Oh how it's good to be back in Lancaster... and milling about versus with the wargaming crowd at Historicon ... versus every other weekend I'm in Lancaster and walking shoulder to shoulder with the AAU basketball crowd at Spooky Nook.
Last year, I made some arrangements to run my games early during the con, so I could catch my kid's games whenever they were scheduled Friday-Sunday. There were scheduling issues and tournament changes at the last second, to make all that moot, and then Maja had made the command decision to skip basketball to attend the con with me.
This year, we knew early on that Maja would be in Atlantic City for the Historicon's weekend. After eight tournaments this spring/summer, it was deemed okay for me to miss the last one of the season, so I'd be going solo.
Then Maja broke her wrist at a varsity away camp for school ball.
While we assumed she was just going to live her best life with some much-needed books and air conditioning for a few weeks, at the 11th hour, she was raring to go, so I was picking her up in the middle of a thunderstorm Wednesday evening.
We showed up too late on Wednesday night to play anything, but there also wasn't a brawl going on for the luggage carts, so we got everything inside on one trip.
Thursday morning was a ten-second trip downstairs to scan my registration and get my free mini (Thanks Brigade Games). We grabbed breakfast at La Dolce Vita.
By the time we got back, it was still early. So early, the H.A.W.K.S still hadn't set up their banner.
At Fall-In! both of us were willingly cajoled into becoming judges for the PELAs. We both had a blast hanging out with our fellow judges, wandering the Wyndham, observing games, and coming to a consensus. Maja absolutely fell in love with it, so when an open slot was available Thursday morning, she signed up for it. When one of the other two judges failed to show, I volunteered my services.
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| 54mm Great War |
Friday morning was a total blast, as we walked around to all the rooms, discussing our own preferences/biases in addition to making sure we're adhering to the letter and then intent the PELA rules.
I can't speak for my other judges but an inside look at our Thursday morning selections:
Vikings - Little Wars - Hermitage . Great Figures, great and compact terrain, high energy GM and high energy players. A great (and beautiful) example of what you can do with limited space and a full table of players.
Napoleonic Naval Wargame - in the corner in Commonwealth. Confession: I hate Napoleonics. I hate Age of Sail games at smaller scales. Chalk it up to years of different experiences and biases. The beautiful micro-terrain did draw me in, the two tables intrigued me, and the water piece to move ships between boards made me smile, but what was occurring on it sold me. I ACTUALLY WATCHED MULTIPLE SHIPS DO MULTIPLE ACTIONS! It had a high energy-GM, a high energy assistant, engaged players reacting to the actions on the board.
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| Judges getting trendy, no cap.... even though she's wearing a cap. I'm so old.... |
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| Don't worry guys, Test of Honor won the PELA Thursday afternoon |
A Vikings game based off of the TV show Vikings should have a different energy (Shout out to the guy who killed Ragnar.... just in case he didn't tell you in person during the con) than a Napoleonic wargame, but both seemed welcoming, engaging, and something anyone could walk up to to play and enjoy.
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| Ragnar's Folly |
One final rant: I may be the majority, but the whole picture/handshake thing for the picture is a bit overdone. I have no problem congratulating the GM by handshake, fist bump, bro hug, or interpretive dance, but I rather see the GM, their award, their table, and their support team get in the picture. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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| Train!!!! |
After the judging, Maja and I split up, wandering the con. I hit the vendor hall and part of Wally's Basement.
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| Frostgrave(?) with aquarium plants. |
7pm Thursday was my first Gnome Wars game. For some reason, we were given about half our normal tables, which was fine, as we had a cozy ten-player games.
With the "Gnome King" missing Historicon, we kept things simpler, resorting to my collection of "gnome homes" to create a culturally appropriate gnome village.
It was the first few days of the War of the Wishing Wells, the first time the German Gnomes had invaded the Swiss with their full military. With the armor and ordinance meeting logistical issues, it was up to front line infantry to seize the village on the Holy Shrine of Chucaquatre.
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| Foreign Observers for the League of Gnomes.... Observing |
German and Sikhs had already seized the railway station and farms, and were moving towards the village, the church, and of course, the shrine.
Three units of Swiss defended the town, leaving the fate of the Shrine to some British Marines who were quite far inland.
Germans proceeded to torch most of the farmlands before becoming confused. "Where dd most of the Swiss go?" The appearance of a mysterious convoy provided them inadvertent cover.
The Sikhs and British traded shots, but it was the Vampire and his legions of wolves and rats that dispatched most of the British.
As the Sikhs tried to take advantage of the Vampire's mayhem, the ground gave way! The Swiss Park Rangers had successfully tunneled under the road and surprise attacked the Sikhs. The ensuing melee was horrific, with only the Sikh Officer and one trooper surviving!
The 1st Swiss Militia had also tunneled and also popped out to surprise the advancing Germans... right in front of the mystery convoy!
Meanwhile, League of Gnome Wargivers (Peacekeepers in a Gnomish world) arrived: The French Foreign Legion! They declared the Shrine of Chucaquatre a League of Gnomes Heritage Site and order everyone to vacant the shrine.
The second Sikh unit and surviving British didn't take kindly to the ultimatum, and fired to great effect before retreating.
The vampire, desperate to feed on Gnome blood, was instead met by a barrage from the Swiss Limburger Grenadiers I'll need to go back into the archives and if "Vampire vs Cheese" was a thing in the last 15 years, but the Vampire was sent scrambling to underneath the bridge. It's uncertain if the beast from under the bridge destroyed the vampire , or the vampire simply perish from lack of eating.
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| The Swiss Engineer player insisted in rescuing the lone bunny that fell across the railroad track. |
Friday!
We woke up early for a two-pronged attack Bistro Barberet and Bakery for Maja's mandatory macaroons (and my coffee) and a walk back to the Central Market for breakfast sandwiches. A 10am BLT from them is highly recommended.
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| Car Wars getting swaggy |
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| Muskateers! |
After painting, Maja returned to the room for a required teenager nap, and helped my friend Mike Lung set up his Fistful of Lead -Wasteland Warriors game, "Return to the Forbidden City"
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| The Temple of Sirinx |
Mike had one opening and I jumped in as the no-nonsense Priests of Sirinx. They loved artifacts of the Ancients, and they hated dealing with new people. Easy!
All eight players had trouble searching for artifacts, releasing every wee-beastie, critter, and mutant spider-goat on the board. Despite losing two of my priest early, and my leader bleeding out by a dumpster, I accumulated enough artifacts and met one new person... and killed them, for a respectable showing.
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| Oscar the Gorilla Grouch for the Apocalypse |
I finally woke up Maja and headed for dinner. I led a small group to the Southern Market for the first time. Everyone had a great experience, except for me, as everyone was finished with their food and prepping to go back by the time my meal from the soul food booth was finally ready. Was it good? Oh yeah, but there was definitely a disconnect there. If I had realized the number of folks waiting 20-25 minutes, I may have decided to try another vendor. Full Disclosure: The food was fantastic.
Friday night is Joust Night! Twenty-four participants, three brand-new jousting cloths with the long-needed corrections on them, and in 105 minutes we were done. It was a great mixture
Congrats to Sir Joseph for his win!
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| FINAL: Sir Joseph versus Carter |
Saturday!
Saturday morning, we ventured back over to the Central Market for our reliable Mennonite breakfast sandwiches, only to discover they were out of eggs! If the freakin' Mennonites don't have eggs, how can any of us think about getting by.
Luckily Maja's adapts easily in into a sausage and cheese sandwich (BLT for me), and after Lingonberry refreshers, we headed back for our second round judging together.
With three judges, we probably had about 20 games combined marked down, in the very active 9-11am timeslot, but despite a 60 year age gap between judges, we came to a unanimous consensus on our first PELA, and needed a quick second walk through to compare games to determine the second winner.
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| Hudson River Valley 54mm |
Maja and I traversed back down to the Southern Market, switching roles. My two slices of pizza were more than adequate and Maja order the chicken sandwich from the soul food vendor and had much better success with a quick order. So quick that I grabbed mac 'n cheese to go.
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| Tora! Tora! |
Maja went off to do her final round of judging, leaving me to do more rounds of socializing and shopping. I ultimately went back to volunteer at the Awards desk (which is an incredible Information desk location as well, with it's location at top of the escalator. It was nice to feel helpful to a number of people).
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| Gratuitous Awards Desk Selfie. |
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| Pennsylvania Pete |
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| Modern - Fighting in Chad |
Following through on a promise, we walked down to Sweetish, the Swedish/Scandinavian candy shop. Needless to say, outside of Maja's leftovers from her chicken sandwich and my mac 'n cheese at the end of the night, we were purely powered by candy for the rest of the day.
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| HOT FUZZ!!!!!! |
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| Sherlock Holmes |
Gnome Game!
We did managed to put six or seven tables together for a right-sized game of Game Wars. Borrowing a cloth from Mike, we had the village on green, and a crazy desert wasteland on the tan.
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| The Swiss aren't waiting for German assault. |
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| A mysterious convoy arrives |
I was a bit disappointed that we had only eleven players, only three folks with their own armies, and zero kids in the game. There is a different vibe when you're youngest folks there are 25, but the dudes embraced the crazy vibe in the desert, while the folks in the village played a traditional wargame... with gnomes. Everyone seemed to have a blast, and that's my only concern for each game.
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| First rule of Snail Curling.... we don't talk about Snail Curling. |
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| Vampire vs the Pig... coming soon on VHS |
Sunday!
Sunday I crawled out of bed around 9am, picked up one thing from Wally's and spent about ten minutes in the passive line waiting for a luggage cart before giving up, taking two trips, but moving the car to a closer spot for the second run. We meandered the Amish countryside before grabbing lunch in Reading and going through Pottsville before dropping Maja off at home and I unloaded the car in my apartment. All in all, a fantastic convention:
Overall:
Lancaster Convention Center: After years of doing things, I finally have the lay of the land. Getting things set up can be a nightmare, with the elevators and ramps. Commonwealth is still dark as sin at times, and Hermitage was deafening from Friday morning until Saturday at lunch. I did appreciate the extra lighting for the Commonwealth hallway games (the area with the big window looking down at the vendor hall.
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| Mike's 2nd Fistful of Lead game |
Rant!: Somehow I missed the biggest issue of the con! All of the events put on by clubs on Saturday (a large number) never made it to the convention book! This means my Saturday night Gnome Wars game may have had tickets, but without a listing, people won't look for an event that isn't listed. Mike's Fistful of Lead game had five pre-regs, but no add-ons, because of the omission. Missing events were not listed anywhere at the events desk. Unacceptable!
Swag!
- An Apples to Apple "One with Everything" for $5.
- Some MBA pices (All Maja wanted were Macaroons and the MBA cat statue.
- Howard Hues Ruddy Flesh x2
- Huge Minis - Medium Grit and more flowers.
- Arena of Blood and accompanying deck of cards
- 6x Miscellaneous Brigade Games minis for Pulp.
- Necromunda Magazine #1
- 6 x Foundry figs
- 15x Reaper figs
- 2x Legions of Steel. The Mark III Assault Fiend and Volcano BAP are huge!
- Codex: Space Wolves in French. Maja is a Francophile starting her third year in French in high school. Anything I find in French helps her studies.... Even if they aren't called loups de l'espace
Fall-in! 2024 is up next and is November 1-3 at the Wyndham Resort in Lancaster. We are actively trying to interpret the theme "Horrors of War."
Historicon 2025 will remain at the Lancaster Convention Center, July 16-20, 2025
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