A Connecticut Kiwi in the Court of King Clinton

[or Wargaming US style]
- Contributed by Al Duncan currently residing of the US of A.

The halls are larger, the conventions more crowded and the participants seem even more unhealthy than a Kiwi, or even a UK gathering. Still, after seven months in the land of the free I've finally started to figure out the US games scene. First off forget about a 'Warlords' type approach to the hobby. Most 'miniaturists' clearly don't belong to any formal club and even the slick brochures of the Historical Miniature Games Society, (HMGS) are stronger on public relations than practical information. Still they did turn out to be useful when I succumbed to a credit card binge with Old Glory and it turned out as an HMGS members I qualified for a decent discount. (And what 25mm Army would it be logical to buy in the US? Why Russian's of course!)

More so than NZ a lot of gamers seem to play in small informal circles. The joys of a society where houses are built with 'basements' crying out for table tennis tables. My 'local' club, the only one in a State of 4 million people, meets monthly at the Ramada hotel where wargamers mix with conventions of tool and die manufacturers and bonsai tree collectors. Here there's a big difference to the NZ scene with gaming at the club (and convention) level is largely home rules and scenarios rather than WRG set to games. A typical Saturday kicks off around 10.00 am and goes till late at night with a large dose of board gamers and the inevitable hex based mirco-armour game that seems to take forever to set out.

It's a pattern repeated at the enormous US conventions with a few spectacular games mixed among a host of very ordinary scenarios and vignettes.

I drove the 8 hours to one of the larger conventions held at Gettysburg last year and after checking out the trade stands proved to be as interesting as the gamers. Other than the Detroit of wargaming - Old Glory - most of the dealers are largely handling UK imports. Still I did notice quite a few dealers with the Auckland guy's' 15mm tanks and others selling every type of 54mm plastic figure you could want. I was tempted by the new HAT ancients but figured that Vince would want a 54mm elephant.

It may be cultural cringe but the idea of sitting for six hours playing someone else home rules with some very dubious looking gamers doesn't grab me so I was pleased there was handy battlefield to tour, rather than fight my way past tables groaning under burger wrappers and candy bars. Anyone who's been to Salute in London will know the feeling - except here it's even bigger and the burger wrappers at least once contained something better than a Wimpy burger!

Still, Gettysburg and nearby Antietam proved to be as fascinating as the figure gaming - though I can't understand how it was that McDonalds was allowed to build on the flank of Picketts charge. Surely the Union would have occupied the place and thrown happy meals at the rebs....

(An interesting footnote. It turns out that the stone wall behind which the union sheltered - the high mark of the confederacy advance - was built by slave labour. The irony is delicious)

Back in New England I did make it to the Massachusetts convention, held in a former US National Guard base. The convention is called 'Havoc' and it's apt. Outside the sports complex housing the gaming were more rusty armoured cars and vehicles than in the entire NZ armed forces. Here at least I did find DBM and players as relaxed as any you'd hope to find in NZ. Fifteen's appear to dominate with three rounds a day of 350 points. I'd bought an unpainted Assyrian Army over and emerging from winter can now proclaim that NZ (with the help of Iraqi forces) has conquered New England! The standard of play and painting was comparable to anything you'll find in NZ and there were very few differences in rule interpretation. Has anyone else faced down an army of Elamite's recently. Masses and masses of inferior bow that ended up shooting up my camp and even forced my horde to attack! I don't recommend it.

It seems as if certain NZ wargamers have now created an international reputation. I did spend a lot of time explaining that not all Kiwi wargamers spent every minute of every day on the Internet sites and may even have convinced the Yanks that we don't all play the way some of you argue on the DBM pages. (and that some of you are quite nice people in the flesh)

Curiously the nicest armies and the sharpest players I've found turn out to be imports as well. A Brit who can paint and watch TV at the same time (after all there are 65 channels to choose from) and a Frenchmen who tells me that his club in Paris regularly has 30 or 40 tables going. Zut alor. Still, this is a nation of immigrant's so why not!