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Convention Coverage
Cold Wars 2008
Cold Wars Heats Up
Well, it wasn’t anywhere close to talk like a pirate day, but that didn’t
stop many a swashbuckler from grabbing a notional cutlass to vanquish his foes
at Cold Wars 2008, where
the theme was the Golden Age of Piracy. Held 7 – 9 March 2008 at the Host
Resort in Lancaster, PA, HMGS
East’s (Eastern Chapter, Historical Miniatures Gaming Society) winter
convention saw a record 2000+ attendees indulge in three days of non-stop gaming
and shopping. Events Director Bob Van Der Kamp kept track of the numbers and
not including the Flames
of War (and Ancients, and Renaissance, and …) tournaments, there
were close to 400 games on tap honchoed by 215 game masters, events broken down
as follows:
- Ancients 15
- Dark Ages 5
- Medieval 3
- Renaissance 6
- Pike and Shot 4
- Age of Reason 55
- Napoleonic 20
- 19th Century 9
- ACW 20
- Colonial 15
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- Early 20th Century 3
- WWI 15
- Inter-War 12
- WWII 86
- Modern 22
- Future 32
- Age of Piracy 25
- Fantasy 17
- SciFi 23
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Battle action from the Flames of War and Ancients tourneys.
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This list barely scratches the surface, however. As I ambled around the Host
I noticed impromptu games popping up where ever there was an available table,
and I have yet to figure out how one would count all the tournament action going
on. Add to that various lectures and Board member Heather Blush’s Miniature
Wargaming University, and there was a full slate of activity nearly every minute
of the day. Heather’s effort is especially noteworthy for two reasons,
the first is the quality of subject and instruction, such as the proper way
to paint and detail military horses. The second is that the school always seems
to attract the younger set, those recruits who presumably will carry the hobby
forward when old codgers like me have long passed. Needless to say the situation
seems very well in hand.…
DAY 1
I got on station Thursday and received both my badge and bag of pirate goodies
(dice, measuring tape and so on), but turned in early as Friday was scheduled
to be a long day. Long was an understatement as I had two games to run, a feat
that would see me start the process at 7:30 in the am, and finally finish up
at 11:30 that evening. Using my own Age
of Eagles Napoleonic rules I presented the 1813 battle of Gross Beeren,
but with a couple of twists. First I allowed Napoleon himself to replace the
historically ailing Marshal Nicolas Oudinot, and second, I broke the engagement
into two separate events so that more players would have a chance to participate.
The idea was that the second group of players would have to take up and deal
with the mess the first group left them.
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The battle of Gross Beeren per Age of Eagles rules.
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The game was a hoot with not even the presence of Bonaparte enough to stop
an Allied victory, albeit one in which the casualty count was nearly dead even.
Alas with greater Allied reserves nearby, and the French nowhere close to punching
through to their primary objective of Berlin, clearly the French would have
to retreat, recover and try again. No one seemed to mind, however, as there
were handshakes and laughter all around, no doubt in part helped by my sponsor,
Rob Walter of Eureka/AB
Miniatures, who provided all players with an 18 mm French command sets.
The package included not only figures of Marshals Jean Lannes and Louis-Nicolas
Davout (in his spectacles, yet), but also that ultimate hussar Antoine Charles
Louis, comte de Lasalle, leading a charge with his pipe.
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French élan a century later, during the War to End All Wars.
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Things were quite that evening so although I had offers of help to pick up,
I decided to forego the assistance and do it myself, carefully repacking all
terrain in new protective containers and even more meticulously sorting all
figures back into their specific nationalities, orders of battle and reinforcement
schedules. To be sure this will save me much time next con around, but by the
time I got back to my room I was an easy victim for the rack monster. My roommate
had just turned on Jay Leno, and I do remember the first joke about Senator
John McCain being only 61 when Castro took power in 1959, then I … ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
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