One of the "problems" about Historicon is just getting around to see everything--there is a considerable number of events going on at any given time, the dealer area/flea market area keeps expanding, and with all the pick-up games, well, four days hardly seems enough. But hey, sleep is optional, right?

This goes doubly so for the folks tied to a booth. Yes indeed, these folks are working while you are playing, and the hardware of lead and software of rules are half the show. So, with the caveat that I was manning the MagWeb "booth" as a special guest of On Military Matters (down the stairs to the left, besides the windows), here's a look around the show for those who could not make it to HMGS' premier convention.

I am not quite sure whether the dealer areas were as crowded as they were last year. At times, there were butt-to-butt traffic jams in the aisles. Other times, it was pretty empty. The gaming tables were crowded enough with all sorts of eager gamers.

According to the Historicon '97 program, there were 354 events (mostly gaming sessions, but including seminars), although there were probably more in last-minute add-ins. And I suppose there could be less if umpires didn't show.

Of course, umpires who host games deserve a big round of applause. Getting all the terrain and units, rules and rulers, and everything else together takes a considerable amount of effort. If you've never hosted a game, try it. You'll appreciate it all the more.

David McElhannon caught my eye walking by with a piece of the Pearl Harbor terrain. It looked great when set up. Phil Viverito (at right, right, in striped shirt, designer of Classical Hack [anicents] and Knight Hack [medieval]) had an intriguing keep for some medieval warfare, not to mention Fort Wagner for some ACW action, not to mention some English Civil war battle--hey, he's a hard-working guy. It's a contest to see if he out-hosts Leo Walsh of TCS, who seems to be running 10 games a convention.

Terry Gore was showing off his new Medieval Warfare rules (and his magazine Saga #59), while Chris Parker of Knighthood in the Middle Ages fame was demoing his new medieval rules set, Day of Battle, and seemed to be demoing continuously.

Which was fortunate for me, as I sat down for a quick game of Day of Battle. Here's a first impression review. Since leadership is paramount for the time period, DoB concentrates on the role of the nobility in leading armies and "battles" (detachments in modern parlance). One of the cleverest ideas is that of status, or as DoB puts it, "social rank." The pecking order of nobility ensures that dukes command more units than earls, which command more than minor nobility, which command more than knights.

In many ways, the leadership rules embrace role playing concepts. You dice up a leader, er, actually, you use regular playing cards, filling out four main areas: Social Rank, Esteem, Motivation, and Skills. This sets the tone for your character, although in game mechanics, you will concentrate on the four skill attributes: Initiative, Morale, Combat, and Personal Combat Survival. this can take a while on the first run through, but gets easier with practice. There's a random leader table in case you want an already created leader.

It is possible, therefore, to roll up, er, card up, an inept--but high status--duke or king, along with more competent knights and other underling nobility. But there's a wonderful catch to all this--a noble must command a minimum number of troops, and the higher the status, the more troops. And unless he commands that certain minimum number of troops, he will lose esteem at the end of the battle.

And to bring the role playing genre back into this, esteem points are like the old experience points--you need to earn them to climb the social ladder. Now, if that weren't enough, [Parker comes up with honor points, which help your leader gain skill levels (as opposed to status levels). You will, like the old hack and slash role playing games, keep track of what a particular noble does in battle. In small games, such as the one we played, the bookkeeping is minimal. In larger games, it might become a chore. And the points differ depending on the Motivation characteristic. But it gets better. When the battle is over and done, and assuming the leader' survives, you multiply the honor points by the esteem level. That's right. Upper crust nobility get better public relations than the lower nobility.

Of course, much of the bookkeeping only applies for campaign style games where there is a reason to advance in status and skill levels. However, it is indicative of the thought that went into the rules set.

As for the actual move, shoot, melee mechanics, they are very straightforward and took all of 5 minutes to learn. Each stand, in DoB called a "company," moves a certain distance, and in melee, gets to roll a d20. Roll equal to or less than the assigned combat value and the enemy unit is hit. Put enough hits on the enemy and companies start to disappear, morale checks are forced, disorganization occurs, and so on.

However, remembering that the focus is on leadership, each leader gets a certain number of command points--the higher the status of the leader, the more command points available. Yes, it's great to be king.

For example, in the game I played, the Earl received 3 command points. The knight had 1. The Earl can move and shoot more units than the knight. These CPs are modified by die roll--if you roll poorly, you can find yourself (as my hapless knight did on occasion) without any CPs. In the basic game, each unit takes I CP to do something-akin to DBA's pip idea. In the advanced game (recommended), you draw a number of cards equal to your CPs, which can grant extra CPs if you draw high enough. Nothing like drawing an Ace (3 CPs), which would allow a unit to Move (1 CP), Fire (I CP), and Rally (I CP). Battlelines (units touching or in very close proximity) can use I CP to move them all, or rally them all. Just like DBA, if you got the pips, you can do wonders, but if you don't ...

One of the optional movement rules we used was the idea of proximity. The farther away from the enemy, the faster you move. There are three zones (Close, Near, Distant). As you cross each threshold as you go towards the enemy, you half the amount of movement remaining. As you go away, you double the amount. This is a clever rule that knocked about in KotMA. Or maybe I should say, this is another clever rule.

If there is one hard-to-grasp concept, it's morale. There is no die rolling or card pulling. First, you figure out from a chart if you need to check morale. Then, you tally up modifiers (+ and 1), compare them on a chart, and apply the result. Sounds simple, right? Well, not exactly. New players, myself included, seem to have a number of difficulties applying these rules. If there was one thing that bogged the game down, it was the morale checks... because no one was quite sure he was doing them correctly. You have to admire Parker's patience in explaining for the third time in a single turn how to do a morale check, and then doing it again the next turn, and the turn after that ...

There is an alternative advanced rule about Harassing Morale. This looks promising Basically, you as player decide when to cause your opponent to check morale--and you only get as many calls per game as twice your status level. So, you better figure out when to call them, for if you waste them, you don't get them back.

The 32-page manual includes army lists for English, French, German, Scots, and Welsh. some leaders, a collection of ideas on running a micro-campaign, and some other optional rules. there is also a pull-out cardstock sheet with the major tables on it. If I have to use one word for Day of Battle, it would be "clever." The leadership/command concepts are particularly appropriate to the time period, and the mechanics, save for the morale checks, play quickly. From a complexity viewpoint, it is more involved than DBA, less so than WRG 7th, a little easier than Knighthood of the Middle Ages, and about the same as Medieval TACTICA (although much superior to the army game in MT). Those with basing for DBA/WRG can use DoB without a problem. The glossy presentation is relatively straightforward, with numerous examples in the margins, and can be followed along quite easily. All in all, games are tightly contested contests that key in on leadership--and that, more than anything, recommends the rules. Day of Battle is available direct from All About Games Publishing, 6b Ledge Rd., Windham, NH 03087, 207-338-9984. E-mail: cparker868@aol.com

Mark Campbell, the keynote speaker with a talk about the Battle of St. Vincent--and it's good to see him start getting some recognition for his scholarship--was running another couple monster naval games with his Close Action rules set. I've been playing Close Action for years instead of Wooden Ships and Iron men, using GHQ ships and a huge hex-gridded felt cloth, and it is a solid simulation and moves quickly. Of course, if you have 30 players, it will move a bit slower, and the monster game of that size can take 6 hours, sometime more.

Clash of Arms released the new Close Action, just as they released the William Keyser's From Valmy to Waterloo--another set of rules I played when it was a self-published effort. Keyser was running more FVTW games, just as he's done for years. Didn't see his Wagram game this year--now that's a heckuva large game, even in 6mm. Duke Seifried did another extravaganza--'nuff said.

Easy Eight Enterprises was running their new WWII game, Battleground. MagWeb VP Bill Abernathy signed up for it and came back with rave reviews for the infantry system, noting it was fast, fun, and furious. Some of the situations he, and a friend of mine did in a different game, were just mind boggling. The luckiest fellow on Earth has to be the bazooka-man who managed, with some of the most extraordinary sequence die rolls known to man, to destroy a Tiger tank--from the front! Not just knock a track, but obliterate the tank.

But I believe the big winner is Piquet, which generated a considerable amount of buzz and even more sales, especially with their WWII module. You buy the basic game and then period-specific modules. There's been enough written about it in MWAN back issues, but the electricity surrounding a game has never been greater.

The card-flipping, die rolling initiative sequences combines the best of randomness and strategy, although I have seen a series of horrendous d20 initiative die rolls obliterate a strategy as well as make one work (depends on your point of view, eh?), but with the usual mix of generally evening out initiative, it comes down to using your army in the right way (i.e. card draw/play). Designer Bob Jones was seeing lots of action around the gaming table and dealer table.

Other games included a Duke Seifried ancients extravaganza (at right), skirmish gaming (at left, among the ruins), and more. The Courier magazine ran its usual plethora of games.

Phil Barker, he of WRG fame or infamy, was the Jack Scruby Award winner this year for contributions to the hobby.

There were lots of seminars, all of which I completely missed except for for my own two seminars about MagWeb. You know, I used to think seminars were easy to give, until I did one at Cold Wars. Public Speaking is much more of an art form than I thought, as my two new speaking engagements showed. It doesn't help that the Lancaster Host/Holiday Inn never heard of conference center accessories that allow you to plug in a computer and display the screen on a big screen, but they do have an overhead projector and a slide machine...

The one event I missed that I am rather sorry is the painting competition. The Historicon '97 program details the scoring system, which gives 1-5 points in five categories: figure selection & preparation, painting, shading, detailing, and basing. Alas, most of the units were long gone by the time I showed up for a look. Next year...

Beery Eves: Conquest of the Empire

Of course, the evening winds down with beer and gaming (no pretzels. We keep forgetting to bring the pretzels!). One night was Conquest of the Empire, an old Milton Bradley game of Roman War using plasic "miniatures" for pieces. As the "Carthaginians" I did better, being knocked off second instead of the usual first. I made an early mistake by NOT building a ship, and thus ceded the Western Mediterranean to the Spanish and Romans. I waited and built and waited, watching the powerful Turks knock off Egypt, then getting tangled up with the Macedonians. Then, I pounced.

With an admittedly odds-agin'-me gamble, I took on the Turks, kicked them out of Egypt and drove for Syria. Alas, I came within one die roll of knocking off the Turkish Caeser, or more accurately, the last Turk infantry protecting said Caesar. It was a good gamble, and the only hope of turning the tide against me...

Two things we changed in the rules: 1) cavalry costs 20, which is slightly less, and 2) catapults add a maximum of +1 to the die roll, and then only for the player with the MOST catapults. We feel it balances the game better.

Beery Eves: Axis and Allies Variant

The other game was an Axis & Allies variant that starts the game in 1939. As the UK, I watched Germany blitz France on turn 1, then Poland on the next phase. I invaded and captured Italy and knocked out most of Africa, then pulled the British Navy off Spain when the Luftwaffe proved to be rather powerful and I went hunting U-boats. It was then that the Germans went for the knockout blow and launched Operation Sea Lion with a single transport and two infantry units--backed by the Luftwaffe. I managed to knock down 3 of the 5 Luftwaffe aircraft units with the AA gun, and sent what was left of the invasion (the Home Guard was rather incensed, you see) packing. the Germans turned east and attacked Russia (and south and took back Italy).

Meanwhile, half a world away, Japan expanded slowly, then pulled their surprise phase by knocking out most of the US Navy and capturing all of Canada and Eastern US (!), not to mention a chunk of China (was down to one province), and considerable part of the USSR. It was the high tide of the Axis.

The Chinese erupted and took back China and more, the Russians did such a number on the Germans, they got into Poland, and the US built like crazy (as well as taking back Canada and Eastern US). Meanwhile, as Britain, I launched D-Day a few years early--into Germany itself. It came down to a single British tank unit vs. the last German tank unit, which was the special SS unit (what it is with these last gasp die rolls, eh?). And yes, the Germans eliminated the invading British, but whereas the British had enough economic points to rebuild (and rebuild they did), the Germans were hurting and unlikely to launch any more offensives. The Japanese, still powerful, realized that without the Germans to tie down the US, the run around the Pacific was virtually over, especially since the next turn looked to spell the end of the Germans. The game was called at that point...

Aside from some purchases in the dealer area, and visiting some friends, and some last-minute gawking, Historicon 97 came to a close, and reluctantly, made our way back home.

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