Historicon and Cold Wars, held in Lanchaster, Pa., are two events I really look forward to attending. Beside the opportunities of keeping up with the hobby and contact with your wargaming friends, both events (4 and 3 days respectively) offer much more. For me, HISTORICON 93 was somewhat distorted by the publishing of the first issue of the new EE&L that coincided with the event and the profusion of comments I received from the enthusiastic readership, especially concerning my wife's "LEONA'S CORNER". To answer the basic question asked by many: No, she does not treat me the way shown on her section header, but she would if ... ! (Well I let you figure out that one.) But aside from my magazine launching duties, I was able to enjoy the convention, attending a few lectures and glancing at a few games. For the historically minded Napoleonic wargamer, HISTORICON 93, offered it's usual wealth of lectures dealing with: rule systems, the background of Napoleonic warfare, basic deployment, rates of march, battles etc.. No doubt that the show was stolen by Christopher Duffy and Don Featherstone, but the other speakers also did a great job. Dr. Duffy presented two papers, one on Frederick the Great and the second on Borodino, which were presented with the humor that Dr. Duffy is known for. In the Borodino paper Frenchmen, were on more than one occasion - proving Dr Duffy's skill in sarcasm - clearly called "bad guys" and more. But the quality of the presentation, illustrated with numerous slides make me forget his tongue in check jibes. The numerous slides of Borodino gave a clear idea of the ground, which is always of great interest to wargamers, and gave an extraordinary picture of the bloody battle. After his lectures I talked at length with Dr.Duffy (his remarks about the Battle of Kolin will be found in the "ON THE RELIABILITY OF DATA" section in our next issue) about Frederick and his tactics since, like Dr. Duffy, I feel that anyone interested in the War of the French Revolution and of the Empire must know what took place during the so- called Age of Reason, especially during the Seven Years War (a topic in our next issue). Unfortunately there were too many good papers to talk about everyone of them. George Nafziger discussed rates of march in "FRENCH NAPOLEONIC INFANTRY MARCHES". I participated in the questions and answers session that followed this talk. Our little group presented two papers that were well received, one on "NAPOLEONIC STAFF SYSTEMS" and the other on "FRENCH NAPOLEONIC DEPLOYMENT". The deployment lecture covered basic French infantry drill and deployment as per the Reglement of 1791. It also contained two examples showing the significant amount of time it took the French troops to deploy at Saalfeld and Auerstadt. Both papers will be published in future issues of EE&L. The dealers' area was as usual very busy. Displays and products are getting more sophisticated each year. A French Leger flag, (circa 1805), was proudly displayed by one dealer and was sure to catch my eye. In the huge gaming areas, all kinds of wargames went on almost around the clock. In the morning one could see numerous exhausted, red eyed, hard-to-give-up gamers wondering around with a cup of coffee in hand. On Saturday "The Tuileries", hosted by Todd Fisher stole the show! It was a game with thousands of 25mm figures that presented the storming of the Tuileries by the Federes. The game, or more exactly, the extravaganza, lasted for hours and took place in a huge and spectacular reproduction of the Tuileries in 25mm (20 foot by 24 feet). To give it justice would require pages of description by itself, along with several photographs. The miniatures were handled by enthusiastic and vociferous participants (I had a heck of good time just taking pictures!). The Revolutionary side - representing some 4,500 miniature rioting parisians - wearing Phrygian caps and screaming "death to the tyrant", tried to out do the Royalists - represented by some 1,500 Swiss guards - who were equally eager gamers with their white cockades and cries of "long live the King" to strengthen their morale. Everyone among the Royalists and the Revolutionaries had a bang up time. What surprised me the most was the front page article on HISTORICON 93 that I later found in the WALL STREET JOURNAL, called Mr Sweet Counts Himself in the Ranks of the Grateful Deads, authored by Amy Gamerman, a staff reporter to the Wall Street Journal. The title continues with "For Toy Soldiers Buffs, Death Is a Mere Set Back in a Quest For Glory on the Battlefield' and in the article's body was a picture of Todd Fisher in his general's uniform. Indeed wargaming has gained respectability. It's a delightful change for those of us who were wargaming in prior decades when we were considered by "well thinking people" more or less as warmongers. Well done Ms. Gamerman, Indeed you are very objective in you article and your comments on wargamers are quite accurate: "For some, the hobby grows out of a fascination with military history. Others enjoy spending hours painting historically accurate uniforms on their troops..." The comments on Todd Fisher are to the point. "Todd's comments on wargaming were: "It's trying to out- think the other guy," "It keeps your mind quick." In addition, Todd's Tuileries extravaganza was quite a promotion for the hobby." HISTORICON 93 also included a painting competition that was well attended. The quality of the figures presented was very high. Our Mike Gilbert was one of the judges and had a difficult time choosing a winner. So HISTORICON 93 was quite a show. I am looking forward to attending COLD WARS 94 at the Lancaster Host Hotel on March 10-12, 1994, where our little group will be presenting other papers, one of them, (by the present writer), will be on Napoleonic battle formations. We will see you there. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 3 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com