Well, I got it together sufficiently to play the Theme tournament yesterday, or at least the 1st 2 games of it : an easy win against Norse Irish, due to some stupendously bad dice on the part of Ian Buttridge, then a narrow winning draw against Feudal Scots (Steve Payne) - which would have been a wide winning draw, almost a total victory, except that - without Steve or I being aware of this - the umpire had changed the time rules, so each round was meant to be 4 hours.
As that meant the last round wouldn't finish until after 11pm that night, I forfeited my last game and stomped off in ill-humour: it's probably 20 years since I've been able to play from 8 am til that late at night (and frankly a lot of the other competitors didnt look up to it either), and I regard it as a fairly silly change, and quite rude not to have told anyone at the start. As the same umpire was running the Open competition today with the same rules, I didn't bother participating in that: if winning tournaments is meant to be primarily a competition of stamina, well, that's a game I have zero interest in joining.
However, I spent today wandering around, watching games, and joining in a round or two of some of the demos - a spectacularly silly set of Napoleonic rules called Warfare in the Age of Napoleon - an extension of the Frederickan Warfare in the Age of Reason, but with quite a lot of changes by a different author, and frankly quite ridiculous in its' final effect: looking like nothing so much as a General Haig Spectacular (up & over the top, lads, and never mind how many thousands of dead). The cavalry interaction was unconvincing & seemed to put a premium on not moving so you could catch your opponent moving (with cavalry!?!), and the artillery would have done the Waffen SS Machine Gun regiment proud.
Also a refight of Cowpens (War of Independance). I forget the rules, but again it had a lot of fairly silly outcomes, such as skirmishers never being able to be killed, or to be routed for more than one turn (they auto-rally and return to the spot they routed from at the end of the turn), so essentially the British are -always- doomed by the superior American skirmishing, no matter the result of the clash of the main forces (I say superior, but in fact the scenario gave the Brits no skirmishers at all). Of course, given that this is written for the American market, I suppose that might be a good selling point, but still ...
Also watched (didnt play) a couple of truly pointless games - one a refight in 28mm of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Not the Battle of Balaclava, which might have been interesting, just the bloody Charge, which of course only ever has one outcome, and the 'win' measure was how little or much of the British cavalry gets massacred. Sigh. Oh well, it was truly gorgeous.
Equally gorgeous, and equally pointless, was a refight of the left wing at Fredericksburg, attacking Stonewall Jackson's Corps. Again, I can't see any other outcome than the massacre that actually eventuated in history - attacking into a steep hill with dugin troops and heavy artillery support, with only unsupported (and not that well-motivated, frankly) infantry is just an exercise in Haigism* really.
Ray also spent today (and yesterday) wandering around and watching, not participating in much I think. I'm a bit worried about him, he seems to periodically be in intense pain from his damaged back, and at times is definitely fading in and out of awareness, but he's pushing himself quite hard to get around and spend as much time at the con as possible: I suppose memories of all the stuff he used to do at old Historicons is part of that, and perhaps a sense of trying to make the most of it, as he may not be able to make it there too many more times.
The convention itself is huge, but this is a lousy venue for it - it's split up into at least 20 different rooms and auditoria, on 4 levels and every room seems to have at least half-a-staircase up or down to get to the next one: it's a real maze to get around, and a nightmare of hostility for wheelchairs, or those of us with dodgy knees who dont much enjoy stairs at the best of the time. Elevators and ramps seem to be more or less an unknown technology. As it is, I never got to the top floor to see the FOW / WW2 games, which I"m told were very pretty, because the stairs were just a flight too far. Oh well, next year they are (finally) moving to Baltimore, which is easily reached by airplane, and will have a much more modern venue.
Meeting internet friends (Tiff & Pete) tomorrow for the first time, for lunch - they are driving over from New Jersey to meet us: then hit the road and start the grueling trip back. Never again, at least not just for wargaming.
*If I seem a bit obsessed with Douglas Haig (of WW1 trench warfare and 2 million dead soldiers to no point fame), this is prolly because I encountered at the con another of the (apparently numerous) efforts to rehabilitate his reputation, which makes me mad enough to spit tacks. Rehabilitating Haig is like, oh, rehabilitating Judas ... oh, worse, really, because his evil had no point. The man was a bloody monster, who continued the pointless slaughter on the Somme for 4 months after he privately admitted in his journal that there was no possibility of success and nothing was being achieved ... and why? because he thought it would damage the governments' trust in his judgement if he called it off, and because he couldn't think of a better plan. Migod, I'd rather defend Subedei and Genghis for the slaughter in Kwarismia on account of their lovely table manners.
End of rant :)
More in a couple of days when I'm home, I think. Dunno where we'll be stopping tomorrow night, but I'll doubtless be shattered again - at least on the return journey we'll be breaking it up more evenly, 2 9 hour legs I think, rather than one horrendously long one. I dunno, maybe if we had a huge american car with tons of leg room to stretch out and lie down, the journey would be easier. OH well.
Update: oh, the title? Well, 3500 gamers gathered together is the biggest con I've ever seen, and ... well, it's hot, and bathing seems to be optional for too many of them. Amazing and alarming to see so many potential heart attacks gathered in one place - I felt positively svelte and lithe compared to some of them.
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