"Fall In 19 AAR from www.wargamer.com" Topic

My tome for this week is my own AAR of the 2019 edition of the HMGS Fall In convention held in Valley Forge, PA, to include a link at the end of my 175 image photo gallery. I've strapped myself into my digital Kevlar, so let the gnashing of teeth and adoration begin 😁.

link

Ciao, Colonel Bill
wargamer.com

there was a swag bag? I missed that. One of the downsides of self check-in with barcodes.

Not this time, just the discount coupon. There have been swag bags in the past. Best was Cold Wars 19 IMHO.

Colonel Bill

Excellent report. I did not know there was a swag bag either. I was there Friday and Saturday.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOPS.

Sorry guys, that should have been VICE not VIA swag bags. There were none this time.

Colonel Bill

THanks for the report! You always have to wonder about the layout of rooms, making it hard to judge attendance, but the dealers area is usually the one area where it is easiest to judge attendance. Sounds like you had a good time.

"HMGS used the VFCR many moons ago for a single year for a single convention, but that's ancient history."

Point of order, Mr. Chairman. In fact, HMGS held two Historicons at the VFCC – the first in 2010, and the second in 2011, IIRC. Either way, there were two. The first went as planned, the second, was scheduled, canceled due to casino construction, then rescheduled when the construction was delayed.

I started setting up my game around 1100. Next to my table was a very large game that did not get any players for its 1100 start time. A trip to the ticket table with that GM revealed none of the tickets had been taken. Perhaps, for whatever reasons, Saturday morning game attendance might have been down. I blame it on the Karaoke bar. :-)

It's intriguing that the uptick in attendance wasn't felt by GMs, dealers or the flea market. Can anyone speak for Hobby U or the War College? Or did we lose them all to the casino?

Hmm. Maybe worth noting that our measuring system may be too crude. If the proportion of day-trippers increases, we could have more total attendance and fewer gamer-days, if you will. A lot of weekend passes showing up Friday and leaving earlier on Saturday would have a similar effect.

Hard to say until we get some numbers from the Fall In staff. Soon, I hope.

Personal experience was I had almost full attendance at all 3 of my games. All tickets were taken prior to game, but several didn't show and I had walk-ins. It did seem like light attendance, but the con was so dispersed, it was hard to tell.

Oh crap, that's right. I remember the cancellation but not the reschedule. CRS disease strikes again!

Colonel Bill

Nice report

Good report. I shared your impression of lower attendance. Saturday evening is usually the big time for the games and this year there were a HUGE number of unoccupied tables. I'd say that only were 25% were being used at most.

Still, I do like the facility and the long walks help take off the calories from all the fine eating available :)

Ha! Wargaming convention with long walks helps burn off the calories, and not get overweight from the sedentary nature of the hobby. How modern! Who said gamers weren't health conscious? Lol!

Seriously, if attendance was up by 7.5%, how come so many games didn't get started? Saturday morning and evening seemed bleak in places.

So the attendance issue raises a couple of questions:

1. Was pre-reg up 7.5%, or actual on-site attendance? Apples to watermelon.

2. If there were so many empty games, is the con staff aware of that (hard data) so they can modify the space and tables they rent, and the number of games they register for next year? I have commented before on the disconnect between number of games allowed to register vs attendance and the number of games actually needed for said attendance (given that FI usually gets about 1,800 attendees total).

3. Really, this is the first time at this (new) facility, as all new room layouts bear no connection to the cons held there in 2010 and 2011. Point being, given the attendance, etc., does HMGS really need all the rooms they rented next time around? Might we not be able to focus the convention on the same floor, or at one end of the facility next time, as opposed to what it rented this time? Again, no fault on the staff this time out, as they did a great job in a very challenging venue. Honestly, oversight of all those rooms is nearly impossible.

Have to be honest. I didn't like the facility at first, but it kind of grew on me over the weekend. I think what it did lack was one or two large rooms where we could all see the majority of games (the wow factor). That said, the space between tables, noise level, comfortable temperatures perhaps more than made up for lack of a large gaming room.

I heard a number of people suggesting that next year the Tournaments and Wally's Basement be moved to the other end of the facility and that the big spaces they occupied be turned into the game space.

The danger there is a return to the fanning-rubbing table layouts. HMGS can't seem to help itself when it comes to placing gaming tables too close together. I think there should be an investigation into that.

Judging by the absolutely dead Saturday afternoon flea market, and the massive amount of empty tables, I would have never guessed attendance was up.

I Think there were actually there were 2 Historicons there, 2010 and 2011, yes the later was cancelled but then the would be casino came back after and gave us a different deal.