Fall-In Tour, Checkpoint Charlie Updates

Over the weekend I took a day trip up to Fall-In. I haven’t been to an HMGS convention since before COVID so I was quite looking forward to it, even if it was just for a day. I packed up my car and took the 2.5 hour drive from Fredericksburg to Lancaster on the Saturday morning. Before I get into that - a few quick finished 15mm US mid-period Cold War things:

I’ve been putting together a 15mm M48 tank company for some 60s and 70s Cold War gaming. I really like the US equipment from this period and think its more interesting to game than the latter periods (where the Soviets are either so outmatched its not fun or the system is obviously bending things to make it less one sided)

Next up will be some AH1s and some M60s (both the normal and Starship variant). I haven’t decided what kind of Soviet force to build yet. Perhaps something with T-62s which I think are an interesting matchup for the US kit that I have. Now - on to the show!

HMGS has gone quite digital using TableTop events now so the registration process was easy (the difficulties I had were 100% user error, I forgot my password to TTE so had to fumble about getting it reset to get my QR code). Self service tablet stands were available to scan the QR code and print a badge - though volunteers were readily available to offer assistance. This years miniature isn’t of interest to me but I grabbed it for a friend.

Since I was just making a day trip I didn’t plan to play in any games, rather just tour the vendor hall and do some shopping and wander around. I ran into a few friends from my local gaming scene which was nice.

I picked up some nice things from the vendor hall, a full set of 15mm eastern front buildings, a cloth battle mat, and some Deep Cut studios roads and rivers. I just need to make some forest bases and find a suitable bridge and I’ll be able to play some 15mm eastern front games at home. I’m particularly looking forward to painting the Battlefield Terrain Concepts Orthodox Church I picked up - quite a pretty model. I was going to behave and not acquire more miniatures but I had an accident at the brigade games stand as they had their whole WWI range so I may have obtained some 28mm Austro-Hungarians….

My biggest complaint was the placement of the flea market. They stuck it in the most dimly lit room possible (the resort’s theater) - to the point where folks were pulling out their phone flashlights to inspect items on the tables. I only bought one item (a rather nice looking resin KV-1 in 28mm of unknown make) because it was too difficult to browse in the poor lighting.

The highlights for me were an absolutely stunning Stalingrad factory board in 28mm (seriously look at this thing - amazing)

I also saw Hail of Fire being played on a few tables (including this very cool Tarawa board). Hail of Fire was developed by a somewhat local fellow and is basically a “disgruntled FoW player’s” ruleset (in the best possible way!). It addresses a lot of the gaminess of FoW while retaining the simplicity of play and the fun tactical decision making. I watched a few rounds being played and definitely want to check it out sometime. I’ve given the rules a good read through but am going to refrain from a full review until I’ve had a chance to play it a few times (I see no reason why it wouldnt work for the first half of the cold war as well). The designer lives in Richmond and occasionally comes by the local hobby stores so I may have to see if I can organize a demo night with a few friends with him….

Some random other photos, a few Bunker Hill games were being played for the 250 anniversary of that event which was cool.

All in all it was a nice day trip - sometimes its good to take a long journey alone and just be a dude again free of the responsibility of being a husband and a father which is really what I needed. I didnt even mind the FOUR HOUR trip home (DC traffic….) as it gave me a chance to get caught up on The Rest is History podcast and start Mary Beard’s new-ish show Instant Classics.

Massive photo dump of “all other cool stuff” ends the post.