Another July, another Historicon! I'm trying to to type this up Monday morning sore, probably still dehydrated, but otherwise in good spirits after a long and glorious weekend!
Personal stuff to get out of the way: My daughters and their mom recently moved to Upstate New York, but I've had eldest daughter Maja for most of July, as she finishes her social obligations in Pennsylvania (grad parties, filling in for the local volleyball team) as well as taking over my living room. The plan was to leave for Historicon Wednesday, run seven games (5 for me, 2 for Maja), and then drive back Wilkes-Barre to finally hand her off to her mom on Sunday.
We made great time, even if we took to scenic route by way of Reading to use up a gift card to a local frozen yogurt that Maja had gotten years ago.
The heck with price creep with miniatures, froyo is outrageously expensive. I'm assuming tariffs on sprinkles.
We arrived after dinner, got a spot on Level 4 of the attached parking garage and both of us managed to check in registration in one minutes.
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| The army of orange-clad HMGS volunteers eager to serve the oncoming horde. |
Wednesday did have a number of games, all well-attended that I saw. We checked into the hotel, absconded with a barrage cart, and lugged our gaming crates to our permanent location in the Commonwealth Foyer, at the base of the escalator.
Thursday morning: Maja dragged me out of bad to use this thing called the Jim? Maybe it was Fitness Center? Needless to say, the objects are very heavy, and the jogging path goes nowhere!
Thursday I ran two games of Gnome Wars on our trench table, with the Gnome King himself, Jim Stanton running the "Bring Your Own Gnome Army" mega-game at 7pm that night.
After showering, we took a walk over to breakfast at La Dolce Vita with Maja grabbing her favorite macaroons at Bistro Barberet.
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| The Swiss Engineers were not humoring the California demands to more environmental regulations |
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| A few key artillery hits early one, and the defenders became sparse and panicked. |
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| However, the German advanced halted in the craters with the trenches within reacd. |
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| The Sikhs find a hole in the wire... and a lack of pointy hats in one spot of the trenches, and advanced. |
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| The fabled Red Maxx unit reaches the trench, and stiff resistance from the Swiss |
Game one was a success. A unit of Sikhs had seized the end of the trench line, making for an amusing set-up for the afternoon slot. One hot dog and a quick zoom around the dealers later, and I was ready for game two.
For dinner, we kept it close, if not fast, and went to Plough inside the hotel. Rumors of expanded bar hours made many staying in the hotel joyful. Food was good, service erratic, although we amused ourselves watching the upcoming musical act that night pose throughout for what we guessed was social media.
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| She can drive, and still order a hamburger, ketchup only. |
Thursday night I snapped up a bunch of pictures, before settling in as a reinforcement for Jim Stanton's big gnome game.
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| I'll mention this later, but the lighting in some areas seemed far worse than previous years. |
Friday: Hit the gym thing first thing in the morning. It did not hit back as hard. Sent Maja out for something from the French bakery. They were empty before 9. I survived on a breakfast sandwich from the kindness of Next Gen friends. Gone was the trench line, replaced by a motley assortment of sci-fi terrain as Miss Maja and I ran back-to-back games of Fistful of Lead.
I had procured something like 160 West End Star Wars figures from Wally's at Fall-In, and we've been painted about half of them, along with a random assortment of resin cast, 3-D printed, and Amazon packaging materials for new buildings for the town of Carf.
For her first time running the system, she handled the system and seven players well. I tried to keep myself occupied with running the special events on the table and not interrupting her. She got me in-line the first half-hour and we were well set-up for the continuation in my afternoon game.
Lunch was pizza from the place in South Market. Palatable but below average. They've usually been better.
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| The five-year old me screamed to have this all the awards. |
My afternoon game of Fistful of Lead was full and continued the chaos. Between the third rate Star Wars characters, the crew of Firefly, and Space Gnomes, and even Santa Claus, fun was had by all, even after the Gnomish Asteroid Miners kill Megatron and send him tumbling off a building onto his Jawa minions (Hey, it's a generic system... if I've painted it recently, it was on the table!).
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| I mean... why not? |
I do not remember eating dinner... I know Maja ended up Door Dashing Wingstop and being content with the world.
Friday night was our double Joust? I had confirmed our events with Jim, to avoid the pleasant harassment from our own Next Gen team, and the Historicon events coordinator. Maja and I would cover the morning and afternoon session Thursday through Saturday, and I put the Joust under my name 7pm Friday.
About a month ago, I perused the events on Tabletop and happened to notice a second joust, this one under Jim's name at 8pm.
Despite my protests and concerns, nothing was done with this... and we managed a 16-player, kid-heavy tournament in 80 minutes for 7pm, and the 18-player "grown-up" joust, staring at 8:25pm, in just over an hour. I believe our winners were 7 years old and 51, respectively. The dear reader can make their own guess as to which one I actually won!
A good late night of libations with friends later...
Saturday:
....and I still showed up to the gym early to get the lead out and start re-hydrating. A breakfast sandwich from Kom Essa (aka: "The Mennonite Girls" from the Lancaster Central Market) and I was ready to be a fill-in player for Maja's Gnome Wars game on the Old West table, brought up by good friend and contributor to the blog, Mike Lung.
My debut as the Kemper Missouri Medical Militia, was short-lived, as I gleefully took over a side-game with a few younger kids that wanted to play. While the German Gnomes were rushing to save the Crown Prince and his favorite riding bunny from the hangman's noose, Blazing Saddles style, I conducted a search at the far end of the board, looking for the Crown Prince's lost collection of ducks.
That led by my chaotic Fistful of Lead game in the afternoon. More players, definitely fewer figures but more zaniness. My cardinal sin of the convention. This was the game I was holding off using unit cards, deluding myself that I would base the units of the results of the morning game.
Duck Hunt 2025 was only a minor excuse, but I scrambled to assemble basic four-man units for eleven players. Huge shoutout to Jon Lundberg, for getting three younger players next to him and being awesome with them (but seriously, when is Jon not awesome). I owe you a beverage, a meal, and a seat at a table away from (very well-behaved) kids.
I'm still amused that everyone had a good time two copies of the rules were purchased from that game, and NO ONE even came close to achieving the primary objective, retrieving the missing Crown Prince... who was in the unsearched saloon the entire time.
After clean-up, Maja and I wandered down to South Market for chicken sandwiches.... and I staggered upstairs for the greatest 45-minute nap of my life.
While Maja swam in the pool, I wandered back down to play in Jim's big Gnome Wars game, to mostly chill with a beverage or two, but make the big Gnome Wars game debut of the Kemper Medical Militia. Good thing I designed the sheet and didn't hand it out to another player (my Californians and Mormons are mainstays), as I noticed stat typos!
In the end, the Znombies were vanquished, everyone hates the Irish, loves the magic snail, and I may have solved the Znombie curse at the water source.
After clean-up, a luggage cart was obtained, and most stuff was packed into the car. A number of crates and boxes were taken out of the car, as I pondered my Sunday.
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| The Iron Paintbrush was quieter than the Union Band.. |
Having an ex-wife and two teenage daughters meant no schedule was safe. I had pondered bring down some stuff to the free Wally's Basement on Sunday, leave mid-morning, take care of yardwork at my Mom's in the Lehigh Valley, and a drive back home to drop Maja off with her mother by mid-afternoon.
Two corrections: Maja wanted to attend a musical at the local Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre. Maja had been in the previous production, and it would be the last time to see a few friends for at least the summer. Of course I caved.
Let's add that her mother did not come down for the weekend, so I needed to tack on another two hour drive each way to drop Maja off at Newburgh.
Sunday: NOT a gym day, I snuck down at 7:20 to Wally's to see five or six folks already set up. I quickly got my stuff down there, and we didn't leave till 10:45.
The main purpose was to possibly sell, or at least get some info on a number of wooden ship kits that the Aunt gave me to sell from my late Uncle's massive model collection. Got some good info, albeit no bites. I did manage to get rid of a pile of books and stuff, as well as a solid liquidation of unpainted Pulp figures I'll probably get around to using. For not sorting them out, I only needed to fish out about a dozen figures from the pile, so that says more about my choice in purchases than anything.
Ninety minutes later (and a much needed Wawa stop halfway there) we made it to Wilkes-Barre, watched the teen/children workshop production of Descendants, and won the 50/50, which lessened the pain of driving I-84 to Newburgh and back.
Overall:
Lancaster Convention Center: We've been here enough that I know when to do things, and when not to do things, due to pedestrian traffic. I avoid the convention center elevator (that goes from Freedom Hall up to the 3rd floor) like the plague, but off hours, I had a few straight shots from the 3rd floor to the dealer hall without any stops. My old feet were grateful for the few steps avoided.
My previous complaints about lighting palled in comparison to the big games in the hotel lobby. Even mid-day the lighting for the Test of Honor, 55 Days in Peking, and a WW2 game was horrible. The flood lamps made things bearable in the darker Commonwealth foyers but I was not a fan of the ones in the hotel lobby. I think a roaring campfire in the center would illuminate better, and one taller attendee walking through could cause an inadvertent eclipse on the table. For the quality of the events, it felt disrespectful, despite the initial intent.
Hotel: The Marriott is great, if you can get in. Maja swam everyday, I used the gym, and there were not issues with the room.
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Parking: I was in the covered section of Level 4 until Saturday night, when I found a spot right next to the shack at the exit. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Level 4 has a step for the elevator, not a cut out ramp. Minor inconvenience, but my full cart Wednesday night, meandered down to 3 to used the elevator.
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Tournaments: Never my strong suit, but they filled up nicely, even before the alleged 40k tournament took place.
On-site Food: I know things are getting expensive elsewhere when nine bucks for a hot dog and diet Pepsi didn't make me flinch, and the beer prices around here have become equally obscene. I did hear one story about the Meatloaf dinner "Borg ship" that I won't relate, but there was at least one.
Vendors: Biggest complaint? Our bulk base sellers were not at the con. I managed to get a sufficient horde of them from Dave's Baggage Train for a bit more, but I think everyone wants to run around with a Chinese container holding bases in it.
Rant: I enjoyed the historical re-enactors, but could the Union Band not start playing the moment my daughter started explaining the rules to new players?
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| These guys were much quieter in the vendor hall.... |
Swag:
- The aforementioned pound of 1" bases from Dave's Baggage Train.
- A bottle of Zap-a-Gap (plus a surprise appearance from my friend Dave working that vendor's table, whom I haven't seen in over 20 years)
- A unit of the new Hawaiian Gnomes from Brigade
- The Hawaiian Gnome Pineapple Catapult
- 15 of the American Bears, plus a truck from Billy's Toy Box
- Five of the old Pondsmith/Eureka Teddy Bears on hobby horses from Wally's
- The original Critter Commandos from Wally's
Maja was content with her macaroons, some Bad Squidoo figures from Cotton Jim, her theatre tickets, and hanging out with dear old Dad.
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| Early Tournaments |
Historicon 2026 remains at the Lancaster Convention Center, July 15-19, 2026.
Thanks for running some Fistful of Lead games. -Jaye
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