Courier Dispatch

Historicon 87 Sets
Another Attendance Record

by Dick Bryant

This report is made up from reports submitted by Kruse Smith, Bob Beattie, Pat Condray, R. Coggins and Dick Bryant.

Historicon 87 set a record for attendance at its functions with over 1000 attending the 4 day affair at the beautiful convention center at the Penn Harris Inn in Harrisburg, PA.

The hotel rooms were over 90% sold with many holding 3 to 4 gamers each. There were 40 dealers and 101 miniature events not counting the Ancients tourneys occupying almost 100 Ancients gamers. There was one board game and NO fantasy games!

This year the convention was a veritable gold mine for Victorian Era Colonial gamers with the Afghan War, the Zulu War, Boers, NW Frontier, Boxer Rebellion, and an Arab assault on a Foreign Legion fort being gamed. Of particular interest was a large scale 25mm TSATF Boxer game put on by Bob Beattie of THE COURIER using over 800 figures to depict Adm. Seymour's rescue attempt complete with train.

The Alamo was presented again and had its usual large boisterous crowd. Craig Taylor and Bob Coggins put on several replays of Ligny using their new NapoleonicGrand Tactical rules and beautiful scenic boards built by their club. THE COURIER presented Leo Cronin's popular Irish Rebellion game (I've got to get Leo to write those up for THE COURIER), and an ECW game.

Not a well known fact is that most of the manufacturers and dealers supplying the Historical Miniature Gaming Hobby provide literally $1000's worth of prizes at these affairs. Wargames provided complete ECW units as prizes in the ECW game; THE COURIER provided many gift certificates as did The Avalon Hill Co.,Simtac, Inc., Rusty Scabbard, Thistle and Rose, Lyzard's Grin, Miniature Suppliers, Alliance, Savage and Soldier, S G Simulations, Falcon Miniatures, Victory Games, GHQ, Irregular Miniatures, GDW, Ral Partha and many others. We owe them all a vote of thanks for their support.

Of particular note this year was the large number of companies selling painted figures or whole armies. There is no longer an excuse for anyone playing with unpainted armies or feeling that they can't get into the hobby because they can't paint to some imagined standard.

The Ancient tourney, sponsored by THE COURIER and Wargames, drew people from England, Canada, The Netherlands, Australia, and South America.

Winners of open events were: 25mm Early, Mike Ireland, Ottowa, Canada, playing Seleucids; 25mm Late, Dereck Downs, Jacksonville, Florida, playing War of the Roses English; 15mm Early, Keith Smith, London, England, playing Patrician Romans; and 15mm Late, Chris Cameron, Rochester, New York, playingTimurid. In honor of our English guests, 1066 was the split year between the early and late events.

The North American Society of Ancient and Medieval Wargamers (NASAMW) held their Championship Tournament at Historicon this year with 20 regional winners playing. Lou Cardinale of New York was the overall winner, defeating) oe Barosso of California in the fina I. Lou played Sicilian Hohenstaufen and Joe played Aztec. Their semi-final games were against Wayne Dare (Late Roman) of London, England, and Major Richard Rowe (Bactrian Greek) of West Point, New York, respectively. Wayne is the reigning European International Champion, and it was a pleasure to have our European guests.

Outstanding Sportsman (awarded by THE COURIER) for the weekend was Tom Storey of Canada; best terrain winner was Todd Fisher of Chicago; winner of THE COURIER award for Best Painted Armies were Ben Pecson's Early Russians in 25mm and Art Hayes' Carthagenians in 15mm.

Other Ancient events at Historicon 87 included a busy Saturday night, starting with Mike Pavkovic, lecturing on the Roman militia units in the AD period. Next came Jeff Shanton, discussing methods and ideas for campaign games. He formed a big Northeast campaign of the 4th Century Roman world. Next came the NASAMW general meeting chaired by Kruse Smith, followed by rules questions until Kruse's voice gave out. On Sunday two demogames for beginners were played with Mike Pfanensteil, Paul Georgian, David Ray, Tom Downs, and others running the show using Kruse's figures. KruseSmith was the Chief Umpire for the weekend, ably assisted by Jim Hill and Scott Holder.

Kruse says that they came close to that 100 player mark, so it's believed that they have finally made the long and painful transition from 6th to 7th Edition WRG.

Next year the NASAMW Championship will be held at Origins in Milwaukee. The reason is Todd Fisher and the Little Wars people will be running interference for us. A brand new event, a Team Championship (two players a side, 2000 points a side proposed), will be held at Historicon 88.

The painting competition was well attended this year and was graced by a new first: an entry by your editor, Dick Bryant. The comment most often heard was "I didn't know that Dick painted figures!" The comments on the quality of the paint job went unrecorded by this reporter... something about Dishonorable Mention .... !

HISTORICON 87 PAINTING COMPETITION AWARD WINNERS

Best 25mm Army:
1. Bob MarshallAmerican Army Mexican War
2. Wayne Jacobs British Colonial

Best 25mm Unit:
1. Joe Miceli British Colonials
2. Greg Skelley Royal Marines

Best 15mm Army:
1. Patrick Burke French Napoleonic Army
2. Wayne Jacobs British SYW

Best 15mm Unit:
1. Hal Edgett Teutonic Knights
2. Dave Paddock1812 American Sailors& Marines

Best 5mrn Army:
1. Bill Rutherford German Armor Recon
2. Rob Torres Westphalian 23rd Div.

Best 5mm Unit:
1. William J. Lewis 11th Armor Div. (American)
2. John Drye British 8th Army

Best Naval Display Greg Skelley SMS Bayern

THE COURIER AWARD Patrick Burke Napoleon's Red Lancers

The next HMGS event is HMMC 6, February 26-28 at the Ramada Inn in New Carrollton, MD. Write Pat Condray, 8234 Kings Arm Drive, Alexandria, VA for details. of course Historicon 88 will take place next year in July again at the great venue of the Penn Harris Inn.

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