The air is crisp, the leaves are changing colors, and old men have flocked to Lancaster once again.
It must be time for Fall-In! 2026.
The last few years have been more miss than hit for November, as the Stout Gnomes presence has fluctuated from minimal to non-existent.
This year I was the lone member of the contingent to spend the weekend, not even my daughter made the trip with me. And as such, despite submitting two events, there were no Gnome Wars games to speak of.
I might be going solo, but as I packed by Fall-In! 2000 t-shirt and reminded myself it's 15 years since I ran my first HMGS event, the games and vendors are secondary to hanging out and talking with folks I only see two or three times a year.
So, with a car packed, and no event to run until 7pm Friday, I leisurely drove down I-81 to the latest episode of Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff, and meandered the back roads to reach the Host, err... the Wyndham.
For the casual con-goer, the Lampeter room is the big room to the left when you walk in the main doors. I know they've moved things around over the years, but it tended to be house two activities: most tournaments and Wally's Basement (aka the flea market). Wally's was moved back into the theatre (more on that later), and pipe and drape separated the tournaments from two rows of games, I know some people had trouble finding it, but compared to a Friday morning in the Lancaster (aka Distelfink) Ballroom, where the heat and the smell were inching up by 11am, I'll gladly take the alternative.
I then made my only quick foray down to the dealers, where I made some purchases, talked to a lot of folks, and must finally admit, the golf cart shuttle was the greatest thing ever. I'm older, but healthier than the last few years, but God that was nice.
A quick jaunt over to the Red Roof to check in and I was back over with a good spot and ready for the joust.
There's a picture of me circulating around our friend group. It's a picture of me with The Joust set up in Lamperter, taken around 6:50 Friday night. It's caption: "Sad Eric."
With Maja not attending, not only new champion was certain to be crowned, but I would have to *gasp* do things by myself. With an even number of players, I joyfully kept myself out of the tournament and let the group have their own brand of jousting fun.
In the end, it was up to Sir Jack to put an end to the woman only whispered in dark corners as "Lady Paula Deen" She had unhorsed three of her opponents in each of their first (and only) passes. Jack stayed on his horse, needing a heavy blow to possibly win, but ignominiously didn't even get past the kick zone. And showing the grace of a champion, Lady Paula allowed a fourth pass, where she thoroughly thrashed the competing knight.
A short joust meant I could still sneak into Wally's before the late night session wrapped up.
This was from earlier in the day, but there is something wrong with this picture.
I can see everything? I still didn't get all the details as to how this occurred, but that lighting adjustment allowed everyone to see. Alas it didn't help me find anything I wanted to buy!
I decided against finding something else to play, or perhaps imbibe a beverage and find myself playing Frogger across US 30 at 1am, so I packed up made the arduous journey across the street.
Saturday
I took my time checking out of the hotel, managed to unload everything for my Saturday game using the side door for Lampeter, and even managed to snag the closest spot in the lot. I was staying until I was done that night.
With some limited time before I needed to set up the game, I wandered over to the War College for
"Knights of Freedom: The U.S. Army's Second Armored Division" by Fred Brems.  |
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| I had Battletech beside me all weekend. I did not complain. |
I did grab a meatball sub, which was adequate, and set up for my 2pm game, a Fistful of Lead Christmas. Perhaps my research material did not have as many primary sources for historical accuracy, but the players did not question a thing!
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| Not just Amazon: Near the end, the North Pole police arrest a package thief. |
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| Paramilitary Santa and his elves showed up... and did nothing. |
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| Stu the Teenage Yeti found a new friend. |
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| Most of the Gingerbread Zombies never made it to the table. They were not needed for fun. |
Two quick statements post-game: (1) Don't reveal you're the only wizard on the table too early.
(2) Do NOT cut in line for the Taco Truck. The elf women will thrash you within inches of your life... then call your parents. More in a later post....
After that I wandered a bit before breakdown, double checking my raffle tickets for Toys for Tickets, and bidding farewell for the folks I could find, packing up my stuff and leaving...
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| I remember my buddy Wooly's Urbie game from 25+ years ago.... |
... but not before I finally sat down at the Micro-machine scale board for Formula
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| My Penny Racer wins the day! |
I finally got to my car, sat down for Five Guys for the first time in ages (and I'll be good for ages more), and cackled to the latest podcast of Pink Fohawk on the way home.
Site: The Wyndham post-remodel remains a solid site. Besides a few ill-placed, forgotten and overflowing trash cans, plus a bit of toastiness in the ballroom Friday. My meatball sub was decent (although the pierogies were wildly overpriced... there's a lot of church bazaar ladies scratching their heads for that).
My Hotel (Red Roof) - I'm not picky, so a place like the Red Roof, across the street from the Wyndham is an easy 3 out of 5, especially when it was $75 for the night.
Parking: I remember the days of overflow lots, even before the the containers during the Great Remodel, so to get perfect parking spots all weekend is a blessing, especially when the winds picked up Saturday night.
Vendor: The tried and true folks were there, plus new and different folks. Around noon on Friday, people were spending wads of cash behind me... for the rest I don't know.
Toys for Tots: The Charity portion of the con, the raffle and auction to benefit Toys for Tots. Raffle tickets were stuffed in the Chinese food containers, Friday and Saturday night, and anything I was even pondering to place a bid on for the auction was wildly out of reach by Saturday afternoon. Of course, the best part were the numerous trips that needed to be taken to empty the toy donation box set up.
Swag: I didn't grab much, and all is island-adjacent and immediately going on the painting bench.
The Gnome Wars Tiki God
Two Diabolical Terrain huts
A Diabolical Terrain altar of some sort
Two Fishing boats, for any type of game, as well as Fishing28.
Out of the picture is my raffle win, a properly presented copy of "Ta-Da!" by Cool Mini or Not...
Next up for HMGS (after some big outreach of Pax Unplugged December 4-6 in Philly) will be a true-to-its-name Cold Wars, at the Wyndham, February 4-7, 2027
Fall-In! 2027 will be November 4-7, 2027 back at the Wyndham.
