"Duke Seifried's EL CID! & the BLACK GATE at KC Game Fair" Topic

The Kansas City Game Fair November 19-22, 2009

Come play in two games presented by the PT Barnum of Miniatures, Duke Seifried!

His newest game is El Cid! The Battle of Cuarte fought in 1094 before the walls of Valencia. El Cid rides out to give battle to the attacking Almoravid Berbers of Ben Yusef!

And by special engagement, THE BLACK GATES!

Battle of the Morannon: March 25 TA 3019.

The godly forces of Gondor and it's allies assault the Gates of the Morannon to deflect Sauron's attention away from the Ringbearer on his critical mission of destroying The One Ring!

A Lord of the Rings set up that has to be seen to be believed!

Only run twice before! once at Historicon and once at Origons!

Pics and schedule at kcgamefair.com

Not a draw. The shine sorta wore off "Uncle" Duke round about 1977.

Was that necessary, Allen?

Ralph

You're right, Ralph. Each to his own. Sorry.

Allen

Okay, for those that don't have connections, what happened in 1977 since it was specifically named?

Star Wars opened in theaters.

Uncle Duke style games are always huge crowd pleasers. I am sure there are jaded grognards out there that don't find the games appealing, but (as Allen said) to each his own.

Over the years, in different times of my life, I've been lucky enough to start up wargaming clubs where there wasn't much wargaming previously. One of the big hits in such a setting is to run the big, multi-player, hollywood-style Uncle Duke type game. I have never had it fail to be a crowd pleaser – and what is more, it often gets people hooked into wargaming. After a couple of big participation style Uncle Duke type games (Medievals, Colonials, Ancients, Pirates, etc) – with lots of factions on the table, lots of players, loads of figures, easy rules, and random events to stir things up – then the players who find the hobby of toy soldiering to be appealing start asking questions, and getting serious about this period or that. At least that has been my experience over a couple of decades.

Chuck

I'd agree with Allen. His games nowadays are more flash than anything else. You walk by and see the huge table with lots of miniatures. Stand close and/or play and the shine is not so great.

I still dont see any historical miniature games. Really holding off on going to this.

If I lived within a day or two's driving distance I'd go with my 12 year-old son, plus my 9 and 7 year-old daughters. My son and I played together in a trio of giant Duke Seifried NWF games at the 2007 Historicon and had an awesome time. I'm a pretty serious historical miniature gamer (some of my fellow gamers would probably say "grimly so") but I enjoyed the "Duke" experience and I don't think my son, who was 9 at the time, will ever forget it.

Back in the late Seventies/early Eighties in Brooklyn, NY, my friends and I played a home-brewed all-historical version of "Knights And Magick" in the war-room in my basement. After many, many stand alone battles our group played a long HYW campaign using the excellent (IMHO) campaign rules from that set. Even though it was almost 30 years ago, that was one of the best ongoing miniatures campaigns I've ever played in my life.

I won't fly from Los Angeles to Kansas City just to see him but I think our hobby is better off for having had -- and continuing to have -- Duke Seifried around.