We combined Historicon 98 with a family vacation. So, with my trunk full of lead, and the back seat full of toys, and the luggage rack full of...luggage... off we went. After a few stops to see friends and family along the way, we arrived at Historicon Thursday morning where we almost immediately ran into some of the HAWKS -- Rob and the Schlegels, if I remember correctly.

The past three or four conventions, I have not purchased much. Between running lots of games and just not being interested in much, I didn't walk away with much in the way of lead. This convention was different. I came with a long list of wants, and I was able to fulfil them all. When the dealer area opened, I went into a quick spending frenzy, purchasing the bulk of the items on my list in about an hour. In some cases, I had sent the money or an order to the dealer ahead of time and only had to claim my stuff. Between this and subseqent trips to the dealer area, I was able to drive away with a stack of Osprey books (Landknects, Conquistadores, Aztecs, ECW, etc.), about 36 of the new Naismith Conquistadore and Aztec figures, five packs of OG Wayne's Legion figures, Dixon ACW bandsmen -- many of whom will soon be Mexican-American War bandsmen, some First Corps MAW Americans, the new MAW book trom Emperor's Press, magna dots, an Easter Island head for my Darkest Africa project, the Featherstone Skirmish Wargaming book, and the rules Brother Against Brother.

Thursday afternoon, I roped Rob Dean into playing in a Brother Against Brother demo game. Cory Ring had recommend these rules and the fact that they contain a supplement for the FIW intrigued me. The gsme was much fun, and Rob and I smacked those nasty Rebs pretty badly. So I bought the rules, having finally found a set of rules I can use for FIW skirmishing. Thursday night I ran my Beer and Pretzels Ironclads game and it was a success. I think that I will write up the rules and send them to MWAN.

Mexican-American War

Friday afternoon I set up my Churubusco game. I ran this twice on Friday, back to back. The first iteration went well, but the Mexican commander defending the convent decided to charge out into the face of superior American infantry and into the teeth of six artillery sections. The American infantry subsequently waltzed over the dead Mexicans and took the virtually undefended convent.

The second running of the scenario went much better as the Mexicans did a very nice job of parrying and jabbing, keeping the American attacks off balance. In the end, superior American forces prevailed, but Scott's Army had been badly beaten up. At the time, I called this a draw, but I think it was really a Mexican victory.

Friday morning I played in a really nice Moros in the Phillipines game. While I am painting figures for this area, I have concentrated on the American involvement. This game involved Spaniards with muskets, and it was quite interesting. The terrain was beautiful -- much of it provided by London War Room -- and the game was fun -- even though I was wiped out on the first turn. Those Moro charges aren't what they used to be!

Saturday morning I ran another Mexican American War game. In this scenario the Mexican advanced guard is racing for a bridge to allow the retreating army to escape. The Americans had to block this bridge. They both started on the same edge of the table with the river between them and had to race to the far end where the bridge was. It looks as though the Americans would easily block the bridge when a Msxican infantry regiment tound a ford across the river and conducted a miraculous charge over the course of several turns into the flanks of two infantry regiments and an artillery battery. This was greatly assisted by slow reactions on the part of the Americans. Though the Mexicans had smashed their cavalry trying to bull their way across El Santa Burnside's bridge, the Mexiean flank attack turned the Americans, and the game was a Mexican victory.

Having run Santa Anna Rules at four conventions (something like 10 events) I am gratified that most players find the rules easy to grasp and fun to play. Atter the second turn or so, I was reduced to a spectator and occasional arbitrator (by the way, it looks like the rules will be published and on the street in time for Fall In. They are in the hands of the publisher now, but don't hold your breath. The purpose of the rules was to promote figure sales. I think I have succeeded. One guy bought 18 bags of MAW figures from OG after playing in one of my games -- at $22 a bag).

Saturday afternoon I continued my spending frenzy. Then I helped Chris Palmer run the Buck Rogers game Saturday night. I hays to admit that I was very disappointed to see the game filled almost entirely by kids. I like to see kid gaming, but with a higher adult to kid ratio to keep the game sane. In this Buck Rogers game, we had enemies making the oddest alliances -- like I'll trade you five of my tiger men for the prisoner Wilma. I think the game was a success as far as the kids were concerned, but it was difficult to run. I now have much more appreciation for Jennifer teaching 1st graders all day.

Sunday morning I ran another Beer and Pretzels Ironclads for the HAWKS and a couple of others who showed up. Despite some players running out to take care of final business, the game went well, including some fratricide. Finally we wound up Historion 98 with a HAWKS lunch at the Plain and Fancy Pennsylvania Dutch restaurant in Bird In Hand, PA. This was a good opportunity to eat some good chow and swap stories about the con. This promises to beecome a HAWKS tradition.

The rest of the family vacation was relatively uneventful. When we finally returned to Texas (after almost four weeks on the road), I had good news waiting for me on my answering machine. After a call to Russ Dunaway [owner of Old Glory] the gist of the news is this. Old Glory is experiencing great success with the recently published Command Decision III, and they expect to sell out some 6000 copies by the end of the year. Russ has Frank Chadwick feverishly pumping out scenario books. Russ has decided that he wants to release a line of 25mm WWII figures for skirmish gaming by Historicon 99. Frank said he didn't have time to write a set of skirmish rules and suggested that Russ look for an existing set. Due to Pete Panzeri, Beer and Pretzels Skirmish ( BAPS ) was suggested. Russ and Frank are looking over the rules now, and I suspect they will make a decision on whether they like them in the next six weeks. If they want the rules, they will be repackaged in glossy, sexy, color form and released as Command Decision Skrimish Rules (former known as Beer and Pretzels Skirmish). Assuming that he wants BAPS , the newly packaged rules (with few substantial changes inside) will get a big sendoff at Historicon at the same time as the new line of figures, vehicles, and buildings from Old Glory. This is still all contingent on Frank Chadwick giving Russ the okay on BAPS, but it is pretty good news.

Unpainted Lead

Well, my unpainted lead collection has grown to over 500 figures, and I have to get working on getting that down under the Surdu-preferred limit of 200. My current, open painting projects are:

Cowboys: I am not going to buy any more of these unless something sexy just grabs me, but I still have a couple bags of OG cowboys, some covered wagons, and a few more Foundry figures to finish.

FIW: I am just about done with this project, but I have 60 Indians with bows and 30 more Provisionals to paint.

Wayne's Legion: OG makes five bags of these figures, and I plan to paint them to do the Battle of Fallen Timbers. With the FIW British and Indians, I think I can do the whole battle. I have written some mods for Santa Anna Rules to cover Indians and unreliable militia in this period.

Aztecs: I am working on this as an everybody-plays-Spanish skirmish game.

WWII: I have a few more 20mm WWII figures in my unpainted lead collection (more Germans and some Polish tankettes). I would like to buy soms Belgians and a few more Dutch, but other than that, my 20mm WWII project is just about closed.

MAW: The bulk of this is done, but I want to paint a few more American militia, some sailors, some Oxen-drawn limbers, and some irregular Mexican lancers. With the wagon train I am doing for Cowboys, I plan on running a scenario in which Mexican lancers attack a U.S. supply column on the way up from Veracruz.

Darkest Africa: This will eventually bs a multi-sided pseudo skirmish, but I am waiting for a couple more packs of figures to arrive before beginning painting. I want to clear the other figures off my queue first.