"How was your Historicon?" Topic

I did 3 Napoleonic games and 2 Wars of Oz

Waterloo, Asterlitz, 1813

Looks fun!

I enjoyed my first trip back Historicon since 2018. As Lancaster is my birthplace (although I've not lived there for half a century), it is interesting to see how it has changed from so many years ago….back on topic…

Overall, facility was nice (although I'm not a fan of the parking fees) but it was very convenient to stay all day as good food places were within easy walking distance. Overall, clean and decently kept space. I was a Wally's Basement "hero," selling (well almost giving away) everything I brought. This $$ was quickly spent on the vendor hall…

And that brings up my biggest quibble, and likely not a new one: I thought the purpose of Wally's Basement was to sell your "gently used" stuff…instead, I saw people selling entire stock-lists of current items that could be bought in the vendor hall. In other words, directly competing with the vendors. I'm not talking about those one or two unopened boxes of troops we never got around to using, I'm talking entire stock-lists…as well as people selling their own systems, again in direct competition with the vendors. I don't think that's the point of WB, and it causes some significant discontent with the vendors, and I believe that should be addressed….

But otherwise, a good con, and well done to the volunteers. Thanks Historicon!

Why spend at least $600 USD for a vendor table, when you can set up in flea market? Also out of State sellers in the vendor area have to deal with the sales tax collector. Iirc the flea market does not. It may have changed since my 19 straight years of going to the show. lol, added one in Fredericksburg to make an even 20.
We always set up in vendor hall and never in flea market.

I ran three games. All starting at noon. Thursday and Friday games went great, both were full and I squeezed in an extra player. Saturday not so great. I only had 3 registered players show up. I wonder if this had to do with the club games not making it into the PEL due to error. I was able to run down to the events desk and find a fourth player. They seemed to enjoy the game, so I was happy in the end.

We got stuck with a single King room so one of us had to sleep on the sofa bed. Hopefully next year its back to two Queens.

Also, the flea market issue is beating a dead horse. A horse that was beaten once, buried, and dug up to beat some more. I know exactly which person you're talking about, he's there every year without fail. If things were going to change, they would've by this point.

I thought the games missing yet played in one early Saturday was some unscheduled game, not until evening heard 2 game masters talking Hawks games were not listed.
Also had signed for a game first thing Saturday but it seems not to have been set up. Someone else was looking for tje same game without success either so bailed out and went to what thought was that unscheduled game I knew was going to be played.
All in all still a fun successful weekend for me.

I had a great convention. Ran 4 games and played in 3. There was a glitch in the Con book vs the online Guidebook, and a problem of missing games in the Con book. Also heard from a friend that at least one game had registered for 8 players but 24 or so people showed up with tickets. More attention needs to be paid to getting this right before the convention. Rumor has it HMGS is going to a new online game registration system for Fall In.

But again, overall I give it a 8.5 out of 10.

I think it might be time to drop the convention books. Not only are they probably a big expense to produce, but having it online means it can be updated very close to the convention date. They just fill up the recycle bin the minute the con is over.

Perhaps a projector screen by events registration and a few of the HMGS owned laptops people could browse on in an emergency, but 99.9% of people have a cell phone these days.

Convention was most enjoyable, as usual. However, lots of empty spaces in the dealer hall and lots of empty tables on Saturday afternoon.

I assisted Cotton Jim and was worn out at the end of the day. But, it was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

I had a good time. Ran 3 short demos on Friday and Saturday afternoons. I agree that the Hawks area was downright cold, even wearing jeans.

The bathrooms seemed less dirty, either fewer people using them or more frequent cleanings, I can't say. But I didn't see the cleaners at all, bad timing I guess.

I wasn't happy about the organization saying parking was free with the voucher, then upon arriving finding out that the Steinmann garage was full price – naturally the garage attached to the convention center/hotel was constantly full.

I've noticed a trend that seems to be continuing, namely that of fewer and fewer games in what used to be prime gaming time: 7 to 11pm on Friday and Saturday nights. Its downright lean on games as compared to say 10 years ago. Are the gamemasters mainly older now and don't want to stay up that late? I know the evening games my son and I run 7-11pm have had weak attendance when we run in the evenings, with afternoon games being better. Also it seems like more 9am games… again, not sure why.

I noticed this trend among miniatures games at Origins too, not just Historicon.

We had a blast! Been going for 20 years and it was one of the better ones.

TSD101, I disagree with you. I like having the convention book. I look at convention books that I have acquired over the years and it lets me see how many vendors showed up, what games were run and what the theme of the convention was. Can you do the same online? For the current convention you can but not for prior conventions. At least I wasn't able to when I went in online. So I hope they keep providing the book.

Billco.
On the fewer games between 7-11pm, I can give the reasons why I do not go for this slot on either Friday or Saturday.
On the Wednesday night I do typically run a smaller, terrain light game starting at 8pm. It is quick to put down and also quick to pack away, so it is not an issue.

I then run my main game twice on either Friday or Saturday. These games can be very figure and terrain heavy. This time it took me 3.5 hours to take it down once the game had finished. So even with the last game finishing at 7pm, it was 10:30pm before I was finally able to get out of the gaming area and down to the bar.
I have run games that finish later and have finished packing them up at 1:30am. I can tell you the gaming area is a pretty lonely place at that time of the morning.

Overall, pretty good…I stayed with a friend at an Airbnb a mile from the con site. It was pretty easy to get there, parking was an issue, but not something the AirBandB host can do anything about. Flea market was a lot of good buys this year, probably spent more than I should have, but it is what it is.

As for the con itself, good and bad overall.

Good: I got into two CY6 games, one very capably run by Brian DeWitt and one run by George Paler. Both were a lot of fun, and I shot down a pair of 110s. The Russian Civil War game run by Michael Pierce was the highlight of my con! Good rules, a fun scenario, and great 15mm RCW troops. I was just having a blast. My dice crapped out, but oh well. I had fun in my two Force on Force games as well (Inadvertent Crossing by Mike Byrne and Senkaku Islands by Martyn Kelly) and the terrain in the latter was amazing.

Bad: I wasn't really happy over the whole debacle related to the "Nothing Bigger than a Bren Gun." I am currently 0-3 in trying to get into a LARD America game, and I do rather like Chain of Command. Guys, I don't know how it happened, I don't much care, but please don't let it happen again. I had no idea what to do with most of my Friday. I was looking forward to that game.

That said, I'd call it overall a great experience for H'Con 2024. Looking forward to Fall-In! See you all there!

Also heard from a friend that at least one game had registered for 8 players but 24 or so people showed up with tickets. More attention needs to be paid to getting this right before the convention. Rumor has it HMGS is going to a new online game registration system for Fall In.

The game was actually registered for 4 players and I signed up within days of the PEL opening. The GM did the only fair thing and drew tickets at random and expanded his scenario to accommodate 8 players. One person was steamed and marched off to complain but by and large every took it well and some folks gave up there tickets. I got in a nearby game that I was interested so a save there.

On the Wally's Basement issue noted above personally I observed very little stock list selling on Saturday when I had a table. Lots of shrink-wrapped items can still be from a project never started etc.

@DeRuyter.
I was that steamed fellow. I think it was more the "Oh come on HMGS!" than anything else. I don't blame the GM, he was in a rough spot. Sorry if it ruined your con experience. I've calmed down. But yeah, if you don't say anything, I have found in my experience that things do not get fixed.

HMGS I hope goes over to a new reg system. I spoke to some folks behind the scenes and it seems the rumors might be true. I was in two games on Saturday that were not in the program!

In the "Boy am I an idiot!" category: Did anyone find a yellow House Davion hat? I am looking for mine and I'd love to get it back. PM me if you did find it.

M1Fanboy, I am glad that you had fun in my Senkaku game, hopefully it went a little way to making up for the events of Friday.

+1 Disco Joe. Please, Please keep the books. Does everything have to be put on your phone?

I hadn't been to the new location. I had a great time. Went 2-3-1 in my games. Every game I played was fun and well run by the game master. My fellow gamers were friendly and having fun. Didn't buy much in the flea market, sigh, but thought the vender area was very nice.

Drove 13 hrs to be there and I was well worth it.

We ran 11 games of Test of Resolve 100YW and 1 of Test of Resolve Wars of the Roses. It was quite tiring but a lot of fun I also managed game of Check Your 6! which I haven't played in a while and new systems for me in WarGods of Olympus and Warmaster Revolution – all great games with excellent participants.

I got back into Edinburgh this morning and, after a few hours sleep, had an enjoyable Boxer Rebellion game at my home club, Falkirk and District Wargames Club. No rest for the wicked!

I had a great time at Historicon, as usual. I want to thank all the very helpful and friendly volunteers for their great work! And I am also a fan of the printed Guidebook.

I too, had a great time, I really enjoy the location. Games were good. I think there needs to be limits on the amount of games one can prereg for. In the past one was all you could get which IMHO was to little. Based on my experience from last year I was ready to register on the designated date and time only to find a last minute a delay by HMGS so when I was able to register (about 1 and half hours later) two of my top picks were already filled. At the con in several games, players announced that they had something else to do and left the games, with one just an hour in. I think this is not fair to the GMs or the other players, much less those who did not get to play.

dapeters,

I believe the old policy was one preregistration game per day. Not one per convention.

Stephen

Dapeters, if I recall correctly the Board brought this subject up at the membership meeting. They have identified that it is a problem and are working on some sort of solution.

Keep the books. I like to peruse my old ones every now and then.

Yes, HMGS is going to start using the Tabletop Events registration system. It has worked very well at the Little Wars convention in the Chicago area over the past several years. One nice thing about TE, for the game judge, is that it shows you how many game slots are filled/unfilled and it provides a list of the people who have signed up for your game. This is useful information for me as a game judge as it helps me plan for my games.

I still haven't made it to Wally's Basement in the past three years. Seems to conflict with the time slots in which i run my games or I don't know the times that it is run. It's hard being an old codger sometimes.

It got kind of chilly in the Commonwealth Room, but I guess that is better than the alternative. I will just bring a light jacket as a "just in case" for my games next year. Otherwise, nothing but kudos from me for the facility. I even had a hotel staffer help me cart my terrain out to the garage late late on Saturday night.

I ran four games so I sort of lost track of time, etc. One day I had finished my game and was surprised to see that it was still daylight outside. LOL My games on Thursday evening, Friday morning, and Friday evening were sold out. My 1PM Saturday game had four openings, but I was able to corral several onlookers into the game. Attendance on Saturday night seemed a bit sparse, but I have noticed this at other major conventions as well. I think that maybe Beer and Pretzels style skirmish games are best for the evening games as these all seemed to be filled. There was a great Circus Maximus game going on near my table and it sounded like everyone was having a fun time.

I only had time to make a couple of quick trips through the dealer area. The first time was a recon mission to see who was here and the second was find something specific. I bought a nice boxful of large 54mm style trees from Battlefield Terrain Concepts so that I could have more trees on my game table. Doug had a "buy 5 get the sixth free" deal so I bought 6 trees and took them back to my game table. Then I thought, "who am I kidding?" and I returned with a large plastic bin so that I could buy another dozen trees. Overall, I thought that there was something for everybody in the dealer area, it's just that I'm an old hand that probably has everything that he will ever need (except for trees) and thus there is little that I need from the dealers, or I am already buying what I need from those same dealers on line. I still regret passing on three fully rigged frigates for 28mm wargaming. Doh!

I had very little time available to do a walk through of the games what with my game schedule. One of the most notable games that I saw was the What A Cowboy The Movie game – one third of the table was the Warner Brothers studio lot and the other two thirds was the Western movie that they were shooting. This was really creative and I bet that it was a lot of fun to play. There was a Viet Nam game that I watched being set up that really caught my eye and the Toulon 1813 naval game looked like a museum quality diorama. I only wish that I had done more exploring while I was in the convention halls.

Program books please. Much easier to sort and highlight events than to spend the convention trying to scroll through a smart phone looking for the half-remembered event. That's not even considering looking through old programs years later.

Might just be me, but I think Der Alte Fritz has a point. A game after dinner rounds off the day nicely, but I'm more a "finished by 10:00" than a Midnight Madness person these days. Starts at 6:00 or 7:00 and runs no more than three hours is good for an evening game.

And of course no one ever has enough trees.

Jim,

Thanks for the shout out to our What a Cowboy game! Like your fantastic game we also won a PELA award, so the judges liked the game as well. We were with the Lard America group.

FYI, I played your game at Little Wars in April and you have made improvements since them and I thought it was Best in Show at Historicon in my opinion.

For those interested in the What a Cowboy The Movie game, here is the link to their facebook page with lots of pics.

link

Lots of other great games there as well and most were full.

Kim

I had my usual great time at Historicon. I have been going for over 2 and parked in that0 years and have missed maybe 4 during that time (including last year's while I was visiting my son who is in the Navy in Wyoming -yes, I know "the Navy is Wyoming?")

I arrived early on Thursday and parked in that lot across te street that was not part of the free parking. When I went to get my ticket stamped, the very nice and helpful lady at the desk informed me of my mistake and advised me to move to one of the correct lots before I got a big bill. Since it was hotel check in time I paid my $7 USD parking and drove to my hotel near the Host ( I don't know why people don't shop around and drive 15 minutes for cheaper hotels, and yes I get the advantage of staying on site, but I'd rather by merch with my money than spend it on hotel convenience, but that is just me.

When I came back I parked at Prince Street (and Orange) and got my free parking there every day. The walk is short and easy and there are plenty of food options along the way.
I played in David Hill's wonderful Samurai game. He is a great game master, I like the rules he uses, easy to learn and play, and his game boards are awesome. He had about 20-24 people playing in groups of 4, 2 on 2. I played his game two years ago and really liked it, still do.

I also played Bolt Action for the first time ( The Longest Day: Those Foccackta Bells the 505th Airborne at St. Mere Eglise). It was a fun game with great terrain. I was sitting/standing right under an AC vent and was freezing. I'm not complaining, I just moved around a bit and learned to bring a light sweat shirt just in case. I enjoyed the game enough to purchase the Band of Brothers starter set in the dealer hall for a great price $105 USD from I believe the Griffons Lair.

I was one of the 24-30 people with a ticket for the infamous Bren Gun game. I was one of the first guys to tell the poor game master that I would look for something else to do. I really wanted to try Chain of Command, so I was disappointed, but it wasn't his fault. Fortunately, I managed to get into Eric Shlagel of the Hawks Vittoria Game and had a blast. The Hawks are a great credit to the hobby. I wasn't freezing there like some have posted, but I wasn't under a vent either.

I also played with Peter Anderson in his Field of Battle 3 Rapp at Rappenhelm. Peter's (Gonzalvo on TMP) games are always well done and run. I play his games every convention. He and Tim Cooper (who was running several Test of Resolve Games) are great guys and fun to game with. There are certain people that you enjoy seeing every Historicon and Peter and Tim are two of those.
I played two of Steve Fratt's Napoleonic play test games as well.

I purchased some really nice and reasonable 3d printed WWII buildings from Diabolical Terrain as well. It was good to see Dennis and Brandon from OMM in the dealer hall too.
I am amazed at how much more money people sink into this hobby than I do and I have thousands of 15mm and probably at least 1500 28mm figs and terrain for them. I feel like a pauper when I see the investments people make. I am glad they do too, because I enjoy seeing and sometimes playing their games.

Wally's Basement seems to have a few really good priced items in it and this year I found those bags of 25mm Old Glory British being sold for $10 USD a bag (an absolute steal). The guy even said he would discount the lot if I took all of them, about a dozen bags? I had already reached my budget so I just grabbed two bags and was disappointed I couldn't take the whole pile to add to my mountain of unpainted lead.

The LCC is a great site for the con. Lots of bathrooms and very clean comparatively. Good food options nearby (expensive in the LCC), and free parking if you are willing to walk a couple of easy small blocks, plenty of hotel space nearby.

I left at 5:00 on Saturday because of the construction on the interchange where 222 and 30 meet.

All in all, I really enjoyed Historicon. I missed seeing some guys there, Robin Empy (Hitman on TMP) for one. He runs great games. Also I had two club mates there but only saw one for a few minutes. And dealers like Old Glory, whom I always purchase from, Firelock Games. I appreciate all o the regular dealers who made it and the new dealers as well. Thank you to the people who volunteer and do all of the ard work putting on the show.

If you haven't been to Historicon, you are missing out.

@ stephen1162, you are correct, I should have said that.

As someone who works the Events Desk at every Historicon, I do find it a bit depressing with the current policy, to be putting up so few tickets on the board and turning away some many attendees. There has to be a happy medium.

Let's see how Tabletop works at Fall-In! and whether it provides a better solution. As a GM, I've used it at Barrage! and it seems to work well, but Historicon is a whole order of magnitude difference.

Another vote in favor of a printed convention booklet, for the reasons already mentioned.

I threw out my back on day one and went home early on day 2!

In turn I had to cancel running Waterloo Maximus (25mm Chariot game) I do apologize for not GMing Saturday night.

I did spend a some money at both the dealer hall and flea market before my accident.

Hope to make it t H'con 2025.

SFC Retired