Historicon (Est. 1984)

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Lancaster County Convention Center.
Event: Historicon 2023!
HMGS Theme: America: Expansion and Civil War

This is not my usual battle report, but a small collection of pictures of just some of the goings on at the Historicon (established 1984) convention.

As a chronicler of mainly ancients themed tournaments, my pictures of the other events tend to be flyby snapshots about every 2 hours between the ancients tables and the bathrooms. #AgingSucks.

I received a lot of comments this weekend from ancients players that they cannot wait to see my game reports from Historicon. But there is a problem. I publish one a week, I have 6 done and waiting to be published. And I have just over 500 photographs to resize, annotate, put into context and publish. With diligence, this should take me about 18 days.

And I start a new job on Monday...

This will be a special report from Historicon, to be released immediately, while the iron is hot so to speak. As opposed to coming out in September to a bored response of, "Historicon? Wasn't that ages ago?" #24HourNewsCycleAttentionSpan

Wednesday night...

The calm before the storm.

Off in the distance, Scott Holder and Richard Kroupa are playing a practice game of Warrior(tm)

9:15 am, Thursday Morning. This is the center command of Jeff Robertson Incas.

Facing Aztecs I borrowed from Steve Turn. Steves troops were well painted and fought well, giving me an undeserved 3rd place for the day.

I am thinking of titling the battle report, "A Tattoo of Inkas." If you don't like the puns, you might as leave now...

On another table, the Hawaiians bring their ceremonial volcano to sacrifice their victims in.

The Greek version of FedEx has delivered a large wooden horse.

It had "Paris of Troy" on the label, but was delivered to the wrong address. Odysseus signed for it and promised to deliver it to Paris personally.

Off in the distance, the walls of Troy. With Hermes taking a picture from the clouds.

One of the things I love about L' Art de la Guerre (ADLG) rules system is the logistics. The whole Aztec army is in the clear plastic box. The blue box has the terrain and dice.

;) I'm not sure why the Hawaiian army needed a hand truck to deliver. :)

The Warrior(tm) group never fails to provide an amazing display of armies. More than double the number of the ADLG figures. Always in 25mm.

Round 2, facing Mike Kelly's Incas.

My Aztecs were suffering from hubris with their mornings win and went down to a 23-28 defeat.

Tentatively titled, "An Incense of Incas."

The War Hammer 40K were setting up.

Always great looking figures.

The Warrior(tm) Ice Table. With special rules that allow units to break through and plunge their units into the frigid waters.

Off to my left, a much more orderly battle is being run

The official military observer from Howandaland is taking notes on the next battle.

An excellent camp for a Polynesian army.

This mat was up for 3 days, but I never saw any game being played with it.

The Japanese fleet at Coral Sea

The opposing American fleet.

25mm Panthers attacking across a hedgerow.

Hellcats sneaking around their flanks for a shot.

This maze was being fought in a double blind set up.

Base Stars vs Battlestars.

A most excellent WWI Fighter game. When you are shot down, you are given a another plane.

A mass of hairy barbarians are charging across a field.

This is what the Gauls are seeing.

The wall goes on....

and on...

It must be Alesia

This was a rescue operation to extract Vercingetorix from the town of Alesia. Some quarter million Gauls arrayed against 30,000 Romans.

But then, we only have Ceasers word on the numbers.

Goober the bear. That is how you know that Historicon has arrived.

French and Indian war in 54's

I don't know the game, but it looks like Dutch Warships assaulting an Oriental enclave.

Both ships and fortress are very well done.

Derek Hannon's Late Imperial Roman

Facing my Pyrrhic.

Yes, that Pyrrhus, who famously said, "Αν νικήσουμε σε μια ακόμη μάχη με τους Ρωμαίους, θα καταστραφούμε εντελώς".
Or, "If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined."

The judge of the tourney had a wicked sense of humor regarding pairings that day. My Pyrrhic only faced Romans on Friday.

Flames of War Tank company.

Their opposing Germans.

On Saturday, my Thracians were first pitted against Armenians.

That is 8 Cataphracts supported by 2 cavalry and two Legionary cohorts.

Against my Falx wielding Thracians.

This is a very bad match-up. I had some tricks up my sleeve that could, if they worked, possibly score 9 points

 

It turned out that was extremely optimistic assessment.. The final score was 29-6.

It was like bringing a pea-shooter to an artillery duel...

 

A demo game for Renatio et Gloriam

Renatio et Gloriam is Renaissance era gaming. Most of the figures are 15mm here, but there are some special units, "Pike and Shot", represented by 10mm. Which looked good as they were laid out.

Another layout for the Warrior(tm) crowd. An 8 foot table, and about 40 pounds of lead.

An anti-elephant war wagon.

Round 2 for the ADLG 15mm Classical Theme. Thracians vs Romano British.

 

Turn 3 and the blood is already flowing
The red splots have no game value, but are placed for the sake of the narrative to be written later.

The Saxons have punched a serious whole in the Thracian lines.

On the Thracian left flank, off panel, a young warrior named Arturo commits his heavy horse to battle, history in the making!

Who will win? This is the 8th game of the weekend, and I have 6 in the queue, so about 14 weeks from now, we'll know. What a cliff hanger!

 

The final battle. Jeff Herzog's Indians pour out of the forest.

Who will be victorious? Find out in about 15 weeks.

But as a bit of foreshadowing, the red elephant splot near the center represents a "rampaging" elephant, and is chasing down the Thracian commander "Other Brother Daizus."