Compared to the last three Historicons, there seemed to be a lot more visually impressive games this year, with the theme being BIG, BIG, BIG - as in big models more than big games (such as Dresden, report to follow). I took many more pictures this year than ever before - so many, in fact that my camera's memory card was full by early Saturday night, something that had never happened before.
\
Thursday Games:
A VSF type game, with a flight of Pterodactyls....
Supported by a Blimp!
Presumably a WW2 Glider landing assault game...
with straight forward but attractive and functional terrain, and BIG vehicles.
Friday Games:
The Assault on Little Round Top - the picture doesn't really do justice to the sculpting of the retain, which is much higher relief than it appears here.
Looking upwards - rise from the stream to the hilltop is about 2 - FEET on the table.
Another ACW table set up with very clean, functional, but highly attractive terrain.
Close up of same; note the different kinds of "fields".
Viking Raid!!! Lock up yer sheeps and piggies, and send yer wimmin-folk into the woods to hide!
A large 7 years War game, I think, run in one of the club rooms. Much quieter than the noisy (but less so than last year) main hall, but a bit dark.
"Fights on White Satin", with BIG, BIG ships!
Eric Burgess' "Vauban's Wars" siege rules - 15mm fortress, Russo-Polish war circa 1790. I know Adolfo and Andy C. were among the players. I think these rules (not final yet) are going to get a lot of guys to haul out those cool fortifications they bought years ago but have never really used on the tabletop! See also the detailed report on Eric's blog.
Saturday:
This BIG game won best Theme (1863 ACW) game, and deservedly so, although there was ample competition. I don't recall the action (? Fort Wagner) exactly. Chatting before the game, the GM told me the Ironclad was entirely scratch built, while the Tinclad was heavily converted.
The fort itself.
Some Martian VSF... I think! :-)
Nice job on sculpting the terrain!
More Martian landscape, critters, airships, etc
You wanna talk about BIG? I got your BIG right here!
Those trees are about 3 feet tall!
\
The buildings are 2 to 3 feet tall!
And the models are correspondingly huge as well.
WW1 Dog fighting with BIG planes.
? ACW Ironclads game with pretty BIG ships.
A big Hg Wells "Little Wars" game, with 54mm troops, "Wells-ian" terrain
and GM's wearing what was in vogue for the1910-ish gentlemen of quality!
Close up of the lead heroes, and... yes, they did use shooting Cannons!
Bill Hupp was also running an ACW battle Cry game with 54 mm figures and ? 6' hexes; got a chance to chat briefly with he and his son between games, but forgot to take any pictures.
More to come later, but... if you have the chance to go to Historicon - don't pass it up!
Peter
Looks loads a fun.
ReplyDeleteIt most definitely was, Paul! Didn't play in any of these games... too busy running my own and assisting others.
DeleteWow that looked great. I think I need a goal of at least one con in the coming year.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely worth the effort, Sean - even smaller conventions usually have some great looking games!
DeleteVery good photos. I have to seriously consider making it to Historicon in the next year or two.
ReplyDeleteWe plan on doing Waterloo, Ligny, and Quatre Bras (Joe) for Historicon 2015...
DeleteLooking forward to the eport on the Dresden game. Good to see you taking the tour of the other tables!
ReplyDeleteI had a bit more time to wander around this year, and with some of the changes they made in the layout, all the games were within a short distance of one another.
DeleteNice coverage, Peter. I had several peoiple tell me that attendance and number of vendors was noticeably down. They also said that non-historical fantasy-Sci Fi, and Quasi-historical (Steam Punk) games were very common, perhaps 40% of all games.
ReplyDeleteTrue?
I think it is very hard to gauge these things. There was more room in the dealer hall, but they moved the Flea Market out of that space, so that may be illusory. Adding the Flea market to the main hall (plus placing the Flames of War Tournament and Ancient Tournament, plus the spectacular (pics later) Pirates extravaganza made the free gaming space in the main hall less - I think this was intentional, to decrease the noise level. The % utilization of the reduced number of tables was consequently MUCH higher, and the side rooms (more comfortable, less noise by far, but somewhat dim) were used much more heavily as well. In the end, there were plenty of dealers (report on that coming), plenty of games, and plenty of good games to play or watch. I know it was hard to get into games if you hadn't preregistered (but they allowed 2/day instead of one this year). The economy is still shaky, and attending is expensive (mostly due to room costs and gasoline). As long as the convention is financially viable, it's a moot point, I think. There were plenty of fatasy/sci-fi/quasi historical battles, but nothing much new there. Certainly the clear majority were historical judging by the PEL; in almost any non HMGS convention *they* would be very much in the minority, eh?
DeleteThe nature of convention games of course favors smaller forces, simpler rules, and eye catching presentations. There are many games I enjoy looking at for inspiration, but would never play in...
Nice job, lots of interesting tables.
ReplyDeleteJohn
Thanks! Have you ever been to Historicon, John?
DeleteThanks for the report. It looks like there was plenty to see and do.
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
It was a great show,, James. I wonn't come to my personal highlight of the show until the end, which was my adaptation of your Novara scenario on Saturday night - simply a fabulous game experience!
DeleteWhat a fabulous mix of games; periods, styles and scales! A wonderful photo summary for those of us many kilometres away, thanks Peter.
ReplyDeleteApologies for the naive question, but is this the first time that Historicon has been held at Fredericksburg?
There were a higher than usual number of great looking games, and everyone seemed to be having fun.
ReplyDeleteThis was the second year in Fredericksburg, and I think Historicon will be there for the forseeable future.