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.


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.

I've been away from blogging for, oh, six months or more, for that I do apologize. A series of life changes has kept me fairly busy during that time, and I've had precious little time for gaming.



I went to HISTORICON last week, from Wednesday to Sunday-- alas, no pictures are contained with this narrative, but I assure you somebody out there will be posting some soon. I will give credit where it is due and link to other photos where needed-- just pass a mouseclick over the photo.

HISTORICON was my first HMGS convention since FALL IN! 2007, where I had been turned off of miniatures gaming for quite some time after the collapse of TRIADCON from within. In summary, I have to say HISTORICON was an EXCELLENT convention, a wonderful time from start to finish, and I thoroughly enjoyed the efforts of Bob Giglio and his crew of stalwarts: Neil Brennan, Frank Preziosi, Duncan Adams, JT Thomas, Wilbur Grey, Jeff and Monica Hobbs, Kathryn Plamback, Don Perrin, Jim McWee and many others should be singled out for their contributions to a wonderful show. Not to mention the on site staff that were up to their normal high standard of efficiency and helpfulness.

Having arrived in the afternoon on Wednesday, my activity was limited to visiting with friends, kibitzing, and solving the heady problems of philosophy in the lobby lounge with Bob and Cleo Leibel, Otto Schmidt and the occasional stalwart that drifted in and out of our wine-soaked conversations. "Sitting around and BSing with other learned pals" might be my favorite convention activity of all time, so I rate this evening as among the highlights of the convention. The next day started out late-- a wine soaked 230 AM bedtime will do that to you. I wandered about for a while, having grabbed a ticket for an evening game, whining my way into a boardgame (zombies), visiting the painting area and then showing up for dinner (late) with Otto, Bob, Cleo, and a family of adoptees that Otto had coerced to the convention. A most engaging supper, and off to my first "formal" game of the con, the battle of Ulsan. this was a fairly even contest between Japanese and Russian pre-dreadnoughts, using the wonderful Old Glory Shipyards Dreadnought line (the ship models weren't 100 per cent accurately representing the battle line, but the Japanese 'stand-ins' retained the flavor of the ships they were to represent).



I was in the role of the Russian Admiral, Jessen, flying the flag of the ROSSIYA. From the commencement of the battle, the Rossiya was under heavy, continuous fire from multiple ships. In an odd reversal of historical roles, it was the ROSSIYA that suffered a fate similar to the RURIK, the weakest ship in our line. I kept rolling "Special Damage" which ended up with a Captain dead.. the ship went through 8 captains during the course of the fight. The running joke was that by the time the battle was over, the laundry officer was running the ship!

The Russians won decisively, having no ships immobilized (this was close, though) and the Japanese were down to one ship left afloat. I had a wonderful time with this game, and commend the GM Mike Miller (as well as my fellow players on BOTH sides) for making this a fun time.

Friday dawned, I did some local things, and did my first big trawl around the dealer area. I got pigeonholed by Howard to help with his big pulp game (unexpectedly held on a FRIDAY, not a Saturday, harrumph). I promised I'd try, but got their late due to other commitments. Sigh. He really didn't need me, anyway. :-D One interesting acquaintance made in the dealer's area was a man named William, clearly a Mennonite, who had started a miniature gaming company in his community, and was selling Age of Reason/Seven Years War figures. Yes, he had heard about the Amish Rake Fight, and he thought it was hilarious, which shows you that should never assume anything. I promised I'd send him some photos, so please, if you got his card, get in touch with me.

Having been released from obligations to Howard, I did some more shopping, had some conversations, painted a bit, and then grabbed a ticket for the evening game. This was for CALLIOPE, a game that has always intrigued me, but alas, I was charmed when I saw FUPRIKT'S ALESIA or HOW TEDDY ROOSEVELT SAVE RURITANIA, and had to weasel my way in there. This was a giant GASLIGHT BATTLES game in a very small space. I played Victorian Germans with their giant spider walker, three companies of troops and flesh golems. You know, the typical troop mix. I slaughtered the Ruritanians in front of me, but it was to no avail, we couldn't advance through the densely packed town nearly fast enough. We lost but only by a narrow margin. I sat in on some friendly (and UNfriendly) banter about the "big subject", moving HISTORICON to Baltimore. This was much discussed in the evening, at the bar.

The next meeting was the membership meetings, which I did not avoid. I was rather touched to receive a very nice Saint Petersburg trophy for my years as a con director, and a HMGS lifetime membership, complete with secret recognition coin.

I got into Pete Frechtling's excellent A DAY AT THE RACES, LEONARDO? which may have been my favorite game this convention. This is a very silly game, featuring Renaissance era tanks racing each other with a little bit of sabotage from the sidelines. Reminds me of the old Le Grand Cirque games. I lost in dramatic style, trying to ram the guy who tore the guts out of my steam tank from behind.

I had time for a quick meal, and then got to sleaze my way into THAT'S A BUNCH OF BOLSHEVIK: SOMEWHERE IN RUSSIA, 1920. Great fun indeed, when you can squeeze a Russian Revolution game somewhere into the mix. The Rules were RED FURY, a sort of variant of BLITZKRIEG COMMANDER for the RCW. They played very well and could be condensed into two pages.

After being THOROUGHLY defeated by a very good opponent, I ambled upstairs and got involved in the bar room convos about the HISTORICON move. I avoided being too argumentative, and had a fun time BSing with people I rarely see.

Next day I packed up, did a final run through flea market and vendor area, and thus pointed my nose southward. I had a great time-- one thing I noticed was the stress level has greatly receded in the last year, and there are many changes. People are friendlier and more mellow at these things, which is EXACTLY the convention I wish to attend. Good show, my fellow enthusiasts, I am proud of you.

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.

Mad Germans, insouciant Romans, Burgers (the edible kind) and Dealers

Thursday: I get up to Historicon in the afternoon-- checking into the hotel (off site). A nice place, albeit small. I drive over to the convention-- I am too late to get in an earlier game, so wander around a bit taking pictures, and I go to the painting program to paint a soldier or two.

What can I say about the job done by Bob Giglio and all of his talented staff leads, that hasn't been already said? I was greatly impressed. Bob knows how to run a show and how to get people to work in harness. I think has done and continues to do a magnificent job. I don't know the numbers, nor am I all that interested, but I can attest to the fact that I could barely find a parking place on THURSDAY, and that speaks volumes.

As always happens at a convention, I spend no little amount of time walking around and bumping into people. Cons are for friends and games, and I spend some time catching up with a bazillion people I only see three times a year.

The games I saw on Thursday looked to be a lot of fun. Here's some visual evidence for John Buck that his favorite game was in evidence-- MOBY DICK!





And a very nice pulp-y game in Antartica:


I make desultory run on the flea and find nothing I can use at a price I'm willing to pay. I snorted when I picked up a WWI tank model and asked the price. The seller cooly demanded the same price he would get in any hobby sho

I bump into Jeff, Ed Watts, Joe Watts, and a crowd of folks. We decide to grab some dinner. Our mission for the evening was to get the lady announcing your order was ready to say something perverted. Alas, Fuddruckers only calls your first name and an initial. I told her my name was Bigby Miller. Think about it.



Later on that night, I was very happy to get into a game of THE LOST LEGION (T-464), running modified "Viking Battle" Rules. The GM was Robert Rutherford. The Battle was the Teutonbarger Wald, where Varus and his three legions encounter thousands upon thousands of Germans in the black forest. There were, literally, a thousand figures on the tabletop. Quite the show!

Lost Legion Slideshow

There was a fascinating game in the Showroom set in my favorite Time Period, interwar. This was a nice 28mm game of Russian Civil War fighting. As you can see, the Showroom is a nice place to run a game, and it was packed this year. If it weren't for the stairs, I'd actually ASK to run games there-- it's quieter, cooler, and there is plenty of space.

From Midnight Train to Georgia (T-527), run by Joseph Alexaner and Mark Edgerton, using Home Rules.







Yessir, the con was off to a good start Before I retired for the evening, I visited the game in the lobby upstairs to get the semi-obligatory Duke Pix! It had a Northwest Frontier flavor.

Cool Slideshows!

And so.. I drove off to my hotel room at 3 in the morning.. Yikes, the fatigue.

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.

What have we learned here today, kids?

---

Important Disclaimer
The following statement is solely my own opinion, based upon my own observations.
It does NOT represent an opinion of the HMGS East organization.

---

We are now in the wake of one of the better HISTORICONs, thanks to the good stewardship of Bob Giglio and his hard working staff, particularly Duncan Adams and Neil Brennan. I never doubted Bob and company would deliver, despite the rumblings from certain groups. The layouts worked, and worked well. The convention was very pleasant.

The membership meeting was far from pleasant but it was interesting. I think, for a moment there, we were facing a situation with extremely nasty real world consequences. We got there from not communicating with each other in a reasonable fashion, and acting without thinking. To a great extent the Fred situation was exacerbated from the hyperbolic fashion the internet can ratchet up the rhetoric on any issue. Many people took issue with what happened to Fred Haub, myself included. Many people (myself included) spoke out about it in public. I did so for the sake of principle, and not because of any partisan interest. I am not on the board of directors (not even as an ex-officio member, which apparently isn't recognized in our governing documents). I AM an officer of HMGS, as long as I'm signed up to run a convention. So, some might argue, I probably shouldn't have put my oar in the water. I don't agree with that opinion. I think when a principle is involved, it behooves us to express ourselves-- yet remain civilized.

Some people might have felt I was a little hard on the BOD, and in particular Pres. PP, on this blog. I had my objections to their actions and I objected to them on principle. My objections have been greatly alleviated by the results of that four hour long meeting. To continue bashing on the BOD would be counter productive in the extreme and only add to an existing negatively charged atmosphere. I have to work with these people, you know.

Therefore, I am willing to give the new BOD the benefit of the doubt for the time being. I hope we have all learned a little lesson about keeping our eyes on the weather guage here and won't go as far as we did again. I won't be shutting up (far from it) but I want to get back to speaking with a positive voice. To be otherwise is courting bad kharma...

Historicon Travelogue Part two

Okay, one more time for nostalgia's sake:

---

Important Disclaimer
The following statement is solely my own opinion, based upon recollection.
It does NOT represent an opinion of the HMGS East organization.

---

I may actually be saying a few nice things here, so don't be too shocked.

This post dwells on the bits of HISTORICON that encompassed the marathon, record breaking membership meeting of Saturday morning and key event before and after. This may not be everyone's cup of tea so I broke it out from the gaming and convention reporting stuff.

Friday night I dropped into the bar at the Host, after ON TO SARGOSSA run by Pat Condrey. Flush with victory and cash not yet spent on toy soldiers.

I saw Michael M. and a few others clustered around a table so I sauntered over and gave my usual bluff n' hearty convention greetings. More HMGS business than I care to admit gets accomplished in the Host Lobby bar (that's how I got Del Stover to agree to be my publicity guy for CW07, by the way!)

They asked what I thought of the "situation". I replied with my own concerns about HMGS East's future. We all felt that something serious had been done but were kind of in a quandary about what to do next. Fred himself showed up, and sat down, obvioulsy looking for advice. I told Fred that if he wanted people to support him in reversing his firing, than he had better act like it's important to him... keeping mum and not communicating with anyone (leaving everyone to guess as to what his intentions are) might lead people to believe that Fred didn't care about it.
The assembled crowd had their copies of Roberts Rules and the Bylaws out, and that usually makes my eyes glaze.. so off to bed.

The Big, Big Meeting

If anyone were to ask me to name the person that would be the center of controversy in HMGS, and possibly be at the heart of an incident that might bring the whole organization crashing down in ruin, well, let's just say there are many names I would bring up before Fred Haub. Fred is not one of these big, bluff hearty characters. He's shy, good-natured, and thoughtful-- not the sort of guy that would beat you at a game of quarters or slurp jello shooters out of the bellybutton of a Hooters waitress. So the opening of the membership meeting probably came as a surprise to all of us assembled. (You should note that a RECORD crowd of 150 souls was present, and the back of the room was standing room only)

HMGS President P. and the BoD were taking their seats and gaveling us to order, as it were, when in strides Fred Haub, right up to the front of the room, and says in a loud, firm tone:

"Ladies and Gentlemen: I am a board member of HMGS East that was removed without due process that makes the removal illegal"

Pete attempted to gavel him down and declare him out of order. Fred held his ground, and the applause grew and grew along with chants of "Fred Fred Fred".... Pete conceded that Fred could take a seat up front.

I had to admire Fred for that. It took a lot of guts and was nice bit of political theater. The practical benefit of the maneuver wasn't tangible, but it did get the crowd riled up and somewhat on Fred's side.



A full house! It's a dark shot.. but it should show how packed the room is

The attendance was a new high in HMGS history. 147 souls at the commencement of the meeting and more people (including BoD member Mattes) showed up later.



HMGS President P. made a very nice gesture to his predeccesor, Fred Hubig, presenting a Pavlov's Grenadier figure as a parting gift and allowing Fred Hubig the floor. Hubig made a small speech outlining the results of the 7 May meeting and actions taken subsequent to it (including consulting the "corporate attorney" on the legality of the removal of Haub). Hubig's tone was conciliatory and positive, with a plea for the members to be reasonable and gentlemanly. It was probably Fred Hubig's best speech given at a HMGS function.

Our agenda was like so:

Quorum Determination
Call to Order
Reading of Minutes
Old Business
New Business (to include resolution of Procedural Issues)
Officers' Reports
Standing Committee Reports
Temporary Committee Reports
Adjournment

HMGS President P. dwelled a bit on procedure, naming Mike Cosentino as a Sergeant of Arms. HMGS President P. introduced the newly constituted board and led off with viewgraphs of our mission statement. It was now 9AM or close to it.

HMGS President P. started with the introduction of the new board.

HMGS President P.: President
Dan McDonaugh: Executive Vice President
Membership Secretary: Bill Rutherford (again)
Treasurer: James Curtis
VP of Education Programs: Don Manser
VP of Outreach: James Mattes
VP of ConOps: HMGS President P.
Strategic Planning Committe: HMGS President P. (and that means the HISTORICON move)
Membership Comms: Dan MacDonaugh
Membership Services: Bill R.
Exhibitor liaison: James mate's
various other committees I didn't catch.

HMGS President P. wanted to go through his presentation and get officer reports. The membership preempted that by voting to table reading of the minutes and moving OLD business to the end of the meeting. Both actions passed.

So we went to NEW business. Now, unheard of when we vary rarely get more than two motions in a single meeting, we had NINE motions that had been made in advance. Here they are (this will all be released in the minutes and was mentioned in the meeting announcement, so I'm not speaking out of school here)

New Motions all had to be submitted in writing well in advance.

1. Motion to make the Minutes from HMGS East BoardÂ’s Executive Session of 7
May 2006 available to the membership

(this was trumped somewhat by the fact that the board had removed the cone of silence on this meeting in advance of the meeting, but they will be published on the website) There was some spirited discussion kicked off by none other than Pat Condrey inquiring if the membership actually has the power to "make the board" do something. Bob Coggins actually supported this by indicating that we probably didn't record the actual discussion of the meeting. Further discussion was obviously desired by many, but someone actually called it into question early and it had to be handled by the parliamentariann (Mitch Osborne) to see if the vote was appropriate.

Pete and Bill read a precis of the events of the 7 May session with a summary of charges made against Fred.

This was a sort of non-issue because of the board's decision to release the minutes, but it got added to the agenda because motions are made so far in advance.

2. Corporate Referendum to amend Article VI, Section 10 of the HMGS East bylaws re: term limits for Directors

This was a motion by Mitch Osborne to address the high number of incomplete terms we have been getting lately-- with the exception of Pete, only Don Manser didn't start out as a replacement for someone who had left by resigning. So there's an issue about term limits for someone who picks up a position emptied by resignation. Mitch gave a little background to the motion and it sounded common sense to me. I voted for it.

3. Corporate Referendum to amend Article VI, Section 3a of the HMGS East bylaws re: requiring a 2/3 majority vote by the Board of Directors to remove a Director from the Board.

There were two of these. One of which (I think the next one) was hugely complicated.. I like the first (far simpler) motion; I believe I voted for it.

4. Corporate Referendum to amend Articles III, V, and VI of the HMGS East bylaws re: membership ratification of Board-initiated removal of Directors from the Board of Directors.

This was lengthy and complicated.. as it had many sections and we had to break it into pieces for discussion. I think I voted against this as it was amended.

5. Corporate Referendum to amend Article X of the HMGS East bylaws re: minutes for Board of DirectorsÂ’ meetings and re: Executive Sessions

I think this was part of a series of non-binding "Sense of the Membership" motions by Bob Coggins that basically would encourage the BOD not to have Executive Sessions. I did not like the sound of it. In a business sense, sometimes we need to have sealed meetings. If we reveal everything to the outside world, we lose some, if not all of our negotiating power.



Even Notoriously Energetic Bob Giglio is poleaxed by the lengthy meeting

6. Resolution regarding continued membership of a Director on the HMGS East
Board of Directors

By far the most contentious of the group. "It was the sense of the membership" that James Curtis and James Mattes should resign for not living up to their fiduciarresponsibilitiesis" Folks from the back interjected to make the language more binding and turn it into a referendum. This got voted down. Then someone suggested maybe we should split Curtis and Mattes out. So we ended up voting NO for Curtis, YES for Mattes.

I voted NO for both. In my eyes it was "ethically challenging" to throw two more BOD members under the bus to demonstrate our feelings about the first BOD member getting thrown under the bus.

Does this mean that James Mattes HAS to resign? Nope. It's a non-binding resolution giving the "sense of the membership".

7. Resolution regarding prohibiting the expenditure of HMGS East funds to defend Directors for failure to follow due process

Another Bob Coggins "sense of the membership" thing. I didn't vote for this. We already have directors and CD insurance for this purpose,and this motion would yank the rug under our established procedures. Besides, who could you recruit to run for the BOD or be a CD if this had passed with some binding effect?

8. Resolution regarding the resignation of Directors from the HMGS East Board of Directors

Another procedural thing. I don't recall if it passed or what-- the minutes will surely reflect it. It wasn't as contentious as the previous motions. I *think* Dudley Garidel submitted this one.

9. Motion to make the Minutes from the HMGS East Board's Executive Session of 12 November 2004 available to the membership

Del submitted this and wasn't here to see it pass. This was the FALL IN where he got "resign or else!" as an option. Pity he left early, it would have been amusing to have some discussion on this one. It passed.


Auggie Thiesing, CW07 Events Director Richard Wright, Dan Nedwich, Greg Hacke and a room full of disgruntled HMGS members

The discussion was remarkably civil (most of the time), considering the gravity of the meeting itself, and yes, I do credit our new President for both keeping order AND allowing even the most controversial statements to get uttered. There were definitely anti-BOD factions in the crowd... let's just say a few tournaments got delayed as a result of the meeting. I found it greatly amusing that everyone who had ANY previous military experience would announce it when identifying themselves before speaking "Such-in-such, LT COL, Army Rangers, retired!" that sort of thing. And I got flack for using the phrase "camoflauge mafia!" Silly people. I wanted to cite my Boy Scout credentials when it was my turn to speak but by that point the moment was gone.

I stayed until the bitter end, and my impressions of things are generally positive. Pete behaved very calmly and didn't get rattled. He allowed the malcontents to speak, even the ones calling him a liar and trying to shout over him. That certainly would have rattled me if I were in his shoes.

Even with outstanding reports, nobody was complaining about calling for adjournment, so I didn't get a chance to make my Cold Wars report. I will post it here in the next week or so.

Much later, BOD Member James Mattes approached me in the hotel lobby, saying he had "good news". The board had met again in Executive Session and reseated Fred Haub with 4 votes for (Pete, James Curtis, Don and Bill) and 2 against (Mattes and Dan McDonough).

And so, the great Fred Haub Scandal of 2006 is behind us. Personally, I'm glad to see him back on the BOD, out of principle. His continuing presence there may just be symbolic, but I comend the BOD for doing the right thing.

Historicon Travelogue Part one

NOTE: There's a political element to HMGS East that many people (Duh!) find tedious. Part TWO of this travelogue will include such political observations as are necessary to make about the epic HMGS East membership meeting on Saturday, events leading up to and subsequent to it, and such modest interpretations as I am able to make. In this fashion, the boring material may be easily avoided. There will be a bit of an epilog after Part TWO.

I arrived at the Lancaster Host close to 1:30 PM on Friday. I had hoped to spend more time at the Con, but family responsibilities delayed my departure. Good Sign: parking was atrocious. If there were lots of spaces available, that would have been a bad sign!

Bob Giglio, Duncan Adams, Neil Brennan and company really sharpened their pencils on this convention, trying to accommodate a concern for fire code laws juxtaposed against an ever-increasing need for gaming space. The results were superb. I congratulate the HISTORICON team on a magnificent job. Well done, Hcon team.

First stop Lampeter Room

I thought the Lampeter layout worked for me. The aisles were wider and the tables looked well used most times I poked my nose in there. Gaming TIMES were stretched out to accommodate the layout, that much is certain, but the results were very pleasant.





Warrior Tourney (I think)



Flames of War:



Next stop Registration

There was some clear innovation being demonstrated here. The Wheatland, the room we use as a registration area at COLD WARS, was given over to gaming. The back room of the bar (where we show movies and do MST3K) was turned into the walkup registration area.

Preregistration was sensibly staffed with two people maximum. Here's the booth that was rented for that purpose:



The line was roped off to control traffic.





Inside the Reg Area (formerly the pool table area, back of the bar. That's Augie Thiesen manning the desk)



Greetings were made all around!

Duke Seifreid's game was in the lobby. A visual feast, to be sure. Dang! I didn't get a chance to play.









I had promised Howard Whitehouse I'd lend a hand with Amazing Tales: Africa Screams! At 2PM that day, and I got there about five minutes 'til 2. Unfortunately Howard had enough referees to run the game without me crowding the room even more. God knows it was hot enough!

AFRICA SCREAMS!

There were four "sets"

Rick's Cafe in the Casbah:



The Great Veldt, where Ernest Hemingway and Mr. Shiney were out leading hunting parties:



The Tomb of the Pharoahs:





Howard confidently gives his before-game spiel.



The audience hangs on his every word.



The roles are doled out:



The actors in various parties...

The Fastidious Otto Premiger like German Director and his film crew:


Biggles and crew, badly out of focus:


The Shadow, Margo Lane and crew (with the Spider standing in for the he who clouds men's minds):


Rick O'Brien(?) from the Mummy and crew (right), Jasper Gutman and his seedy crew on the left, Indiana Jones in the center (with Marion) and in the far background, the Lord of the Jungle and Jane.



The crowd yucks it up a bit.



That's NEOTACHA and her husband MWEAVER? from TMP!



Casbah interior:



I felt a little superfluous, and didn't have a hotel room yet, so I bowed out and went hunting for Bob G. to straighten out a place to sleep. I had a rollaway in the Presidential Suite.

I had me a kind of of dry overcooked hamburger for dinner, having waited a bit too long, and did a quick flyby the dealers room. Bought some 20mm French guns for my Russian troops from FAA. Baxter Key was a laconic and gentlemanly as ever.

Passed by Toby Barrett at Thoroughbred, we yucked it up a bit about recent events. We will address this in a follow up post. And got told that those cool Russian Civil War books (in Russian) weren't at ON MILITARY MATTERS. DRAT! At that point we were all (politely) kicked out.

ON TO SARGOSSA! Friday evening

I wanted to get into a game, and spied ON TO SARGOSSA! in the program book, run by none other than Well Known Poison Pen Pat Condray. I love between the wars as a period and have played Pat's rules, Vive la Christo Rey!, before about 15 years ago.

Turns out that the game was to be held at table D-44 (Distelfink 44) but when we arrived there was nothing but a big hole where the table was, and no Pat Condrey. It's not like Pat to sign up to run something and not show up, so I went to the GM desk and they were unable to find either his table or notice it had been dropped. Eventually Pat was found, calmly at a table nearby... He wasn't there the first time we looked, honest! Anyhow, I was pleased to find Jeff Ewing on the opposing side-- haven't seen him in an age. The OTHER player on the Republican side was Curt Daniels from my neighborhood (fahter of Grant, my occassional barista) Eventually Chick Lewis, whom I had bumped into earlier, jumped in to cover one part of my command, but I was mostly the sole anti-communist counter revolutionary player in the game.

My Guardia Civil troops.



with POUM and armored cars and guns...



My line, right flank looking North. Legion cavalry with a mounted MG. Then Carlists, then two artillery pieces of dubious quality.

Here are the Carlists. I actually redeployed them to the left, as they were slightly less wretched marksmen than the Falange, who made a floating reserve in the center. I put my Guardia troops (my best men) to the left and right of the bridge-- mostly to the left, as I (correctly) surmised that most of the action would occur there. The bridge dead ahead is the center of the line. Our goal is to deny the enemy (all those Anarchists and POUMistas) a chance to cross the river and drive "On to Sargossa!"



Viva El Christo Rey! (Carlist saying, and the title of the rules we were playing...)



Close up on the Nationalist Cav. They would prove to be decisive.



Redeployed Carlists, on my left



The Falange (front) deploy to support the beleagured Guardia troops (closer to the river) and plug up the hole in the line to their left. Alas, ranges being what they were and the Falange being as wretched as they were, they rarely shot anything.

Meanwhile, the armored car and artillery trucks advance over the bridge.



At some point, the Guardia machine gun down the Armored car, and there was much rejoicing on our side. That didn't slow down the hordes of Milicianas, Anarchists and POUMistas.

I deployed the Nationalist Cav on the right, as they were pretty good by the standards of the troops engaged. Big mistake. The troops opposing them (more POUM) did nothing for several turns, and the cav were stalemated. I did put the detachment of Morrocans on the left flank to bolster the Carlists. If Jeff had given these guys orders to advance, I think he would have broken through. We were THAT low on troops.



Eventually Chick Lewis showed up and took over the cav on the right, which made the battle easier to manage.

The Carlists sidle up to the line and get their butts shot off...



The skulking Guardia his the road...



The Wave of POUM...



Uh oh, is he deploying his guns? That could be trouble! Note those gray troops advancing in the back there? Those are the Assaultos, the absolute best troops on the Republican side in this battle. Fortunately they are advancing directly on MY best troops, the Guardia.



Jeff, manning the center and left of the opposing side, was very effective with his gunfire rolls, landing a shell right on top of the heads of my general staff and killing my nearby gun. That sucked. Even if I wasn't hitting anything it helped keep their heads down.

Positions at game end:



I swear I took more pictures of this.. somewhere.. but to get us to the finish and on to other things, I'll abbreviate. The left flank almost crumbled from persistent attacks from the Anarchists. Unfortunately for him, I retreated until just inside of rifle range and continued to keep steady fire on him, even if my Carlists DID break once. This forced them to take losses and go prone in the river, neither of which would advance the cause.

The center was the bloodiest. Between Jeff's artillery, MY artillery landing wrong, and his armored car, the Guardia took a lot of casualties. It went down to the last stand, with HIS Assaultos facing MY Guardia Civil, which must have been ironic, if you consider they were both paramilitary police troops at the start of the war. So my best versus his best resulted in the Assaultos buggering off and the Guardia getting decimated, even with the Falange backfilling to their left.

Even though they were my worst shots and poor troops, the Falange put up a spirited fight before being forced to retreat. They caused the opposing POUM force to bugger off as well before they broke.

The climatic event of the game was Chick taking over for the static right flank, putting the deployed cav back in the saddle, and charging right into the flank of the oncoming POUMistas on the RIGHT side of the bridge. I only had one stand left of Guardia there and was expecting a breakthrough at any second. The charge alleviated that and those POUM troops left found better places to be.



There was ONE formed unit left without casualties, on the Republican side, but Pat C. ruled it was a Nationalist victory (at horrific cost) because we held the line.

I'll take what I can get. LOVED the game. Thank you, Pat, if you are reading this.
I'll make you some decent order chits one of these days.

The best moves were not executed by me-- I was shuttling back and forth from crisis to crisis, and not very proactive. Curt was a savage attacker on the left flank and had he been reinforced, he might have broken through. The river and the ford saved my left. Jeff was a crackshot with the cannons where I could not roll a hit to save my life (not entirely true, I guess, having nailed a few stands of infantry). As I said earlier, if he had pressed on his left he might have won it, because we could only defend in so many places. But the best moves go to Chick Lewis and his cavalry charge. That decimated the POUM's best attack of the day.



OTHER CON STUFF!

I wandered around, after the game, schmoozing with people and looking at other ongoing games.









Hey, that's Ed Watts! Nice hat, Ed!


A prominent member of HEBBS displays his black ball!


Saturday

There's a whole range of stuff to discuss about the HMGS East membership, before and after, and that will be covered in post two. This post is solely for the fun stuff!
Some of it might be out of sequence, sorry about that.

Congoers Brian Higbee, Bob and Cleo Leibel all realize how they've become slaves to fashion.



I think this is more Command Decision... a huge game in the back of the Distelfink run by John Drye and company. That's Dudley Garidel, who will be the preregistrar at COLD WARS 2007 next year.



More of the same.. it was Romanians on one side and Italians on the other, all trying to get into Stalingrad.



Is that the Notorious John the OFM from TMP? Sure it is!



That's young Dillon, who was so helpful with the HMGS Outreach program at the Rennaissance Faire in Virginia earlier this summer. I helped him prime up a big batch of starship trooper models so he could assemble and paint them at the painting program.



Who says the hobby is greying?? Young Ethan, son of my friend Mark Nedwick, indicates his approval of the convention.



One of the more innovative additons to our program in recent years...





Civil War action.. that's Roxanne Patton, the iron lady of NOVAG, in the background there.


Most of the day on Saturday was spent in the dealer's room, buying supplies for a fantasy wargaming "camp" I'm running soon. More on this later. I also did a lot of "fetching wood and carrying water" for the Cold Wars 2007 and TRIADCON conventions, talking and informing people, meeting with folks, etc. I did get a bunch of preliminary COLD WARS fliers from Del and I distributed them about the convention and at various hobby shop vendors I knew of. The fliers were great looking but very limited in terms of information, just giving the bare bones. We'll have a much better one for FALL IN. In any event, Del Stover, my promotions guy, did a great job and I thank him very much for his efforts.

I wandered up to the ShowRoom to check out the layout and lighting. Folks, you know me. You know I don't have an axe to grind in this one. So when I tell you there was plenty of room and the lighting was more than adequate, will you believe I have no reason to lie?

Wild West setup in the Showroom.


Mark "Princess Ryan" McGlaughlin playing some Command Decision up stairs in the Showroom.



I Leonardo being set up in the Showroom.



An awesome Stalingrad factory in the Showroom..





One of the better ideas was renting out this basement room to add a few more tables to the vendor area. It was steamy in there (to be polite) but I found some great stuff.



Large scale (25mm) HOTTS in the tournament area.





Goldwyrm (from TMP) and his dangerous pals play DESCENT in the Flea Market after hours. Fun stuff. I got this for my birthday and haven't played it yet.



One of them was MKSeibler from TMP!



And Thomas (GnomishNutsack or something like that on TMP, I forgot the specifics)



It was great to see Norbert Brunhuber there.. here he is patiently pitching me a big idea: "You see, Walt, I'll put on a huge, VERY PRETTY game, make it very slow moving and muddy the rules.. and you'll pay me 2000 dollars! Okay?"



Mee-YOW, Norbert!

Thomas said he could trump Norbert's efforts for a cool grand. We talked.

Bumped into Richard Borg running Battle Cry in large scale, and selling his (now out of print) game at cost. Nice thing to do!



Former prez Hubig, former BoD member Coggins, and Eric Turner having a kaffeklatsch... wonder what was being discussed there? hmmm?



Did some political post-meeting chatter with Jay Hadley while he was playing this cool looking Star Wars game. It looked great.



There are more and more of these plastic piece faux-minis games being played in the after hours these days. Here's BOOTLEGGERS (and you already have seen DESCENT)..



And Memoir 44 from Days of Wonder...


Another tournament shot. It seemed to me that they had plenty of room, but whadda I know?



The bar was dead and there weren't many late night games to sleeze my way into, so I sat in on some TRENCH WARS discussion with Heather Blush, Paul Trani, and a gent who they called English Bob. Now that was a fun time! They were very hospitable with their beer supply as well, which endeared them to me. Alas, tragedy struck when SaintRigger (from TMP) became so obnoxious with his notorious lax personal hygiene standards that we had to promptly kick him to death. We did feel bad afterward though.



BoD Member, bullet dodger and (they say) Mister Fall In! 2008 James Mattes dropped by to lecture us on the senseless waste of human potential. He was quite ... "jolly", I suppose you might call it, so his stern rebuke lacked the proper stinging quality. I'm sure he was tired, having driven all the way home and back again Friday night!



I bunkered off to bed after that, feeling a bit wobbly myself. Woke up at a decent hour, packed and said a sad farewell to my little rollaway and did the things we have to do on Sunday mornings-- stall for time, eat a good breakie to have energy for the drive, dash through the Flea Market (I found 1st Ed. Johnny Reb for 5 USD, and some "Dragonfly" mageknights for VSF purposes... yay!). Had some good planning conversations with Heather (about painting and marketing), Del Stover (about promotions for CW07), Greg Hacke (former GAMA guy who may be working on a web based registration system for CW07) and Andy Turlington about TRIADCON. I had breakfast with Bill Alderman, my good friend who runs events at PREZCON and he had some sharp criticisms about our procedures and staffing, meant constructively. And he has become a member of HMGS! As such, his VERY FIRST membership meeting was Saturday morning's marathon. He was greatly amused.

Having done what I came to do, I reluctantly pointed the Thunderbird in a southern direction, and got home in time to take my kids to the matinee of NACHO LIBRE, which was pretty hilarious, in a low way..

SUMMARY: HISTORICON (the non political bits, the convention itself) was a smashing success and we all owe Bob and company our thanks for his professionalism in pulling this one off. Good job, Bob.