February 15th, 2010 | 
Author: 
While setting up we get our first player
In keeping with our pledge to get “new blood”, “Old friends” and give HMGS/PSW a larger presence in the South West we have begun an outreach program of taking HMGS/PSW sponsored games to new and old venues. This weekend Steve Gausche and I took “Wings of War” to the Strategicon convention held Presidents weekend at the Radisson LAX hotel in Los Angeles.
We tried clouds in a few games
Lots of walk by players
We ran the game almost continuously from 10 am to 11 pm that evening! The game was a complete success with at least 15 or more new players cycling through during the day. Some would come, play, and then return to play again. At one time during the evening session we had 7 or eight planes in the sky! With different players and lots of onlookers. One family came over and played Mother, Father, and “Sully” great little 7 year old who picked up the game so quick that he shot me out of the sky by the second game! A future HMGS/PSW member there!
Wings of War is very nice looking game for little investment!
I know I’ll get questions on the “Matt” used so here’s the ansewer “I made it or Air brushed it the night before the convention in about an hour and a half” It’s not done as the airbrush clogged up a 11pm and I was to tired to clean it!
Plenty of flyers for the HMGS/PSW Spring conventionwere handed out and we actually picked up two new members and heard rumors of several “old” members planning to return to the fold at the next convention. I had great conversations with Mark Parker and Allen Hughes two great past Presidents of HMGS/PSW as well as with Rocky of the “Last Grenadier” and Steve of “The War House”. Both Rocky and Steve informed me that the 10% HMGS/PSW discount is still in place to paid, card carrying HMGS/PSW members at their shops. Ray Gonzalez and Mike Reuier of the Art of War Terrainfame were their and have committed to come our convention as dealers! I know many of you buy terrain from them off “ebay” save the shipping and hit them up at the convention!
HMGS/PSW member Robert Boyens runs his very nice American War of Indipendence game that included two past HMGS presidents
It was quite a busy day for me and I wish I could have spent two days there but my “anniversary” is the 14th and you all know how well that would go over! I did manage to squeeze in a conversation with Janice Sellers from Stategicon about helping us to encourage a bigger presence at their convention and I think it will bear fruit…. There were at least 3-4 HMGS member games there this time and at least 5 at the last Airport convention so we are a presence there.
Another HMGS/PSW member runs his beautiful 25mm American Civil War game on Saturday.
One thing I did notice was that just having our convention flyers laying out some where for people to possibly find and pick up is no good, not enough! People are busy at the cons and distracted by many things, seeing a flyer on a table much less reading or picking it up is rarely done. We need to actively give them out to every player or passerby at our games! I did this at my table and was pleasantly surprised at the great reactions from people who otherwise would never have known! I also walked over to several other non HMGS events and handed them out. I think the word is really getting out on this next convention and I hope we have the games to play for these new attendee’s! This is going to be a big step towards a future bigger con or even a third convention but we need to hook these new people with a bunch of great games for them to play in… lets get those event written up and info, table reservations, and time off to Alex Webster ASAP! We need the Preliminary Events List up SOON!
We picked up some new planes for the HMGS/PSW “Wings of War” set and some for the home set. Steve also picked up the new WWII version of the game along with some planes and we will give that one a try soon! It to may be a game to add to the HMGS/PSW stash.
All in all it was a great time and worth the putting up with the small inconveniences of “Airport” cons.
Yours in Gaming
Bill Witthans
President HMGS/PSW
Posted in 
Loading ...
Hi Bill,
Have you considered some sort of sign? You were in a prime traffic position there between board/open gaming and registration/exhibition hall, but for all the times I walked past I didn’t realise you were HMGS. Wings of War looked very cool.
Yes I had Alex bring the HMGS/PSW banner but it turned out to be impossible to hang with what we had available. I have other plans for signage but with so many things going on with HMGS, working late last week the moment, and me being only one person I just did not get to it. I did quite a bit of networking there and did touch base with quite a few people so it was good.
Regards,
Bill Witthans
Hi Bill, thanks again for the Wings of War demo, we had a blast! We actually went and picked up a set and an arm-full of planes from The Warhouse. Our newly acquired HMGS membership was honored and the discount helped. By the way, I stopped by Brookhurst Hobbies and asked at the register at checkout if they also had an HMGS discount to which they readily replied: “Yeah, we want to keep those guys coming in here!”. I mentioned that I had joined up at the con and had no card but was just inquiring, they insisted it was fine and rang me up with the discount anyway! Again, many thanks.
Regarding the sign, at our last Hobby Day Clean Up RJ Galati and I broke out the tools, made a trip to Lowe’s Hardware and built a 10′ wide x 8′ tall self supporting frame to hang the banner on. The poles are unfinished and the cast iron bases need some attention but it works just fine. I will upload some pictures as soon as I get a chance. All we need to do is keep a supply of zip ties handy to tie a chair to each upright. A box of extra miniatures for ballast on the chair will ensure that nothing can knock it over. Did I mention the bases are cast iron? We used it at the Brewer Brothers Model Show and it was up in 3 minutes and down in two. We will set it up again at the Toy Soldier Show in Irvine and hopefully have the closet poles stained and finished for Mini-Wars.
The poles and stands worked great. Unfortunately, we found our hotel elevators cannot take a 10′ pole, so we are going to cut it down to 8′. There is photograph of the sign displayed at the Westcoaster in the article about that event. Now we need to get a 2′x6′ sign for the front of the table, in color. I will see if I can’t the logo traced and colorized in time to have it done for Mini-Wars.
I was looking forward to seeing more HGMS games at the GAMEX May con. But I don’t see any listed yet on the Strategicon web site. Are you guys going to run things there this time?
Hi Roblyn,
Yes we are on for the “Boxer Rebellion” and I will see what other gammes are planned by members.
Bill W