T H E L O C A L NEWSLETTER F O R T H E HMGS-Midwest M I N I A T U R E W A R G A M I N G ENTHUSIAST VOLUME 6 ISSUE 3 WINTER - 2 0 1 7 BOD Update - Winter 2017 by Steve Fratt Greetings Members of Each room will contain an wheeling simulation that is HMGS-Midwest! independent Task Force that more than the sum of its parts. We are working on There is much going on as getting a Naval presence we move towards a new from the Great Lakes Naval year and Little Wars 2017. station in anticipation of INSIDE THIS HMGS-Midwest will be out taking the game to the base ISSUE: in force on for GaryCon and in June for the actual 75th anniversary of the battle. BOD Update 1 Adepticon - both on the same weekend in March. We are using the miniature Kevin Cabai, myself, John ships and planes from my LW 2017 2 Bobek, and Skip Peterson own Axis and Allies War at Update will be headed up to Sea collection. I have every GaryCon to offer Orc’s ship and plane in the battle HMGS-MW 3 Drift, The Battle of Quatre on a 1:1 scale. No experi- Elections Bras, At Thermopylae with ence necessary. We have Gygax and other great already gained some new Arminius- 4 games. Dennis Bulawa and members as a result of of- Maurice Jim Roots will be at Adepti- will only be able to com- fering this event so consider municate via the judges inviting a friend to join Member Ben- 13 con. Jim is running his Star- efits ship Troopers game which who will be sure to add HMGS-Midwest for the will feature scores of bugs plenty of friction and fog of event [$10 - this cost of a spat out of Jim’s 3-D com- war. Any HMGS-Midwest membership]. Note that all HMGS-MW 16 puter! We will also have a member may participate as memberships expire at Lit- Events presence at Nexus Game a thank you for your mem- tle Wars, including any new bership. But as we will need ones, and will need to be Gaming Op- Faire, GenCon, and the new 21 to manage the numbers, renewed at Little Wars as portunities venue for the return of RockCon! We hope you please contact me directly at usual. As we plan to offer my Trinity email - the Winter War College will join us in showing the flag at these conventions [email protected] - if you want annually, renewing your beyond our own Little to participate officially. We membership at Little Wars Wars. will attempt to find a role 2017 will also get you into for everyone but expect the War College for January Midway 75 is the first dou- wide divergence in actual 2018 as well. Increased val- ble-blind campaign for our responsibility. We are at- ue for your membership! new Winter War College set tempting to make this a real for Saturday, January 21st kriegspiel experience as That’s it for now. Have a from 9am - 5pm at Trinity participants will focus on great holiday season. See you College. We are using the decision-making without at the gaming tables in 2017! entire second floor of the “knowing all the rules.” McLennan academic build- This one is for the member ing with eight large rooms. who wants a more free- P A G E 2 VOLUME 6 ISSUE 3 Little Wars 2017 Update by Steve Rysemus Once again I must point out the new venue in Lombard at the Yorktown Center Westin Hotel. I am sure you will all love this new space with separate rooms for events, Flea Market/War College and the Dealers. The deadline to get an event listed in the PEL (Preliminary Event List) is the end of January! Uncle Duke will be joining us again with his Crusades adventure Richard I. We always look forward to having Duke with us and are glad he is still in good enough health to join us. The room block is open, and the room rate is $121.00 and you can find a link to the room block on our website. We have made changes to the food hours and choices from the hotel, and there are many restaurants in the area as well. The ever popular Paint N Take will return again. This year you can find them back in the hallway by the Dealer Room. As we have for the last two years we will continue with Judge awards, in addition to the Best Themed Event, we will be presenting the following new awards for Judges in 2016. The Best Event for each day, including overall the best, then 2nd place and 3rd place for each day. Each place would be awarded a voucher for varying dollar amounts based on the placing. This voucher can then be used in the dealer area to make a purchase. The benefit here is for the judge that wins will get recognition and some free merchandise. This voucher must be used at that year’s convention and will not have a cash value as in the entire amount must be spent at one dealers table or the rest of the amount is forfeited. This also benefits the dealers obviously as they will record the amount spent and turn in the vouchers to HMGS Midwest for reimbursement. In addition all winners can have a Bio in the next issue of the newsletter if they desire. This also has a side benefit of providing some quality events which in turn should draw in more at- tendees. Best event (1st Place) each day will be awarded a voucher for $20.00 Best event (2nd Place) each day will be awarded a voucher for $15.00 Best event (3rd Place) each day will be awarded a voucher for $10.00 Remember, Little Wars is April 28 - 30, 2017. We hope to see everyone at our new venue. Looking forward to it myself. HMGS - MIDWEST P A G E 3 VOLUME 6 ISSUE 3 New Election Process for HMGS-MW Board - by Steve Fratt New Election Process for HMGS-Midwest Board - The current Board of Directors has passed an amendment to the bylaws to adopt a new election procedure for 2017. An email has gone out to all current members [snailmail for those without emails] explaining the new proce- dure. 1) We notify the membership which Board members will be running again for which office. 2) Each member has an opportunity to inform the Board if they would like to run for a particular office [any Board member will do but President Steve Fratt must be informed by the deadline] Deadline - January 31, 2017 3) after confirming all candidates are members of HMGS-Midwest in good standing, a ballot will be sent out to every member with all candidates listed for each office available 4) voting members will need to send the filled in ballot via snailmail to the Membership VP of HMGS-Midwest, Kevin Cabai [his address and instructions will be on the official ballot - snailmail is required for a valid ballot] Deadline - March 31, 2017 5) Membership VP and the Secretary will confirm that every ballot was cast from a current member - they will look at the full name on the return address to determine membership status before opening the envelope to count the ballot. 6) On an announced date in April, the Membership VP and Secretary will count the votes publically - the membership will be invited to observe. 7) Results of the election will be announced on Saturday of Little Wars 2017 and the new Board will begins their duties at the annual meeting on Sunday. 8) These procedures will replace the proxy voting process for Officers/Boardmembers laid out in the 2002 By- laws. Proxy-style voting may be retained for other kinds of voting procedures as needed. Any questions about the new procedure may be directed to President Steve Fratt. HMGS - MIDWEST P A G E 4 VOLUME 6 ISSUE 3 Arminius-Maurice de Saxe, Marechal de France By Robert Fulton — Part 1 “Danger is part (b. 28 October 1696, d. 30 November 1750) of the friction of war. Background Without an accurate The circumstances of Maurice’s birth were, like his death, in the words of Jon Manchip White “wholly out of key with the brilliant role which he was to play in…life.” He was born in Goslar in northern Germany in the conception of house of a nobleman Heinrich Christoph Winkel, who never re-enters the story. His birth took place here be- danger we cause of the fact that his mother was journeying between residences. In fact, Maurice’s birth was illegitimate cannot and took place in semi-secrecy in this out-of-the-way town. His father was Augustus I, Elector of Saxony and understand King (Augustus II) of Poland, of the Albertine branch of the house of Wettin, a prominent royal family during the early modern period. However, Maurice always considered his mother’s family heritage as the nobler. His war.” — mother was Maria Aurora von Königsmarck, part of an old noble family of Brandenburgers who became Major Gen. “Swedish” under Gustavus Adolphus. Carl von Clausewitz Maurice’s maternal great-grandfather, Hans Christoph von Königsmarck (the Old Königsmarck), fought with — Gustavus at Lützen in 1631. Later, in 1641, he led a force of Swedes to victory at Wolfenbüttel. Seven years later he was found besieging Prague while Wrangel and Turenne were devastating Bavaria.