"Time To Move Cold Wars To April" Topic

It was held at the Turf and there were other events going on there at the same time. I seem to recall walking into the place with the bride & groom of a wedding and carrying a bundle of t-shirts in my hands that said "Wargaming Widow."

It snowed hard that weekend and the t-shirts didn't sell too well.

Some can joke all they want, but 3-6 inches of snow today in much of the Northeast speaks for itself. If weather can postpone the Yankees' home opener, it can put a big dent in Cold Wars. Ask the vendors, who usually get what they want in the end, if today's weather was a joke.

The other objections above are minor in comparison: a move of Cold Wars to mid-April still leaves 3 months between Cold Wars and Historicon in mid-July.

It's like Mother Nature is sending HMGS a message: move Cold Wars now while you have the chance.

We'll see.

The point isn't to make jokes about it. The point is that the whole purpose of Cold Wars is to have a convention in the winter, between the others. If you want to eliminate snow as a possibility, you have to black out late November to mid-April, as evidenced by yesterday's snow.

I personally believe it's the doing of the Radical Napoleonics Front that has created enough change in weather patterns that they can do a realistic Retreat from Moscow in correct terrain and weather conditions.
Never Fear!!! For the Guardians of the Solar System is even now playtesting countermeasures to reverse this horrible travesty of weather-control and bring the promise of ***The Future*** to the Junior Guardian conventioneers (those who sent in enough boxtops for the Decoder Ring/Illudium Q-38 Explosive Space Modulator).

GAHHHHHHH! It's snowing in Michigan and expected 2 – 4 inches of more snow Thursday night – Friday!

It's time to move CW to May, so that attendees do not have to travel in snowy weather to CW!!!

Make it so, HMGS-BoD.

In Canada that is March Break so it is actually the best weekend of the year for me as the kids have no activities

Michigan is still trying to recover from the storm that was Villanova on Monday night.

As noted, unless you limit your conventions to the time between late April and Late October, you will always have a possibility of snow. I say leave things as they are. They've been working pretty well overall.

Rename it Global Warming Wars….

Quite the snowstorm where I live right now (Southern Ontario).

Pick a date March or April or whatever. It will compete with other conventions, family events, weather or holidays, in some fashion and adjustments will be made. Perhaps attendance will increase, perhaps decrease time will tell.

If you did somehow manage to find the legendary perfect time, when it interfered with nothing, had no chance of adverse weather, was the one week when the hotel (which had just completed a two hundred million dollar, Ritz Carlton renovation) was willing to offer HMGS a 97% discount, and admission was slashed to 40 cents, you'd only succeed in taking away the one thing most attendees enjoy even more than gaming.

Bitching about stuff.

We could complain about the food.

The rest of us could complain about the complainers.

Yoo-hooo! As someone who is local to the Host, Central Pennsylvania just got a whole day of snow, with not much if any accumulation.
On April 9.
Sooooo…any dreamers who think delaying Cold wars a couple of weeks into April to avoid any chance of snow, are just…uhhh…dreaming.

When Cold Wars was moved to April in the past, it was not a decision to avoid snow, it was a scheduling conflict with the Easter Holiday and already booked things at the Host. The result of those two (I think it was two) cons being moved to April was some talk about moving it permanently to April. Obviously, that never happened.

For whatever it is worth, the Easter holiday will fall on the following dates:

2019 – April 21
2020 – April 12
2021 – April 4
2022 – April 17
2023 – April 9

I've missed several Cold Wars pre-registered and at least one Fall In due to crappy weather. I have been there twice when it had just snowed and once when I drove in the snow. For me it's a crap shoot especially when you have paid money for admission, flea market, and don't forget late hotel cancelation.

I have been there twice when it had just snowed and once when I drove in the snow. For me it's a crap shoot……

Lol. If we Canadians didn't drive in snow, we'd be shut-ins for 5 months. It depends on what you are used to. Personally, I can't take the humidity in the summer as well as someone from Virginia could.

Having said that, I've driven through heavy snowstorms in the Alleghany Mountains in southern New York and northern Pennsylvania before the snow plows are out. That's no fun.

Here saith Bowman:
"Having said that, I've driven through heavy snowstorms in the Alleghany Mountains in southern New York and northern Pennsylvania before the snow plows are out. That's no fun."

The folk up in PA's northern tier get mighty lonely sometimes when the deer don't come by to talk to them. Don't stop--you may never be let go.

I've driven down there with 1 inch thick irregular frozen patches of ice stuck on the road. If a blizzard, yes I won't go. One time I just got there and a major snow storm hit. Beautiful to see and we were cozy inside gaming. Just the luck of the draw at this time of the year but hey, we are gaming soldiers!

I say keep it where it is.

As I was digging out my driveway at 6am this morning, I thought I would also dig out this old topic.

Nine inches of snow on my front lawn. (I measured with a yardstick.) It could have been worse. The weather report said 10.5 inches in the next town over.

That's the home town of one of the members of the HMGS Board of Directors.

Maybe the snow will melt by Cold Wars. HMGS dodges another weather bullet again--just barely.

We'll see.

Stop crying. It's only snow. Life is short. Enjoy every convention because it might be your last.

Nobody is "crying."

Some people are trying to do what is best for HMGS.

Maybe the snow will melt by Cold Wars. HMGS dodges another weather bullet again--just barely.

We'll see.

And if the snow doesn't melt? It's only snow. Make sure you have winter tires, drive according to the road conditions and bring some winter boots to get to the vendor hall. Simple. Don't worry about it and we'll all have fun.

There is snow on the ground there now, but the forecasts from Saturday on are for daily temps above 40degF every day.

The con weekend itself is calling for showers every day except Sunday.

It looks like snow will not be an issue. Instead we will be contending with the great nightmare of the Eastern Front…

Mud.

I'm doing the Anzio Breakout. Mud would be appropreiate.

If I remember correctly from the days that I used to attend 22 shows a year, Cold Wars was in the month that did not have Easter and Chicago Little Wars was in the month with Easter. I used to attend both before I had my open heart surgery.
May be different now.

Apparently, at CW the NE Corner entrance of The Expo is going to opened as an official entrance. This is good as it essentially restores the old level of access, i.e. near the Hotel and opening onto the mezzanine. This may not be so good as, as of FI, the ground approaching that entrance was bare ground, and subject to the vagaries of weather and heavy traffic, at the top of a long slope.

Anybody remember the scene from McLintock at the mud tip?

link

Let's hope the venue stays ice free…

Hope everyone gets there safely…

We're running the "Field of Lost Shoes" Battle of New Market twice on Saturday, so the weather should be perfect for that.

Pushing Cold Wars back would mean both conventions would need to be pushed back as well and I don't see that happening. You'd run into the situation where PEL submission for Historicon would be closed before CW even happens and thats a no go.

Winter tires? Does anyone still have winter tires? I remember my dad putting on 'snow tires' or even chains in the winter, but didn't they invent 'all weather tires' in the 60s or early 70s? I've certainly never put snow tires on my car.

…..but didn't they invent 'all weather tires' in the 60s or early 70s?

Scott trust me on this. I drive on snow and ice almost half of the year. My car is an all-wheel drive with 4 ABS brakes. I still use snow tires in winter. And I have high performance summer tires. There is no comparison with them and the all-compromise all-season tires.

The treads are different and the composition of the rubber is different. My tires remain rubbery and flexible in temperatures where all seasons are frozen solid.

Conversely my summer tires also have different tread design too. They are designed, among other things, to sluice away water and minimize hydroplaning. While all-season tires are OK in summer and mild winters, the only benefit is not having to change tires twice a year.

KPinder – Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne, who could forget McLIntock?

There are pros and cons of moving CW to April. Obviously April dodges the weather, but then it gets all caught in school spring breaks, Easter, start of sports programs if you have kids, grass might need cut, etc., etc.

………but then it gets all caught in school spring breaks, Easter, start of sports programs if you have kids, grass might need cut, etc., etc.

You are absolutely correct but I'd like to comment on one part, humorously. If you are missing an HMGS convention (or any wargaming convention) because the lawn needs cutting then you need to look at life's priorities.

Buy the neighbour kid some Space Marines at the Flea market and use that to pay him for cutting the lawn in your absence.

LoL. Yes, it seems odd, but I remember one friend attending at one of the April cons and saying that he really should be home tending to his yard. In his defense, it was a big yard with an outdoor train set up, ponds, flowers, etc.

No matter what date they pick, it won't work for someone. Just life. :-)

"And if the snow doesn't melt? It's only snow."

With the renovations at the convention site, the large dealer parking lot next to the dealer hall is now gone.

As a result, dealers either park in the old overflow lot down back or on the grass on either side of the access road from the hotel parking lot.

If there is a significant snow pack on the ground, parking along the grass becomes a non starter, or an adventure. I remember at Cold Wars a few years ago some clam brain got stuck in the snow and was spinning his tires for about 20 minutes trying to get out of the snow, apparently this was the first time he had ever seen snow/attempted to drive in it (drop it into LOW and rock back and forth, don't put the gas pedal to the floor and spin your tires would be my suggestion, but what do I know).

Take away parking along the grass due to a deep snow pack and enlighten me as to where all the dealers are supposed to park?

So, "It's only snow" creates a problem.

Just sayin.

That clambrain knows how to drive in snow. But none of the parking lot was ploughed. There was nothing to rock to in low gear.

After abandoning said car in the unploughed lot, the Clambrain made his way a mile down Rt 30 on foot to get to his hotel in what became know as The Second Retreat From Moscow.

I wasn't referring to you, you nitwit, it was another dealer who took about 10,000 miles off of his tires………and you're an oysterbrain, not a clambrain…………..

We used to put chains on our cars in Chicago back in the day. You had a real hassle to put them on, then you had to take them off. If you didn't, your car would sound like "Fury" going down the Autobahn at low clanking speed.

Every now and then some guy's chain would break and beat up the chrome around his wheel well.

But I would gladly return to those days rather than type my user name and password 9,000 times a day.

And now to business. The Viking Forge suggests that we keep Cold Wars in March. We've been to all of them and the weather never stopped us.

We're running the "Field of Lost Shoes" Battle of New Market twice on Saturday, so the weather should be perfect for that.

So you are running this outdoors? Is a one-to-one scale game?

Love when my cousin Double G goes full Moe Howard on me. Lol!

The Viking Forge suggests that we keep Cold Wars in March. We've been to all of them and the weather never stopped us.

What sort of attitude is that? That's the sort of "can do" attitude no one wants around here. It's best to use overwrought metaphors like "The Second Retreat From Moscow", due to an inch of snow.

"What sort of attitude is that? That's the sort of "can do" attitude no one wants around here. It's best to use overwrought metaphors like "The Second Retreat From Moscow", due to an inch of snow."

During "The second retreat from Moscow" that my cousin is referring too, there was a foot of snow on the ground.

One inch, one foot, six of one, half dozen of another for a hardy Canadian like yourself, if it got too bad, you could always come down to the show in your dogsled with Uconn Cornelius.

Sorry, I don't have a cavalier attitude about snow and driving in it and all that it entails, was involved in a pretty bad wreck as a teenager during a blizzard, I've never taken snow lightly since. My attitude now is if it's snowing, I stay home.

Period.

Good for anyone who has that rough and tumble, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead attitude about snow.

That makes one of us.

The best part was all I had on was a light jacket and loafers. It was about a foot of snow. I kept looking over my shoulder onto Rt 30 expecting to see Cossacks bearing down on me.

you could always come down to the show in your dogsled with Uconn Cornelius.

Wow, a Canadian joke. And it's Yukon. U Conn, I believe is in Storrs

My attitude now is if it's snowing, I stay home.

Period.

Probably a good idea. Waaaay too hazardous.

Your snark is impressive.

GEGJ.

"The best part was all I had on was a light jacket and loafers. It was about a foot of snow. I kept looking over my shoulder onto Rt 30 expecting to see Cossacks bearing down on me."

Sack up you hoser; when I was a kid living in Canada I walked to school uphill in the snow both ways, Cossacks harassing me the entire time.