Historicon

[Ruckdog]

For all of you guys that are going, don't be stingy! I want to hear all about it, especially the DW demos and how they went .

[MadDrB]

I just got home.  The DW demo games went well, and Greg was a great assistant and did a great job explaining the basics to the first set of players while I was busy in the registration line.  Took lots of pictures--there were several great Victorian sci-fi sort of games since the theme was the age of colonial imperialism, and I'll post some soon enough.

This was my first gaming convention ever, and I experienced the full range of just about everything--I ran a game, played in a game, met Richard Borg (the designer of the Commands & Colors system; and I just started asking him about a new game and didn't realize he was actually the guy until I looked at his badge halfway into our conversation), witnessed a lot of different tabletop game systems, took lots of pictures, bought a bunch of 3mm scale terrain, vehicles, and even cavalry to use with Spartan Games, etc.

It has been a very long day, but I'll post more soon.  I handed out a lot of small flyers with the "manbattlestations" website link, so we may see some new members sign up.

[Ruckdog]

Awesome! Sounds like you guys had a great time. Can't wait to see the pictures

[MadDrB]

Most of my pictures came out blurred.  I guess I was just too excited to stand still enough to take good pictures!  Anyway, I have a couple on the blog.



There were a lot of naval games going on all day Saturday, especially pre-dreadnought battles like Manilla Bay and Tsushima considering the theme of the event was "gunboat diplomacy."  There was also plenty of games of War at Sea, and I even caught sight of some epic age-of-sail games.



And I spotted some other fantasy naval games....



Naval games in space....



And more of our beloved DW.



Not to mention some other favorite tabletop games represented, in a big way.



And just awesome terrain on other tables.







And not only did I see a massive version of BattleCry in play, but I met the designer!



And, finally, for you Spartan fans out there, see if you can spot the familiar models incorporated into this scratchbuilt "airships of mars" game.



And all this was just what I saw on Saturday afternoon!  I actually forgot to take pictures of other awesome games completely (in one ballroom there was a huge Mexican-American War scenario with 54mm scale figures, for example), and then there was the huge Flames of War tournament which I didn't pay any attention to, etc.

[Landlubber]

As always, Historicon was a blast.  I played in three different Battlestar Galactica-themed games, which were fun for the most part.  The hardest thing about Historicon for me is trying to take it all in--when I'm sitting playing a game, my mind is racing thinking about the other games I could be watching.  Like Aaron said, most of the game boards were simply stunning.  I also got a few good deals in the flea market-- got a built and badly-painted Leman Russ for $16, and a Federation Runabout still in the box for $10.

Aaron, thanks much for getting DW onto the radar at Historicon!  It was a bit of a crappy timeslot, but I think we still had some good interest--we didn't seem to be lacking for players!

Here are a few of my pics:

Defense of Sevastopol (put on by some of the guys from Eagle and Empire, but the board was from Wargames Illustrated):



WWII city tank battle (Leningrad?):



Battle of Wolf-359:



D-Day invasion:



Charge of the Light Brigade (also by the Eagle and Empire crew):



Victorian-era sci-fi wargame set on Mars:



And some very, VERY small Viper Mk II's I bought in the dealer hall:



If you didn't get a chance to go this year, I'm pretty sure it's in the same place next year.  If you are even a barely casual wargamer, you owe it to yourself to try to get to Historicon at least once.