HMGS / Pacific Southwest

I have heard that HMGS/PSW had some "scurvy" members but Joe Nachio take it up a notch!

If you missed the recent HMGS/PSW “Winter Campaign” convention you missed a great convention! HMGS/PSW first attempt at having a convention at this time of the year was quite a success given the fairly short concept to execution time we had. For this convention0 returned to our old “digs” at the Glendale Boy Scouts facility near Los Angeles California. After a year of “floating our conventions around the Los Angeles / Orange county area we decided it was time to “gather the Clan” back in familiar territory and have some fun, and fun it was.

Fred Rosenberg a Familiar face at HMGS/PSW convention use’s that face to impersonate a confederate commander!

There were tons of familiar faces spread through out the convention as well as many new faces as we picked up almost a dozen new members! Friday was missed by me as luck would have it I was nursing a cold. The “infamous” HMGS/PSW games board left storage courtesy of the manpower provided by Steve Reid (and his truck), Steve Gausche, and Paul Petrov. Unloading and setup was handled by Convention Manager David Dandridge and un-named HMGS members, thanks guys.

The convention was wall to wall games from early Saturday morning to break down Sunday despite some prominent faces missing over the weekend. This reinforces the fact that if we all showed up and had one more vendor we would bust the seams at the current Boy Scouts facility! As it was we had the main hall with 8 full time games going, the conference room with several and also the basement awash in navel battles.

Many of you have heard that there was a bit of a flap with the scouts as on Tuesday I received a call from them informing me that they had “somehow doubled booked the hall on Sunday” and then asked if we could move out of the hall and use other rooms on Sunday! I told them that moving was out of the question as we would never fit and certainly dealers would not be able too or want to move. This hung in limbo with no solution until Friday where Dave informed me that they asked if we could be out by 3pm sharp on Sunday afternoon, they would wave the hall charge as recompense. We told them that this was acceptable and we would work with the “Boy Scout” group coming in as best we could. In the end it all worked out and we even made some friend within the scouting group as several of their “boys” came in and played while the parents where setting up a huge obstacle course in the parking lot. One boy even went home with a new copy of “wing of War” and I fully expect to see him back as a HMGS/PSW member in the future! Many of the Parents, Scouts, and family members came through the hall to check out the games and ask questions about what we were doing. We were also approached by some of the scout leaders about doing some demo games for their troops at a later date.

Many of you have heard time and time again about the “greying” of the hobby and to a point it is but there is hope as I can see more and more young gamers showing up at our conventions. Of course some have little choice like Clark who’s father is Dave Dandridge our convention manager. Clark is already a veteran gamer and can take down gamers twice his size and 5 times his age easy since he has been gaming with the “Dogs of War since he was old enough to walk!

Next time you come to a con bring a nephew, son, grandson or any child you know and introduce them to miniatures gaming!

Harry Morris, his grandson, and John Denny from the "Bengal club" enjoy some "AK-47"

As I look over the PEL and think about what games were planned and what games actually came off I am glad that several were indeed canceled for one reason or another. We would just not have had the room! That’s a good thing! It bodes well for our future plans to expand our convention into larger facilities. There were also many HMGS/PSW member who are normally at conventions who could not attend this one and with their absence and the games they put on attendance was diminished but once again if they HAD showed up where would they have played as there was no room and most of the games played had FULL participation already! Clearly we are reaching a critical mass in our plans to “move on up” to bigger “digs”

As I said Friday night was missed by me in a effort to save strength for Saturday / Sunday as well as presiding over the HMGS/PSW meeting Saturday night. There were at least 4-5 games planned and played ( AK-47 , Check Your Six, Flames Of War 20mm Race for Massina 1943, and once again pretty well attended for a Friday night!

Jim Svette built this great 15mm ACW terrain suitcase! remove troops and trees, fold up and walk away! I'm "stealing" this!

Saturday Started of with a bang with a full house gaming by 9am! Several Civil War 15mm games were running, Jeff McArthur was demonstrating his ACW rules, “Death in the Boccage” 20mm WWII (Crossfire), So you want our Nuke?” (AK-47), “flying over Flanders” (Wings of War), Sweepers Man your Brooms” (Check your Six), “Stones River” ACW 15mm (Fire and Fury) with Jim Svette’s award winning terrain! Because of late registration there were many other games that did not make the pel being played at this time that I saw, 1/2400 WWII navel with around 10 players, Doug Kendrick running his 28mm Samurai skirmish, and others….

There were Pirates galore at the "Dogs" pirate game, I believe I counted over one dozen! Tim Daun or "Greyhair" the pirate king suveys his domain.

Past HMGS/PSW president Chris Snell ran a tight ship as he kept the "Pirate" game moving along.

Harmon, Skip Gardella, his wife, and several other volunteers manned the pans at noon whipping up a great lunch menu for hungry con goers! Hats off to these folks who not only keep us fed, happy, and at the gaming tables instead of wandering the mean streets of Glendale looking for some eats! This “volunteer effort does all that and puts some cash into the till at the end of the day!

After the feast the gaming raged on with the arrival of the much anticipated “Dogs of War” group and their Mega “Pirate” game! Just awesome and as always a crowd pleaser. The “Dogs of War” games are always a group effort and it shows wonderfully in all the ships and figures, many of the ships were scratch built or at least heavily modified with literally “boatloads of  nicely painted figures. I was told the big Spanish Gallion had over one hundred figures itself. Chock up another “Centurion” award for the “Dogs of War”!A Clash of Empires Game (Macedonians vs. Greek city States in Revolt) was run in the “Board Room” as well as Mark Delidukas 20mm WWII game using Fire and Maneuver rules.

There were many other games run that you President just did not get around to seeing or remembering (we need a volunteer to do a con write up and take pictures)

The evening brought our HMGS/PSW meeting and elections. Elections saw the re-election of the current officers (unanimous) and discussions of the future expansion of the convention. Jim Svette was awarded a Centurion award for his American Civil War game setup (a giant folding suitcase!) and the also the “Dogs of War” were seen to pick up another one for Pirates!

A wise man once said a picture id worth a thousand words so no more words, just pictures!

Yours in Gaming,

Bill Witthans

President HMGS/PSW

Tanks for the memories! A dreaded "long" barrel Panzerjager IV moves out.

It always comes down to food! The "reward" for having your ship go down to Davey Jones locker!

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