No minis!?

No, Joe, this isn't a flagrant plagiarism of your own blog post... Well, MAYBE it is, but anyway.

I spent today pushing around pieces and hanging out with some jolly fine chaps. No miniatures were involved, although vast amounts of cardboard chits were. I may have spent 90% of the time trying to worm miniatures into every single game, but it was still a marvelous time.  I'd never really paid a huge amount of attention to these games before, except when I was randomly designing my own Master of Magic inspired board battle-games aged 8, so it was a great thing to finally play and watch others play some of the games that make up the history of what led to the rise and popularity of miniatures wargaming.

And damnit if it wasn't a heck of a lot of fun! True, the people helped, just like D&D we spend as much time laughing and talking about related subjects as we do pushing counters around. That's what gaming's all about, kids! I even won my very first game. I'm clearly some sort of tactical savant-genius (or just damn lucky, which is probably more true than anything else I've ever said)!

Here's pictorial evidence of the final turn before my opponent conceded defeat (arguably with just cause, I was playing red). Warning on click-through, it's a BIG picture.