"How far will you go to attend a wargames event." Topic

Mileage rather than extremes of other sorts.

A recent poll asked how healthy ancients tournaments were in your area (in my area they are very healthy btw) … but I wondered what you considered 'your area'?

Shows, competitions or clubs …

(my area I think of as, say 50 miles for a game, up to 150 miles for an event or tournament. I go much further, but beyond that range I think of things as out of my area and requiruiong a stay over …)

a/. me? Leave the house?
b/. 50 miles?
c/. 100 miles?
d/. it entirely depends on the offer?
e/. the world is my oyster?
f/. ?

Phil

g/. There's this thing called the internet, I don't need to spend a Sunday afternoon in a scrum with smelly individuals and their backpacks.

I don't do tournaments, and I get all the social wargaming I need locally.

For a show, convention, or a promising flea market, I top out at about 100 miles except for the rare national level trip.

Clubs and tournaments top out at maybe half that.

7 hours one way (like to GenghisCon in Denver next month). Farther if I can get someonelse to pay airfare (Historicon or ColdWars)

I don't generally go to them. But last time I did I went to Schleswig-Holstein, which is about 550 miles from here.

It's nice to make a weekend of it.

For a local gaming day about 1 1/2 hour drive. A local tournament 1 1/2 hours also.

If it is a single day event, so drive to event – attend event – drive home again is all to take place in one day, about 150 miles.

c. However, tournaments have been a very low priority for several years.

Every other month or so I make the nearly 160 mile drive to Phoenix just to play a few hours of games with my buddy in a non-event setting. Then drive home the same day. So over 300 miles round trip in one day just for a "normal" gaming fix.
Keep making plans, but have yet to pull the trigger, to go to some of the events in the areas around Anaheim and L.A., more then 250-300 miles. One of these days…

I traveled one time from Texas to Salute in Londan England. Most of the time it was just North Carolina or Mayland to HMGS conventions in Pennsylvania.
VR
James Mattes

My willy is ing huge.

I once rode a motorcycle from Birmingham to Whitby just because I fancied fish and chips.

I have been to Historicon once. I did go to Origins once (I believe it was called this) but I was already in the Baltimore area as my Dad had relocated there. I am from Texas. Most of my travels have been no more than 5 hours driving. Have been to Fort Worth, Arlington, Houston/Clear Lake, Fort Hood, The Valley and this is pretty much it.

In my breif time in Louisiana, I didn't go more than 3 hours away. So Missippi and Alabama were the furthest.

Would I travel further? Yes, I do plan on going to Historicon again and probably more than once. I may travel further to a world event at some point if I game more and get more serious about a rules set such as FoG, etc. I do want to time a trip to Europe and go to one of the big events in England some day. But I may not go to be in a tournament but to experience the event and spend the game in some participation games.

Unlike most that are on here, I have young kids having gotten married in my mid-30s. If one or more them gets serious about gaming, it would be added incentive. Right now, finances and time keep me from doing as much long distance travel. Sorry to ramble! Guess I am wishing I had some of the freedoms from when I was single, again :-)

I live in Florida. Going to Gencon this year.

Connrad Sage:
"My willy is ing huge."

Then why aren't you out making movies instead of wasting your precious time here?

Connrad Sage starring in" The Honking Willy of The Midlands." With Jenna Jaimison.

Sorry CS. Edited for you.

Conrad Sage has a huge willy too? What were the chances, eh?

A long, long way. If I can drive it, I might go. A lot more depends on funds than miles.

My friends and I drive 200+ miles, once a year to attend Kublacon in San Francisco. It's a fun weekend and it's only once a year, so the spouses don't complain…

Not very far. We have an annual convention about 20 minutes from my home, but I haven't been to it or any other convention in at least 5-6 years.

Five hours drive for something really worth it (a big show with a lot of events). Two hours for 'regular' shows (local shows). That's about it.

If I have to fly to get there, I won't do it, as I hate having to explain (or even potentially lose) any minis because TSA doesn't understand them.

I have, however, been known to arrange a business trip around a show to 'check it out' but that's only if I can swing it. I'm still trying to make that happen for Salute, but I can't find a good business reason in my industry to be in the UK in April (can they move Salute for me?).

What a sensible fellow Connard. If you want fish and chips and can get to Whitby…why wouldn't you? Best fish and chips I've ever had in Whitby.

250 miles.

I drive or fly 800 miles one way to go to the HMGS shows in the Northeast and I remember flying to LA from Dallas once in the eighties to attend an Origins.

That probably qualifies me as willing to go a fair distance.

A driving time of 2 1/2 to 3 hours is about right for a weekend. For a game day I drive up to 60 miles one-way.

Sydney to Lancaster PA for Historicon

I have trekked to the wilds of Luzerne County, across vast mounds of coal, through the lush swamps and boggy bits, down the narrow, twisting streets of a small unnamed Pennsylvania shanty for a giggle and a game.

And this from Montgomery County no less. Simply exhausting.

I deserve something self-rightously indulgent for that.

Maybe a nice War of 1812 game… or a Dalton Day game of Tommy Lobster 'gainst the Zooloos.

Eric

couple hours of driving…

Here in Eastern PA, roughly two hours (120-150 miles) for cons, tournaments, or even getting old friends together.

We once took a 7+ hour drive to Origins in Columbus. Con was highly overrated, but the trip back involved illegal fireworks, lesbians, male prostitution, and a complete lack of pants at a turnpike Roy Rogers.

I think two hours is the max, at least that's what my parole officer tells me.

For a big one like Origins, Little Wars or Historicon there is not limit. hahaha But for smaller I'll drive a couple hours or so.

From northern Illinois, we've driven to Florida, Louisiana, Texas, California, Tennessee, Minnesota, Missouri, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Maine, nearby Chicago area and other Illinois locations and many, many times to Pennsylvania.

Some trips take hours, some a day or two, and some may take an entire week. No better way to see old friends and meet new ones, and get a look at the countryside, too.

Bob – heading to Champaign, IL for Winter War this weekend.

Yea, 3 hours is about my limit.

Bob;
And we who buy your wares thank you for that.

Eric
(who really needs more Knuckleduster figures…)

I'll go 7 or 8 hours without hestitaion for a convention. I have gone 10 hours for a convention I really like, but that was pushing my ability to sit in a car.

I travel 5 to 6 hours to game with a fun group four to six times a year -- this is a weekend devoted to my hobby.

Melbourne to London for this years Salute and I'm taking an empty suitcase…

About 130 miles is our limit.

Being based in Peterborough, this allows us to get to York, Reading, or Newbury within a reasonable time (about 2 1/2 hours).

Trouble is, with the cost of petrol (gasoline for US readers), and the increasing entrance fees, it knocks out £20.00 GBP each (for 2 of us) before we actually buy anything at shows. I have been to up to 13 shows in a year, but this year it will probably only be about 6. I will order more through the internet.

Steve J

I attend RECRUITS in the Spring each year, that's 211 miles one way. I would be willing to drive as far south as Dallas, west to Oklahoma City north as Kansas City, and as far east as Little Rock. Although, with that said I am making plans to attend ComicCon and GenCon, just don't know when yet.

We drive 8 to Cold Wars/ Fall In but that is about the limit for us.

I would fly to go to Salute but that would be part of a larger holiday.

The furthest for a single day event is about two and a half hours, anything further than that and I'll stay over.

Two and a half hours can mean 150 miles down nice clear motorways at 0530 or it can mean 1.5 miles between Junctions 28 and 27 on the M1 when a tanker has decided to spill oil all over the road. It is also how long it takes to get the train from Sheffield the Leeds if trying to get to/from Fiasco and you accidently pick the Darton-Wombell etc route (as opposed to 30 mins on the Intercity).

I have driven from Adelaide to Melbourne (750 km, 500 miles) for a convention in the past and will do it again in May. But it's also a chance to catch up with a few friends that I haven't seen for a year.

Scheduled to do Arizona USA to Cold Wars this year.

Only 50-60 miles or so (1 hour drive), but I travel a lot for work, so within 50 miles of a place I happen to be is fair game and has happened a few times.

Drove 15hrs a couple of times to go to Cold Wars/Historicon back when it was at the Patriot Hall.
Also drove 4 hrs to Atlanta back when they did wargame conventions there.

A game – about an hour drive tops (30 minutes is better).

Historicon or a con – 8 hours or so.

Based on last year's do on Battleship Texas, about 200 miles.

Most of the time the farthest I go to game is my garage, so not too far.

But this past November I drove alone on a 4000 mile round-trip -- 2000 miles/3 days there, 2000 miles/3 days back -- from Los Angeles to New Orleans, for the first-ever all-"The Sword And The Flame" convention, with author Larry Brom, whose rules I've been playing since they were first published in 1979, but who I'd never met before, in attendance. Could have brought my armies via plane, but driving was the only practical way to get the 6'x12' terrain for the game I ran to the con.

So if the event is worth it to me, I guess there's no limit to how far I will go, or how much gas I will consume in the process, at least within the continental United States. Lucky for me there's only one other rules set I've played for decades and am a huge fan of, and I won't name it for fear someone will organize a con dedicated to it, featuring the author, probably located in either north-eastern Maine, or the Florida Keys.

From California to wherever they decide to hold Historicon.

D-Farthest I've been for a con is CharCon,and Drums near Toledo,OH.

I do a 200 miles roundtrip San Diego to LA twice a month for a Sat night game. And do at least one HMGS con a year for a coast-to-coast run. And I did Salute one year (but that doesn't count, I was already in London for a work thing).

No more than 6-8 traveling hours. So it's according to the recklessness of the driver to discover mileage.

So if the event is worth it to me, I guess there's no limit to how far I will go, or how much gas I will consume in the process, at least within the continental United States. Lucky for me there's only one other rules set I've played for decades and am a huge fan of, and I won't name it for fear someone will organize a con dedicated to it, featuring the author, probably located in either north-eastern Maine, or the Florida Keys.

System 7?;)

I have driven 10+ hours to HMGS east cons from Indiana for 20 years.

Allen

I get on a plane for lundun.

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Warren B.
minisculpture.co.uk

I drove 26 miles for our FoG tourney two weeks ago.