My last post was an after action report of the Battle of Berestechko (1651) that I put on at Historicon in 28mm on Thursday morning. My next post will be an after action report of the Italian Wars Battle of Bicocca. In the meantime, I thought that I would do a quick review of some of the other tables that I saw and liked. Here are some of my personal favorites at Historicon.
I have to apologize to a number of people that put on excellent tables, but I was so busy looking and talking to them that I forgot to take any photos. The first was Joe Swartz that put on an excellent 28mm barbarian cavalry table. Joe was also very helpful in lending me both pliers and a baggage cart over the weekend. The second was Doug Fisher and his friend Richard who put on an excellent 15mm Roman assault on a hill fort, as they were in the ballroom where my table was located, I spent quite some time talking to Doug over the weekend and it was always a pleasure. There have been many photos posted of this game, which was well attended throughout the weekend. Next was Nigel Marsh who put on an excellent looking 28mm ECW game of the 1644 attack on Shaw Village; this game was everything that you could want visually. Another game that was very pleasing visually was the Aztec game by Mark Morin. I have been watching blog posts of his building the terrain and it was a pleasure to meet him in person. Finally there was the campaign style games for the Battle of Stalingrad put on by Miles Reidy. I don’t feel too guilty about not taking photos of this game as LWTV have and will cover it extensively. Miles was a pleasure to meet and offered kind words and support to me at my first convention putting on a game.
Now on to some of my personal favorites at Historicon that I did take pictures of, as the games were well spread out and I was occupied for a lot of the time with my games, I am sure that I missed some great looking tables. However, these pictures, plus the games that I commented about above, were my personal favorites of the tables that I saw.
First is the outstanding Test of Honour Samauri game by David Hill. In past years I have played in David’s game when it was much smaller. However, this year David went big and the result was amazing as you can see in the photos. I don’t know where he will go from this display at future events, but I can’t wait to see.
The next photo is from a game that I played in on Wednesday night by Mike Fatovic that pitted 1/700 scale modern Chinese ships against Western navies. The rules took some getting used to and we managed to loose our Chinese carriers quite quickly, but we did put a dent in the landing force sent to capture our island. As you can see the whole event was visually superb. Mike was also very supportive of myself and other people putting on events at Historicon.
The next table that I saw that had great scenery was the Hunting King Alfred game by Greg Wagman and LWTV. This table shows what can be accomplished on a reasonably small table.
The next two games were my favorites for Best of Theme. They were the Brazen Chariots games by Adam Wine and the Vietnam game by Tom McKinney and LWTV. I don’t know how the judges would choose between these two for Best of Theme. both were perfectly executed and include interesting terrain construction techniques.
The next game that I liked was by Mark McLaughlin and Arofan Gregory. It was the 333BC clash of the Macedonians and Persians. Some great looking figures on display. They also took time to tell me what was going on.
A game that I wish I could have joined in was the Leonardo Da Vinci and the Prince of Foxes game by Jeff Wasileski. This game was just eye candy. When Jeff puts this game on again, I will be first in line. I also just realized that this game was a theme game, so yet more competition for Best in Theme. He also put on a Die Hard game that drew a great crowd.
The final game that caught my eye was the Wars of Ozz game by Scott Hansen. Not being into fantasy I cannot pretend to understand this table, but it was one of those tables that you just cannot walk by without stopping to stare at it. My mind could not have come up with half of the things on the table, and everything was well painted and constructed.
That concludes the list of my personal favorites at Historicon. As with any kind of review it is purely subjective. I am sure that there were tables that I missed and that others had their own personal favorites. Next up will be my after action report on the Battle of Bicocca.
Nice report. What was the convention theme?
The theme was aircraft of war.
Just wondering what rules they used for the modern naval game you played in? Thanks, Dale
I played two modern naval games over the weekend. The ones shown in the pictures of this post used a card game called Modern Naval Battles. The mechanism took a bit of getting used to, but was not too difficult. The game was fun, but it is not what I am looking for in a set of modern naval rules. However, this is one of the benefits of a convention, it allows you to try different rule sets before committing to buy them. I still appreciate what Mike did with this game – it looked great and played well.
The other naval game that I played in used Harpoon V – this rule set is at the other end of the spectrum for complexity.