"Advance The Colors.... A Review...."

 (WARNING THIS POST IS PICTURE INTENSIVE. Please be patient as the pictures download and click on the photo get a larger version. Enjoy!)

The HMGS-GL (Great Lakes) flagship convention for their year, "Advance The Colors", (ATC), was held October 10-11th at the Mercantile Building at the County Fairgrounds in Springfield, Ohio.

Over 50 games were listed and played, along with vendors and the flea market.

This was my first HMGS-GL convention and I was curious as to how it compared to the operations and running of HMGS-MW. I am happy to say that this ran smoothly also. 

HMGS-GL did a great job of setting up, and running this convention. For those of you that don't know, convention organization is essentially "cat herding", and is only made possible by a good staff of people and volunteers. HMGS-GL looks to have that. Friendly, professional, pushing the hobby forward, and smiles on their faces.

Like Autumn Wars, I couldn't stay all weekend, so I trekked up early on Friday, and left Sat afternoon, missing out on the Saturday evening fun and closedown.

FRIDAY....

I had some early Friday "stuff" that needed to be done, (that thing we all call "real life"), and then I got my packed stuff loaded in Josette, and away I went.

(The Forage Cap (Kepi to some of you, but there IS a difference), sits on the dashboard. It's an indicator of yet another adventure...)

And I was off!

All was good....until....I got past Indianapolis.

The drive from Indianapolis to Springfield Ohio is approx. 150 miles, or an approx. 3 1/2 hour drive.

In theory.

10 miles East of Indianapolis, I-70, (one of the main arteries in the US running east-west, and a massive route for national truck traffic), suddenly went into "Construction zone". The herd of orange and white striped barrels crowded the road-like groupies at a rock stars trailer at a concert.

And it went on, and on, and on.

I-70 went down to two lanes...and then one lane.

And from 70 to 55 mph, if you were lucky. Most of the time the single lane procession was doing 45-50. And the few times the road did open up to two lanes, (usually around exits to towns), you got "that guy", or "old lady that doesn't care", driving at 35 mph and slowing the traffic flow down to an excruciating crawl.

And it stayed this way for THE ENTIRE LENGTH OF I-70 TO THE OHIO STATE LINE.

Yes...almost 100 miles of "crawl and creep".

10 miles from the line, they open up the road to make it "Look normal"...riiiiiiight.

But eventually I made it to the Ohio state line.

(Ohio....my gawd....I'm in Ohio....)

As you drive through the South, you'll see signs that says "See Rock City."

As you drive into Ohio, you'll see signs for "Uranus Fudge Factory."

Sigh.

No I didn't go and I didn't see it. I passed Uranus by quickly and speedily.

( * insert your own cheap joke here....*)

(Click on the pic for a larger version of this sign, and shake your head...)

Upon arrival to Springfield, I got to my hotel, only to try to check in and find Hotels dot com had screwed up my reservation. My reservation was supposed to be for Friday and Saturday but somehow and someway in some manner and form, the system had jumped and my res. was for Sat and Sun. 

Once I got that straightened out, (basically getting the room for Fri, and then having to cancel the previous reservation), I got to my hotel room.

While unloading my bags from the baggage cart, the door latch to the room closed behind me.

And broke.

So now I was locked out of my room.

Another meeting at the front desk, and the maintenance guy and his assistant had to come in and use wires and tools to get the door open, only to find out that the latch spring had broken.

Sigh.

10 minutes, 1 screwdriver, power drill, and a spring later, it was fixed.

Finally with all of that taken care of I made the run down to the Fairgrounds to check on the convention.

The building is set up nicely with plenty of parking, plenty of convention room, a snack bar in the back, restrooms to empty ourselves of what our body produces, a smoking area, etc. 

Registration desk was well marked and located and manned by friendly and helpful folks.

Registering onsite was easy, and HMGS-GL gave our really nice swag bags that made nice little backpack bags, (I'll be showing these in a future post).

One of the things I really, REALLY liked and appreciated was the "You are here" sign at the front.

It listed all the table locations, dealers, flea market etc.

It made for easy location for those that are geographically and map reading challenged.

(A great idea from HMGS-GL that allows people to figure out where they are, and it tells them where they can go... Wait a minute.....)

(The first pic of the con area)

A look at the layout was easy. The flea market tables were laid out in a rectangle in the middle of the convention. The dealers and vendors ringed the sides, with the game tables on either side.

On Friday afternoon, many of the players, and dealers themselves were still setting up. 

More pics of Friday's games:

If I am correct, there was a Bolt Action tourney going on, hence why you see the small set pieces for smaller encounters, rather than the large set battles that take up numerous tables, etc.

And that is something I noticed that was different.

I really didn't see any large "mega table" games being run. I may have missed some but to be honest, I didn't see any. Perhaps it's the difference in gaming style, or the difference in play, or simply HMGS-GL said "Sorry we don't have the room for a 10 table, Abraham Lincoln ghost chasing and square dance engagement featuring Robert E. Lee, and Queen Victoria."

It was a different change to see smaller tabled games.

Sure the Mega table games look great, but at what cost to playability and space management?

On site were food and drink options. Here is a pic of the snack bar in the back.

I also got some pics of some of the dealers. In this case, Diabolical Terrain. Also there were MBA, Sword and Scabbard, (who also attended Little Wars), Dad's Armies, Outland Games, I-94, and Nafzinger to name a few.

(Diabolical terrains setup. I helped myself to a few pieces here.)

(One of the high quality kits from Dad's Armies.)

One of the things I did like about this convention is the stands they had that a GM could put up if he needed players. This is a great idea for cons and for future games. 

Hm. I need to take note of this.

After this bit, I headed out to get some food.

Food choices in Springfield are um..."different".

I was kind of in a sushi phase, and found a Chinese buffet place.

However....

(No...just...NO...)

So I tried this one out instead...

(The "thumbs up" was a little premature....)

(Inside was nice and clean...)

(Sushi choices were limited...sigh.)

And with that, I headed back to the hotel room to sleep and get ready for Saturday.

My game plan was as standard, "Eat, convention, dealers, Flea Market, go home".

My friend Brian and Kyle made it to breakfast and the con with me.

This was their very first convention and first minis gaming, and gaming experience.

(Someone needs to buy a vowel...)

Upon re-arriving at the fairgrounds I noticed this sign was still posted.

(Kinda hard to do this at a miniatures convention don't ya think? And who is using cows as measuring devices?!?!...)

Back in the convention, I did my shopping.

I picked up a bundle from Dadarmies.  He has moved from the UK to the US, and his shop is currently down.  However I welcomed him, and bought a bundle.

Oddly enough, this convention shows that the world is indeed a small place.

Below this is a picture of myself and Chris Von Fahnestock of Outland Games.

The last time he and I were together was when we were playing System 7 Napoleonics at the Fort Huachuca, Arizona Rec. Center in late 1987.

(Meeting up again after 38 years...)

And I got some pics of games and terrain....

And I got some more good terrain and scenic pics...

And speaking of food, my friends Brian and Kyle brought donuts from the local bakery.

(mmmm....a fresh box of fat pills....)

And then suddenly, the skies of WW1 Europe called to us!

One of the Kaisers Zeppelins was making a sortie!

(Brian and Kyle in their first miniatures game. Cheerio Boys!)

(Getting ready for a little "Aerodrome" action!)

(My control panel...and my two Hun opponents....)

(And I'm off to bag the Hun! Pip! Pip! and all that rot and rubbish!!!)

(The guns blaze as plywood, canvas, and piano wire come together at ten thousand feet...)

(Passes and firing....Things are not looking good for the RFC lads...)

(DEFINITELY NOT LOOKING GOOD FOR THE RFC!!!)

(And Brian goes down in a mass of burning wood and canvas, pain and screams as the flames caress his body and he plummets to the earth in a death spiral. Kyle would do the same thing quickly afterwards and leaving me alone up there, I decided that "Discretion is the better part of valor and I break off and run back to the safety of our lads and our lines...Victory for the Hun! )

One of the things I did this convention was to play "Find Murphy".

The rules were simple.

1: You have to look for me.

2: You had to walk up to me and say "HEEEEEYYYY JOHNNY REB!"

3: Introduce yourself and your TMP name.

4: Don't hit me...

5: You win a prize.

Each prize was an assorted bag of sprues, 3-4 sprues per page.

Winners had to have their pics with yours truly.

Although no one really followed the rules, I was hunted down. errr... "found", and thus prizes were awarded!

Friday's prize went to Dave Elmore, (that's Dan Elmore in the background doing the photobomb thing...)...

And Saturday's prize was awarded to the ever lovable, (now that I said it can I have my 20 dollars you promised me?), Tom Tullis...

(Two respectable guys, and me...)

(I'm actually surprised that they let us in the same building at the same time...foolish mortals...)

A quick run to the snack bar.

(Honestly you didn't think you'd get further in this blog post without seeing more food now did ya?"

(Eat up before leaving...)

I waited until the Flea Market and then hit it and purchased some items.

Those items will be posted along with my Autumn Wars haul, in a soon to be posted future post.

On the way out, I spotted a nice Colonials game, so I decided to get some "last convention pics" of it.

From what I heard later on, Her Majesty's lads didn't have a good go at it.

And the farewell sign reminding us about "Next year..."

(Mark your calendars...)

(I'll be back...)

It was a drive home in the dark of night but I made it....

(Leaving Ohio...)

I made it back and for all sakes and purposes, this was the end of my gaming convention season.

Good friends, Good Food, (mostly), Good memories, Good Times....

That's what it's all about.

Conclusion:

HMGS-GL did a great job of putting this on. The games were pretty well attended; the venue is good, and the amount of dealers were very good.

The complaints I heard were as follows:

1: Dealers: Dealers felt that Friday was VERY SLOW, and some said that "Saturday morning was slow also. This had to do with the day and time.

2: Some of the dealers had asked "Why Friday and Saturday?"  instead of adding Sunday on? I don't have an answer for this, as I am just a goober. I would say it probably has to do with contracts and costs.

For me, the only issues I have with the entire experience.

1: The hotels are not located nearby. Mine was 7 miles away. Not an HMGS-GL problem though. It is what it is.

2: The drive from Indy to Ohio. A nightmare. Once again, not HMGS-GL's problem.

Overall for me, HMGS-GL, and ATC were an excellent way to round out my convention year. I met new people and learned a lot and have a lot of stuff coming down the pipeline.

Kudos to the HMGS-GL crew for getting this done!
See you next year!

As for you dear reader, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.

Let me know your thoughts and comments.

Stay tuned because there is more to come!

Thanks!