I refuse to write a single word about this convention until somebody answers on single question: who is Dennis Ingersol Michelson?
"I can tell you that!" you cry, "why, isn't he the author of "The Encyclopedia of Wargame Rules, Errors, Errata & Exceptions;" "The Many Different Sides of the Icosahedron Dice Controversy;" "A Statistical Study of The Courier Magazine's Publication Delays;" "Cocked Die: Stories from a Life in Wargaming," and numerous other best sellers?
Well maybe. And maybe not, since none of these publications exist. The question is, does Mr. Michelson exist? The HMGS and the Lancaster Host Resort say he doesn't, but those convention attendees lucky enough to pick up the two flyers promoting his "books" may agree with me when I say that not only were they undoubtedly the funniest satirical pieces I have ever seen in my wargaming lifetime, but this man has clearly been around the hobby a long time! I hope Dick Bryant prints these items eventually. I'm still a bit dubious about their origin, since they are in typical Courier -style - are you sure it wasn't Leo, Dick?
But speaking of Dick Bryant, the real purpose of this article is to gloat - I mean inform - those of you who had the incredible misfortune to miss Historicon. That this year's convention was at least as good as last year's even though we didn't have Paddy Griffith with us to explain how the rifle made no real difference to tactics during the American Civil War.
Over 2000 gamers and 70-plus dealers (occupying 230 tables) were on hand once again to sample the fun, frolic and faulty air conditioning of the dealer area for four festive days. According to a highly-placed HMGS source between $150,000 and $200,000 was spent on game products - only about 2-3% of this expenditure was mine, I think! The only complaint I heard about the dealer area, which was roomy and well lit, was that either the air conditioning system wasn't working, or was nonexistant hopefully this will be remedied by next summer.
One of the things that I like most about Historicon is that it has about the most attractive printed program of any game convention i have ever gone to, beginning with this year's full-color cover depicting what appears to be a miniature wargame rendition of the storming of the cemetery at GravelotteSt. Privat, or whatever the name of that battle in the Franco-Prussian War was.
Beginning at lunchtime on Thursday, historical gamers had the opportunity to take part in near 300 Historical gaming events (245 listed in the program plus many last minute entries as well as the Ancient Competitions), with the usual range of scales, periods, and rules sets. The Courier Staff kept one large table in the Paradise room going with a variety of games over the whole course of the convention. Just about anything a historical gamer would want to play, could be played
Of course, i had to wonder, when on Sunday I strolled into the gaming area, and the first thing I encountered was a giant 3-headed dragon and assorted other monsters, lurching toward what appeared to be a representation of Chicago - but don't worry, friends - Ultraman was there!
I fled this horrifying scene, to stumble upon - "PRINCESS RYAN'S SPACE MARINES!" (in caps because the olayers were shouting out the phrase as i arrived). then nearby was - oh my God! - space hulk! I was beginning to wonder if I was at GenCon.
Now, there's nothing wrong with these games, but I am somewhat baffled as to how they qualify as "historical Miniatures." Perhaps an informed HMGS officer will explain for us. (ED NOTE: much worse than this was the entire leadership of NASAM: Kruse Smith, Scott Holder, Paul Georgia, Larry Essick and others caught by Dick Bryant in the act of playing SPACE HULK after the Ancient Competition had closed on Saturday night. It is rumored that Paul Georgian has more Space Hulk Figures than he does of the latest Ancient Killer Army.
Getting back to the good stuff, there was plenty of it in the flea market, which for possibly the first time ever, had a good area, and only a few shots were exchanged between Steve McHenry, the flea market kaiser, and his jolly wards. best flea market quote: a vendor spending five minutes extolling the virtues of the boardgame Fury in The West to Craig Taylor (Napoleon's Battles co-designer, amoung many other titles) in an attempt to sell it to him, and finishing with, "you'll like it." Craig's response: "I know - I designed it."
I actually played in a game myself this year, as I found the chance to be an IRA leader in Leo Cronin's Irish Rebellion game an irresistable opportunity. My job, in concert with several other players, was to kidnap Bob Coggins, a.k.a. the deputy assistant police superintendent. This was not hard as it might appear, as Bob was an IRA double agent, but the game was nevertheless exciting and challenging with fires, explosions, car crashes, and shooting galore, including a notable case where the local constabulary, incensed by the Black and Tans firing on unarmed civilians, began to fire at their own allies.
PAINTING COMPETITION
Best Army
25mm
1st Confederate Army Joe Miceli
2nd American IndiansBob Giglio
15mm 1st SYW French Dean West
2nd Marian Roman D. Mudd
under 15mm
1st Nap Anglo-Allies Chris Velas
2nd Sov & US Armor Chris McGrane
Best Naval
Modern Naval Mark Franke
Best Unit
25mm
1st ARW British InfChris Hughes*
2nd Pirates Joe Miceli
15mm
1st Ancient Gauls Ed Durkin
2nd Oudinot's Gren Stan Berry
Under 15mm No Award
*also awarded Best Of Show
Those with a keen eye might have seen two 25mm generals - one Prussian and one French, custom sculpted by Joel Haas, who looked remarkably like Dick Bryant and Leo Cronin - I'm not certain that the tricolor includes a pair of bloomer's however and Leo's Prussian seemed dangerously close to stabbing himself in an apparent replay of Leo's dangerous tendencies toward himself with an Xacto knife in "real world" incidents.
"I WILL not tolerate any arguments on fine points of this game. I will not tolerate ANY arguments among you."
That's what I like to hear a game ref to say, and that is-how Ray Austin introduced his WWII micro game - maybe some WRG refs can borrow these phrases.
The painting clinic hosted by Gary Leitzell and friends was very popular with young and old alike - I cannot remember passing the table once and seeing an empty chair among the 15 available.
Another highlight was the SOPWITH game hosted by Winston Johnson and the Aerodrome Society of the Great War. While 1/72nd model of biplanes and triplanes were maneuvered on the table, players sat behind wooden reproductions of cockpits, complete with wings and machine guns. The cockpits ingeniously provided the mechanisms for each player to keep track of his aircraft speed. damage, ammo, ect. This game was incredibly popular and creative, building on an existing board game. I believe the materials are being marketed by the producers.
Of course there were many more great games, and the only justice I could do to all of them would be to mention each of them individually - but I have a better idea. If you didn't make it to Historicon this year, you MUST attend next year. And if you do, perhaps you'll get the chance to sign up for Steve Carpenter's (of Minifigs) next hit - Limeys & Slimeys in the swimming pool, using 54mm plastic figures and squirt guns. He insists he's going to do it, and I'll bethere if he does. Next week I plan to start taking swimming lessons.
Before I close, here is a poignant thought, heard anonymously at Historicon, which reflects some way on our hobby - I'm not quite sure how:
"I wish I could do more, but I'm married. Gee, the only reason I do have the time is because I am married!"
ANCIENT TOURNEYS
by Scott Holder
Prizes were given by Thistle and Rose, Wargames, Soldier and Sword, Mini Fig, Wargames Foundry, Viking Forge, Crazy Egor, and Ral Partha.
Tournament results are as follows:
THE COURIER SPORTSMAN Tom Storey
25mm Dark Age Winner: Chris Damou, Prefeudal Scots
25mm Dark Age Runner Up: Walt Leach, Vikings
15mm Dark Age Winner: Brian Lewis, Vikings
15mm Dark Age Runner Up: Mike Mallamaci, Vikings
25mm Open Winner: Dave Stier, Lodi Dynasty
25mm Open Runner Up: Chris Cameron, Commenan Byz
15mm Open Winner: Dave Markowitz,Qin Chinese
15mm Open Runner Up Adam Weitz, Ayyubid Egyptian
25mm Mini-Open Winner: Ted Furey , Seleucid
15mm Mini-Open Winner: Frank Gilson, Zhou Chinese
15mm Mini-Open Runner Up: Gary Dziatko, Bleyme
25mm Best Painted: Danny Weitz, Anglo Danish
15mm Best Painted: Craig Tyrell, Camillan Roman and
Libyan Eqyptian, and Adam Weitz, Normans
DBA Winners: Matt Ivercom, RobTorres, Stan Berry
As to the tournament itself: First, Tom Storey was very pleased to win The Courier Sportsman Award. Tom told me that he felt he had lost the 11 niceness" he started with in ancients gaming and has worked hard to get it back. It's nice to give someone deserving such an award. As for armies armies winning, you will note that only one of the regulars on the tournament circuit, Seleucids, appears on the above list. Further, in the 25mm open, the third and fourth place finishers used Early Hebrew and Burmese, respec- tively.
The 15mm Open was even more pleasantly different in that the 3+6 place finishers used Camillan Roman, Ayyubid Egyptian, Teutonic Knights, and Carthigenians. Craig Tyrell should be given an award for doing the most with his Camillans by leading the 15mm Open for three rounds with an army that has a notorious poor reputation in tournaments. It just goes to show you that in most cases, it's the player not the army that makes the difference. The use of more off beat armies is also what we were trying to achieve in the Opens and it's nice to see the players responding. - Scott Holder
This year we ran three tournaments, each in both scales, our traditional Sunday morning DBA tourney, a 25mm beginners demo, and an intermediate level battle of Tannenburg. Also, you might have noticed many of us clustered around a table Friday and Saturday evening playing Space Hulk, the new "in" game for ancient wargamers. Fortunately, no one had a camera. [/ had one! But we censored the photo - Ed.] I counted 89 players in the various WRG 7th events but actually had 122 tourney slots filled. This means that about half the people who played in the Open also went on to play in either the Dark Ages or mini-open tournaments that ran later. I'm not used to so many people overloading on ancients at one time. There were 26 in the DBA tourney as well. I detected an enormous amount of ancient gaming all over the place. Arty Conliffe ran several Medieval games in conjunction with our Dark Age theme. Someone made the comment that tournament gaming was down and this reflected poorly on the Society. I think using tournament attendance as a yardstick to gauge the "health" of ancients is ill advised and contrary to what we are trying to do, namely get away from our anal focus on WRG 7th. Many Society members who play in tournaments took this time to put on their own ancients games using Tactica, Modified DBA, Skirmish Ancients, rules and have a generally more leisurely time. Eight Society members ran a total of 20 different ancients games that had nothing to do with tournament play. The bottom line is that everyone seemed interested in ancient gaming and not just in the tournament sense.
Photos
Courier Dispatch News About the Hobby.
- Dave Alsop 1956 - 1992: Obituary
Historicon 1992 Convention Report
Other News
Product News
HMGS News
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