"How was the SYW con?" Topic

Title says it all. I wasn't able to make it due to life in general and auto repair.

Good con. Interesting lectures. There was a nice range of scales and types of battles, and the customary SYWA high standard of painting and terrain. The usual dealers. A stranger could walk in not knowing what the SYW was, and leave with a range of reference books, two armies and a contract to get them painted.

Attendance felt a little down, though I didn't see the final figures. There was some talk that life in general and illness in particular had taken an unusually generous cut this year. Flea market sales were a little off, but given the overall attendance, it's a variable convention and I never count on clearing my table.

Hope you can make it next year. Certainly planning to be there myself.

Thanks Robert. Hopefully I can. I am working on getting ready for Little Wars in two weeks.

Once a again a great time. Possibly best location ever, with plenty of off site food options. SYW brings that sense of intimacy to a gathering, while still being very welcoming. The games were fantastic, creating a feeling of grandeur that comes with this period of history. Not sure on official numbers but every game was packed. I was lucky enough to get to play in 4 in a 36 hour time period. Hats off to the organizers, GMs and all the vendors. Some pics at the link below: facebook.com/kevin.cabai

I had a great time, as always.

A few notables I missed this year:

Jeff Knudsen, who has normally volunteered as the unofficial photographer of the con in the past.

Jim Perky, who always runs a lot of big games with great figures and fantastic terrain.

Naval games. There were zero!

- Ix

This year's was my first, and I enjoyed it. Flying in from COS, my focus was on playing, as I would have to deal with getting any purchases back home on the plane, or shipping them.

I played in 7 games (skipped Sat night, as by then I was beat, and had to be up with the dawn patrol to fly out Sunday morning).

I really enjoyed Brian Vizek's Last Man Standing game/rules Thursday night, and I also had a great time playing in two Rebels and Patriots games he hosted.

I had a lot of fun playing a modified Muskets and Tomahawks II game (with "card" pulls more like M&T I) called Raid at Kittanning. It lists Adrian John as running it in the PEL, and I'm sorry I don't remember the 2nd gentleman's name who was assisting.

I played in a very large 15mm, true "big battalion" game, using rules called Inhaber, by Alex Burns. It was quite the experience! I only wish I could have had a better grasp on the rules – my regiment might have lasted a turn or two longer.

As previously stated, the tables were covered with terrain that was visually appealing, and figures that were stunning!

All in all a fun con, and a great time!

Dave

Thanks for these comments, as the game master I have some ideas for next year now that my first year is under my belt. We're planning to get a website of some type that will allow for automated registration for both the con and individual events within it. I think this will make the entire process much easier. We did miss the 8 or so regulars who missed this year due to varied reasons mostly having to do with family illness. We're all getting older!

"We're all getting older!"

We know that. But does the SYWA have a plan to prevent this?

Hopefully some attendees took pictures or even short vids to show us unlucky ones who couldn't make the convention.

I've seen a few different photo spreads being posted on various Facebook sites. As to next year, we're working on a few ideas on promoting the con especially to the new people that came this year as many of them expressed the presence of more interested gamers in their various locales.

I am looking forward to attending next year, and for suggestions.

1: Have a dedicated Website for the convention with all the major info available.

2: Don't rely on FB group pages for the convention info and updates unless you have it linked to the website. Lots of folks don't do social media.

3: If you are using social media/fb, please make sure that you have pinned the dates and locations of the con instead of a generic "time frame".

What is approximate attendance of the con? Or at least size, relative to say a Little Wars or such (the regional HMGS cons)?

The attendance has ranged from approximately 70 to 115 in recent years.