Submitted by Greg J. Schloesser
The Westbank Gamers

Each year, the Gulf South chapter of the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society hosts Bayou Wars, a three day convention held in New Orleans in June, devoted to miniatures and boardgaming. The convention has grown tremendously in size and attracts gaming aficionados from around the United States.

Now, I readily admit I am not a miniatures gaming fan. I've played several and have found them to be heavily luck-based and very, very tedious. (I say this fully prepared to duck the incoming barrage of insults and objections from the legions of miniatures gaming fanatics!) However, I will certainly attest to the stunning image of the elaborate battlefields created utilizing the intricately painted miniatures and highly detailed scenery. It is truly amazing to behold.

This year's Bayou Wars was held on June 11-13 and featured a mammoth recreation of The Relief of Fort Majestic, which was a pivotal battle involving the British versus the Zulu nation. Larry Brom, author of the Sword and the Flame miniatures rules, presided over the event. With suitable fanfare, the battle was introduced with a ceremony conducted by Dr. Myron Moorehead, the King of the New Orleans Mardi Gras krewe of Zulu. Dr. Moorehead, dressed in full regal attire, read a historically correct letter outlining the setting of the battle and urging his brave Zulu warriors on. The inspiring speech must have worked as, unlike the actual historical outcome, the Zulu's overwhelmed the British during this battle!

In addition to the recreation of the Fort Majestic battle, there were dozens and dozens of other historical and fantasy encounters recreated. One which caught my eye was another massive battle which was based completely on the old French Foreign Legion board game produced by Yaquinto many moons ago. It was interesting to see a board game adapted to a miniatures battle in this fashion.

With an eye on attracting more gamers to the Bayou Wars convention, four years ago I was asked to host some boardgames during the con. Our first year was very small, but has grown appreciably over the past several years. We now attract a sizable contingent, many of whom take breaks from their miniatures gaming to enjoy a few board games, while others attend solely for the boardgaming. Throughout most of the convention, we had 2-4 separate tables of gaming on-going.

Three years ago, we began what has become a tradition... a History of the World tournament. This has attracted numerous participants and is always hotly contested. This year was a bit smaller than past years, but no less heated. Ten participants struggled through Friday night's initial round, with the top three finishers from each of the two tables advancing to the finals Saturday evening. In the preliminaries, one table saw only 12 points total separating the top finisher from the last place finisher!

The finals were also hotly contested, with Shanna Labranche, Ron Francis, Jerry Maus, Jay Ouzts, Stephen Maus and Greg Schloesser (your scribe) leading their various nations to greatness, only to see them annihilated by more advanced civilizations. I managed to hold the lead through the first three epochs, which, unfortunately, is not a good position to be in as you become an obvious target for your opponents wrath!

Jerry Maus surpassed my total in epoch four and held the lead going into the final epoch. He was unable to maintain the lead, however, as most of his previous forces had been cleared from the board. His son Stephen was able to capture the victory and withstand a frantic surge by Jay Ouzts, winning by only 2 points!

The final tally in victory points:

Stephen, 209; Jay, 207; Jerry, 195; Ron, 189; Greg, 185; Shanna, 158.

Many other games were played throughout the convention, including a nice mixture of German-style board games and familiar Avalon Hill titles. I have made it a point to emphasize the German-style games as they are easily accessible to both gamers and "non-gamers," and do not require massive amounts of time to play. This allows time for those involved in miniatures gaming to stop by and play a game or two before their next miniatures encounter. Nearly all of the games met with great success and those playing were enthusiastic about the quality of the games.

Included on the play list were some of the more recent releases from Rio Grande Games, which specializes in taking the best of the German games and releasing them in English in the United States and other English-speaking countries. Amongst these were Big City, Tikal, Samurai, Lost Cities and Lowenhertz, along with the 1998 German Game of the Year (known as the Spiel das Jahres) Elfenland, which will be released in English by Rio Grande Games later this year.

Bayou Wars 1999 was another successful event, in spite of the void left by the passing of its founder, Joey LaCour. The convention has been officially renamed the Joseph G. LaCour Memorial Bayou Wars Convention. A fitting tribute to an enthusiastic gamer and wonderful guy.

When making your vacation plans for next year, why not consider a trip down to "The Big Easy" and coordinate it with the year 2000 Bayou Wars in June? You won't regret the decision!

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