"MAIWAND SATURDAY" at Colonial Barracks in Metairie, Louisiana, Nov. 4th-6th

Word got out about a week ago that "Maiwand Day" will be participating in the first ever all-TSATF gaming convention, "Colonial Barracks," to be held on the weekend of November 4th through 6th, at the Sheration Metairie-New Orleans Hotel in Metairie, Louisiana.

I haven't said anything about it here until now, maybe because it still seems like such a crazy idea, even to me, but with the support of my very understanding wife, I will be going through with it.

The idea was suggested to me months ago, by Patrick Wilson of The Virtual Armchair General. It took me a couple of months to decide in favor of packing up my terrain and armies and driving 1895 (not a bad number for a trip to play TSATF!) miles from Los Angeles LA to Louisiana LA, but in the end I couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet Larry Brom -- author of The Sword And The Flame -- in person and enjoy having my set-up and scenario be part of such a fun and, for those of us who have loved, do love, and will always love TSATF, noteworthy event.

As I've said before, I have been playing the rules since they were first published in 1979, when I was 14 years old, and they have enabled me to enjoy many tabletop moments of triumph and moments of tragedy. It's my hope and expectation that a bunch of new players ("new" to me at least, no matter how longstanding their experience of playing with the rules may be!) will enjoy "Maiwand Saturday" at the convention.

I hope to post more info on details of the game, exactly how many spots for players, the exact orders of battle, maybe some of the scenario specific rules, etc., etc., as soon as I get a chance, which hopefully will be before the event arrives!

In the meantime here's a link to the convention page at "Sergeants3" -- the website devoted to sales of TSATF, its variations, supplements, and scenario books, and various other Larry Brom rules sets:

LINK TO SERGEANTS 3 COLONIAL BARRACKS CONVENTION PAGE

Maiwand will be played on Saturday, November 5th. It's a BIG GAME, requiring a good deal of time (fastest we have ever played it was 4-5 hours, and it certainly could go longer), with room for 3 British players (infantry/C-in-C, cavalry, & baggage) and from 5 to 8 Afghan players.

I'm hoping at least 2 and possibly 3 of my fellow "Maiwand Day" veterans (including my 14 year-old son) will be flying in to help me set up and run things at the convention.

If I had time to spare I would try to schedule stop-ins for some games along the way from Los Angeles to New Orleans (I plan to take a pretty straight route via Pheonix, Tuscon, Juarez, San Antonio and Houston), but I'm expecting to spend 3 days on the road each way, which is already a ton-and-a-half of time away from home, in addition to the 3 days spent at the con, so I'll have to settle for well-wishing wargame "drive-bys" to fellow gamers (especially of the colonial variety!) along my route instead.

On the miniatures front, I recently finished converting helmets for enough Pontoonier figures to serve as the 66th Regt. component of the BAGGAGE GUARD command at Maiwand and shipped them off to Brooklyn today. So if the talented Igor Olshansky can paint them brilliantly and send them back within the next week or two, they should be available to be christened in battle at the convention.

On the terrain front, I just put finishing touches on a long-standing AFGHAN HILL project I've been intermittently working on for many months. I need to take some time and post the usual ton of pics I took of the construction and painting process. I hope to do so before the end of this weekend.

One last "Maiwand Saturday at Colonial Barracks" note:

I'd like to say a very sincere THANK YOU to Nick Stern and Bob Abra of San Francisco for generously supplying me with an additional unit of sword-armed Indian Cavalry, to play the part of the mounted component of the British baggage guard. They are Bob's beautiful figures, which will be carefully packed and shipped to me by Nick. If not for their kind assistance, I'd be forced to employ Bengal Lancers or perhaps even the 10th Hussars, to fill this gap in my army list, which would somewhat depress an obsessive-compulsive nut such as myself. So once again, THANKS VERY MUCH GENTLEMEN!