Williamsburg Muster 2011

It is now a week after the Williamsburg Muster and I just want to jot down a few comments.

• First, of all our conventions so far this went off the best. It was the least stressful for me and I believe the other members of the staff
• Our staff, Scott Kidd, Jeremy Crouch, Cliff Creech, Dave Dietrich, Bill Phillips, the DeMaris sisters and the ladies of the con suite did an excellent job.
• Scott covered the front desk, assisted the vendors, and ran four games of Shako.
• Jeremy helped the ladies in the con suite by going out and getting supplies.
• Cliff did an excellent job with the program book. Our next con he will do the book run the PEL and who gets what table. This will take some tasks away from Chuck but this will prevent "Chuck time" and every thing will be ready for Guns of August.
• Dave ran his games and although there were no folks for the Warrior tournament, he was nice enough to play a game with one gentleman who had come for the event.
• I had never met Bill Phillips before the weekend as he was Chuck's friend from Marscon. He did an excellent job at the registration table.
• Kudos go to Cotton Jim Russell as he sat on Friday morning and set up the registration table with Scott Kidd

What I did during the Con.

• Thursday: Helped Carl pack the van with Jim Russell, Brian Compton, and Kai Weaver, arrived at the hotel at around noon and began to set up, I set up the registration area, ate at Carraba's with the group, and played Settlers of America with Carl, Krigbaum, and Oscar.
• Friday: Set up and ran my Go for Broke game: Busting the Bocage, assisted anywhere I could, and helped set up Krigbaum's Go for Broke game. Stayed with Snelling in the hotel room.
• Saturday: Helped cover the registration desk with Bill Phillips, covered the Ballroom while Chuck did the other room, played in Tony Exline's Soldat (I don't like the rules) game that took place on Crete, bought two gently used MBA buildings from Steve Mynes of Age of Glory and a set of skirmish rules called Triumph and Tragedy that I'll try soon.
• Sunday: Wrapped up the event, helped the vendor's out that needed it (Byron Collins got sick and Brian and I helped him to pack), the group debriefed at KFC, and then I went to Carl's to help him unload.

All and all a great con!

Go for Broke game

To prepare for the 2011 Williamsburg Muster, Jon Krigbaum, Oscar Stephenson, Jeremy Crouch and friend, Jeffrey, Scott Kidd, and myself playtested a game of Go for Broke, my WWII skirmish game. Krigbaum and Oscar are planning on running a 25mm village fight using all of Krigbaum's Miniature Building Authority buildings.

We played the game for over 12 hours and had a grand old time.

Krigbaum and Oscar led the Kraut forces. That consisted of a command team, three rifle squads, mortar team with two mortars, three MG teams, two panzerschrek teams, a PAK 40 AT gun, 20mm quad halftrack, halftrack, Opal Blitz, and a 38T Panzer.



Jeremy, Jeffrey, and Scott led the Ami force that consisted of a command team, five rifle squads, three MG teams, two bazooka teams, a mortar team with two mortars, a pack howitzer, white car, halftrack, a jeep, and four Sherman tanks.

I ran the game and a squad of French Resistance.



The game turned out great but in the end a PAK40 and a troll under the bridge with a panzerschreck did the Amis in. The game started at 11:30 am and lasted to 11:30 pm and boy did we have fun.

Things learned

• Americans on the attack need more transport
• Each side having a card with all their units listed that way when we pull the gem out of the "special" opaque container, we could place it on the card to tell us which units have gone.
• Don't give Scott tanks as he runs through walls without provocation and fires over his own men in front of his tank. Ears are still ringing in the American ranks.
• Speed up the turn by pulling the gems much like cards in TSATF until you reach another color or have pulled a go again gem.
• Only allow Jeremy to shoot as he sure sucks at melee. He lost six infantry men in hand-to-hand against two German spotters. It also took a whole other squad to blow these spotters up real good.
• Whatever you do don't give Krigbaum any transportation vehicles as he missed his calling as a bus driver.
• Don't allow Oscar to talk Krigbaum into placing a MG team on a building scaffold.

Aaaaiiiiiiiieeeeeee!!!

Some Photos from Williamsburg Military History Day

Carl Sciscio, Scott Kidd, Dave Dietrich, Chuck Turnitsa, and I participated in this event this past October. We demonstrated and played Neil Thomas rules using American Revolutionary 15mm figures.

Williamsburg Military History Show

Members of the Old Dominion Military Society (Carl Sciscio, Scott Kidd, Dave Dietrich, and Chuck Turnitsa) and myself attended this show.

Our organization ran a RevWar miniature game for the public. We used modified Neal Thomas Introduction to Wargaming rules.

When Scott, Carl, and I got to the event and signed in, we explored this vast fortress called the Williamsburg Hospitality House. Whoever designed this place must have been on drugs. Because in order to find the conference rooms that the convention was being held in, you had to wander about the hotel. I will say that Osprey and Casemate did a great job with the signs though. Chuck had mentioned that last years event was not marked that well and it was hard to find everything.

Eventually Dave arrived as we set up the game. Carl and Dave played the Rebels and Scott and I the Redcoats. We did make a few mistakes on the rules though. Once Chuck arrived with the modified rules, the game went better for the British.

Although we only had two attendees play, they seemed to have had a good time. We also made many contacts with folks and told them about attending the Muster. Many of them seemed interested. As Carl said, "If we could get just one person to come from this event to the Muster, its great. As that one person will tell others.

As far as the game went, we didn't really finish the game as our interest waned and Dave, Scott and I went to lunch.

I spent most of the afternoon scoping out the dealers. I did buy a book I had been wanting to get, Tonight we die as Men. It's about the 3rd Battalion 506 PIR in Normandy and their accomplishments. I had wanted this book for awhile but it was about $30 hardbound.


Well Osprey was selling its hardbound books on one table for $10 and this book was one of them. I snatched it up.

Guns of August AAR

Guns of August has ended, now to work on our February convention, the Williamsburg Muster.

As far as Guns, there were approximately 160 attendees with about forty attendees, who worked with the dealers. So there were approximately 200 folks who attended. Not quite what I expected number-wise but we will hold it again next year. Even with this number the convention was a success.

I was supposed to run two games but my second one, which was a Go for Broke game, I ended up not playing as I scheduled it too early on Saturday and I was too exhausted to run it.

The game I did run on Friday afternoon went off real well. I ran a Blitzkrieg Commander game. It was Americans vs. Germans in the hedgerows of Normandy. The game took about two and a half hours with the Germans winning. If there had been one more turn, the Germans would have lost as they blew there command roll for breakpoint.

On Saturday I played in two games run by Matt Kirkhart in his excellent ancient game using his Craftees. One game was Macedonians vs. Greeks and the other was a battle between Alexander and Darius. The great thing was I played with my son Timothy and a friend in the last game.

The negatives I have about the convention mostly deal with the hotel itself. When we arrived on Thursday, none of the tables were set up and were stacked where dealers needed to set up. So we had to move the tables as well as set up. This is something we paid the hotel to do and they failed in this task. The other problems were dealing with the facilities. The Patriot room restroom was hot and the toilets overflowed once. There was also not enough paper towels. The hotel did not provide enough trashcans and the ones we had were not emptied.

All this put me in a grumpy mood throughout Friday, especially when some fellow BOD members kept putting me into situations they could have handled themselves or gave the task to somebody else as I was busy.

The other thing that bothered me is my camera. The damn thing kept eating batteries or was not working right. I only could take about ten photos during the event. This sucked as I wanted to create a Flicker page.

Our staff volunteers were great especially Scott Kidd, Jeremy Crouch, and all the ladies that helped us run the hospitality room and registration.

Guns of August Update

We passed the number of pre-registrations from either (not both) of the Williamsburg Musters. There are over 60 games listed on the PEL. I have my room reservations. I am ready to run my games.

The hardest part is the wait for pre-registrations to come in but we are up to 45 total and there is a week left until pre-registration closes.

This time I will not forget to take photos. I am planning to create a Flicker account to display them on the TMP.

Gettin' ready for Guns of August

It's now one month until Guns of August wargaming convention at Williamsburg, VA. I have been working on correspondence to the dealers and we are set right now with 16 dealers. Carl Sciscio and I have gone up to Williamsburg and have solicited businesses for donations either for an ad in our event booklet or gift certificates.

Chuck Turnitsa has e-mailed miniature and game dealers all over the country for donations for our raffle and has done exceedingly well.

Carl and I also have visited the Holiday Inn Patriot after we heard they had a "new" events coordinator at the hotel and made sure every thing is all set. Chuck is going to keep in touch with the hotel to make sure we have the correct sized tables and more lighting in the Washington Room.

The only thing I am frightened about is attendance. As of right now, we have only 20 early registrations and only 13 rooms were booked about a month ago. What eases my pessimism though is the fact that from the two Williamsburg Muster conventions, early registration was about 10% of the attendance and the rooms being booked was a month ago.

The good thing though is we can cover any problem we have, as we have enough money in the treasury. But if this event does not float, how will it effect attendance at the Muster.

We shall see! We shall see!