Promoting Historical Miniatures at Origins 2025

    My Viking Raid on Anglo-Saxon town was one of dozens of historical minis games Great Lakes ran

Our local Great Lakes chapter of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS GL), has committed to running a slate of games at the multi-genre convention Origins Game Fair each summer. As part of our outreach to promote the hobby, we figured that among the 19,000+ attendees reported this year, there might be some board gamers, role players, card gamers, or Fantasy/Sci-Fi gamers who would be interested in our games. Last year was the first time we had our own "area," under the new Origins system, and we really think that is the best way to go. We schedule and lay out our own games, entering them into the Tabletop Events system and making our own floor plan. That way, we can make sure GMs don't have to constantly set up and take down their game each time they run it. 

    Steve V donned a Napoleonic era bicorne and ran his 'Decision on the Danube' twice at Origins

Luckily, our membership secretary Jenny T volunteered to take on the role of organizing the slate of games for the summer show. This year, she recruited and assembled a nice variety of games from our accommodating GM volunteers. I believe we were happy with the turnout of players in our games. For example, I ran my Viking Town Raid scenario six times (for 6 players each round) and had only two open spaces out of 36 throughout the whole show. Virtually every game was pre-registered nearly full, or full, and we were able to take walk ups to fill the slots of any open ones or no shows.

    Not the typical faces you see at a historical miniatures event at some conventions...!

Judging by the faces around the tables, we figured correctly in most cases, as our players did not always look like the typical attendees to historical miniatures conventions. Half or more of my games included kids under 18 enjoying raiding the Anglo-Saxon town with their father! Just as importantly for our chapter, we had many people walk up to our information desk and ask what HMGS is all about. We signed up a half dozen new members or renewals of "lost sheep" (as I call former members who have lapsed). Doubtless, there will be more who took our information, or copies of our chapter's bimonthly magazine, The Herald, that will join in the coming days. We gave out lots of flyers for our flagship convention, Advance the Colors, Oct. 10-11, in Springfield, OH.

    Tim Peaslee's lovely WW II Peleliu game (run by Cody F & Tim D) attracted players like a magnet

I think the Great Lakes effort at Origins continues to be a success. Each year, our presence becomes more well known and established. We had a number of players  that had signed up for one or more of our games last year who said they looked forward to joining again this year. Many of them also remember our "glory days" at Origins, back when member Steve Smith ran the entire miniatures hall. At that time, Origins was a huge recruiting event for our chapter. We have not grown back to that size, of course, in just two years. However, we are steadily growing at Origins and getting more players. Most importantly, we continue to show the banner of HMGS Great Lakes (literally, as you can see in the background of some of these photos!). Our chapter's mission is to promote historical miniatures. And as I always say, Origins is fertile recruiting ground among those who are already gamers. 

    Nick G drove up from West Virginia to run 2 games, including this 'Caesar at Alesia' event

Folks seemed to have a great time. I had a number of players tell me that my game was their favorite of the convention so far. It is always gratifying to hear things like that. The other Great Lakes GMs that I talked to said their players also seemed to have fun and that their games went well. Happy players make repeat players, right? And hopefully new members or attendees to our conventions!

    Jason & Henry S ran a 28mm Bolt Action tournament, in addition to numerous Learn to Play events

Now that I have run my Viking raid scenario using Sellswords & Spellslingers more times than I expected, I am going to give it a rest. I ran it once as a playtest for my Sunday night group, twice at Cincycon, once at DayCon, twice at Buckeye Game Fest, twice at Drums at the Rapids, and six times at Origins Game Fair. After 14 times, I need a break...ha, ha! Unlike last year, I probably will run a couple games in the evening at Advance the Colors. Kirk from Miniature Building Authority wants me to run a zombie game on Friday night using his amazing, 3-D printed multi-story office building he sells. Players would be racing through the building to get to the top floor and catch a helicopter out before the city is overwhelmed by zombies. So, it would be a mix of cooperative and competitive (not enough seats on the chopper?). I may even use my Mean Streets rules for that. The players could control the surviving members of a street gang who refused to believe police orders to get out of town. Now, they're fighting to get to safety.

    Jay & Jeff T ran a 15mm 'Armored Predators' North African tank battle throughout the convention

Since Kirk will be packing up that terrain piece on Saturday, I will have to run something else that night. Maybe just something simple, like a 6-player game of Lion Rampant? That wouldn't require a lot of bulky terrain, so I may do that. We'll see. As far as my painting desk goes, I am working on the last two batches of U.S. infantry for my Vietnam project. Once they're done, any work I do on that project will be just on terrain until after Historicon, as all the figures I bought will be painted up. What miniatures will be I work on in the meantime? I honestly have no idea...ha, ha!

    The Saga Ohio crew (Lee, Joe & Rusty) ran two tournaments, a Doubles event & Medieval one

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 232
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 117 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 21
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 40

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 93
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 100

    One of our younger GMs, Jason S, ran an interesting English Civil War battle set in the U.S.

  

    Art N ran 'Barbarians on the Road' - an ambush of a Roman column several times at Origins

    Bill W ran two aerial games, including this World War I 'Wings of Glory' event

    A regular GM at Great Lakes shows, Abel D ran a 28mm Test of Honor samurai game

    Todd S gave our games a slight 'What If...?' twist with 'Martians Spotted' game set in the 1980s

    James H was an HMGS Midwest member who joined our area with his WW II game

    Nice brought his WW II Midway game back again this year, as U.S. plans try to save the Yorktown 

 

    Bill W got a chance to teach new players the popular WW II aerial rules, Check Your 6!

    A last-minute addition to our area was an ancient Hail Caesar game run by Vince B,  from Canada

    I had a blast running my Viking Raid scenario twice each day to groups of fun & enthusiastic players