Thought folks here might enjoy this. This is the kind of game club memory you can treasure all your life, and Ive had some unforgettably great moments in Ares already. You may remember the thanks-and-farewell card from the Uni High wargames club I posted here a month or two ago. Toms name is along with his brothers at the bottom of that. *** I was the graduate faculty sponser for the Uni (Illinois) High War Games Club in 1972-73, and those kids dragged me back to the school on Saturday afternoons, even in the best weather. Tom D. (who is now a Facebook friend) was one of our regulars, and he talked two Chinese-American brothers into the Seapower (naval miniatures) intro game of Denmark Strait - Bismarck vs. Hood and Prince of Wales - less the cruisers. They played out in the wide hall, and I could hear the Chinese kids moaning and groaning, while Toms gleeful laughters echoed to the ends of the school - a Gothic old thing. Finally, one of the Chinese kids came into the classroom where we were meeting/gaming and *pleaded*, Mr. Coatney, the Prince of Wales is sunk and the Hood is sinking with only 1 gun turret operating. Every time *we* roll the dice, nothing happens, and this is probably our last shot. Would YOU roll the dice? Feeling like I was being set up to go down with the Hood, I couldnt refuse, and I looked at those Seapower dice with all their heiroglyphic crosshairs and such. So I went out into the hall and threw, bouncing the dice off the far wall. There was silence as Tom went from die to die, his face more concerned with every stop. Finally, he looked up at me, incredulously, and said I had gotten the 1/1,000,000 or so best possible result, and *Bismarck* had BLOWN UP. The Chinese kids went absolutely berserk with joy for about 15 minutes, and to this day Tom and I (and probably two Chinese-American brothers) remember that moment in our lives VERY clearly. :-)
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:58:53 +0000
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