"Missing Little Wars...How is it?" Topic

Sitting in my office at home today watching the rain fall, and working and waiting for my on call rotation to start this afternoon-evening, so I am missing Little Wars.

Any early reports and pics yet? How is it?

Pretty good so far. Played in Mike Pennock's Girls Und Panzer game yesterday – it was a hoot. Dropped over a C-note at George Nafzigers's booth.

DBA tournament went very well. Will post more soon.

Also, the Westin Hotel is a very nice venue, way better than the Lancaster Host or the previous LW venue in St Charles IL.

way better than the Lancaster Host

Yes, but isn't the host just a step above a North Korean Prison Camp?

The Yelp reviews make me laugh: link

It feels like attendance is down, as is to be expected with a change in venue. Baffling but true.

But the location is a HUGE HUGE improvement over the DuPage Expo Barn. Carpeted, natural light, roomy, and clean, ample bathrooms. We're no longer at the "kids table."

Vendor hall is good, and I've been having good luck with sales of my clearance merch.

Picked up RuneWars in the flea market, almost bit on a nice collection of 1970s micro armor. Good show, lunch catering options typical for a convention location but McD is just 150 yards across the lot if you prefer.

Hope they can stay beyond next year.

I just got back from going down for the day. I like the new venue. Its much easier to get to than St Charles. I like that there is plenty of parking and everything is in one building.

The gaming hall was much bigger than last year at least it looked that way to me. There were alot of games going on all day. I didnt pre reg or anything but still managed to get into 2 games.

the Vendor area was nice and spaced out. There were a lot of the usual vendors and a couple of new ones. Nice selection of items but most of my money ended up coming back home with me. Not really due to not having anything to buy its more that Ive bought too much already and couldnt justify buying more right now.

The paint and take area was back this year. It was a nice way to kill some time in between events.

The hotel food was pretty expensive but there were other options close buy. We ended up going to a great little Italian deli that was only about three blocks from the hotel.

I hope Little Wars can work out a long term deal so we can stay here for a few years.

Pictures lads?
Clif

Met all my minis shopping needs. Could not find the DBA 3.0 Rules or the Black Powder Civil War Supplement on sale. Kudos to Old Glory/Blue Moon where I got most of my minis and Thoroughbred for the new 1/200 ACW ships. Thanks to the wife selling all her husbands unused Saga minis packs in the flea market. I finally got my Irish Cavalry unit for Dux Britanniarum at a very reasonable price.

Ken Schlotfeldt, president of Badger Airbrushes, gave a very helpful Airbrush 101 presentation at the War College that was reason enough to attend.

1) The new venue is great. Big ballroom for the games. Lots of room. Separate areas for the flea market and vendors, again with much more room.

2) Food prices at the hotel were expensive. $10.00 USD for a hamburger, $53 USD for a steak ect. But, the mall was close that had a number of options.

3) I thought there seemed to be less games. If so, likely because it was a new venue. I expect when the word gets out that this is a really nice place the attendance and number of games will increase.

4) For me, from Milwaukee, much much easier to get to.

5) Finally, my compliments and gratitude to all the folks who put this together. You did a good job.

I thought it was great. Very pleasant venue. The hamburger sold for $10.00 USD was fairly large.

I hope to make it back next year.

Tom

I liked the new location, although I didn't have any problems with the previous ones. Having everything in one building was nice and convenient when shopping and want to drop stuff off. Game room was big and I like the side tables by the main tables, I didn't have to put game stuff under the table and it was handy. I didn't eat the "con food" but dropped some coin in Harry Caray's Steakhouse. Vendors got a good amount of my money but not as much as last time, only because there were less toys for me to buy this year. Easy drive down and the hotel is nice. A good time.

DBA 3.0 is available and in stock at On Military Matters…

link

The largest number of games was on Saturday morning starting at 9 AM. There were over 20 games listed and the place was fairly full. I was able to play in 6 games (2 preregistered, 2 by standing around with a hang dog look, and two with waiting in line to get tickets). Game wise it was the best Little Wars I've been to in quite some time as I didn't play in a single lousy game. A western I played in Friday afternoon was the most fun game I have been in in quite some time. Used a recent rules set via Kickstarter titled "A Fistful of Lead." The game master made the game with a fantastic town layout and a wonderful cast of characters (8 bands with differing goals, unpredictable civilians – might give you good info, might shoot you on the spot, and a great story line involving gold). Three characters from a rather old spaghetti western made an appearance. I had a group from the US Cavalry sent into town to help the sheriff, secure the gold, and kill bad guys. My own casualty was the corporal who got bit by a wandering dog who took a dislike to him.

The new venue is a great improvement over the old Expo Center (its being converted into an auto dealership). The main hall was spacious and well-lit. The chairs were sturdy, "gamer" quality. I was able to play in three great games when I wasn't running one. Attendance seemed about average to me. If you've never been, consider next year April 28th, 29th, and 30th.

We have not run through all the attendance numbers yet, but it looks like attendance was up from last year. Usually there is a drop after a move, so for many reasons next year will be another very good year for Little Wars. We initially signed a two tear contract with the Westin, and will get their proposal for 2018 in a few weeks. The goal is to be at least two years out with the contracts. We also have secured the last weekend in April for the convention for each year. This allows everyone to do long range planning.

You guys did a great job this year. Kudos to you, the BOD and all the volunteers.

We have not run through all the attendance numbers yet, but it looks like attendance was up from last year. Usually there is a drop after a move, so for many reasons next year will be another very good year for Little Wars.

Congrats on Little Wars. Most comments say the venue was excellent. I knew that from the Adepticon days. The photos look great and I'll be able to get there next year.

Glad to hear such a good response. We had a great venue. There were a lot of people putting this together, I know they appreciate the thanks. This year we introduced some new items; World of Tanks, which held a "player gathering" We had Historical Reenactors, the Greek Hoplites were among them and were very popular. Badger Airbrush gave a great seminar on "Airbrushing 101." We also brought back Paint and Take, the group donates proceeds to the Wounded Warrior Project. If you missed the television coverage we had an interview with Channel 7's Frank Mathei, along with four 15 second spots airing Friday and Saturday. (It is on his archive page) This Sunday we will have an article and pictures in the Chicago Tribune, written by Kathy Thayer. Our photographer Tom Davison has over 250 pictures on his facebook page. Some of the best were close up studies of the gamer's contemplating their next moves. The younger gaming set enjoyed the 2 President's Games; Orc's Drift and the Alamo. If you did not pick up our Little Wars dice packs we will have them again next year. Our you can see again us at Nexus Game Fair and Gencon. HMGS Midwest will hosting games at these and other conventions throughout the year.

The was one mot to be missed, I am already looking forward to next year. Thanks to all for their efforts.

I attended for the first time this year and really enjoyed it. I do have some feedback for the organizers, from the perspective of someone who heard about the show and was deciding whether or not to go. It took a few years before I finally decided to go, though I wish I had done so sooner.

I think the website (here: link ) could use an update. I'm sure it's fine for people who are already familiar with the show, but as a new person discovering it, there is some information I think would have been helpful to have up front on the site.

1. There's information in the physical booklet you hand out at the show about how to register for games (that there's a game registration table that starts giving out tickets 2 hours before the game start time). There's also some stuff in there about rules (like no 20th century costumes with prior permission). I think the information from this book should be up on the website so people have a better idea what to expect and how to plan their time.

2. I eventually found that there is a facebook page that was putting out updates about the show, but why not have a link to this from the website?

3. I think it would help a lot if there was mentioned somewhere prominently that, unless otherwise noted, the games don't require prior experience with the rules being played. I also think those submitting events should be encouraged (maybe required) to somehow rate the complexity of the rules. Personally I would be interested in trying out some new games I haven't played before, but wouldn't want to try and learn something really complex in the course of playing a convention game. Or be stuck spending several hours in a game that was more complicated than I was looking for.

4. I know this would be a lot of work, but some indication during pre-registration period of how full certain games are would be very helpful for those yet to pre-register, and for those running games to decide if they should try to add a game.

5. Some of the new things or particular draws, like the airbrush demo, reenactor groups, free miniature, or some of the bigger games, etc, should probably be mentioned prominently on the website so people can see them at a glance and be drawn in without having to read through the entire PEL to find them. That could draw more people in and get them to take a deeper look.

6. It might help if the vendor list included a quick description of the range of products carried by that vendor. Not everyone will be familiar with all of those vendors.

A lot of these things I found out in advance by asking on TMP (thanks to those who answered my questions), but putting more of this stuff on the website might get more new people to take the plunge by giving a better idea of what to expect at the show.

Thanks for your suggestions Albino. I think that they all have merit. Some like your suggestions on pre-registration would be a very easy fix in adding required fields for the Game Masters to fill out. Others like knowing the slots taken up by those pre-registering would be harder, but there are changes being considered in the entire process. Some events like the air-brush Demo was a very late addition, the week prior to the convention. But you bring up many good points, and its always of interest to get the views of someone new to Little Wars….
In many ways I think nexts year convention will be even better, glad to know you enjoyed.
What games did you play in?

I'd like to see either free or reduced admission for those only wanting to shop at the vendor hall. Wouldn't be that difficult in the new venue since it is in a separate room.

I was only able to attend on Saturday until about mid-afternoon. I played in one game, which was the AWI Bemis Heights game, which was great. I posted about it on my blog: link

Albino, since I take care of the website I can certainly make some updates based on your observations and others as well. I would point out the home page has a link to our facebook page, but I will add that to our little wars page as well. Glad you enjoyed the show, thanks for your input.