Hey, anybody else hear about a new wargaming con in King of Prussia? It's like Cold Wars or something...?
The last time Cold Wars occurred was the Pandemic Edition, which seems like an eternity ago. This year, HMGS returned to the Valley Forge Casino and Convention Center, for probably the last time.
I made the trek down Friday afternoon, somehow avoided traffic, and did this weird activity called chilling before the rest of the crew arrived and we could finalize some game logistics before our first event Friday morning. Valley Forge already suffers the fragmented layout for the con, the Byzantine route to walk from the ballroom to the dealer's hall, and being under the watchful gaze of casino patrons and regulations. Not having the bar open on Thursday night (a repeated offense from conventions past), felt like a bad omen to start the weekend.
Friday morning, I took a trip off-site to Wawa for coffee and a little serenity before living in the Ballroom foyer for the rest of the day.
Our group's "theme" was a Old West board, populated with 4Ground and Sarissa buildings from (Award Winning) GM Mike Lung's collection.
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| Mike Lung's Old West table |
Being the "Gnome Guys," we did make some deviation from the normal con playbook. Mike's Friday morning session was run using the
Western version of the Fistful of Lead rules, and there wasn't a single gnome on the board until the last three turns of the game, when the literal cavalry arrived. Mike has an ridiculous collection of anthropomorphic figure, and was more than ready to field outlaw gangs of dogs, cat, hogs, mice, and a few other unsavory vermin. I got to run Sherriff Chuck E. Cheese and his deputies while they were surrounded by four gang of unwelcome hombres in search of gold and general mayhem, and almost got away with it.
We finished early enough to clean up/set up for the afternoon session, so I could take the meandering walk over to the dealer hall.
The dealer hall was still located on the floor below the casino, and it's footprint was truncated due to the absence of a number of regular attendees. To fill in the remainder of that footprint, Wally's Basement (the flea market) was positioned at the far end of the hall, so folks wanting to visit it needed to walk through the vendors. I probably could add to the host of folks who complain about the "no body in the dealer hall" or "nobody in the flea market" after the first 30 minutes, but I intentionally shopped the dealers at 2pm when Wally's opened to avoid the crowds, and then waltzed to the back about 45 minutes later. Sure, I missed out on the crazy deals. but I was able to shop without a mass of humanity accompanying me.
I got back to my late afternoon game, and gauged my attendees. Gnomes were broken out for this game, and even using Fistful of Lead for the rules, there was the right amount of backstabbing (shooting), chicanery, and tomfoolery expected in such a game.
With all the cool kids at the HMGS Membership meeting, I was "forced" to run the joust... in the bar. Luckily no "unaccompanied minors" showed up to play to attract the ire of the security team, and everyone had fun (save the folks stuck in the BoD executive session).
As we're nearing 50 jousts at HMGS cons, attendance wax and wanes, and everybody has fun, no matter what the outcome, but the important fact you should glean from the previous sentences was that THE BAR WAS OPEN Friday night, and had steady traffic that the bartender was able to keep up with.
Saturday morning, I escaped from my bed and went right back to the bar... for breakfast. The hotel did run breakfast, lunch, and dinner concessions Friday and Saturday. I had the misfortune that my free time between events Friday corresponded with their down time between meals, but that's why God invented Wawas.
A breakfast sandwich and coffee was ten bucks, which seemed reasonable for on-site food. The breakfast sandwich may have been the best food I ate all weekend, and the coffee was more than palatable, getting me a boost, and saving me a trip to Dunkin in the casino food court.
I was a little shocked to have zero players for that table for a 10am game. Nevertheless, it was great opportunity to talk with all the folks passing by, answering questions, and gently nodding offers to jump in and play whenever they were ready. By 11:30 we had a table full of players chucking dice, rustling jackalopes, and preventing the Germans from visiting the Telegraph office.
Between the "gnome guys" we believed this late session may have been the best game we've had in quite some time. We had a brother/sister duo who were either new to the hobby or wargaming novices, the proud father of the kids was on the opposite side of the table, keeping tabs on their shenanigans, but letting us help them out, so could gleefully play his own unit, and the other adults were the perfect combination of enthusiasm and chaos to inspire the kids to try new things.
After cleaning up and setting up for Mike's afternoon game, I went off-site to Wawa for food (of course, bar concessions were closed). I'm not a true Wawa fanatic, but if any future convention site has a Wawa within ten minutes of it, I will certainly consider going.
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| Fun story: I ran into someone I hadn't seen in 23 years. He had posted on Facebook about attending, and just happened to be four tables over from ours. Good times. |
If my game was one of the best we've run, Mike's afternoon session was a runner-up in a different division. His players were sea of silver and gray hair, plus three over his game cap, but they were equally enthusiastic and played a fun game. A little less chaotic than the morning, although I was "privy" to some exploding outhouse activity.
More clean-up and just enough time for another swing through the dealers/flea market, and a much-needed moment of peace and tranquility at the Hobby University paint-and-take.
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| Hobby U. |
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| The cavalry finally arrives, but they seem to have forgotten their horses. |
The only "traditional" Gnome Wars was at 8pm Saturday night. We removed about half the buildings from the town to accommodate the 17 players who descended on Hog Hollow for a simple parade...
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| How it started.... |
.... that somehow went horribly wrong.
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| How it's going.... |
Who invites cultists to a parade? Even if their permits are in order?
After the session, we packed up imbibed a reasonable appropriate amount, then realized it was the weekend to push the clocks forward. Couple that with a 6am wake-up to leave to catch my daughter's basketball games up near Williamsport, so Sunday wasn't nearly as fun as the rest. Horrible drive... good day.
THE SITE: With a clear turnpike, KOP is the closest site for me, even if the dealers seem like a longer drive. Food was adequate to good. Casino prices for food court, but the General Tso's I grabbed was solid. Two words for the coffee drinkers: Dunkin' App. I scheduled an ice coffee pick-up and not only was it sitting there two minutes early, while the line of folks were waiting, but the normal promos from the app were honored at the casino Dunkin'
LODGING: Had an absolute nightmare at the Scanticon back in the pre-casino days, so everything was adequate for an on-site stay. Stayed on-site at the Stardust (formerly Scranticon?) Rooms were clean, beds were comfy, bathroom seemed like a design/remodel afterthought but the water was hot and towels fluffy enough. Outside of the elevator doors requiring a reaction time most of the us wargamers no longer possess, I would try to get a room again in twenty years when the BoD may reconsider the site.
DEALERS/FLEA MARKET: Definitely felt the impact of certain missing vendors, both flagship and smaller. I probably spent the most money in the dealer's hall in ages. Same goes for Wally's Basement, although the biggest lesson I learned is that I do not like seeing the estate sales, I dislike estate sales for people I actually knew even more. I'll add the circular rant as well: I can't buy what you don't bring. I could order ahead for pick-up to avoid shipping, but I do wish to see certain things, and possibly evaluate. It's a harsh reality, I understand, and despite seeing some of the figures I was looking for on tables this weekend, I probably won't order online. It's mostly me, a little bit you, but I'm not lugging hundreds of pounds of lead off a truck and then back on if some single nitwit demands it.
EVENTS: One obvious, and understandable gripe, coming into the convention was the lack of events. Even I can't sugar coat that one. On my usual HMGS PEL post,
this Cold Wars had 37 events that piqued my interest. Fall-In! 2022 had 51. I will say that the Saturday evening slot was not a ghost town. The Ballroom started at 2/3 full and was half full by 8pm, there were giant games downstairs, and most of the smaller rooms were at least half-full, but most were full tables.
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| Wars of Ozz: Battle for Yule |
PLUNDER: Some out of production MBA buildings at reasonable prices, some half painted Pulp Figure blisters (Cultists are complete!), post-apocalyptic minis, Star Schlock sci-fi packs, some fanasty figs that caught my eye, a random card game, my Chinese container full of weird bases I need, and possibly most important, a copy of the Fistful of Lead general rulebook, and a deck of the playing cards (cards are overpriced, but having the special rules printed on the playing cards already made them worth it after a weekend's worth of games.
I got back to my late afternoon game, and gauged my attendees. Gnomes were broken out for this game, and even using Fistful of Lead for the rules, there was the right amount of backstabbing (shooting), chicanery, and tomfoolery expected in such a game. 
With all the cool kids at the HMGS Membership meeting, I was "forced" to run the joust... in the bar. Luckily no "unaccompanied minors" showed up to play to attract the ire of the security team, and everyone had fun (save the folks stuck in the BoD executive session).
As we're nearing 50 jousts at HMGS cons, attendance wax and wanes, and everybody has fun, no matter what the outcome, but the important fact you should glean from the previous sentences was that THE BAR WAS OPEN Friday night, and had steady traffic that the bartender was able to keep up with. 
Saturday morning, I escaped from my bed and went right back to the bar... for breakfast. The hotel did run breakfast, lunch, and dinner concessions Friday and Saturday. I had the misfortune that my free time between events Friday corresponded with their down time between meals, but that's why God invented Wawas. 
A breakfast sandwich and coffee was ten bucks, which seemed reasonable for on-site food. The breakfast sandwich may have been the best food I ate all weekend, and the coffee was more than palatable, getting me a boost, and saving me a trip to Dunkin in the casino food court. 
I was a little shocked to have zero players for that table for a 10am game. Nevertheless, it was great opportunity to talk with all the folks passing by, answering questions, and gently nodding offers to jump in and play whenever they were ready. By 11:30 we had a table full of players chucking dice, rustling jackalopes, and preventing the Germans from visiting the Telegraph office. 
Between the "gnome guys" we believed this late session may have been the best game we've had in quite some time. We had a brother/sister duo who were either new to the hobby or wargaming novices, the proud father of the kids was on the opposite side of the table, keeping tabs on their shenanigans, but letting us help them out, so could gleefully play his own unit, and the other adults were the perfect combination of enthusiasm and chaos to inspire the kids to try new things. 
LODGING: Had an absolute nightmare at the Scanticon back in the pre-casino days, so everything was adequate for an on-site stay. Stayed on-site at the Stardust (formerly Scranticon?) Rooms were clean, beds were comfy, bathroom seemed like a design/remodel afterthought but the water was hot and towels fluffy enough. Outside of the elevator doors requiring a reaction time most of the us wargamers no longer possess, I would try to get a room again in twenty years when the BoD may reconsider the site. 
EVENTS: One obvious, and understandable gripe, coming into the convention was the lack of events. Even I can't sugar coat that one. On my usual HMGS PEL post, this Cold Wars had 37 events that piqued my interest. Fall-In! 2022 had 51. I will say that the Saturday evening slot was not a ghost town. The Ballroom started at 2/3 full and was half full by 8pm, there were giant games downstairs, and most of the smaller rooms were at least half-full, but most were full tables. 
I have to agree with others, the venue is a bust for me. I did well at the flea market moving my wares. On another note, I'm glad my daughter just plays JV Bball only for Berwick. You're a much better man than I with those tournaments. The last one I remember us going to was in Kingston in the middle of an ice storm a few years ago. More power to you!
ReplyDeleteI have it on pretty good authority that we're not considering that site for at least another decade, but the expanded alternative site list has more potential red flags than a May Day parade.
ReplyDeleteMy eldest will be playing JV for Crestwood next (hopefully a few minutes of Varsity too) fewer extracurriculars there, but the little one will drive me crazy moving up to Junior High next year.
Eric,
ReplyDeleteWhat area does your group cover up here in NEPA? Do you meet regularly?