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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1981)
^mai/vaa I SSI '9Z jCxBruqaj 'Xvfy&x^jL ^ Armies, soldiers invade the MSC By Terry Duran Battalion Staff The first syllable gives you the hint that it's something deal ing with war. In this case, a war- gaming convention. But that's not all. Warcon '81, sponsored by GROMETS, a subcommittee of the Memorial Student Center Recreation Committee, existed for about 48 weekend hours Feb. 20-22 as a welter of people from all walks of life interested in one thing — gaming. Complex games dealing in simulated bloodshed and fantasy role- playing games where players cooperate to win the gold or free the princess — or maybe just to stay alive. G.R.O.M.E.T.S. stands for Game Replications Of Military, Economic and Tactical Situa tions. The convention began reg istration Friday afternoon and ended with a Sunday afternoon awards ceremony. By that time, though, several winners had already taken their trophies (and boards, and counters, and miniatures, and ... ) and gone home, exhausted by grueling four-hour (or more) gaming ses sions. (Zonventional reporting would have proved impossible. Fourteen games, most with three multi-hour rounds each, most with enough rules to fill 30 or 40 pages of close-set text; mis cellaneous games ranging from poker ("we got tired and wanted to play something simple") to minor informal versions of the official competition games. I missed most of the first rounds, but it didn't matter: I couldn't have played most of them anyway. The ersatz war fare rampant on the second floor of the MSC and in several Rud der Tower rooms was not un- understandable; it was merely complex to the point of needing several hours and lots of practice to understand what was going on. One thing I did understand was these people were having fun. The blood shed and troops massacred and planets des troyed with a roll of the dice or a tactical mistake were all part of the game, no more, no less. These people were not out for blood; the only prizes were a $100 cash prize for the Squad Leader-Cross of Iron winner (more about that later) and some trophies for some of the various larger games. Players were friendly, squabbles few; referees for the games were final judge of any dispute. None of the "Bang, bang, you're dead!"-"No, I'm not!" disputes found in kids' games. These were adults, play ing grownup versions of Idds' games. large section of ballroom floor was given over to naval miniatures — and I mean minia ture. We're talking about model ships a maximum of three in ches long; most were under an inch and a half. Scale generally ran about 1:2400. This event was dominated by San Antonio's Trinity University Conflict Simulation Society, which recre ated historical battles ranging from the sailing era to World War II. Damage was determined by estimating the range in in ches to an enemy ship and hand ing the worthy opponent your tape measure. There was also a "cruiser free-for-all," where ev erybody got one ship and the last one left "afloat" was the winner. Or how about Squad Leader- Cross of Iron, which pitted World War II Nazis against Rus sians fighting for their Mother land, complete with sealed orders for each single elimination round. One-on-one warfare, players commanding opposing troops but laughing chummily with each other all the while. The winner got a $100 prize from the Journal of World War II Wargaming. How would you like to tangle with OGRE, an intelligent su pertank capable of devastating a planet? Or maybe you'd like to engage in Stellar Conquest, and colonize a few quadrants of the Galaxy? How about Diplomat or Nuc lear War, which were games only in that the secret weapons. ties for the Ardennes, Modem Battles II and others. Photo by Chuck Chapman Four participants in a typical wargame study involved in Warcon '81. and plan strategies. About 400 players were Photo by Chuck Chapman propaganda, political double dealing and nuclear warheads were simulated? For history buffs. Kingmaker engaged in militarily-oriented simulation of the War of the Roses, when the great houses of England vied for the crown. Third Reich and Victory in the Pacific likewise, both dealing with World War II scenarios. jAlnd then there's role- playing, otherwise known as acting out your heroic-type fan tasies in the company of others. Without shame — it's only a game. Dungeons and Dragons is the most well-known variety of this game, which has blos somed rapidly in the last half de cade. In a world chock full of ores, goblins, giants, elves, dra gons, hoards of gold, and other items and characters straight out of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, you and the others of your six-man (or person) team fay to survive the nasty tricks the Dungeon Master (head referee and overall guide of the course of the game) throws at you. Let's not overlook the deal er's room, stocking literally thousands of dollars in games and gaming paraphernalia: computer game programs, books, handpainted miniatures ranging from battleships to gob lins to Napoleonic soldiers; games with names like Starfleet Battles, MechWar, and the Cam paigns of Napoleon. Contrary to some people's conception of these things, the average wargamer is not a clone of the guy on the "Are You A Nerd?" poster. Quite the con trary. Most of the con-goers were male, but there were no more than the normal scattering of crazies one finds in a weekend gathering of about 400 people, male or female. Robert Sanders, director of the dealer's room, said, "Wargaming is a respect able industry. It's really gone up in the last few years—even Wal ter Cronkite is a wargamer." Kathleen Donelson, a build ing construction senior at Texas A&M, who does the public rela tions work for GROMETS, agreed. "Most of the people (at the convention) are the more in tellectual-type people, folks looking for excitement and some fun." Partidpation at the conven tion was not limited to students. Oh, no. Young and old, stu dents, IBM spedalists, business men, Army officers ... the U.S. Army was involved in sponsor ing a wargame called "Dunn- kempf," the name derived from a German description of war- games for real. This one was not as complicated, in some ways, as the other games: no hexagons covering the boards, no inticate tables of probability, no rolls of the dice. All you had to know were "simple" things like how to call for artillery fire, range and characteristics of a myriad of modem weaponry, Soviet milit ary psychology ... nothing is as simple as it looks. But it's still fun. Donelson said the convention ran "very smoothly." She said part of tne roughly $500 profit made from Warcon would go to buying new gaming equipment for the club; the rest will go to the MSC General Fund. ALVAREZ Join The Crowd KEyboAnd Center MANOR EAST MALL 713/779-7080 BRYAN. TX 77801 LAYAWAY VISA MASTERCARD