"How about this for Fall-In?" Topic

According to the HMGS website the theme for Fall-In is TBD. How about this for an idea?

This year is 2015.

Many years ago, when I was but a wee lad, General Sir John Hackett (the famed commander of the 4th Parachute Brigade at Arnhem) and some of his colleagues wrote a book that laid out the scary outline of a war between the Warsaw Pact and NATO. These gentlemen created a cautionary tale, a warning really, of what a war between the two great power blocks would look like and how it could affect everything! His book led to books like Red Storm Rising, Team Yankee, Chieftons, and others. Who knows how many paper and counter games that book kicked off!

Anyway, he set the time for this war… August 1985!

It was the greatest war that never was, but could have been. Many of us gamers cut our teeth on moving formations of M-1s to clash against vast phalanxes of T72s (which we just knew would be the main OPFOR tank). We struggled through TACFORCE, Fire Team, World War III, BAOR, and more SPI titles than I care to count, just looking for the right rules set for this nightmare.

Ditto for us soldiers! We spent years training in FTXs, gunnery tables, and rotations through the NTC or Graf learning how to combat that threat. Many guys in HMGS served in Germany, ever watchful for the first sign of invasion, or waited with packed duffle bags for the word to join the REFORGER. I think everyone of us spent time with micro armour and sand tables playing out the same actions we would do for real.

Even the teeny boppers of the time (which includes me) remember the cheesy, but scary, pop piece 99 Red Balloons! Heck, we even got to watch a map exercise of this war in the James Bond flick Octopussy! From 1981 to 1987 this possible conflict dominated the news. It was the doom of our time for everyone.

So why not?

Who wants to have a convention dedicated to the war that never was around the time, almost 30 years to the date, that Sir John picked for the war to end wars?

Anyone want to assemble Team Yankee for Fall-In? Could be fun!

I'd be up for it!!!

Here are some useful background threads:

Sir John Hackett: link

His book:
link

link

A famous "spin-off"
link

Maybe the theme song??
YouTube link

Octopussy Map Session:
YouTube link

Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising" would be good too.

I'm up for it, but don't know yet if I can make Fall In. I have just about everything to run a large scenario in 10 mm.

Yawn. Same old same old. I think they did this one already.

How about "Imagi-Nations" The prettiest Armies that Never Were!"

How about "Little-Wars and Shambattle" an Ode to primitive games and Old School Wargaming at its best.

How about "Terrain Extravaganza's!" The very best, the very largest most expansive wildly overdone terrain for a battle.

How about "Warfare in India through the Ages! The Enduring Alluring appeal of the Elephant."

How about "The Horror! The Horror! Warfare and depradations in Deepest Darkest Africa!"

How about "Artful Armies, Beautiful Battles 1425 to 1560" featuring top of the the line armies in Renaissance Italy and Germany.

Maybe we could make it an event here on TMP? After all, it is August… November is a bit, but not too, late.

There's always gotta be one stick in the mud..

I think there was a Cold War theme, but not one directly aimed at The Third World War with the focus on Germany/Europe.

Also, I never spent hours learning about Indian elephants. But I had to spend hours in Soviet vehicle ID and learning about Russian/Soviet tactics. It would be nice to see those toys on the table again.

Funny you bring this up. Reading Hackett right now and talking to some friends on the War I trained for, 30 years ago.

Building my 15mm forces too

I just wrapped up Team Yankee and am now going for WWIII. Ditto on the miniatures, but I'm moving to 3mm for the big fights. However I have a nice mix of 15mm and 6mm for smaller skirmishes/battles.

So down for this. I too am doing moderns in 3mm. Just had a big game with Poles standing up to Russians waiting for a Dutch mech formation relief column.

Other than the picture on the CW booklet the theme has about zero influence on the con anyway. So sure! (plus I like it)

Not a bad idea at all, but you must realize you risk calling down the intense ire of the annoyingly dogmatic "HISTORY ONLY" crowd… 8)=

Also Flames Of War is supposed to release "Cold War Gone Hot" in October.

I think it's a great idea. I've never had an interest in gaming it myself but I read all those books.

Excellent Idea!

Great idea or not I don't know but As soon as I saw it looked very familiar. I'm sure I read this book a lifetime ago.

Excellent tie-in with BF releasing their Cold War Gone Hot rules/expansion.

I say run with it. Though you really have your choice of settings. I haven't read Hackett's magnum opus, but I read Clancy's Red Storm Rising enough to destroy my first copy (shredded the paperback cover).

3 years stationed at NTC/Fort Irwin just in case this ever happened..

Sounds like a good idea.

WOLVERINES!

> WOLVERINES!

I take back my acceptance of this idea…

Great Idea! Love the 80's/early 90s and spent a lot of time figuring out how to take an MRR apart in 3 easy lessons (and a Joint Air Attack Team Box or two) :)

No, no wolverines… Unless your battalion was called The Wolverines. I'm talking central front, Germany, 1985!

How about featuring the older wargame rules, good, bad or indifferent. CLS, Sword and the flame, Wargamer's Handbook, Tricorne, Empire variants, Generalship, 1776, Blue and Gray, Chassepot and Needlegun, Johnnyreb etc.

<How about "Imagi-Nations" The prettiest Armies that Never Were!">

The Wasabi Protectorate protests this effort to glamorize the horror that is the pirate state of Bongolesia! We of the Protectorate appeal to the United Nations for military and economic support to defend our mutual border against the anticipated aggressive actions that have historically followed any positive media attention received by that nation's generalissimo Ph'at Dad'ee.

Nice try, gentlemen, but my understanding is that the theme for Fall In 2015 will be The Hundred Days Campaign. After 2015, we may see a return to WWI with the 100 year anniversary of "The Yanks Are Coming" in 2017.

I may be wrong. If so, I'm sure somebody (like Dan) will correct me, but that was the direction in which they were going as of Cold Wars.

As an owner of Hackett's book, plus Team Yankee, Red Storm Rising, First Clash and the Twilight 2000 rules and books, I have no objection to a 1985 theme. As others have said, many of us grew up playing with M-1 tanks, either in miniature or for real. I recall playing modern micro-armor games with the Cadets at West Point back in the 1980's. Those were the days.

Larry Bond's Harpoon Team also put on many a great modern naval game over the years. Always fun to go after the Kirov battle group with a couple of NATO frigates.

Maybe this thread will persuade the powers that be to change direction.

We'll see.

That's odd. I would have thought that would be the theme for Historicon given when the battle was actually fought.

You are not the first person to make that point, Tgunner.

The Historicon 2015 theme is "End of Empires--3000 BC to July 16, 2015." That's straight from the Historicon web page.

It certainly covers a fair amount of time and space, including the fall of the Soviet Empire. You could argue that an "End of Empires" theme includes your 1985 "Cold War Goes Hot" games.

Most GMs, myself included, run what they want, regardless of the theme selected by HMGS. Plus, it's up to the GM to decide whether his (or her) event is a theme game or not. I have run (and played in) NATO vs. Warsaw Pact games in the past. I would certainly consider such games to fall under an "End of Empires" theme.

I'm sure a theme for Fall In 2015 will be announced soon.

Interesting update- I was cc'd on an email between some folks over at HMGS:

Historical Miniatures Gaming Society, Inc.
In response to your "Contact Us" submission:

Hello Randall,

Thank you for your interest in Fall-In 2015, HMGS and the effort you put into this suggested theme.

I have forwarded your suggestion along to the Cold Wars Convention director for consideration copying you in the process.

Please let me know if I can answer any other questions or provide any additional assistance.

Regards,
Paul Trani
HMGS Inc Board
HMGS IT Director

and…

Paul Trani <snip>
11:27 AM (13 minutes ago)
to templar16507, me

Hi Dan,

For your consideration – We have received a suggestion for the Fall-In Theme for 2015.

I have included the original message below for your review copied Randall in the process.

Please let me know if I can provide any additional information.

Regards,
Paul Trani
HMGS Inc Board
HMGS IT Director

…And basically a copy of my post from above which is my original email to HMGS. So maybe the jury is still out on Fall In's theme???

Maybe you guys could toss an email to HMGS seconding my suggestion?

This could work. Maybe.

As I have said before, I have nothing against a "1985" theme.

However, if you go back another 10 years to 1975, you might have a better, or at least more deserving, period to examine as a convention theme.

April 30, 1975 is a day that many remember, especially those who served in SouthEast Asia and their families. PBS has been showing documentaries on Vietnam all week long. Forty years may be a long time, but some of us remember watching on television as the U.S. evacuated its embassy in Saigon like it was yesterday.

Those events, and those who served there, should not be forgotten. HMGS could do worse for a convention theme.

You could title it "Wars that never were" and that would allow for other alternative war scenarios.