Historicon 2018 - What I Played, Saw & Bought

I made my annual trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania for Historicon last week.  I planned to meet my friend Mike from Ohio Thursday afternoon. We usually have a larger group, but this year was a throwback to my first trip to Historicon with Mike way back in 1995.

Registration this year was a big improvement, all you had to do was scan the code you received by email when preregistering and everything printed out for you.  On the negative side, the Lancaster host is in the middle of an extensive remodel and was a mess.  I am glad I reserved a room at the new Hilton next door.

Despite a long traffic jam due to a burning semi, I made it up Thursday in time for my first game: Once Upon a Time in the West Country (ECW).  I often pick a theme when I register for games and this year it was English Civil War.  It is a period I enjoy reading about and playing, but I have never found a set of rules I am completely happy with.  I played the right side of the Royalists (on the left of the first picture) and did well with my horse, but not so well with my foot.  An enjoyable game.

 

 

 

 

 

Friday afternoon I played in Clodwig the Red Strikes Back using the Dux Britanniarum rules, a set I have heard a lot about but never played.  I was one of the Roman players defending our lands against some pillaging Franks.  I liked the rules mechanics and we drove off the Franks, although they did manage to loot half of the village.  I am in the early stages of painting a Romano-British army for Saga, and it was a bonus seeing a lot of the same miniatures painted and in a game.

 

 

Friday night and Saturday morning I ran two sessions of the same game using the 7TV rules, Dial 'X' for Missile.  I will cover that in a separate post.

The rest of Saturday I wandered around looking at some amazing games and capped it off by playing another ECW battle, Naseby.  I ran the New Model Army foot and we won, though the Royalist foot did not advance as in the real battle.  It used the Carnage & Glory II computer-moderated rules.  I was a bit hesitant, as I had played several Napoleonic games using those rules many years ago and did not particularly enjoy them.  But Naseby is one of my favorite battles so I though I would give them another try.  I am glad I did, it was a great game with good players.  While I would probably not use them at home, the rules did a good job of handling a large game with 7 players.

 

 

 

Here are pictures of some of the games that caught my eye:

 Battle of Pelennor Fields

 

 

Isandlwana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A spectacular game of Frostgrave

 

 

 

 

 

Historicon loot (clockwise from top left):
I did not have a large shopping list this year.  I came home with a pack of flower tufts; a pack of 2 boats by Things from the Basement; 2 Sarissa Sturmboots from Wargames Tools;, 4 packs of Crusader miniatures for Saga from Pictor's Studio; Gripping Beast Viking standardbearer from Badger Games; Saga Roman dice and LBMS Muslim transfers from Cotton Jim's; 3 bottles of Howard Hues paint from Dayton Painting Consortium; a free pack of flag cards; Army Painter static grass from the Warstore.

When I arrived home, I found a box from GMT waiting for me.  I had ordered a copy of Washington's War (AWI) and a mounted mapboard for Unhappy King Charles (ECW) during their 4th of July sale.  I am planning on a solo game of Unhappy King Charles this weekend.