From: Hank Meyer Subject: LAX CON (Gateway 15) Report Gateway 15 at LAX turned out to be a very pleasant diversion last saturday. A small group of CONSIMers turned up at the annointed hour and engaged in about two hours of wide ranging conversation. Hank Meyer, John Setear, Ted Kim, and Don Miller were pleasantly suprised when Joe Youst dropped in enroute to San Diego to see the Cal vs San Diego State football game (Cal lost bigtime). Perry Andrus stayed in Orange County to wargame with some friends who decided to skip the CON and Dennis Mann pleaded guilty to having to give his marriage anniversary priority over wargaming. Alan Emrich was on baby watch which was rewarded with a daughter (Avalon Candice Emrich) born Tuesday afternoon. Hank hosted lunch consisting of a bunch of MRE's brought back recently from the NTC at Ft. Irwin. Jeff Tibbetts and Gene Billingsley both made token appearances as the dealer room didn't close for lunch. Jeff had his new Balkan Storm game (power politics and conflict in the post-Yugoslavia era) for sale and Gene had a highly visible booth well stocked with product. Ken Fonarow's Weekend Warrior was also in attendence. Joe showed us the playtest map for a new Jack Rady game and talked about Spires of the Kremlin in glowing terms. Hank promised to get the War in Europe expansion/revision kit out by the end of September. Games seen in play around the open gaming room: one World in Flames, two Ardennes (the Gamers), three (!) East Front (Columbia), one Pacific War (Victory), one Supremacy, one Napoleon's Last Battles (SPI), and one tactical civil war game (unknown). The flea market was doing a booming business, as people were unloading games of all varieties at fire sale prices. Business seemed slow in the dealer room, although there was a lot of foot traffic. Well worth the effort...I think the CONSIM group is going to make the saturday lunch a regular event at the three yearly CONs. It's a good excuse to get together, talk industry rumor and gossip, and meet some new people. I'd recommend the idea to others that have large CONs in their area. Hank From: JOHN SETEAR Subject: Re: LAX CON (Gateway 15) Report I have little to add to Hank's excellent reporting, but the following supplemental log may be useful to some: Magic presence. The organizational guru of the con, Jeff Albanese, reported that there seemed to be fewer players of collectible card games present than at the Memorial Day con. It was also my impression that the balance of flea-market tables had shifted somewhat in favor of board games rather than card games. In the open gaming room. In addition to the board games mentioned by Hank, I saw people playing Black Wednesday (or is it Tuesday?) by The Gamers, First Blood by SDI (I think this is the unidentified tactical Civil War game that Hank mentions), and TSR/SPI's PTO. In the exhibitor room, The Weekend Warrior had actual copies of Rising Sun, GMT had many copies of 3DoG, and Decision Games was nowhere in evidence. (Rumor has it that Doc D is involved in some fracas with the organizers of the con over a not-to-compete clause.) Prices. As for the "fire sale" prices, for those who care, I made the following purchases: Wilson's Creek w/mag, punched: $5 1914 by AH, punched with clipped counters and much box wear, $10 TSR/SPI's 2d ed. Sniper, unpunched, $8 Battle over Britain by TSR/SPI, RAF by West End, Enemy in Sight by AH, and Origins of WWII by AH, all four for a total of $35 I didn't make it to the auction. I mean, after you've had a beans- and-tomato-sauce MRE, the rest of the convention could hardly hold a candle ;) Generally. I second Hank's thought that the kind of meeting that we had is a great way to meet great/list people. With thanks to Hank for the food and Ted Kim for the sodas, John From: Ted Kim Random Dude Subject: Re: Gateway 15 (LAX CON) More random comments on the con ... In our wide ranging CONSIM discusion, it came up that the new pressed two-ply counter sheets might wear out quickly and split. Maybe I don't know my east front games, but the game Joe showed us had some unusual counters with .5 combat factors! Maybe my eyes were deceiving me after eating that MRE "diced beef w/ gravy" :-). I actually saw Empire of the Rising Sun out of the box in the A3R room, so it does exist. The ASLers had their usual gathering in a room devoted just to them. In the dealers room, I picked up Waterloo from Gene at GMT and with the C3I special (get half off on a game, up to to max discount of $20, with a C3I subscription/extension). Roger MacGowen was very happy to show us 3DoG. Gafni was in his usual location with his wares in milk crates. I got some used Naval Institute books from him. One company was actually selling Dixie: Shiloh singles for 25 cents/each (completed my set). Also, I picked up the latest in the "Famous Game Designer" series trading cards from Flying Buffalo. Actually, many of the designers are only semi-famous, infamous, or not famous at all. But what do want for $1? Finally, I picked up a dice rolling tower made out of wood, made by a guy from Santa Maria. Very nice woodworking job, beveled and all. After spending all this money and gossiping, I figured I should get in some playing. So I went to the miniatures room and pushed around some lead in Command Decision. Later, I played three games of Dixie and then called it a day. (I only went one day.) All in all, a good time. Next one in February ... -ted