Historicon is looking to be Crecy this year!

Historicon  2024 game planning has been going on for a while.

The PEL (Preliminary Events Listing) is due to be released tomorrow.

Here's what my friends and I have been planning:

Wednesday July 17

Time	Tim/David	Peter	Jim	Mark T
5 PM
6 PM
7 PM		Test Of Resolve - WotR
8 PM		Tewkesbury 1471
9 PM
10 PM
11 PM

Thursday July 18

Time	Tim/David	Peter	Jim	Mark T
9 AM	TOR HYW  French	To the Strongest!		WW1 early War
10 AM	TOR HYW  French	Ctesiphon 263 AD		Hill 325
11 AM		Palmyra vs Sassanids		To the Last Man
12 Noon
1 PM	TORHYW AngScot
2 PM	TORHYW AngScot	TTS!		WW1 Early War
3 PM		Ctesiphon 263 AD		Mussey la Ville
4 PM				To the Last Man
5 PM
6 PM
7 PM
8 PM
9 PM
10 PM
11 PM

Friday July 19

Time	Tim/David	Peter	Jim	Mark T
9 AM	TORHYW AngScot			Crecy
10 AM	TORHYW AngScot	Eagles Cheaper ?	To the Strongest!	Lion Rampant
11 AM		Waterloo in Two	Kosovo 1389
12 Noon
1 PM		Eagles Cheaper ?
2 PM		Waterloo in Two
3PM
4 PM		Eagles Cheaper ?
5 PM		Waterloo in Two
6 PM
7 PM	TOR HYW
8 PM	Crecy
9 PM
10 PM
11 PM

Saturday July 20

Time	Tim/David	Peter	Jim	Mark T
9 AM				20th Maine at Gettysburg
10 AM	TOR HYW		TTS!	40 mm Rebels and Patriots
11 AM	Crecy		Nicopolis 1396
12 Noon		Field of Battle 3ed ed.
1 PM		Rapp 'n Raupenhelms
2 PM		1809
3PM		Rheinbund vs Austria
4 PM
5 PM
6 PM		Battle Command
7 PM		Rapp 'n Raupenhelms
8 PM		1809
9 PM
10 PM
11 PM

Sunday July 21

Time	Tim/David	Peter	Jim	Mark T
9 AM		Test of Resolve WotR
10 AM		Tewkesbury 1471
11 AM
12 Noon

From Left to Right:

Tim Couper and David Knight

 will be running a series of games with their newly released Test of Resolve: Hundred Years War rules. The "French" and "Anglo Scots events are short, 1 hour training scenarios, leading up to the two Crecy events. Most of the troops for these games will be supplied by yours truly (hence the many units of Knight that have been charging off the paint and refurb table!

The new Hundred Years War rules, and the first Scenario book for same. 

David assisting with running a WotR game at a recent British show: Kingsthorpe from  Additional Scenarios 1455-1497.

Here's David again running Twithill from the same scenario book.

Peter

I will be running Tewkesberry with Test of Resolve; WotR rules on Wednesday evening and Sunday AM; see the prior write ups of my solo test game and the HAVOC game earlier this year. 

Thursday will see me run the Battle of Ctesiphon with To the Strongest!  Fought under the walls of the Persian Capitol, this pits the Sassanid Persians against the Palmyran army lead by Odenathus. Lots of heavily armored ancient horsemen in this one.

Friday I will be running "Waterloo in Two" with HMGS NextGen. This is a very simplified version of Waterloo(ignoring the Prussians; if Napoleon hasn't won by a certain time, it's an automatic Allied victory. It is designed especially for younger and/or Novice players on a walk up (no pre registration) basis, and will use very simple rules (A One Hour Wargames variant).  Three such games are planned for that day. Chance cards with movie quotes and perhaps a visit by Rifleman Harris are part of the plans for this one, in keeping with the "Historicon goes to Hollywood" theme. 

Saturday will see Napoleonics take the field again, with Hiller's Austrians against General Rapp and his ad hoc Confederation of the Rhine force, contesting for the control of Bad Bierstein. One  version with use Field of Battle, 3rd edition, and the other the closely related Battle Command rules. The games will feature the wonderful Piano Wargames figures by Lucas Luber and Piano Wargames of Germany. 

By my count that's 9 games... a new level of insanity, even for me, even if every one gets at least 2 plays!

Jim Mauro

Jim is running two games in 15mm with To the Strongest!; one each on Friday and Saturday mornings. 

Battle of Kosovo Polje 1389:  Serbia fights for its independence as the Serbian Prince Lazar leads an allied army of heavy mounted knights against a mobile, more flexible Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad. A Serbian victory will halt the Ottoman advance into the heart of Central Europe. Failure will all but ensure the fall of Serbia and further Ottoman encroachment into the European heartland.

Battle of Nicopolis 1396:  The defeat of the Serbs at Kosovo seven years earlier at the hands of the Ottomans has put all of Europe on high alert. Now, a crusade is declared and King Sigismund of Hungary oversees a large, yet undisciplined and rebellious, multi ethnic army to defeat the well-organized, disciplined Ottoman army now led by sultan Bayezid. A crusader defeat will all but ensure Ottoman hegemony in the Balkans and an even greater threat to all of Europe.

Mark T.

My friend Mark will be running two early World War I games on Thursday, both of which I believe highlight the early engagements of one Lt. Erwin Rommel.  Friday sees Mark tackle Crecy with a different set of rules, Lion Rampant.  Saturday will see Mark run a 40 mm scale Amercian Civil War game focusing on the 20th Maine at Gettysburg. 

Mark sent along some shots of the construction of some custom terrain for his Crecy game:

This shows white glue, not thinned, after it was spread on to the top of two 2 inch blue foam insulation boards that were cut with a box cutter, and then a foam cutter to get the contouring.

Next is a medium brown spray paint used across the entire playing surface.

The brown is followed by bursts and short swings of an army green spray paint.

Then a desert yellow spray paint is used with bursts and swings across the brown and green.

The Last photo shows what is the 6' x 4' area of terrain including positions of roads and trees, as well as the tentative positioning of some planted fields for use as rough ground with additional play testing using Lion Rampant 2nd edition slightly modified to finalize their locations.

Mark adds that he is considering using a summer flock mix for the top of the slope, and perhaps even the flatter area between the two slopes. However, with more to do for other games  before Historicon 2024, he hasn't finalized his decision about this yet. 

I certainly still have quite a lot to do myself to be ready for Historicon, but should have adequate time to get it all done. Hope to see some of you there. It will be Crecy/Crazy!  :-)

Cataphracts #1

 

While I was rummaging in the depths of the Lead Pile for Knightly types. I came across these fellows. 

These are Old Glory Figures that I originally purchased more than 10 years ago.

I'm pretty sure they are Byzantine Kataphactoi.

For the moment, I have chosen to leave them pretty generic.

This way they cam easily serve in my Sassanid Persian and/or Palmyran armies as well. 

Scots Commanders, British Civil War/Wars of the Three Kingdoms

 

Left to right,. James Livingston, 1st Earl Callendar; Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl Leven, James Graham, 1st Marquess Montrose, Baron Audley (?)

Regardless of their designation, these figures will likely be sued as Generic commanders for my Scots Covenanters.

On the other hand, I see Simon has new rules supplement and scenarios for the ECW in Scotland, so perhaps Montrose will come into his own!

I still have another 4 regiments of Covenanter Foote to do some time...

Knights of the Swan

 There were some of this figure in both the odds and ends of Bill McHugh's figures and those derived from Steve Gallagher.  

There turned out to be enough between for a six figure unit; perfect!

I employed a Bavarian inspired scheme, quarterly Azure and Argent.

I rather like these old school sculpts! I suspect these were meant to be "Not the Swan Knights of Dol  Amroth"; manufacturer unknown; perhaps Ral Partha?

Knights of the Roses #1

My friends, Tim Couper and David Knight, will be running the Battle of Crecy at Historicon this July, using their new "Test of Resolve: The Hundred Years War" rules. 

I  wasn't sure that I had enough knights for that undertaking, so I remembered that I had these Old Glory Wars of the Roses in the lead pile. Not really the correct armor for Crecy, but they'll do! 

"We fart in your general direction!"

Knights of the Cross

These figures are more of the Medieval troops I acquired from the estate of the late Bill McHugh following his untimely death six years ago. 

They required a pretty major repaint, but I retained the wonderful shield patterns Bill had done. I am not sure of the manufacturer; possibly Essex like many of Bill's other Medievals. 

They are a bit reminiscent of the Knights of St John in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Crusades.

The crosses are more of a cross Moline than the "Maltese" cross usually associated with that Order. 

Speaking Orders, "May the Force be with you!", it being May the Fourth, International Star Wars Day.