Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Historicon 2016




I hit Historicon again this year and had a blast. Pics after the jump!


Zombie Apocalypse


I played a number of games. One of my favorites was a crazy zombie apocalypse in Jerusalem, while aliens, space ships, "rebels" and special forces battled it out to secure meteorite shards before night falls.





At one point I was sniping with an anti-tank missile from the top of a building,
trying to knock out a tank covered in zombies. Awesome.

I finished the game with a captured flying saucer which used its tractor beam to snag a truck with meteorite shards and a wayward, homesick alien inside which I dropped atop my secured high rise.

War of 1812

I also got to play in Miles Reidy's War of 1812 game. Brits and Americans, Indians, French and Portuguese, ships, cannons, betrayals and fierce hand to hand fighting! Loved it! Miles used a variation of Longstreet, with special action cards unique to the War of 1812. It made for a really fun convention system I'm eager to adapt to a period I have figures for.



Look at this tall ship. GORGEOUS.





Brits take and scuttle the American warship

Assaulting the fort


Barry Hilton's "Commander of Sallies"

I also had a chance to play in a Beneath the Lily Banner game, GMed by Barry Hilton and on terrain created by Quindia Studios. Such a great game!





Buildings by Tabletop World. I have the windmill... looks like I need to pick up the bridge too!




My cavalry on their way to assault the bridge.

I really liked the "stripes" on the flags that simulated rippling fabric.

My cavalry made it across the bridge into our objective zone, but then got surrounded and gunned down by skirmishers. oops!

Our final push to take the far side of the river, before being repulsed by the stubborn defenders.

The Rest

I also tried to wander and take pics of all the other great games going on during the convention.


Down by not out. This "All Quiet on the Martian Front" game was run several times during the convention.

Steam tanks hunting martians

The Chicago Way board.

The Chicago Way

The Chicago Way


Huge board, perhaps 20 feet long. Really striking in person.




Really good looking pulp Lovecraftian game.

Tea lights gave the encroaching fog an eerie glow.


The Victorian musical game. 18 players! Standing room only!
Based on the cheers it sounded like the players had lots of fun!


Lord of the Rings naval battle I believe.




This Blue Max game even had cool player aids

Italian Wars


Prehistoric game

hunted by cave men.

A great convention. Looking forward to the next!




8 comments:

  1. Nice photos! Thanks. I'm always amazed at how many games I miss. Do you remember when the caveman game was run?

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    1. The caveman game was run on Saturday night around 9 in the middle of the main hall. It looked really cool! The measurement sticks were various lengths of bamboo, the cavemen could light fires to herd the megafauna, and mammoths appeared incredibly dangerous from my glance at the QRS. I'm pretty sure they used the "Tusk" rules set, but I could be wrong about that.

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  2. Thanks. My friends convinced me to watch a movie (The Roughriders) after a late dinner on Sat night. Never made it back to the hall. Too bad. I would have liked to have seen this game...or played in it. One of those great games not in the PEL.

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  3. Thanks for sharing........have followed your blog for a while. As it happens despite the distance I too made Historicon this year as part of an ACW battlefield tour. Really enjoyed the show completely different to shows in the UK, very different atmosphere and I was made very welcome. By some quirky coincidence you caught me in your first shot playing I think the 28 mm WW2 game Friday evening. I have a few more shots on my blog if interested 😀

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    1. Glad you enjoyed the convention Matt! I'm reading up on your "American Adventures" and it's really interesting to see things through a visitor's eyes. I'm planning a trip to the UK in the next few years, and stopping at a UK wargame show is a definite!

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    2. Be warned they are a very different beast all together so you might want to be selective ! Although you may have picked up in magazines there is a move to more participative shows this is the minority.

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  4. Awesome. Great photos of what looks like an awesome day. cheers

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  5. Looks like a riotously good time! I'll have to try and make it to 2017!

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