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Wednesday, August 2, 2023

Historicon Table Survey 2023

Here's my usual survey of tables at Historicon; thanks to Blogger they are in reverse chronological order. When I have a bit of free time, which seems less and less each year, I walk through as much of the convention space as I can taking rapid fire pictures of anything that looks interesting. It is by no means comprehensive, and I know I missed many great looking tables, including almost anything run on Thursday! Anyone who can provide additional details, feel free to chime in!

This large game was in the foyer outside the dealer area and tournament hall, the siege and Battle of Fort William Henry, 1757, played on Saturday. 

4 or 5 other French and Indian War games were held in the same, prominent space. 


?

Axis and Allies, Battle of Midway

I have no idea what this is, bit it certainly looked impressive! :-)

Not a good shot, but the glow of the computer screen indicates Carnage and Glory!

Presumably American Civil War

More carnage and Glory; I counted 19 C&G events ranging from Malborough through the ACW, Granted, several were run 2-3 times, but still!


Chickamauga - Michael Piecre

Obviously not set up, but I liked the hills in use here!

Landing...



Malta, WW2 Axis invasion

Now that's and Age of Sail Fleet battle!


A perennial favorite


Ancient Galley warfare!

Test of Resolve Wars of the Roses, with my troops and many friends: Tim Couper (standing) and  Dave Knight (alongside) from Scotland, John Mumby (right foreground) from Colorado, Mark Fastoso (yellow jacket and rwed hat (Mark's Game Room) and others. More ToR later in its own post. 







Remember the Alamo!

Congo



Pre game set up for a massive Khartoum game played across three very long tables. 

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Dhows (?)

Gettysburg, Day 2 with Steve Fratt, using his "Small Deadl;y Space" rules

LWTV Peleliu in 3 mm

Tomb Raiders, Egyptian style!


Colonial German East Afrika; Tanganyika (now Tanzania), 1889. Abushiri's revolt

Vicksburg, 1863


More of Vicksburg

16 comments:

  1. Quite the range of games. Sometimes more is better than less.,

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    1. That should be my catchphrase, LOL!
      There were FAR more games that I missed.

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  2. A great mixture of games there Peter and the photos really served to convey a sense of what they are about. A great summary.

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    1. Thanks, Lawrence! As noted, far more that I missed than I captured!

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  3. Thanks for your photo recon of the con, Peter. Having seen many such photos from many conventions (shows) worldwide, seems that US and UK shows cater to different approaches with respect to presentation. What do you think?

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    1. Oh, absolutely! As a broad general rule, UK shows are primarily trade shows, and usually a single day. Most of the games are "Demonstration Games", whereby usually a group of gamers produces a stunning table that they may play on, but mostly others just watch and take photos while they shop. :-) Partly that's because UK gamers tend to play more often and have more physically close opponents. The big HMGS conventions, plus a few multi-genre US national shows are really the only ones with more than a pretty limited slate of dealers, at least in my experience. UK shows certainly have some games that attendees can play in ("participation games" in their parlance, as per Gary below), but they are often limited. Tim and Dave definitely run such games with Test of Resolve at the UK shows that they attend. They are well suited to that, as the space requirements are small (4 x 6 feet), and the games invariably take 2 hours or less to play (both of which were design parameters). My guess would be that shows in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada would be more like US sows than UK ones, but I defer to those that have actually attended same. I haven't a clue about European shows!

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  4. Really nice looking games and tables. Thanks for sharing these as they give some new ideas for gaming and terrain.

    Best wishes,
    Jan

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  5. Thanks, Gary. I don't think it is necessarily the venue size (we do struggle to find venues large enough to accommodate the big HMGS shows), butt he same pattern applies to much smaller shows, and perhaps even more so (see my posts on HAVOC, and years ago, Ellis Con.

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  6. Impressive looking games, Peter! I watched the Little Wars podcast video on Historicon, but your images show a lot more of the games. Very cool!

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    1. It would take at least two separate crews working all day, every day, to have a chance of capturing all the games run at Historicon - typically, around 500! This year almost all game were full. All of mine were full in less than 24 hours from the opening of registration - wow!

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  7. Gosh there's a lot of great looking games!
    Best Iain

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    1. Historicon is something special for sure. The other HMGS conventions are excellent as well.

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  8. Great looking photos of some great looking games!

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  9. Sighs, I can only dream of such an exhibition in the land of sun and surf. Ah well, thank you so much for sharing Peter.

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