Coastcon 1984
Photos taken by Christie Brom
Larry Brom and Mike Lowry
Discussing the state of gaming, the state of the world and other important things! Note that this is in Daylight and there is a good deal of light in the ballroom on the 9th floor of the Royal d'Iberville Hotel in Biloxi Mississippi. This is early in the first day of the convention. All the tables are empty. After dark the only light was from pitiful ceiling illumination. I can remember one game in which players at one end of the table could not determine the nationality of units at the other end of an 8-foot table. Real "Fog-of-war!
Robert Whitfield hard at work.
Whit is moving Russian troops forward and forming a patchwork of lines and squares during a Napoleonic battle using the "Brom Standard" wargame rules. We imported 100lbs of Kitty litter (Clean not used) to sculpt the terrain, and sprayed it various shades of tans and greens. The French cavalry was running rampant on this end of the table and numbers of Russian Units were cut down. Note the handy supply of beverage at the table edge in case the troops get thirsty! As I recall, we had an ice chest filled with soda and beer under one of our tables.
Russian Napoleonic game in Daylight
Contrast the light in the room with the previous picture. That one was at night. There is one light in the ceiling, focused on the middle of the table. Several Jackson gamers are visible. Robert Whitfield (big guy!) standing at left in white shirt. Eric Teuber in Blue T-shirt on the right. Larry Brom in Beige sweater in lower right corner. Of course other hobbies went on at Coast-con. Just to the rear of Whit's head note the really impressive pyramid of dead soda and beer cans generated by some other Napoleonic gamers.
Our Guard!
That bearded fellow conked out in the photo in the COASTCON 1984 gallery is John Ford of Port Aransas TX, who was a 4.0 GPA nuclear engineering major at MSU. He is now a professor or assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He and I and a bunch of our friends had come down to CostCon from MSU for gaming, and that's where I first ran into the Jackson Wargamers. (Photo ID supplied by Mitch Morgan, one of the "Old Guard" of the Jackson Gamers) As far as I know John never booked a room at the hotel. He would game all night or till gaming ceased, then would fall asleep at our table or underneath it to foil security guards. (Jay)
This was the same table as seen above but redone by Larry Cole for his "Helm's Deep" fantasy game. Larry scratch-build the fortification above from hundreds of tiny "Linka" molded plaster sections. Unfortunately this mighty fort has not aged well, turning into a mound of damp plaster shards after being chewed on by Larry's dogs.
And now for something totally different!
The REAL Larry Cole
CoastCon was more than a gaming convention. In fact, gamers were the minority. Here is one of our members, Larry Cole, in his prize-winning costume (A frost giant, whatever that is) waiting with other entrants to pervert (err... present) himself to the Judges. Note the official beverage of frost giants in his right hand.
An Elf-maiden
A fringe benefit of a combined gaming/fantasy convention was the presence of attendees who were much more attractive than the average gamer. No, I don't know the young lady - we were not on a first name basis! Note the smaller female in blue and white on the left, looking daggers at the female archer.
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