8:07 PM
Bel Air, MD (May 11, 2009) -- The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society East (www.HMGS.org) will present the Society’s lifetime achievement award -- the Jack Scruby Award - to Todd Fisher of Chicago, IL at the 25th annual HISTORICON ™ 2009 conference to be held July 16 – 19, 2009 at the Lancaster Host Resort and Conference Center in Lancaster, PA. The Jack Scruby Award is presented bi-annually by the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society East (HMGS) for distinguished service to the hobby of historical miniatures gaming. HMGS is a non-profit educational organization that promotes the study of military history through historical miniatures gaming, seminars, grants, and conventions.
The Scruby Award is named after the late Jack Scruby, one of the first to make a critical contribution to the growth and promotion of the hobby and industry of historical miniatures gaming in the U.S. The award recognizes individuals who exhibit the same selfless service and incomparable contributions to the hobby as exemplified by Jack Scruby.
Todd Fisher has contributed to many different fields of historical miniatures gaming. An avid wargamer and dedicated Napoleonic scholar, Todd has organized and assisted in organizing a number of game conventions, the most notable is Little Wars, sponsored by the HMGS Midwest chapter, which Todd was also instrumental in organizing. Perhaps Todd’s most famous achievement was the Emperor’s Headquarters (EHQ) that he started in 1990, a wargaming super-shop that gamers drove hundreds of miles to visit, and which undoubtedly inspired many of the successful historical shops in the country today. Todd also formed the Emperor’s Press, which published not only wargaming rules, but also many serious scholarly works by respected historians, including Christopher Duffy. Todd was editor and publisher of Napoleon Magazine and has served as a retailer, publisher, and manufacturer, producing a number of historical figure lines under license. He has also been involved in the artistic end of the hobby, the art of game design. Todd has been closely associated with the various editions of Empire, and was central to the development of the new Revolution and Empire rules, in addition to designing the popular medieval rule set Revenge.
Todd is the Executive Director of the Napoleonic Historical Society, and in that capacity, he has led tours of the Napoleonic Sights of Europe for over thirty years (he was one of six original inductees in the International Napoleonic Society.) He has authored several books on the Napoleonic period, including The Napoleonic Wars, which is used as the textbook for many graduate courses, written articles that have appeared in international journals, and was the chief historical advisor on the Peabody award-winning “Napoleon” for Public Broadcast System (PBS).
“Todd’s incredible accomplishments in the field of historical miniatures gaming -- from conventions, education and retailing to publishing and game design -- make him an outstanding recipient of the Jack Scruby Award,” said Pete Panzeri, president of HMGS.
Elected to the 2009 HMGS Legion of Honor are Don Perrin and Philip Viverito whom will be inducted during the Scruby Awards Dinner, Friday night at HISTORICON ™ 2009. The Legion of Honor inducts individuals for their significant personal accomplishment in one or more fields of historical miniature gaming.
Don Perrin of Williams Bay, Wisconsin is publisher of Historical Miniature Gamer Magazine and president of True North Miniatures. He was also the publisher and editor for James Manto's Men-at-Arms medieval wargame. Don served with the Canadian Army for 10 years, retiring as a Captain in the Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Currently, Don works with the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre of Canada to train Corps Headquarters in NATO, the European Union and the African Union for peacekeeping operations. He has published eight novels and has authored or edited a host of card games, miniatures games and role-playing games, including the Dragonlance d20 Campaign Setting, the Star Trek Original Series Collectible Card Game, Uncle Duke's Napoleonette Rules for 15mm Napoleonics and the Sovereign Stone Role Playing Game. Don has also served as president of the adventure game industry's trade organization GAMA, and has consulted for games and toys with Hasbro, Mattel, Origin Systems and Scenario.
Currently, Don devotes his time to printing other peoples fine miniatures games (such as Test of Battle Games' Command Decision: Test of Battle, LMW's G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T and Holy Hack, Sam Mustafa’s Might & Reason and OGDW's General Quarters), through his company Quality Print-On-Demand. He helped organize many conventions, including HISTORICON, Little Wars, REDCON, and RockCon, is publisher of the award winning Historical Miniature Gamer magazine, North America's only historical miniatures magazine, and continues to promote and play historical miniature games.
Philip Viverito of Tonawanda, New York is a prolific writer, historian, game-rules author, game-master, figure painter, master terrain maker, event organizer, and HMGS supporter. He began creating model buildings and relief maps focusing on various historical periods from Classical times to modern times model in junior high school and was so successful that he was invited to lecture on historical topics to other classes. After graduating Niagara County Community College and then Niagara University with a BA in history, he began building larger, award winning dioramic presentations for gaming conventions. He was contracted to do an architectural display for Amherst Historical Museum, Amherst, New York. Later he designed and created a series of seven miniature buildings depicting the development of The French Castle for The Old Fort Niagara Association, Youngstown, New York. In addition, he assisted in cataloging photographs for the Association's librarian. This led to other photographic assignments for the Fort. He was also responsible for the care and preservation of the Canadian Power Company's photographic archives and collections, eventually creating a photographic history of the company that was donated to the Canadian Government collections. Other commercial endeavors include photographic work for the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian and the Niagara Falls Public Library Local History Department. Phil and other authors have their game systems, scenario books and The Classical Hack Newsletter published through LMW Works, which he co-founded.
Phil has traveled extensively through out the U.S. and Canada putting on demonstrations and seminars using his models as a backdrop, bringing history to life in miniature. Phil is noted for his speaking engagements as a former Smithsonian Instructor, having participated in The Legacy of Hannibal Program at the Tunisian Embassy in Washington, D.C. His other speaking engagements include the Origins War College, Buffalo School System D’Vouville Campus and The Biblical Archeological Society (Buffalo).
“We congratulate Don and Phil on their accomplishments and welcome them into the Legion of Honor,” said Pete Panzeri, president of HMGS.
HISTORICON is the largest historical miniatures gaming convention in the United States. Each year, thousands of avid gamers descend on what the New York Times has described as the "mother of all war gaming conventions." The event features thousands of attendees (adults and children), hundreds and hundreds of games, the world's biggest war game hobby shop, painting events, and a special awards celebration. Other HMGS events include the annual “Fall In” convention to be held Nov. 6 – 9, 2009 in Gettysburg, PA, “Cold Wars”, to be held March 11 – 14, 2010 in Lancaster, PA, and “Historicon 2010” to be held in Baltimore, MD next July.
For more information on HMGS, visit www.hmgs.org.
For more information on HISTORICON, visit www.HISTORICON.org.
1:05 PM
I went to HISTORICON last week, from Wednesday to Sunday-- alas, no pictures are contained with this narrative, but I assure you somebody out there will be posting some soon. I will give credit where it is due and link to other photos where needed-- just pass a mouseclick over the photo.
HISTORICON was my first HMGS convention since FALL IN! 2007, where I had been turned off of miniatures gaming for quite some time after the collapse of TRIADCON from within. In summary, I have to say HISTORICON was an EXCELLENT convention, a wonderful time from start to finish, and I thoroughly enjoyed the efforts of Bob Giglio and his crew of stalwarts: Neil Brennan, Frank Preziosi, Duncan Adams, JT Thomas, Wilbur Grey, Jeff and Monica Hobbs, Kathryn Plamback, Don Perrin, Jim McWee and many others should be singled out for their contributions to a wonderful show. Not to mention the on site staff that were up to their normal high standard of efficiency and helpfulness.
Having arrived in the afternoon on Wednesday, my activity was limited to visiting with friends, kibitzing, and solving the heady problems of philosophy in the lobby lounge with Bob and Cleo Leibel, Otto Schmidt and the occasional stalwart that drifted in and out of our wine-soaked conversations. "Sitting around and BSing with other learned pals" might be my favorite convention activity of all time, so I rate this evening as among the highlights of the convention. The next day started out late-- a wine soaked 230 AM bedtime will do that to you. I wandered about for a while, having grabbed a ticket for an evening game, whining my way into a boardgame (zombies), visiting the painting area and then showing up for dinner (late) with Otto, Bob, Cleo, and a family of adoptees that Otto had coerced to the convention. A most engaging supper, and off to my first "formal" game of the con, the battle of Ulsan. this was a fairly even contest between Japanese and Russian pre-dreadnoughts, using the wonderful Old Glory Shipyards Dreadnought line (the ship models weren't 100 per cent accurately representing the battle line, but the Japanese 'stand-ins' retained the flavor of the ships they were to represent).
I was in the role of the Russian Admiral, Jessen, flying the flag of the ROSSIYA. From the commencement of the battle, the Rossiya was under heavy, continuous fire from multiple ships. In an odd reversal of historical roles, it was the ROSSIYA that suffered a fate similar to the RURIK, the weakest ship in our line. I kept rolling "Special Damage" which ended up with a Captain dead.. the ship went through 8 captains during the course of the fight. The running joke was that by the time the battle was over, the laundry officer was running the ship!
The Russians won decisively, having no ships immobilized (this was close, though) and the Japanese were down to one ship left afloat. I had a wonderful time with this game, and commend the GM Mike Miller (as well as my fellow players on BOTH sides) for making this a fun time.
Friday dawned, I did some local things, and did my first big trawl around the dealer area. I got pigeonholed by Howard to help with his big pulp game (unexpectedly held on a FRIDAY, not a Saturday, harrumph). I promised I'd try, but got their late due to other commitments. Sigh. He really didn't need me, anyway. :-D One interesting acquaintance made in the dealer's area was a man named William, clearly a Mennonite, who had started a miniature gaming company in his community, and was selling Age of Reason/Seven Years War figures. Yes, he had heard about the Amish Rake Fight, and he thought it was hilarious, which shows you that should never assume anything. I promised I'd send him some photos, so please, if you got his card, get in touch with me.
Having been released from obligations to Howard, I did some more shopping, had some conversations, painted a bit, and then grabbed a ticket for the evening game. This was for CALLIOPE, a game that has always intrigued me, but alas, I was charmed when I saw FUPRIKT'S ALESIA or HOW TEDDY ROOSEVELT SAVE RURITANIA, and had to weasel my way in there. This was a giant GASLIGHT BATTLES game in a very small space. I played Victorian Germans with their giant spider walker, three companies of troops and flesh golems. You know, the typical troop mix. I slaughtered the Ruritanians in front of me, but it was to no avail, we couldn't advance through the densely packed town nearly fast enough. We lost but only by a narrow margin. I sat in on some friendly (and UNfriendly) banter about the "big subject", moving HISTORICON to Baltimore. This was much discussed in the evening, at the bar.
The next meeting was the membership meetings, which I did not avoid. I was rather touched to receive a very nice Saint Petersburg trophy for my years as a con director, and a HMGS lifetime membership, complete with secret recognition coin.
I got into Pete Frechtling's excellent A DAY AT THE RACES, LEONARDO? which may have been my favorite game this convention. This is a very silly game, featuring Renaissance era tanks racing each other with a little bit of sabotage from the sidelines. Reminds me of the old Le Grand Cirque games. I lost in dramatic style, trying to ram the guy who tore the guts out of my steam tank from behind.
I had time for a quick meal, and then got to sleaze my way into THAT'S A BUNCH OF BOLSHEVIK: SOMEWHERE IN RUSSIA, 1920. Great fun indeed, when you can squeeze a Russian Revolution game somewhere into the mix. The Rules were RED FURY, a sort of variant of BLITZKRIEG COMMANDER for the RCW. They played very well and could be condensed into two pages.
After being THOROUGHLY defeated by a very good opponent, I ambled upstairs and got involved in the bar room convos about the HISTORICON move. I avoided being too argumentative, and had a fun time BSing with people I rarely see.
Next day I packed up, did a final run through flea market and vendor area, and thus pointed my nose southward. I had a great time-- one thing I noticed was the stress level has greatly receded in the last year, and there are many changes. People are friendlier and more mellow at these things, which is EXACTLY the convention I wish to attend. Good show, my fellow enthusiasts, I am proud of you.
4:05 PM
Slaves of the Elephant God
As Relayed by one Howard Whitehouse
Here's a short, incomplete and confused version of what happened. I am hoping that Walt, Nigel and Bruce can add their own impressions, as I know bugger all about what they were doing ---
It's been a tradition since 2002 (I think) that a group of us-- myself plus a varying cast of Table Directors, of whom Bruce Pettipas, Nigel Clarke and Walt O'Hara have been present at most-- to run a pulp mega-game at Historicon. The set up has been four tables, each showing a different location, running at the same time. These serve for the first two scenes (possibly with a bit of moving scenery between scenes). The director is free to run his table any way he sees fit, and with any changes or omissions to the rules he likes. In fact, I don't think Walt knows the rules. 1 It doesn't matter at all. Each scene lasts 30-45 minutes, so it has to be run at lightning speed, and turn sequence is often ignored by players shouting, pushing in, and doing whatever they like whenever they like. Indeed, I take the chairs away, so nobody can sit and relax during "the take".
At the end of each scene, the director recounts to all what has happened at his table. Then we resume, some players going to different tables (because they have a plane, or, like Wooster, they are lost), some continuing where they are.
Bruce took the marketplace at Chunderpore, since I'd just built the city for him (cash was involved). Things blew up, elephants ran amok, and Kimball O'Hara's 2 intelligence agents hunted cultists and vice versa. Was Fu Manchu there? I don't know.
Nigel is an old jungle hand, so he took a rain forest (where? Malaya? Burma? Burbank?) location. There were local caveman-type aboriginals, a crashed plane and a zombie Amelia Earhart (Nigel just made her up on the spot), and a jungle lord character called, er, Tarzam. Most of the loud fun I heard was the interaction between legendary film-maker Erich Von Schnitzel (Hoochie Coochie Girls of 1935) and his star, the always glamorous Roxy Smothers, filming an "art film" called Naked She-Devil: Temptress of the South Seas. There were lots of shower scenes involved this pair are largely responsible for bringing in the Hayes Code. Nayland Smith of the Burma police was there as well, and possibly LA PI Phillip Marlowe, in trench coat and parked car. And Biggles flew in, because he likes to land his plane in dense jungle.
Walt's scene involved a lamasery in Tibet. It was loud, and Fu Manchu was definitely present. Indiana Jones, as well. I don't know what happened. Walt's GMing philosophy is to get caffeinated and make things up at 100 mph. He's a genius, actually. 3
There were several sets of Nazis, as is so often the case. I don't know where they were, mostly. 4
My own scene was on the North-west frontier, where King of the Khyber Rifles, now a Colonel , was played by the same gamer who had portrayed him as a young subaltern the night before in my "Science versus Pluck" game. He came up the same valley to face his old adversary Mahmud Khan, and knocked in the door of the Pathan's tower just as he had in 1897. They joined forces, however, to face the Nazi menace, and drove off the Hun with excellent shooting and sharp steel. Jeeves and Wooster asked directions, and found there was no BP station anywhere in the vicinity. 5
Okay, so if I'd listened more carefully, I'd know what happened in everyone else's scene.
In my second scene the Khyber Rifles and those damned Jerries (now reinforced by Zeppelintruppen) went with Mahmud Khan (not a bad chap for a lifelong enemy) to a frontier hillfort where evil, ungodly goings on were offending the decency of the Pathan tribes. A lot of people knew of it, since Phil Marlowe was parked outside, inconspicuous in his 1932 Ford (I can't find a model for a Plymouth). Well, not as inconspicuous as in LA, but there ya go. I think Roxy Smothers must have had a beef with him, since she immediately ran her Rolls Royce into his parked car. Von Schnitzel started filming. Soviet agents and Nazis began fighting, just because. Nayland Smith arrived in a van, with the eastern dancing girl Karamanieh strapped to the roof. Nobody seemed to think this was odd.
The tribesmen in the fort watched (some taking photos) as the crazy westerners chase done another about, and tried to commit vehicular homicide all over the place. However, the no-nonsense King rammed down the gates (as he seems to, a lot) and the Khyber Rifles stormed in. As did Nayland Smith and his pals, and those sneaky Soviets. But, when the bayoneting was finished and the Zeppelintruppen had rappelled (curses!) into the tower where the cultists weren't meeting (Ach Du Lieber! Too late again!) it was Zelda the script girl/US treasury agent who was able to drag the cult priest out. Using her chief weapon (her flat and tedious monotone voice) she forced him to tell of a great gathering at the island of Rikki-Tikki where .. under the belching volcano ... the cult would bring forth the great Elephant God himself, to wreak destruction (etc etc ... the usual stuff).
After a break (in which Hercule Poirot apparently became distracted by something shiny and forgot to come back, for which he later apologized) we had a grand finale under the volcano. All the cultists and Nazis (who had gone beyond a mere anthropological interest by this time) were arraigned at the base of the volcano, with a human sacrifice. A beautiful maiden? Well, no. It was Biggles, the ace British pilot. I have no idea what they were thinking (although, since there is no sex in the Biggles stories, who knows?) 6
Anyway, we ran this at even more breakneck speed than usual, with Nigel running one side of the board, Walt the other and myself taking the middle. People ran about and crashed things. Zeppelintruppen landed on the crater rim. There was fist-fighting up there, with Phil Marlowe. Miss Wonderley tried out for a screen role. The Khyber Rifles shot holes in the zeppelin (imaginary, but hovering over the volcano. Roxy ran off in Biggles plane with Dr Petrie (Nayland Smith's cohort), giving her a chance to marry a doctor. Lots of cultists were killed. The volcano gave every sign of erupting (which gave warning to players to finish up now or die). Most of the players had the sense to escape as the volcano boomed and the Elephant God itself appeared.
End movie as heroes run for safety and the screen is covered in lava and smoke.
I always end the story by having the players tell what they were trying to do, and how it worked out for them. Mr Guttman (from The Maltese Falcon) reported that, although he was trapped on an island which must sink beneath the waves and cause a tsunami, he still felt there was an opportunity for profitable business here.
The Oscar went to young Michael, a regular these last three or four years, whose heroic portrayal of Short Round (bravely surviving a personal combat with Fu Manchu) was worthy of the award. 7
Notes from the Tibetan Director:
1) Just enough to get by.. I believe you call this the "frantic version" for convention play.
2) No relation.
3) Aw Shucks... just doing muh bit. BTW, the phrase is "Drink a lot of coffee and wait for the magic to happen"
4) The S.S. Expedition to Tibet started at the Lamasery and stayed there in Act 2. The Gestapo started in Tibet and were replaced by Biggles when it became clear I was having a Nazi pile up in tibet. The Bolsheviks, as well, started in Tibet and were sent to Jalallabad. To be replaced by a very confused Jeeves and Bertie.
5) In fact, Bertie drove Algy's beloved Bentley into a coolie pack full of Nitro Glycerin, which made a very stunning impact on the car's front end. They debated the moral concept of boosting a handy Ford Model T truck for a solid turn or two before heading out at high speed.
6) Biggles, by the by was sporting a spot-on Gary Cooper accent... which caused for some uninentional hilarity for those who are in the know. Imagine John Wayne playing Raffles, and you get the idea.
7) Michael won this award because of Short Round's incredible luck in resisisting Fu's hypnotism (twice) and then having the presence of mind to act hypnotized so he could free Marian from a fate worse than death! Yeah, Michael!!
1:18 AM
The gift of Gab, Whitehouse, Gladiators, and Sunday kid's stuff
When you're painted and left on the Airsoft range,
And the part-time staff come out to clean up for next day's,
Jest find your car keys and head home 'fore it rains
And pretend to teh Internets that you're a soldier. -- Grant Whitley
Saturday dawned with a hearty breakfast (brunch really) of Eggs Benedict and coffee. I was tired from the night before, and decided for once, I could let a membership meeting go by without me. I kicked about in the dealers' room, almost giving in to the siren song of this advertisement:
Who could resist such high pressure advertising?
As is usual for a HISTORICON, I got cajoled by Howard Whitehouse to be an assistant director for his Pulp Adventures game, Astounding Tales! I'm a sucker for whining and sniveling, it always gets me right here, so I agreed to help.
 | Better Slideshow, more and better piccies! |
For those of us who are unused to Howard's Astounding Tales, you know that the structure is simple but the texture is quite complex. The game is on the surface a "skirmish" game, but it really is a low-grade RPG setting. Howard runs his convention games as movie sets, where each table referee is an assistant director helping to make the main movie happen. In this case, the "movie" was SLAVES OF THE ELEPHANT GOD, a fictional movie set in four sets, the Jalalabad Marketplace (with a strangely phallic looking minaret), The Northwest Frontier, The Jungle, and a Tibetan lamasery. I ran the Tibetan table, which featured (of course!) Fu Manchu and his deadly minions.
Fu Manchu (pictured) this fellow did the evil Warlord justice!
Some local Warlord thugs did his bidding, as well as the llamas at the monastery. Into this mix came Biggles the famous pilot, The Indiana Jones family (Indy, Henry Jones, Short Round and Marian), The Tibetan SS expedition, the Gestapo, and the Bolshevik Spies. They were all investigating the mysterious idol of the Elephant God. Fu Manchu sent his deadly minions out to interfere with the groups. A fierce battle ensued. Indiana and Marion were captured. Short Round infiltrated Fu's group and released them. Biggles fought with the bad guys, who captured Ginger.. who got released again. Henry Jones (Indy's dad) got captured by thugs. Things were looking dire for the Jones team when it became... Act 2! We did a table switch for a few teams.. I sent out the Bolshies and the Gestapo and brought in Clark Savage, Jr. (aka Doc), whose dad knew Henry Jones back in the day, and Jeeves and Wooster, just wondering the Hindu Kush looking for a petrol station.
Patrick Wilson volunteered to be a standin stooge for me.. and since he had so many cool hats I took him up on it. A wonderful job.
Things picked right up in the Second Act... Fu acted inscrutable, Clark helped out the Jones family, Bertie acted lost and got his car blown up. Fu disappeared at the very end when it looked like the good guys were winning. The scene shifted to a very speedy denouement at the Island Volcano of Riki-tiki, where, of course, the volcano blew up, the Elephant God emerged to plague the world, and every beat feet out of there before the island sank below the waves. A fun little game. You have to be on your toes with this system, and keep the action CONSTANTLY moving-- the game is partly improv comedy, partly a test of trivial knowledge, and oh yes, kinda sorta a RPG game. I love it.
The game ended, and we all (the TriaDCon planning committee) went out to dinner at Lapps. It had been a while since I had been to Lapps, but it hasn't changed much. They still make a wicked chicken corn chowder. Andy had a bombshell to drop that we'll discuss when we get more details. We compared notes and discussed issues. And we had corn chowder.
Karen thinks: I love hanging out with professional competitive eaters. They are so hawt.
I had to get back to get into a chariot racing game (one of my favorite minis style events). It turned out it had morphed into a gladiator fighting game using the Arena Rules. I liked this game, but maybe would have enjoyed it more with fewer people and less of them shouting in my face under the influence of beer. Oh well, I had a headache.
| Cool Slideshows! |
They seemed upset at "the turtle" and ganged up on him. Towards the end, I implored the child across from me for death.. the shouting was a bit much. The young lad that I had pulled a fast one on in the Aachen game the previous day dropped by to say hello.
Hey Mr. Traitor.. YOU SUCK!
Even at this late hour (Saturday night), there were still lots of games going on. Greg Whitaker (below) had run several rounds of Viking Looters, the game that Pirate Raiders comes from.
Mark Fastoso was running one of his Sword and the Flame games, late Saturday..
There was a preponderance of cowboy games as a secondary theme...
And one thing I liked was the REAL SCALE Pulp Adventures game, called "The Shrink Ray"
I didn't party too hard in the bar like I have in shows past.. I was tired enough. I did end up talking with some friends until late, but at least I didnt' wake up with a headache the next day.
SUNDAY DAWNS
Whoops, we haven't shot the obligatory "Massive Vendor's Room Shot" that everyone takes at HISTORICON. Here you go.
There you go, tracking right to left. Glad we got that out of the way. For my money,and it was for my money, at that.. the Vendor Hall was only so so for me. There wasn't much new. I spent my money mostly on the Gaming Camp supplies, rather than anything personal, except for some reference books. Having the A/C fail put a "damper" on things... even walking calmly through the area had me drenched in sweat. (which wasn't the vendor's fault, to be sure)
From the "This Hobby has Plenty of Shiny Young Faces in It" Dept. Games for Kids and the Adults they bring with them:
Sunday seems to be getting focused on games for the youngsters, and I couldn't be more delighted. I love throwing games for kids and I love watching all the clever stuff that other people do along the same lines. Here's Jim McCourt's awe-inspiring "Red Five Going In" (Z-733) Star Wars based game, featuring ships he handcrafted out of wood. This guy is a genius.
And of course, the game that started the trend, Mark McGlaughlin's Princess Ryan's Space Marines, a longtime favorite of Sunday Mornings.
And Duncan Adams' BUCK ROGERS AND THE SECRET LABORATORY (Z-196), featuring recast flat figures from commercial Buck Rogers figures from the 1930s! Very cool stuff. I thought I saw Peter Card playing this..
Mr. Todd Harland-White has also run his "Teddy Bear Picnic" rules for a few years now, and this year, he had a wonderful Western theme with cowboy teddy bears.
Not a bad effort... I am inspired!
Sunday seems a good time to try something a bit wacky, or in large scale..
Here's Chris Weuve playing a raw-ther large scale PURSUIT OF THE GOEBEN game in mega 1:1200 scale.
Having hit the dealer's room one last time, and shaken Otto's hand farewell (thank you, roomie!) I bid Historicon farewell and nosed my ancient vehicle southward for a nice easy ride home down 30, to 15, to Frederick and points South. It was an easy ride.. but I was exhausted. Historicon wears me out!
If I have taken a few impressions away with me, I'd have to say this was a remarkably apolitical, easygoing convention. MANY thanks to all the contentious individuals for leaving it home. There was a dearth of nasty gossip, and that's the way I like it. I felt more charged up about HMGS than I have been for a while-- I had been in a slow spiraling burnout for a good bit of the last two years but I'm beginning to get enthusiastic again. I want to break out the paint, I want to finish off a few projects that have languished out of apathy. Thank you to all the staff and participants of HISTORICON 2007, you helped recharge my batteries.
And to Bob Giglio, a job well done, sir.
NOTES:
Additional Photo sets
Mr TankGuy1's HISTORICON SLIDE SHOW
6:49 AM
Aachen Killing Time, Dreadnoughts, Shopping, etc.
I was cajoled into playing a game of SOLDAT Friday morning. The GMs.. Andy Turlington, Tim Goodlett, and Rich Low, wanted me to play the role of commando infiltrators trying to wipe out an enemy HQ dressed in German uniforms...The situation was dire enough for me to make a comic out of it. Click on the following thumbnails to view, in a left to right sequence.
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This was a blast. If he wasn't camera-shy, I would have immortalized the expression on the commander of the bunker that I wiped out in the course of the game.. you mean, you weren't German????? I fear he didn't take it well.
As we were in the lobby, I had a chance to schmooze a bit while we waited on the turns. Here's our illustrious President doing the GM Help Desk thing that he does.
Some nice games were being run on Saturday, including large scale Star Wars (below)
And Demolition Derby.. who says this hobby is greying?
And a larger scale Guadacanal?? game
It looked too stodgy and dignfied for me.
... and a very nice "Sword in Africa" presentation.
I even bumped into some guys playing the new TIDES OF IRON by Fantasy Flight. It looks a wee bit TOO much like "Axis and Allies: Miniatures" or on of the Command and Colors games for me (all of which I have) for me to seriously ponder sinking any money into it.
It was nice to see the TRIADCON displays done by Otto Schmid. They stood out (and up) above the competing pile o' flyers. We have done right by the convention this year, when it comes to advertising in advance, I think. We also got into the Historicon and WBC books.
Young Dylan Schuler, who had given Brian Whitaker such a tremendous hand running pirate games for the Va. Rennaissance Faire crowd, now is running the game at Historicon! Mostly unaided! Sniff! Nice to see the youth of today taking up the torch from a previous generation. (F-688 Pirate Raiders, in the Lobby)
Speaking of passing the torch metaphors.. I really loved this game put on by the young Logan Weiss with some assistance from his brothers. It was a sort of pulpy King Kong game- Kong: the Ninth Wonder of the World! (F242), set up in the lobby. The Empire State building was very clever.
Our hobby is very fortunate to have young fellers like Dylan and Logan around to remind us stodgy older types about the good old days of Sense of Fun and Spirit of Play.
I went out to lunch (anywhere that wasn't serving pork, thanks!), and got back around 1430.. again, I seem to have missed a major shift change for games going on. Fine with me, I need to get some shopping done for my upcoming Gaming Camp at Saint Stevens and Saint Agnes School. I got some more lilliputions in the flea market.. I see a really crappy paint job coming on in the near future!!! I got into the Dealer's area about twenty minutes before closing and bought another pack of hex tiles for the Lilliput game.
Dinner was nothing-- just Lancaster Host fodder-- brisket right off of the grill. Yummy stuff, but the rain storm kind of ruined dining on the veranda.
Friday night at 7, I played in Leo Walsh's COLONIAL NAVAL ACTION (F-148), again in the show room, using Age of the Dreadnought rules. I teamed up with Mark McGlaughin (designer of Wellington, Kutuzov, and Princess Ryan's Space Marines), and we played our veddy veddy British fast cruiser section in grand theatric style.
Click on the picture above for a slideshow, then hit the back button to return here.
Mark and I posited the idea that there are three kinds of people in this world. The Good French, whom we are allied with, the Bad French, whom we are shooting at, and Britons. Harrumph! Hear Hear! Have some port. We did rather well-- I was in the lead heavy cruiser. We closed with the enemy, got pounded by shot, but managed to get a torpedo into the head of their dreadnoughts squadron, sending it to the bottom. The fellows out in the middle made a giant of cha cha line of naval gunfire but somehow, our side sank more than their side. Rule, Brittannia!
Friday night was my one night to stay up late and drink beers. The bar seemed subdued, and clearly more people were interested in playing games in the bar than the usually boozy blarney. Another 3AM bedtime. Oy!
