Historicon '94
Convention Report

Sets Attendance Record

by Dick Bryant


As usual, this is a report compiled from inputs by Pat Condray, Scott Holder, and Jay Hadley. - DICK BRYANT

The attendance at Historicon '94 was up by 12.5% over last year, setting a new record. Many who attended thought attendance was down but that perception was due to the addition of the auditorium as a large open gaming area and flea market. This room had several hundred people in at all times, thinning the population in the usual gaming areas! Besides the usual gaming, there was a Theme room put on by Rich Hasenhauer, the theme being The franco-Prussian War. Four games were run simultaneously each using a different set of rules. This was repeated several times with some duplication so some 6 or 7 Franco Prussian War rulesets were explored. This is a good idea that I hope will be repeated in other periods. I suggested to Rich that next time the games should explore the same scenario with each set of rules.

The Courier staff ran a series of games in the Paradise room, keeping two tables busy Thursday, Friday and Saturday for a total of 16 games, ACW, Franco-Prussian, WWII, Ancients, Western Gunfight, Crimea and Napoleonics were presented. Bob Beattie's various DBA and DBM duplicate Ancient tourneys were particularly well attended. They plan to continue this at Cold Wars and future Historicons

The Ancient Competitions were well attended, they filled about 190 slots which translated into 140 players. That means that 50 people were living by the motto "ancients 'till you puke". Scott Holder reports that DBA is unbelievably robust. For two years now a 25mm event was offered during the time-off slot at COLD WARS and HISTORICON. It was considered usually lucky to get 6 players. This year a limit of 10 was set but 12 players showed up! Scott says he was particularly pleased at this since he feels that DBA is particularly well suited for 25mm play and is a great cheap, way to break into that scale. As the prize is an unpainted 25mm DBA army, one would be stupid not to play. On Sunday morning, they had 38 players hunched over the 2x2 terrain squares with another 5-10 seperate DBA games going on at any given time in the open gaming area. DBA has certainly stood the test of time having been out four years and showing no signs of slacking off in popularity.

Larry Essick umpired the 7.5 events, John Shirey and Bob Nedwich for DBM, and Mike McVeigh and Doug Mudd ran DBA. As always, Danny Weitz ran the 7.5 demo on Saturday which attracted 8 players and Tom McMillen ran his Plains of Ilium scenario in which the Trojans try to burn the Greek ships. He uses a modified DBA set and this is the 3rd HISTORICON in which he's run the game on Sunday morning.

The first Combined National Championship (or as Tom Downs euphamistically called it the "Iron Butt Triathalon") was a success. 8 players signed up and the general format worked quite well.

The businesses that sponsored the Ancient Tourneys were: Thistle & Rose, 19th Cent Miniatures, Elite Group, EHQ, Wargames, Minifig, Old Glory, Ral Partha, Soldier World USA,Falcon, TCS, Soldier & Swords, Mr Miniature, Pendragon, Commonwealth, Armory, Outland Games, Geohex, Viking Forge, Simtac, Pharoah's Arms, and Gladiator Miniatures.

ANCIENT TOURNAMENT RESULTS
Sportspersons: Thom and Catherine Thomas
CNC:Dave Boor, Early Tang(DBM), Late Ottoman Turks (7.5), Burmese(DBA)
25mm Open:Derek Downs, L Ottoman Turks
15mm Open:Robert Turnball, Han Chinese
25mm Theme:Derek Downs, Early Ach. Persian
15mm Theme:Tim Brown, Syracusan
Mini: Sean Scott, Italian Condotta
DBM Singles: Walt Leach, Vikings
DBM Teams: Harmon/Kunzmandos, Late Roman
25mm DBA: Mike Guth, Early Indian
DBA Biblical:Al Applegate, NeoAssyrian
DBA Classical: Al Fortezzo, Marian Roman
DBA Dark Ages:Ed Dowgiallo, Viking
DBA Medieval: Rob Torres, Anglo-Norman
15mm Best Painted:Bill Chriss, L Hoplite Greek
25mm Best Painted:Dan Burkley, Syracusan
Best Terrain: Tom Hamilton

PAINTING COMPETITION

The Painting Competition continues to draw more and more entrants with better and better talent. Jay Hadley and Mike Gilbert, the Judges, both report a higher level of difficulty in picking the winners. Note that quite a few armor and naval units won prizes this time. I believe that there were cash prizes but I do not have the amounts to report.

OPEN CLASS
Best Army Under 15mmHenry Cotsalas, Army of N. Virginia
Best Unit Under 15mmTom Cusa, German Panzers
Best Army 15mm+Kevin Kelley, British 1815 Napoleonic
Best Unit 15mm+Roger Dospil, Sassanid Persians
Best Army 25mm+Dana O'Hara, Normans
Best Unit 25mm+Bruce Hull, French Legere
Best NavalEric Streicher, Actium
Honorable MentionCraig Charron, Indians
Forest Nichols, D-Day
MASTERS CLASS
Best Army Under 15mm1st. Ed Rohrbaugh, Serb Armor 1994
2nd. Ed Rohrbaugh, Allied Armor
Best Army Under 15mm1st. Mark Franke, The Bismark
2nd. Donald Smith, Jutland
Best Army 15mm+1st. John Spiess, Napoleon's Imp Gd
2nd. Lance White, Early Imp Romans
Best Unit 15mm+1st. Dave Paddock, Chas a Cheval
2nd. Wm. J. Lewis, ACW Union Inf
Best Army 25mm+1st. Tom Kelly, Jacobite Army
2nd. Ben Pecson, Muscovites
Best Unit 25mm+1st. Chris Hughes, Union ACW
2nd. John Sauter, 24th Brit Colonial
Best Of ShowChris Hughes, Union Inf. ACW

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