"MINI WARS Convention Oct. 11 & 12 in Fullerton, California" Topic

Calling all tabletop miniature GAME-MASTERS throughout the Southland, whether you're in…

Greater Los Angeles…

Orange County…

The San Gabriel Valley…

The Inland Empire…

Or beyond…

Your presence and that of your awesome games is hereby requested at HMGS Pacific South West's MINI-WARS 2025 convention, to be held on Saturday October 11th & Sunday October 12th at:

California State University, Fullerton
Titan Student Union – University Conference Center, Portola Pavilion
800 N. State College Blvd, Fullerton, CA 92831

Yes, this year we are very happy to be returning to the site of some of our greatest conventions of the past, Mini-Wars' once and now future home on the campus of Cal State Fullerton! Featuring FREE PARKING, dozens of good restaurants nearby on Chapman Avenue, and Conveniently located less than a 20-minute drive from Disney Land and Knott's Berry Farm Amusement Park, and less than a half-hour from Huntington Beach & Newport Beach (two of the nicest beaches in Southern California), a half-hour drive from Downtown L.A. & 1-hour drive to Santa Monica Pier.

Here's a LINK to the convention page on the Table Top Events website:

link

In celebration of the upcoming 250th Birthday of the U.S.M.C. less than one month after the convention, the theme for Mini-Wars 2025 is: SEND IN THE MARINES!

All Game Master hosting games featuring Marines will be eligible for a special award for Best Theme Game.

For anyone interested in learning more about HMGS-PSW, here's a LINK to our organization's website:

hmgspsw.org

Of course, we also need PLAYERS for all those games, because no GM wants to be left alone at his table, especially at a con! So if you're looking to play in one big game or a dozen, come on over!

As usual for Mini-Wars, events will range across the gamut of historical land, air & naval wargaming, along with various fantasy, sci-fi and horror games, and will include a FLAMES OF WAR Tournament and possibly a DBA Tournament as well.

And that leaves only one more thing for me to do: post a ton of pics of past Mini-Wars in an effort to convince you to join us at Cal State Fullerton for a great weekend of hobby fun and games -- as well as healthy competition, history, fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and some laughs (not necessarily in that order!)………….

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE ONE OR PREFERABLY BOTH DAYS!!!

How well attended, both for GM's and games is this convention? It'd be a roughly 4.5 hour drive for me and I'm curious what to expect.

It's about 400 miles away, so we probably won't go. Have a great convention!

We will miss you, Oberlindes, but thanks for the well-wishes!

Lascaris, Mini-Wars is not a big convention, but we are making a push to increase attendance. I wish we'd been able to start promoting it to the gaming public sooner so people could have more time to plan, but hopefully we will manage to do that next year. This year we are hoping for 200 attendees. We generally have about 50 games over the course of Saturday & Sunday. I'm not sure how many GM's we usually have, but a lot of us run games throughout both days, so it's less than 50. I will say, despite being small, we generally have a pretty good selection of games of almost every types. RE: drive times, I drive 7 hrs. from my place in Los Angeles to run games at SAND WARS, our slightly smaller convention in Mesa, AZ, but, hey, I don't claim to be sane! I hope you can make it, but if not, thanks for taking the time to ask your questions.

I drive 17 hours (each way) to go to Historicon, so 4.5 hours would be a very short trip for me. But from Wisconsin to Fullerton is what I consider "a bridge too far". I do like the pics that you posted though. Looks like a lot of fun! Best wishes for a great turnout.

Thanks, Perris0707, you are a wargamer after my own heart! Back in 2011 & 2015 , I drove 1,900 miles over 3 days (each way) from Los Angeles LA to Metairie, Louisiana LA to run games at Colonial Barracks conventions, just outside New Orleans. Still, I agree that Wisconsin to Southern California is "A Bridge Too Far," which is our loss! Speaking of bridges too far… you may have noticed a few of the pics l posted came from a big Market Garden game I helped a friend run at last year's Mini-Wars to commemorate the 80th Anniversary.

I love it when folks in the UK and the east coast USA complain about driving 50 miles!

Back again to personally encourage (but no pressure!) your long-distance-drive-friendly attendance, Old Contemptible -- and also to share the new Mini-Wars 2025 convention flyer:

And I will also repost the handy link to the Mini-Wars page over on the Table Top Events website:

link

If you're a GM in or around SoCal, come to the beautiful campus of Cal State Fullerton and bring a game or games to run, and you will be much appreciated, even celebrated! If you're a gamer it's way easier -- just bring your charming and delightful self!

There is a rumor afoot that a legendary Game Master from up in Northern California is so enamored of our USMC-related theme, he may make the trek South to run a refight of a simultaneously iconic and unknown battle in which a handful of Leathernecks and a large number of indigenous forces carried out the first foreign military intervention in U.S. history. I can neither confirm nor deny this rumor, but I can and will say: stranger things have happened!

When and if such a rare and enticing event (at least IMHO) is officially registered, I shall return here to spread the word.

Best of luck with the con.

Many thanks, Rustycop Retired 2019 & from your lips to the Convention gods' ears!!!

I'm back to share news of a new event just added to the schedule for MINI-WARS 2025: the first ever TERRAIN WORKSHOP offered by a couple of local SoCal terrain-making maniacs!

Here is some more detailed info:

SUNDAY OCT. 12 AT MINI-WARS 2025: ‘BAMA & THE MAD GURU'S TERRAIN WORKSHOP 101

Learn some simple, low-cost methods to build eye-catching tabletop terrain useful for a wide variety of Historical, Fantasy & Sci-Fi miniature games!

Sign up & you'll be able to build and take home multiple terrain pieces, such as roads, crop-fields, rail-fencing and rocky terrain!

For the first time ever the Mad Guru of LA is teaming up with fellow miniature wargamer and Terrain-Making-Maniac Brother-From-Another-Mother Frank "'bama" Patterson of OC to run a "HOW TO SCRATCH-BUILD TABLETOP TERRAIN CLASS" on Sunday October 12th at MINI-WARS 2025!

If you plan on attending the con and have some free time on Sunday, PRE-REGISTER FOR THE CLASS so they can prepare materials for you to build your own versions of some of the cool stuff shown below, which you can then take home and game with however you see fit!

The event will run from 10AM until 2PM but you can come and go, get in a game or some socializing between cutting, gluing, painting, dry-brushing, etc. At the end of the day the quality and quantity of terrain pieces you'll be able to take home with you will be mostly in your hands.

'bama and the Mad Guru have fought many MANY tabletop battles side-by-side and against each other, and teamed up to help create some epic SoCal miniature battlefields over the years -- but neither of them has ever done like this before, so please… don't leave them hanging!!!

Here's a handy link to the MINI-WARS 2025 page over on the Table Top Events website, where you can pre-register to attend the convention and reserve tickets to participate in this event on Sunday:

link

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF 'BAMA'S SCRATCH-BUILT RAIL FENCES, ROADS & CROP-FIELDS:

…AND SOME EXAMPLES OF THE MAD GURU'S (AKA: MY) SCRATCH-BUILT ROCKY TERRAIN PIECES:

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!!!

(NOTE: Nothing is required other than being comfortable using scissors and a hot-glue gun, but positive attitudes are highly encouraged.)