Don’t Feel Bad – You Just Missed The Best Gaming Convention On The Planet

I need to make this clear up front: I’m not trying to brag or rub anybody’s nose in this. But if you weren’t one of the select few attendees at the Heat of Battle Convention in N’awlins, you missed the best gaming convention on the planet. Period. If you don’t want to read about how cool it was, please stop now.

Now for the rest of you, there are very few things that are cooler than the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, LA. The only thing that comes to mind that is cooler than the museum itself is a gaming convention devoted to World War II held inside the museum.

OK, now stop and breathe slowly. Re-read that last sentence. That’s right: a World War II gaming convention held inside the National World War II Museum.

Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you to recover…feeling better? There’s a chance the museum may hold another convention next year. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Allow me a few moments to describe what took place this year.

First, A Word From Our Sponsors

Before we proceed we need to recognize the sponsors who made the convention possible. Muzzy Lane, developer of Making History: The Calm and the Storm, and Matrix Games, publisher of Carriers at War, Close Combat: Cross of Iron et al both deserve a big hand as convention sponsors. Not to be overlooked was the biggest sponsor of all: the museum itself, without which this might have been a fun convention held in another sterile, generic convention center.

The National World War II Museum was dedicated in 2000 as America’s official museum of World War II. It brims with historical artifacts, personal accounts, interactive displays, dioramas, and is the only museum in the United States that addresses all of the amphibious invasions of the Second World War. What does all that mean? Walking into the museum, visitors are greeted on the left by a Sherman Tank and a Higgins Boat. Above hangs a C-47 Skytrain, and escorting it is a Supermarine Spitfire. During breaks in gaming it was common to stroll out on the third floor balcony to gaze on to those majestic planes and contemplate the contribution made by them, the people who built and flew and fought with them.

On Saturday afternoon I made a special point to break away from gaming to spend time seeing the entire museum. I moved through at a brisk pace, only stopping for a few moments to appreciate the exhibits. There was a great deal to take in, and the gaming was hot.

The exhibits were myriad, and ranged from displays of how Germans set up ambushes in the bocage, to a diorama of a crashed glider, to an observation post on the beach at Normandy. The thing that had the most impact on me were the people—there were several World War II veterans who were visiting that day, and they appeared to be moving through the museum with family. Pausing for a moment to hear their recollections was both awe-inspiring and felt almost invasive. World War II veterans are known for their modest silence, and I must confess I felt like an outsider eavesdropping on conversations not intended to be overheard. No one, of course, gave the slightest objection as I paused, but I did not linger out of respect for their modesty. I know the history; merely seeing the men who made it was enough. I heard only enough to learn that one was a ground-pounder, the other a pilot who pulled gliders during D-Day. It was all I needed to hear. I moved on, leaving them to quietly share their experience with their families.