My family and I just got back home from one of the most amazing 3-day weekend conventions of our lives…a brand new historical gaming convention held in Youngstown, NY., called Zero-Con. This convention got kicked off with a huge feast of the best food a gaming convention has ever seen. Once registration was complete, the gaming sessions began. In our first session my family and I played Aerodrome – a WWI flying ace game. None of the gamers, including us, who had signed up for this game had ever played this type of game before. The game-master, John Petrella, was an absolute fountain of knowledge not only in teaching us the game mechanics but also by providing us with the historical context concerning the planes of the era and how modern air warfare developed during this time period. The miniatures and terrain were extremely detailed and with the historical knowledge shared by John, you felt as if you were actually in the cockpit of these aircraft. Within a few minutes of playing I was on the ground, plane shot out from under me, so I did what every good flyboy did, I went to the officer’s mess and consoled myself with liquor while I continued to watch as the other participants shot each other to pieces.
Having enjoyed watching the first session and finally beginning to understand the nuances of the game from a good vantage point (the officers' mess with brandy in hand) and having consumed a few of these refreshments, I was eager to sign up for another go around during the next gaming session. I am not sure it was the observations from the first game or the liquor, but boy, was I on fire during this session. Having lost my wingmen and wing-ladies (yes guys...there were women at this convention that play war games!!), I continued unabated and all alone to clear the sky of everyone and everything else that flew. After the second session, John was eager to continue to share his love of this time period with those that were still able to stay.
The next day, the pre-arranged historical tour of Fort Niagara was completely filled and all who attended enjoyed this educational portion of our weekend. The best part of this tour was the good fortune of being at the fort while a large number of re-enactors for the colonial time period were scheduled for a variety of demonstrations, seminars and best of all, a battle re-enactment. Due to the vast number of exhibits, demonstrations and seminars as well as the tour of the fort, we unfortunately didn’t get any games in until the evening session.
During the evening session, we had an opportunity to play a strategic stock market game run by Liz Maniaci. Although several of the players involved had played this game before, my son, quickly figured out how to play this fast-paced game and when it looked like he was about to win uncontested, the women participants suddenly took charge in the game and it was like a shark induced feeding frenzy as they literally stripped the male participants' advantage, including my son, and duelled it out until the end, with my wife who was so far behind for most of the game, winning in a close contest. This game produced some of the most exciting and ruthless behaviour that I have ever witnessed or encountered in any convention game that I had played. At one point in the game, none of the participants could play due to the uncontrollable laughter that occurred when one of the gamers attempted to trade and not only lost his trade but was stuck with the greatest loss of the game when his cards disappeared from his hands and he was hung out to dry with some dud deals. None of us knew what happened, but we are still sure that two particular women who were playing bamboozled him as they were fighting to corner the market at the same time.
After that highly entertaining gaming session, we attended and watched a special modern martial arts docu-video followed by a question and answer period featuring the IMMAF Black Belt Champion Sensei Robin Empey.
On our way home on Sunday, we stopped off in Lewiston, NY to tour the Art in the Park display featuring a wide variety of arts and crafts by local and far off artisans.
All in all, it was an incredible time shared with my family and friends and I hope that the folks who worked so hard to put this “biggest” little convention on continue with the fine tradition that this convention has begun. My family and I are all looking forward to Zero-Con 2012!!
Regards,
Hitman
05 June 2010, 10:07:09 AM
