot B" I had no idea existed. That's a first.

I did some judging for Pete Panzeri, for the GM awards. I had to join in giving the AUSTERLITZ game I saw run in the All Star one more in the fistfull of awards it received; simply lovely old fashioned 15mm Napoleonic goodness. Reminded me of Borodino 92 (remember that one?).

I participated in the Society of Daisy's OFF THE TABLE MODELING and OFF THE TABLE PAINTING contests-- I didn't really think I had much of a shot at it but it's a worthy effort, worth supporting. So I entered my "Steampunk light armor company" made entirely from kid's toys and castoff junk. I submitted my "Clockwork Hussars" in the painting contest-- with very little hope of a prize. Let's say I "paint for utility". Sure enough, none of them won first prize, but one of them (can't figure out which) won THIRD prize.. hey, ten bucks. That's a beer and a half!

Jim McGaughey ran an HMGS-sanctioned painting contest too, it was supposed to transpire on Saturday in the All Star, I think-- I couldn't find it. I hope it went well.

I got asked to run FALL IN, during the course of the weekend. I said I was interested, but thought Andy Turlington was in line for this job, and wouldn't make any kind of strong case for myself if he wanted it-- Andy's a great candidate for the position, and I really don't have any ego about being a Big Chief or lil' Injun after doing the COLD WARS job for four years. Fortunately Andy took the job and I think he's the best man for it.

Got into a great game Friday night, BIPLANES AND BATTLESHIPS, based upon the Hector Bywater "Great Pacific War" scenario. I sacrificed my light cruiser squadron, but the Americans ultimately won with heavy losses. Yay! Liked the rules system, the historical era, and the scale (1:6000th). I may pick this up and try it some time.

Here's a Travel Montage:



I didn't end up buying out the store. I got some Historical Products 20mm Spanish Civil War stuff (for use with Russian Civil War armies.. they adapt well). Mostly these were "anarchists" and troops with the Adrian Helmet, plus a few guns. I picked up some WW2 naval infantry at Dave Markley's recommendation, from Pegasus models. These will make dandy Russian Civil War Naval Infantry troops, if I ignore or convert the ones with machine pistols. I have some Naval Infantry from IT FIGURES painted up already, but I like the poses on these guys-- more aggressive and more detailed. I also got another Pegasus set of Russian log houses, a Whippet tank, and a Scout car.

I didn't get into the cubicle zombie game, Saturday night.. I was out having dinner and didn't get back in time. It sure looked funny. It's a great idea, but I'll just wait for this chap to run it again. :-D



So, instead, I hung out, drank beer and played boardgames. The first attempt was BETRAYAL AT HOUSE ON THE HILL. This proved a tad complex to the fellows assembled. Since the "Traitor" guy showed up fairly early the game ended after I'd gone the grand total of one room in to the mansion. Somewhat anti-climatic.





John C's excellent dramatic reading of the events paragraph (captured on a period authentic Edison Kinescope) was the highlight of this game.

SEE THE VIDEO, bottom of the page.

I wanted to get in on the game of Mall of Horror nearby.. but it was full up. Sigh.



Since Betrayal lasted.. oh.. five minutes or so, and most of the rest of the company present were passed out, we pulled out a recent purchase, COWBOYS: THE WAY OF THE GUN, by Worthington Games. Mostly as a learning experience.

Scenario: Bust Our Pard out of the Jail



Citizens cleared the streets when Stinky, Paco, Snake Eyes and Jeb rolled into town.



The Sheriff was there to greet us. "Por Favor, Sheriff, might I inquire.." (BANG! "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!") Clearly the local law facists don't care for Mejicans.. Paco was shot in the stomach before he and the sheriff could exchange greetings. Stinky, Paco, and Snakeyes duked it out the local law dogs, while Jeb rode round the long way.



The ensuing gun battle was a fracas. Paco and Stinky were riddled with bullets, enforcing my low opinion of this town's tolerance for both hispanics and the unwashed. The Sheriff and his deputy ceased to exist. However, that was the signal for the uprising of citizenry. Every other turn, a new citizen popped up to activate and start blasting away with shotguns and rifles. Paco and Stinky rode hard for the outskirts of town, but ended up getting killed right on the edge of the map. Sigh. Victory was so near.



We rather liked COWBOYS. Like GUNSLINGER, without all the detail work and fine level of granularity.

Sunday was anti-climatic as it usually is. I flea-marketed a bit, for the first time. I made some money! James Mattes ran the raffle for prizes in the dealer's area.. it seemed to have gone over well. I went home not exhausted, as usual, but pretty energized. I had a great time and will definitely attend more FALL INs in the future.

My Fall-In! 2007 Vacation!

(Belated, I know.. and as always, all commentary is my own)


(crack Events staff Pat Shields, Cleo Hanlon, and a somewhat blase Mike Hillsgrove)

I had a pretty good convention overall. I showed up a little early to work the con, and I schlepped a few things here and there, and fetched wood and carried water Thursday.


(Convention Director McWee and Gruppenfuhrer Mattes)

Friday, my friend Ed came down from central PA and we did a battlefield walk and had lunch, then I did the staff thing on the afternoon shift. I worked the Flea Market, briefly, and also spelling the guys at the front desk of the Vendor Area. More work than I thought it would be!




(Dan Muraski, the only flea market guy in HMGS history who got a VENDOR table to sell on)

There were tons of games put on at this convention and lots of activity, to judge by the impossibility of getting a parking spot in the lot. That's a GOOD thing.. I was struck by the influx of boardgaming in various nooks and crannies of the con, here and there, and sometimes right out on the main tables as bona fide events!



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(Hal Dyson, running perennial favorite AERODROME)


(DBA competitors in the New Ballroom, Friday)


(that Featherstone Cup you've heard about...)


(.. and some folks who japed that it was rightfully theirs..)


(and MORE games)


(and even MORE...)


(son of MORE games..)

I did very little shopping, but got a pretty nifty game of Pulp Adventures! in late in the evening, run by Chris Vaughn.

F-174 On The Shoulders Of Giants
Pulp; 7 PM;
Length: 4;
Hosted by: Chris Vaughn;
Scale: 25mm;
Sponsored by: Rattrap Productions;
Rules: .45
Adventure/Super Science Tales;
No. of Players: 4.
A dense, low-lying fog blankets The City, reducing familiar objects to menacing shadows, when you feel a low rumbling in the pit of your stomach. It gradually becomes an earth-shaking tremble as out of the swirling mists appear monstrous mechanical creations - robots taller than many of the surrounding buildings! The diabolical Dr. Kroon is at it again and it's up to you and your fellow pulp heroes to stop him on the rooftops high above the city! Rules taught. Beginners welcome.

Alas, no pictures of this game were taken, but it was a hoot. Chris, who has a great sense of humor and creativity, was running a sort of micro-scenario of giant robots invading New York City. We only got to see the tops of them, see, as the rest of the robots are hidden below fleecy white clouds. The idea was to leap from robot to rooftop as the robots march by, searching for the mcguffins that would turn off the robots. Of course, it's never quite that easy. There were different groups in New York together, trying to turn off giant robots, and some of them were bad and some of them were good. I played a baddie.. the Purple hood, an overarrogant intellectual genius with followers that looked like klansmen in red robes. I played the guy with a Boston Brahmin accent, looking down my nose at my evil minions. Unfortunately the clean cut hero of the story had homicidal followers that decided it was best to shoot first, ask questions later-- so instead of working for the common good, they attacked my poor minions (and myself), changing what could have been a historic alliance of major proportions into bloody internicine warfare. Typical goody two shoes stuff. and they'll blame it on ME in the papers. Sniff! It was a fun little game, very well done visually. I particularly liked the robot heads, which were simple plastic bowls balanced on white plastic powdered laxitive jars. I was concerned.. not only was there enought to balance a robot head on, but enough to run SEVERAL robots on.. I mentioned the benefits of more salad to Mr. Vaughn but he didn't see the humor in it. Seriously, great game, sir! (Update: Chris has since contacted me and provided details of how to view pictures of this game. His Fall In! 2007 album is viewable HERE).

People, places and games...


Saturday I worked the Flea Market thing and did some front desk work for the vendor hall. Then I ran my own game, Return to Lilliput, from 2-6, when we got kicked out. I'm going to take another pass at the mechanics. I got a complaint that they were too fiddly and slow to look up everything. (if anyone wants to take a look at them, let me know, I'd be happy to have a second opinion).



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I opted to eat in.. not great... chicken and mashed potatoes. At least it wasn't incredibly greasy. Then I played in Ed Watts' Pulp Action game Saturday night, as Professor Rick Ruthless and his fleet of giant walking metal men. Pretty danged funny game. A tad chaotic.. Ed probably could have used some assistance.

S-182 Sand Seared Rugged Adventures, North Africa, 1930s.
Inter-War;
8 PM;
Length: 4;
Hosted by: Edward Watts;
Scale: 25mm;
Sponsored by: Monday Night Adventurers;
Rules: Rugged Adventures;
No. of Players: 8.
Enigmatic characters, steel visaged Nazis, square jawed heroes and plucky heroines in pursuit of McGuffins mysterious and arcane midst dune and palm tree.
Teens and adults preferred.



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There were some great games run Saturday night. HMGS President Panzeri was running a multi-table, Lewis and Clark thing that I personally found very intriguing. The design was run off a series of random event tables. Here you see some of them being set up.



Some other games being held Saturday:







I then went to the MST3K event hidden in one of the far rooms. I missed the first movie but caught the second.. "Crippled Masters". Hilarious! A guy with no arms joins up with a guy with no legs to become kung fu masters! And they used two memorable actors-- one who was a thalyidomide baby and one who had withered legs as a result of birth defects. They started the movie with prop (real) arms and had the props "chopped off" or "burned away with acid" during the course of the movie. It was pretty over the top funny and perfect faire for MST3K. COuldn't stay awake for anything more, so hit the hay.

Sunday, I was up early and attended the TriaDCon planning meeting. Not much was accomplished, as we only had Mike, Otto and myself attending. One thing we seemed to agree on was that we wouldn't be eager to put on another con without more volunteers stepping forward. The same six guys have done most of the work for the last two, and that is getting old.

So, with that inconclusive note, I nosed my car into traffic heading south, and fall in! was done for another year.

With great sorrow and humility, I must report the passing of Mr. Dave MacRae of the Baggage Train. He suffered a disasterous stroke while setting up at Fall In! last weekend and was medevaced to a nearby hospital. His condition did not improve and he was unresponsive until late Sunday. The following official notice was made on the HMGS "Official List" the other day by FI! Assistant Director Mattes:

It is with great sorrow that I have to report that Dave MacRae
owner of the Baggage Train and long time friend and supporter
of HMGS-East passed away Sunday after suffering a stroke in
Gettysburg on Friday evening. Our prayers go out to his family.
I have called left amessage of condolences for his loss. If I hear
anything back I willpost to the forum.

Very Respectfully
James Mattes
Fall In! Deputy Director

I did not know Dave personally all that well, though I had both played games with him and bought stuff from him over the years. His was one of the countless faces that I have catalogued in my head where I could not pleasantly and strike up a small conversation about .. well, just about anything. There's a lot of guys like Dave in this hobby; people I wished I knew better but likely never will have the chance to. Thanks for your contributions to the hobby, Dave, we will all miss you.

V/R

Mr. Nizz

PS: Fall-IN! travelogue post (traditional for me) has been delayed somewhat... I'm clearing some space off of my picturetrail account. I took about 63 pictures.

My Shopping Haul

All things being equal, I think I got away light. It's almost bad form to NOT mention what you spent money on, so here goes:

From Lon Weiss at Brigade Games:

Some discounted Shadowforge female gunfighter figures (and maybe a naughty nun or two, you never know when that will come in handy). Four singles and a three pack. For use in Wild West and VSF games.

In the Flea Market:

I got some large scale grotesque monsters for a 54mm Wizards game I'm contemplating. From a series called DREAMBLADE by the WotC.





Also Age of Rifles (again) on CD (never can have enough copies), and a couple of interesting post-apocolyptic figures.

From Bob Bowling at RLBPS:

Copplestones - Xmas2 and Xmas1 (Father Christmas and Evil Snowmen) for our TNGG annual Christmas game, and FW36, because they are so cool.

From Wargames Inc of Tridelphia, WV:

The latest WARGAMES ILLUSTRATED and 1 15mm South African armored vehicle from QRF (for my AK 47 force I'm building) and 1 hovels 15mm structure for various games.

From the HOBBY BUNKER:

Four packs of AK47 figs from Peter Pig: 37, 119, 41, and 24 (for AK47) and 1 box Strelets WWI era Cossacks in 20mm (plastic) for Red Actions! Russo Polish War project.

From Jeff Hobbs' booth, several dice, punch drill and bits.

From Paroom Station aka Bob Charette: Theodore Roosevelt, A masked Minion with diaobolical weapon, a Landships crew, and a smiling anarchist.

From the Book guy in the center, another copy of the Ospery books on Russian Civil War, red armies.

That should cover it!

Some zoomy pictures of Metal Men

Mitch took the following pictures of some of the miniature games at Fall IN!, with a far steadier hand and a better camera than I could muster:



The link to the main photobucket album is here:

http://s120.photobucket.com/albums/o169/samsarapuppy/Fall%20In%202006/

You will note possibly the same tank in this slideshow at a far lesser degree of detail, to give you an example.

Mitch has a steady hand and a good macro feature on his camera, these are great pictures. Enjoy.

FI 06: A great, albeit exhausting, weekend

FALL IN! 2006 TRAVELOGUE


I pointed my aging Thunderbird north rather late after losing the classic man (using logic)/woman (totally ignoring logic) argument and headed up to Gettysburg. Traffic was vile on 495 at 630 PM (vice the 3 PM I was trying to leave at, instead of taking my daughter to Girl Scouts..) so it was past 9PM when I arrived atthe Ike. Almost immediately, I had to dump my stuff in the hotel room and jump into a BOD meeting where we would finalize and fix some items in the CW07 budget. I though my portion of the meeting went well-- perhaps they were all tired at that point and didn't wish to argue.

Afterward, I bumped into Del at the bar, working on John Drye's French and Indian rules on his laptop. We had a few beers, but I was exhausted and so was he, and I had a CONOPS breakfast meeting first thing next day, so no hanging out until 3AM for
me.

The next day (Friday) opened with a CONOPS breakfast with Pete and James. We discussed HMGS shirts for staffers and convention leads. I've been a big fan of this idea for a long time, and tried to put it together for CW06 but it ultimately would have had to come out of my budget and I didn't have the money for it. Anyhow, we're taking steps to implement it and I like the idea, esp. the color scheme that Bob and I agreed upon in advance-- blackshirts for CDs, blueshirts for staff leads, redshirts for staff (following the Star Trek theme). Having Bob be such a strong proponent of this idea really helps. I think the cons will look much more professional with staff shirts and it's not a waste of money to spruce up the look and feel of the cons. We also talked about a three con table rental contract that looks to save us about a buck less per table than our previous vendor. I'm all for that.

Stopped in at the Painting area and chatted with Heather for a bit, to get numbers for CW07. Once again, a resounding success. WHO was the genius that started this at his convention? WHOOOOOOOO?






Did the bulk of my shopping in the morning on Friday, since most of Saturday would be caught up running errands for COLD WARS. I picked up some plastic cossacks from Strelets for my Russo Polish War Red Army. I got a QRF South African armored car for AK47 Republic. I looked long and hard at FAA's WWI Germans to make up my Freikorps a little bit down the road but decided against it for now. Ditto for the awesome new 40mm musketeer package produced by EUREKA. I have too many projects going right now. I picked up some Shadowforge cow girls on sale from Brigade,and found some large scale spooky figures for my 54mm Wizards game. I also picked up AGE OF RIFLES on CD (again) and few less than serious items in the Flea.

FAIR WARNING ON THE SLIDESHOWS (you will need to have a Flash Player installed. Seems not to work too well with Firefox).





A little slideshow of the tournament area..


Failed to get into an early game Friday (lost the ticket and he put in an alternative), so hung out a bit and took a nap, then sallied forth with dinner in mind, and the notion to be back in time to get in an 8PM game. Went to a truly wretched Chinese buffett right next to General Pickett's. It wasn't the absolute worst chinese food I've ever had, but it was in the neighborhood. Since I went to dinner with Howard Whitehouse and Mitch Osborne, at least the company was pleasant and we could joke about the food.




"Even More Friday Pictures.."

Got back in time to play CLASSICAL HACK (Game F046 "Play the Author") hosted by Phil Viverito. This was a Romans versus barbarian field battle, and I had a blast. I own Classical Hack but this was the first time I had played it. I found the battle damage a bit confusing at first but once Phil took me through a few combats it was tres simple. Unfortunately the dice weren't with me on this one. I rolled miserably, although our side one by the timely arrival of reinforcements. I quite enjoyed talking with Phil and got him to run a lecture and big theme game for CW07: THE ROAD AND THE WALL theme. I'd definitely play Classical Hack again. Here's some piccies:




Another day, another horde...



CHARGE distance?? Why are you measuring that again?



I suppose a parlay isn't acceptable at this stage.



Son, when playing Romans, do NOT, repeat NOT, emulate this man's example...



Uh, Phil? That seems like an awful lot of Casualty Caps...



After that, hung out a bit and kibbitzed on some games winding down and then we got the idea to go watch BATTLESTAR GALACTICA up in the hotel room. With some beer. So our group went from Rich Low, Mitch Osborne and myself to include Andy Turlington, Otto Schmidt, Patrick Berekebile and a couple other guys. (Recap is elsewhere). I started getting sleepy when Doctor Who came on, so headed back to bed.

I slept through the "Sense of the Membership" meeting and got up and about late (for a con). I drove up to the post office and bought some postage for Neil to mail out vendor packages with (that is, if the vendor didn't wish to take his/her packet directly at FALLIN). Then I schmoozed some exhibitors with the COLD WARS 06 flyers.

Mike Hillsgrove went to the Lincoln Diner for dinner, which is worth visiting. I had the archtype diner meal-- meatloaf, mashed potatoes, apple pie ala mode. Drey's meatloaf can kick their ass any day of the week, but it was still one of the best meals I had up there.





"Mostly Saturday Games.."

Got back in time to participate in Bob Leibel and Cleo Hanlon's 55 DAYS AT PEKING, and really enjoyed it. I will break this out separately as a pictorial, as there really is too much. Afterward dropped in on Ed Watts and Jeff and talked for bit until I was mumbling. Took off and went to schmooze Duncan MacFarland to get a Cold Wars advert in Wargames Illustrated-- which turned out to be an easy task after I purchased a few beers. Rick Etvedt relieved me of that pressure and obligation as it was his unofficial wetting down-- he will soon be a bird colonel. We all congratulated him resoundingly (all the beer helped too!).



This being SATURDAY night at an HMGS con, we couldn't take being thrown out of the bar at closing time lightly, so Del, Mitch, John Snead, Andy Turlington, Pete P. and myself hung out a bit until I was on the verge of nodding off. And so to bed, to oversleep hideously the next morning.

I packed my crap, checked out, and did some budget cleaning up on my laptop in the lobby (they actually do have a wireless zone in that hotel, btw). Clarified a few items with Bob and Heather, and then ran over to do a final walkabout in the Exhibitor area at the All-Star. And thus, homeward.. I always feel like a HMGS convention is a series of opportunity costs wasted when I'm driving away.. Well, if I had been done with this a little early I could have sweet talked my way into that, or if I'd gotten my lazy ass up an hour earlier I could have gotten into THAT.. etc.

OBSERVATIONS:

Don't let anyone snow you with that "attendance was light" crap. Parking was at a premium all Friday and Saturday, and I saw VERY FEW unplayed games. There were fewer games in evidence but almost every single one had an audience.

Hotel comparison: I love the Gettysburg location, but there's definitely a different vibe at the Ike than the Host. The rooms are far nicer at the Ike than at the (unrefurbished part of) the Host, which is nice. There are far more nearby eateries at the Host than at the Ike, and many more nearby hotels. There also seems to be more to do with families at the Host than the Ike. My opinions only.

Onsite Food is far more plentiful, affordable, and available at the Host than it is at the Ike, no matter what we tell them. It routinely puzzles me that the hotel won't take the hint so they could take more of our money. I'm used to food being available until 11PM any given night at the Host, and the bar closing when the last gamer falls down. Not so at the Ike.

I (for one) don't mind the hike to the ALL STAR complex, it serves a purpose right now. However, I wonder if we really need to include the extra 10K in facility cost to FI after they added all that space to the main building. I think FI would be far more financially healthy if we 86'd the ALL-Star (which several exhibitors complained to me as being "dead after 4PM") and just moved everything up to the main building. It might be more crowded but I think it would save a lot of money.

In general, it's the people that make a convention great, no matter where it is or whatever amenities are present or absent. I had a great time meeting with old friends I rarely get to see, and that's what made FALL IN a great time for this wargamer.

Finally... "nothing says 'I belong' MORE than when you get stuck with Judging duty!"





Postscript: For excellent, zoomy detail shots, I recommend THE ALBUM MITCH OSBORNE MADE of Fall IN! miniatures games.

Another Postscript: For my Fall IN! Shopping list, go HERE.

AARs of John Camarano's and Dewey LaRochelle's FI06 games. See the slideshows, above, for a couple of pictures.