Geek stuff (or My Day as the French)

My friend Chris invited me to join him at a miniatures convention. Well, they call it a 'convention' but it's more like 60 people gathering at a VFW to play with tiny metal soldiers. I'm a gaming fan but it's more of the 'boardgaming' variety, which means I'm more comfortable with small cardboard squares or little plastic stars. 'Miniature gaming' is more about putting troops in the right spots and using tape measures and rulers to figure out how far they can move and how deadly they can be.
One of the cool things about this type of gathering is seeing the other games all layed out. At midafternoon, there were seven or eight different games being played. Each one looks like a giant diorama of a different era. It's very cool.
The game we played was called 'Empire' and it has the reputation of being one of the most complex games ever. It was at least four levels more complicated than I enjoy but I figured what the hell? I'd jump in and do what I could.
How complicated? The guy who ran the game has been playing this one for twenty years or more. We'd figure out combat and he'd say things like, "Ok, so you've got an eight and fatigue makes it six, plus one for being Prussian. And then three more but minus one. (Looks at chart). So six times twenty...try to roll high." And then we'd roll and he'd tell us what happened.
The game matched me up against Chris and everyone started by playing cautiously. After two turns I figured L'audace, toujour l'audace and flanked him with some cavalry. Things went well and I wiped him out. This will probably mark the one and only time I beat him at that type of game.
Fun? Sure. Not as fun as Dipcon looks like but I'd certainly play again.