About Us

This is a group that was started in Ohio about 14 years ago. Not a long period of time when compared to
some other groups but long enough. It started with a group of friends, 8 or 10 was the original number, that
shared numerous interests, history, good drink (and sometimes bad), historical re-enacting, and other
diversions. We originally gamed on Tuesday nights and later moved to Wednesday nights for accommodate
work schedules. However it quickly became apparent that no long what day we moved it to work was
interfering with gaming! Or was it the other way around? As it turned out gaming to sometimes 4 in the
morning was taking it's toll especially on a Wednesday night! So we changed to Fridays.

As with every group, the dynamics change and evolve and real life moves people in various directions. As a
result some member moved away while others lost interest. New members came along and old members just
stayed and we eventually evolved into 5 Guys and a Lawyer. Where the name came from was quite simple.
We as group had decided to attend a convention and on the convention sign-up form was a spot for our group
name. Not having a name we sat down and bounced around ideas. One thing we were all in agreement on was
that we didn't want something
similar to all the other groups out there in regards to the group name. I think it was Tom King who suggested
5 Guys and a Lawyer. Sounded just like the name we wanted and so it stuck. Of course the Lawyer, Dan Grna
didn't like the reference but we all figured it was justified payback for all his deceptive maneuvers during our
games of Diplomacy!

So now we get together Friday nights around 7:30 and game till whenever. We throw a buck in the pot for
upkeep and beverages each time we play which works out well. Sometimes we just sit around and talk and
other times we'll watch one of our guy flicks when the women aren't around! Summertime is usually like this
what with vacation and the heat .

About 4 years ago we decided to start running games at conventions. We had attended various ones as gamers
but never as hosts. So we decided to start working on games specifically for conventions. Our club table is 8'
x 12' in size so we wanted to use the convention venue as an opportunity to do games that we normally
couldn't do in terms of size. Our approach to the games was to have them take on the "Hollywood Epic" and
the bigger they were the more visual impact we could put into them. Duke Seifried and his genre of
Adventure Gaming and epic style games certainly had it's influence upon us. Thank you Duke. If a game
wasn't going to look good then how could it be expected to run well? Our choice of scales for Colonial
gaming was 25/28mm. This scale gave us many more options when it came to running visually appealing
games. As our friend and fellow conspirator Ed Bolla ( see US Brig Niagara on the link page) was apt to
point out on many occasions, " It's a good thing you guys didn't do 15mm! Otherwise we'd be gaming the
Relief of Gordon all the way from Cairo to Khartoum on one table!"We made the rules simple and in many
cases we took that much venerated set of rules "The Sword and the Flame" ( hats off please) and stripped them
down to an easier simpler form. This would make the running of a game like 55 Days at Peking more
manageable, with over 1,000 Boxer running around we needed to keep things easy.

So that's it I think. After all we wanted to keep things brief now didn't we ? If not I could launch into
memories of games gone past or recollect stories of great blunders on the table or stunning victories. Say that
reminds me of the time when Tommy King and myself......................

Current Periods played

25/28mm Colonials
Diplomacy
15mm American Civil War
15mm Napoleonics
15mm English Civil War
1/72 Canvas Eagles
1/1200 Naval both Sail and Steam