Ah, ‘twas a bright and sunny, y’know, when a group of battle-hardened commanders were preparing for a major armor engagement somewhere in the Normandy area of war-torn France. The allied forces comprising US Sherman tanks, backed up with British Churchill and Firefly main battle tanks were advancing into a well prepared trap set by elements of the German Army and SS Panzers units.
Sights locked on their targets with fingers on the main gun trigger, but just before the trap could be sprung, a voice rang out saying, is this the Pensacola Wargamer’s Club????”
As a room full of gamers looked up to the entrance to the second floor community room at the old Cordova Mall, there appeared three individuals in medieval garb (Lord Volsom Redbeard, Lady Esmerelida and Veorn Trothaven), who were talking about a life action, role-playing type group called the SCA and how they wanted to start a chapter in Pensacola.
This was the summer of 1978 and thus was born the Shire of Arenal within the Kingdom of Meridies.
BTW, the three were Ardney and Anita Boland, local teachers and graduate students and a new SCA type named JD Webster, recent Auburn graduate and newly commissioned Navy Ensign in Pensacola to become a Naval Aviator and who later became a well published artist / cartoonist and game designer.
(Oh, yeah… the German Panzer forces kicked the **** out of the Allies that day, but if we had added Allied airpower to the game, hummmm…)
Stumble!