Friday, September 5, 2014

Post Historicon Planning

Although I certainly play other games, most years my planning and painting focuses on my convention game plans.  Last year I had to miss all but Historicon, which may account for why I wound up running 5 games there this year!  :-)

The first convention coming up is Ellis Con, a small local convention run by the Simulations Club at at Ellis Technical High School in far eastern Connecticut (Danielson)... almost in Rhode Island, so the opposite end of the state from me. This year it will be held on Saturday November 15, 2014.
I haven't made the final decision yet, but I am leaning towards running a pair of games using my old gridded Ancients rules Legio Quaternarius. These rules are pretty tried and true, and are very easy to learn and play... and they include the shooting catapults! In that case I will probably use my Alexandrian Macedonian Army against my Mauryan Indians for one game. Both those armies could use some relatively minor touch up and updating, and neither has previously appeared here on the blog.  The second battle will likely feature my Republican Romans vs. my Carthagenians, although other possible match ups could involve my Palmyrans, Sassanid Persians, Byzantines, or Teutonic knights. It looks like Joe will run Quatre Bras and Greg perhaps Bolt Action or IHMN.




The next convention on my tentative schedule is HAVOC, run by Battle Group Boston in Shrewsbury, MA, usually the last weekend in March. For this one, I am inclined to run a pair of Renaissance/Great Italian Wars games using Pikette Squared. This convention has very set table sizes and fixed 4 hr time slots, with very short allowances for set up and take down, and is also quite a drive for me (about 2.5 hrs each way), so games that set up and take down quickly and fit their smallish 8 x 5 feet tables are wise. Likely combatants are France, Spain,  Italian States and Imperialists.

Historicon, July16 - 19 in Fredericksburg, Virginia is the big one. My plan is to run Waterloo there (using FoB2), probably twice back to back (Night/following AM), although Ligny is a tempting and slightly less predictable choice (and I have plenty of Prussians already). Hopefully Joe will attend and run Quatre Bras. I also plan to run Maginano 1515 with BoB2, and/or Hostile Realms, and hopefully Ken B and I will click this year to run the NKE vs. Canaanite game with Pulse of Battle that we had planned on for 2014. If all goes well, Tim should run another WW1 East Afrika game, Gabriel some War of the Roses action, and maybe a game from Eric, Jared, and/or Dave - could be the biggest Piquet/FoB2 game contingent ever!

Thoughts for some local games include play tests of  Waterloo and/or Ligny, Marginano. Other games might include Klagenfurt 1809, a Snappy Nappy 1815 "Campaign in a Day" at some point, a Russian Civil War game with Jared the end of this month, and who knows what else?

Peter

6 comments:

  1. I am going to try and make Histricon this coming year. Hopefully I can get into one of your games if I do.

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    1. Hey, that would be great, Vic! IF everything holds up, we should have more Piquet/FoB/HR games than ever before. Evfen if you can't get into a game pre-reg, show up at the game and there's an excellent chance I can get you in.

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  2. Good looking convention schedule for you in 2015. How will your projected games drive your 2014/2015 painting? besides the touch ups you mentioned?

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    1. Good question, Jon! Well, assuming I remain on track for Waterloo, the bulk of my painting for the next 10 months will be British/KGL, with a few Belgian, Nassau etc units thrown in. I am presently putting the finishing touches on some Austrian Hussars that I did just because I wanted to paint them (plus they've been primed for over 6 months awaiting their turn). Also primed and ready to go are a bevy of British leaders, and 2 units of British Light Infantry. I have the lead for some British rifles and several more British infantry units, plus 3 batteries of British Foot Artillery. Once I near the end of those, it will be time to order some Highlanders, a bunch of British/KGL cavalry, and a few units of Belgians. I will probably add a few more units to my Italian Wars troops - I have lead on hand for a unit of Eureka Gendarmes, a unit of Landsknechts, and some Dopplesoldners. Then there re he few extra Egyptians I picked up because they were on sale (Essex). And those wagons... To quote Barry, "so much lead, so little time!" :-)

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    2. Well, just as in war, a painting program seldom survives contact with reality! :-)

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