"General impressions from Little Wars" Topic

A few general ponderings on the hobby as a whole, using Little Wars as anecdotal evidence (which you may proceed to tear apart in the comments)

*A wide range of game systems. I saw games of Chain of Command, Flames of War, Gruntz and other "big" systems but others were completely unrepresented.
I was surprised to not see any Crossfire or 2HW games there (at least that I noticed).
Don't think I saw Bolt Action either, but I could be wrong.

*No one game seemed to dominate, though "To the strongest" was probably the most common, at a glance.

*A few homebrew systems there, and a few games that were run by the people writing the game. Most of the games were fan efforts it seemed.

*American civil war, ww2 and various medievals dominated, with a fair share of cold war games.
Very little fantasy and not an awful lot of scifi.

*Most of the games were 25mm and up, from what I could tell.

*The audience was a decent mix of age groups and quite a few kids.
I saw a few tables where I am pretty sure the age spread at the table was 70 years from oldest to youngest.

The convention was unusually light on SF games this year. Lot of AWI games this year, perhaps not surprising given the theme.

There was a great-looking Bolt action game going on all convention in the corner to the left as you went in.

There were a couple of Bolt Action games (modified and not standard era- there was no official tournament that I was aware of- and I bet Warlord would sponsor one with prizes if there were).

There were a few fantasy games, including a huge one using LOTR figures (though not LOTR rules).

Several Lion Rampant games were on display, as well as some really beautiful Napoleonics.

Several CY6 games and Aerodrome games were there (including some scenarios, which was nice to see beyond the usual pick up vs games that occur.)

I agree, there was very little Sci Fi this year.

The games I played were: Lion Rampant, Force on Force, CY6 Jets, and Team Yankee.

My son played in the huge Command Decision Cabuto game.

My son and I had a great time and my observations include:

New facility is very nice (but food is crazy expensive- they wanted $32 USD for my son and I to have a hamburger and drink each- yeah….no), so if you are gaming all day and don't have time to break away to one of the many nearby places to eat, bring snacks.

The chairs and tables were VERY nice. Big padded seats and lots of them.

I am a big guy and never once had a problem navigating the tables, so I don't know if I agree with the statement that the tables were too crowded. They weren't laid out with nice front to back corridors, though, and that meant doing a lot meandering.

Nice looking games and tables all around (plus a few simple green sheet over a table, but mostly good looking stuff on display).

The vendor hall was too far from the game hall only in that it felt really disconnected. I don't know if that is fixable, other than maybe having some games held in the corridor near the vendor hall to make it feel more connected.

Great paint and take and re-enactors in the main corridor in front of the gaming hall. The paint and take folks were terrific as always, and VERY accommodating of their time, tips and materials. The re-enactors were interesting if that's your thing- Napoleonic, Civil War, World War I and Russian WWII were all there.

The way event tickets are held remains ridiculous. You can only pre-register for one event per day. For the rest tickets are given out only 2 hours prior to the event. This was asinine for the following reasons:
1. In several games I was in, people left the table to try to get a ticket for the next event, slowing existing games down to accommodate.
2. To ensure that they get a ticket to the proper event, people line up an hour before the ticket time. That's an hour they aren't playing, or aren't shopping.
3. To get a ticket for a 9am Saturday event, you had to line up at 7am Saturday morning to ensure you got what you wanted.
4. Twice I had events cancel after I had gotten tickets, but were NOT listed on the cancellation board at the time the tickets were given out. This led, in both cases, to having a mad scramble to get a ticket for whatever I could get into just as an event was starting, and the time I spent in line waiting being totally wasted.
5. Line cutting happened by people who were 'friends' of the people giving out tickets, and when called out would just shrug and say, "I was with this guy" who was in line already.
6. If you needed to ask a question unrelated to getting tickets at the event table while a line was there, the line would get unruly that you were perceived to be cutting (since cutting did happen).

Most other shows I go to, you can register all your events ahead of time so you can plan. Having it happen twice where I waited in line to get a ticket, confirmed that the event was not on the cancelled list, and then finding out at the start of the event that it was cancelled forcing me to scramble for a new event wasn't an attendee friendly experience. I know how this system works, I can't imagine how someone fresh to the hobby would have felt about it.

The flea market really seemed more like wives of vendors hawking off discarded wares for a lot of money to me. There were a few good deals, but a lot of prices had me shake my head. There was a guy selling LOTR figures for a great price, but I don't collect those, sadly. My son picked up some Star Fleet Romulan minis. I saw some interesting 1/56 diecast tanks, but passed. The hours were odd, and it was in a side room. I saw the Saturday evening flea market was cancelled. I miss flea markets where people showed up with their stuff they wanted to get rid of rather than vendors who are clearly selling packaged goods. The general consensus I heard around the floor was, "It's a waste of time, don't bother." I honestly didn't see it quite that harshly, but if that's the mood, clearly something has to change.

I saw a couple of interesting War College subjects in the PEL, but since I was in line or in games, I didn't get a chance to attend.

I did write up a bunch of recommendations that I sent over to Steve for the future. Overall, I really enjoyed the show (with the exception of the ticket system). I loved the Lion Rampant game I was in, had fun shooting up some Indian Jets in CY6 Jets and the Team Yankee game started out a chaotic mess just because of the sheer number of people and vehicles but turned out to be really fun with a ridiculous number of vehicles on the table. My hat is off to the guys who painted all the stuff. There were two tables and over 100 vehicles. Wow. My son and I even won prizes.

I enjoyed the vendor hall, and hope future years will attract some big names back. I spent a lot of money with Old Glory, and Karl at The Last Square as well as Games Plus and a couple of the smaller vendors.

One nice thing about the venue is that there were other events going on, and those people were exposed to our world. I heard a few people in the elevator talking about how cool it all looked. It was also surreal to see people in their gamer wear after a day of chucking dice going up the same elevator as people dressed to the hilt going to their rooms after a wedding.

Sunday my son and I didn't really see any games that piqued our interest, so we packed up and went over to the First Division Museum in Cantigny Park for a cold, but beautiful walk amongst the flowers and tanks.

I agree with most of the above. It was a great weekend, and the new venue is a definite upgrade in both quality and accessibility. I hope it sticks!

Saturday night seemed somewhat light on games, and Sunday morning was a ghost town. It looked like the main ballroom could be divided into four smaller rooms. I wonder if the games would fit in 3/4 of it, with the dealers in the adjacent 4th.

We used to go mainly for the flea market but the last couple of years they have made it more and more difficult for guys who go up for just one day. And $25 USD for just one day makes it even harder to want to go.

Good con, good games, generally good attendees. I've been going year after year, and it's good to see the familiar faces, even if I forgot their names in the intervening year.

Still, have to call out the decision to put the vendors in a different room at the opposite corner of the hotel.

It had to mean less foot traffic in the vendor area. That means less sales for vendors. That means fewer vendors.
Vendors are part of the draw of going to a con, so fewer vendors means fewer reasons for a gamer to attend.

It is a great site, great hotel, big friendly comfortable ballroom. Yet I found myself missing the old locations that were less plush, but had the vendors right there.

Interestingly I started the planning discussions with the non-wargaming wife and adult daughters about my attending next year but honestly I find the game scheduling/ticketing discussion off putting.

For me cons represent the chance to pay rules I have only read about without buying what will later be discarded. I am very, very concerned that attending might be an expensive waste of money under such a system.

I must have completely missed the Bolt Action games then. Typical of me, but there was so much stuff to look at :)

I only glanced at the flea market but I did pick up a copy of Panzer Leader for very cheap :)

The vendor hall looked great to me. A good balance between the number of vendors and having enough space to move around.
The only stall that was crowded was the Old Glory one and that's just because they had so much stuff.

I should add, the hotel rooms were incredibly nice but holy smokes, they were expensive for food if you ate at the hotel restaurant, even for hotel restaurant standards. Lots of places to order from at night though and not at all a knock on the event of course :-)

I had a great time and thought it was a great convention at a great place.

I did not mind the dealer hall being where it was. I just walked back and forth. No biggie. At The Host it is in a separate building! I may have spent too much money there in fact.

Tom

I was there for a model train show two years ago. The Westin is a first class hotel and charges like it.

Fortunately, lots of other places in the area for a meal. Heck, I walked to McDonald's for breakfast each morning. We walked to Rock Bottom Brewery for dinner. (Not recommended for the mobility impaired.)

The Westin room rates were extremely reasonable, and actually lower than those the Host in Lancaster has charged in the past, and certainly terrific for that quality of a hotel. The food buffet was too expensive, however, at like $6 USD-$8 per burger or slice of pizza and like $4 USD per soda. The dealer room was not adjacent to the game room, true, but it was not THAT much further than the distance between Distelfink and the dealer hall at the Host, and it did not require you to walk outside (like you do at the Host).

Overall, I liked the venue a great deal. I don't know how much HMGS paid for rental of the ballrooms, so I cannot say anything definitively, but IMHO this was a great setup and some of the complaints seem unfair.

Re ticketing, I actually was fine with the system. I do not like everything being sold out by preregistration, in no small part because those people have a lot of no-shows. The one benefit of the current ticket system is that it allows those who most want a ticket to a particular event to invest the time (by waiting in line) to get one. I think the line-cutting mentioned above is awful, however, and I for one would certainly have raised a ruckus had I seen that happen (and no, I am not kidding--I am that kind of person). That would ruin the process.

Oh, and the flea market was nuts. There were a few interesting items here and there, but there literally were several wives who seemingly knew nothing selling stuff at RETAIL prices with no bulk discounts. Even when you explained to them that the same items could be currently purchased from the manufacturer for up to 40% off if bought in bulk, they were unmoved or uncomprehending. Very frustrating.

I liked the dealer hall, though. Not THAT much worse than Cold Wars, given that Cold Wars has been declining so that half the hall is people selling the same plastic kits and Ospreys table after table after table. Little Wars needs an On Military Matters-type dealer and it would have had all of my boxes checked.

To clarify my point on the separation of the Vendor Hall and the Gaming Hall, it was NOT the distance (it was what, 50 yards?), but that due to the hotel layout (and the fact that there were several other events in the hotel going on) it felt very disconnected from the rest of the show. The vendor hall itself was great- brightly lit, lots of room to look, but a good number of vendors. I spent mightily.

And yes, many close by food vendors, but the hamburger just outside the vendor hall was $10 USD, $12 USD if you had fries with it. Plus $4 USD for a bottle of juice. Yikes. Like I said, if you had the time, it was no big deal to go outside for food, but if you were playing all day, the onsite selection was crazy expensive (even compared to other shows). I bet that the Little Wars folks could probably negotiate something with the hotel to bring the rates down a bit for next year. Maybe not, but maybe.

I liked the venue better than the last two locations. The ballroom, with carpeting and ceiling tiles, was quieter. The tables seemed farther apart but you still need to wind you way through the room. A wide central aisle would be a good addition. Additional trash cans would help help, the only ones were along the walls. The rooms upstairs were clean and comfortable, the hotel staff friendly and helpful.
I talked with a couple vendors and they said business for Friday was up from last year while Saturday was about the same.

I had a great time and made new friends and met old ones.

Terry

Callahan makes a good point on noise. Some conventions I've been to have been insanely noisy which is often headache inducing.
This felt very comfortable, even when it was brimming.

Some counter points here:

On the cancellation of events not on the board. We cannot list something on the board as canceled if we do not know about it. Many, many times we find out a game is canceled when the players come back to the table to say no one is there.

Line cutting – we just do not have enough VOLUNTEERS to police the line.

On giving tickets out to friends not in line, doubtful this happened. I was at the desk the majority of the time. That is NOT our policy, what you may have seen POSSIBLY is a ticket given to a VOLUNTEER that did 2 hours of volunteering. This entitles them to their event of choice. Volunteer and you too can have this.

On questions while others are waiting in line, can't help peoples impressions – a question is a question.

We also do not control who sells in the Flea Market.

War College schedules for the most part are in the program book. We did get a couple of last minute additions. We cannot control when someone submits a talk at the last minute, we do not turn them away.

There was a woman selling of her late husband's collection in the flea market. I think she can be forgiven for not knowing the prices for items and researching their retail value online.

I was at the Florida Recon convention which has been on this weekend for over a decade.

Your comments would mirror that show as well. The was a Flames of War and a DBA tournament. A few Seminole War and French and Indian War 28mm games in front of my booth. Several zombie games and one X-wing game and normally there are several games of it. Moreno had several 10mm ACW games on his wonderful tables.
A TSATF game was played every session.
There was a soccer game played Sat. night.
Borg's group had a Napoleonic Command and Colors tournament and they played several of his other games as well.
The Polish company was running demos of their East Europe Ren. rules.
A lot of other games were played on the other side of the main hall.
Tournaments, RPG, and Seekrieg naval games all had separate rooms.

From Steve-

Some counter points here:

"On the cancellation of events not on the board. We cannot list something on the board as canceled if we do not know about it. Many, many times we find out a game is canceled when the players come back to the table to say no one is there."

Understood- my point is that the cancellations combined with the ticket line made for a frustrating experience. Overall, you should be looking at this from a customer service perspective- what's the best experience for the customer? Cancellations are expected- it happens. Cancellations after waiting in line an hour to get a ticket and then waiting another 2 hours to wait for the event only to then find out it was cancelled isn't a great experience. You can't control cancellations, you can control the process.

"Line cutting – we just do not have enough VOLUNTEERS to police the line."

Again, if there was pre-registration for events, there would be far less of a line and no real issue. As I suggested in my email to you- you could require every event reserve two slots for onsite registration, and have automated registration for the rest- this will cut down this experience. I sent you links to many shows who do exactly this.

"On giving tickets out to friends not in line, doubtful this happened. I was at the desk the majority of the time. That is NOT our policy, what you may have seen POSSIBLY is a ticket given to a VOLUNTEER that did 2 hours of volunteering. This entitles them to their event of choice. Volunteer and you too can have this."

I think you misunderstood me. I did not see anyone at the table do anyone any favors. What I was describing was people coming up to friends in line and then cutting into that space. The friends part was coincidental as after they got their tickets, they stayed at the table to hang out and chat. I actually confronted one guy, and he gave me the friends of the show excuse.

"On questions while others are waiting in line, can't help peoples impressions – a question is a question."

Nope, you are correct, you can't control impressions. However, there are two ways to fix this- a separate section of the table for info, or creating an automated pre-registration system so that the need for a line is greatly reduced- see above.

"We also do not control who sells in the Flea Market."

Well, actually, you do, but that's neither here nor there. Clearly it's been a bone of contention for people. As I said in my original post, I heard people complaining, but I thought it was run about as well as could be expected within the limitations. However, I sent you notes on how to attempt to improve it. I honestly believe that holding it at the same time as the vendors would help, and having it in the same room as the vendors might help as well. Most people go into the flea market for a few minutes, and if they see nothing, exit. I agree that flea market does not and should not detract from vendors.

"War College schedules for the most part are in the program book. We did get a couple of last minute additions. We cannot control when someone submits a talk at the last minute, we do not turn them away."

Not sure about this one. No one seemed to be complaining about the War College. I thought it was great, with some great topics. I lamented I didn't have time to check it out. That's not a problem for you to solve, that's a problem for me as I didn't have the time. I would love to see you guys encourage more! Missing out on something because there's too much of a good thing going on is a good problem. (Missing out because I'm spending an hour in line is a bad problem, but solvable).

I will agree that there are aspects of the convention that can be improved. That can easily be said about any convention. Some problem can be easily fixed, some will not be based on resources, available volunteers, and other factors. I have had many conversations with The Wargaming Company, I have found their suggestions to be thoughtful and on point, he takes the time to look at the issues, know what he is talking about, and even offer assistance to make things better. Others do not.

I have my opinion of others that offer suggestions, but will keep them to myself. And for those that do not have the time to talk with me in person or to help make things better. I will keep my opinion about them to myself as well.

Now that Rudy mentions it, I did see a DBA tournament in the event folder but I think it was over by the time I got there.

I don't attend any more because of how the flea market has been culled. I used to attend, spend at the flea market and vendor hall, and run 1-2 games. Deals on OOP stuff at the flea market used to make me excited for this con so I would budget for it and attend the whole weekend. Now I can order from the vendors so I don't need to attend to get their stuff, though I always ended up buying too much in the vendor hall when I was there! I guess my suggestion would be to work on the excitement as a draw. Little Wars used to be about deals at the flea market, selling your old stuff to pay for the new stuff in the vendor hall, and big awesome games. If you are not afraid to miss something there is not much of a drive to attend. I wish Little Wars good luck!

"5. Line cutting happened by people who were 'friends' of the people giving out tickets, and when called out would just shrug and say, "I was with this guy" who was in line already." (TGerritsen)

"On giving tickets out to friends not in line, doubtful this happened. I was at the desk the majority of the time. That is NOT our policy, what you may have seen POSSIBLY is a ticket given to a VOLUNTEER that did 2 hours of volunteering. This entitles them to their event of choice. Volunteer and you too can have this." (RKE Steve)

"I think you misunderstood me. I did not see anyone at the table do anyone any favors. What I was describing was people coming up to friends in line and then cutting into that space. The friends part was coincidental as after they got their tickets, they stayed at the table to hang out and chat. I actually confronted one guy, and he gave me the friends of the show excuse." (TGerritsen)

Hi TGerritsen,

My name is Netnapha (a.k.a Nina) and I was behind the Event Desk on Friday afternoon and evening as well as 6 hours on Saturday. The Event Desk provides information and upon getting their questions answered, people may chat with us after all other customers are taken care of. Judges check in at the desk and we will thank them for hosting their games. Attendees that recognize us from previous years will say hello. Just because the Event Desk speaks to others in a welcoming manner does not mean "friends".

On behalf of my friends, I will say they have honor, integrity, respect for themselves and others to not behave in a selfish and childish manner, such as cutting lines.

Besides answering questions as people come up while behind the Event Desk, I try to prepare for the next sets tickets to be released by familiarizing myself with the events going out next (period, rule set, scale…). It is not possible for me to police lines. The experience you mentioned about a person cutting in line then later claiming to be "friends of the show" excuse -- which by the way, you stated "friends of the people giving out tickets", obviously the individual has no integrity to begin with by cutting in line so his claim is questionable.

Your statement "friends of the people giving out tickets" is an in-between-the-line implication of misconduct or the Event Desk favoring 1 attendee over another. I can easily name 10 individuals who help out behind the Event Desk. If you are going to make an accusation and tarnish other people's reputation, please do it responsibly by being specific with names(badge), time or date of the incident, or perhaps a physical description. Unless of course, you want to throw mud at everyone working behind the Event Desk and see what sticks.

Once again, I can assure you that Nina's friends have honor, integrity, respect for themselves and others to not behave selfishly.

Hello Little Wars 2016 Attendees, I have an apology to make for a bad customer service incident at the Event Desk.

While working there on Saturday, a gentlemen came up and asked for 1 strand of my hair. I answered him in an abrupt manner with "WHAT????" I did not reply for about a few minutes as my brain was trying to process why on earth would someone want 1 strand of hair. Seeing that I was "creeped" out, he assured me that my hair would not be used for anything involving dark magic or witchcraft but rather as sail rigging. I enjoyed his cheeky replied and immediately handed over 1 strand of loose hair.

From a customer service perspective, I was terrible. The abrupt question of "WHAT???" was said too loud, the delay in answering his request and of course, I should have asked if he wanted a grey strand or the black strand.

The gentlemen ran off before I could apologize for my not so good customer service. I could not get his name. So here is my apology. If you are that gentlemen and a TMP reader, please accept my sincere apology.

Well, it seems that I have failed miserably at the Event Desk for not being able to police the line to prevent line cutting and now this. I have tarnish the good name of Little Wars Event Desk. Next year, I will not be behind the Event Desk and will do something else instead.

I will see many of you again next year and hope to meet some of you on the battle field. Vahalla! To the Sword of the Lord!

Regards,
Nina

Weasel,

Please accept my apology for somewhat going off topic earlier.

Now for my general impression of Little Wars.
#1. I was willing to pay $10 USD for a large burger and $4 USD for the fries. I ate between noon and 1 on Friday. The burger was like leather and the fries where cold and chewy. I spoke to a member of the BOD(Kevin) about food quality and he accepted my comments/complaints.

#2. Some of the games I played were Lion Rampant, Bolt Action modified and regular Bolt Action. My Sunday game for "To the Strongest" was canceled, but luckily the GM notified the Event Desk early so I was able to prepare for a different game. I was standing in line on Saturday morning at 7:15am to get a ticket for a different event.

#3. Like previous years, some game sections were all sold out while others had plenty of games available, but no taker. Is the what people prefer to play versus what GM have made available issue.

#4. Lot of AWI. Appropriately so given the "Revolution" theme.

#5. As a female, it was nice to see other women gamers.

#6. Eye candy. Lots of beautiful games, ready made products, home made products, and gaming mats I have not seen before. Bolt Action by Gene Decker had an awesome looking mat from Deep Cut and lots different variety from Cigar Box mats. Raven Banner had Cigar Box mats to sell as well on site which was convenient and at a discount. It was nice to products from Grand Manner Terrains and 4Ground on the gaming table.

#7 The other type of Eye Candy. As someone mentioned earlier, there was a wedding reception on Saturday. Lovely…lovely ladies in their cocktail dresses. All weekend long, I did not detect any obnoxious body odor from our group, but it was pleasant to smell nice perfume on Saturday while I was in the corridor. It was entertaining to see the 2 groups intermingling at times in the restaurant and corridor.

#8 Vendor. Nice selection, but I got there too late -- the product I wanted was sold out. I bought something else instead.

#9 Hotel was clean. Clean and well kept restroom -- women's. Plenty of trash bins along each of the wall in the gaming room as well as water coolers with cups provided by the hotel.

#10 I did notice the gaming room was not noisy even though it was packed. I don't know if its the wall sound proofing. Definitely a plus as my hearing is bad.

I will be back next year.

Nina, you did not tarnish anything. You were a huge help and would be most welcome each year.

I agree with Steve…..its been a pleasure to get to know Nina and she does a great job. There are many volunteers like Nina that receive little credit for the job they do.

Thanks RKE Steve and Lasalle012 for the kind words, but I will take a pass next year.

Little Wars 2015, I tried Registration Desk and they were absolutely boring -- filling out and filing paper work. Had I known they were going to have dinner at Hooters 2016, I would have stayed there… on second thought, the food sucks at Hooters.

Little Wars 2016, I tried the Event Desk and it really sucks to be you guys -- all business and no pleasure.

For 2017, I'm going to go raiding, burning and pillage my way to Valhalla or join the crusade with my sword of the lord -- better yet, be the infidel. Mawhahaha….

When you gentlemen have time from line policing, please join me for a toast to Little Wars, good sportsmanship and camaraderie. Thank you for working to make Little Wars awesome! See you in 2017.

Regards,
Nina

Well the good news Nina is that we have an entire year to work on you.

Wait what do you mean all work and no pleasure?