Once again, HMGS performed miracles in crafting the well-run and well-attended convention, Historicon '98 (July 23-26, 1998) at the Holiday Inn Lancaster Host Resort, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Looks like over 3,000 showed up for the convention, with the theme of the Spanish-American War. Although I didn't see that many SpAm War games, Guest of Honor Greg Novak gave several talks at the show... A couple changes--and for the much, much better--the dealer area was moved to the Tennis Courts (HI calls it the expo center, but we all know better). What a change! What a breath of fresh air--at least until the brownout occurred and turned it into yet another steambath for a few hours during the afternoon. MagWeb had a booth and sign-in and set-up was fast and easy. Great job all around. Likewise, the ancients tournaments and the flea market moved into the former dealers area--with plenty, and I mean plenty, of room to move around, watch, and buy. Again, great job! A few other rooms were opened up for gaming events around the corner by the gift shop--and that helps a little bit too. As always, it is a pleasure talking to folks as they stopped by the booth, or as I bumped into them at gaming tables. Products A quick run around the dealer area saw product for just about every scale and period you could want--and then some. Running down in no particular order: Scenic Effects were displaying their marvelous terrain, and Fortress Studios was showing a wide variety of medieval and Eastern European 25mm buildings--from a $250 unpainted castle to a $18.95 three arch bridge (20" long). Both companies' offerings stopped many a person in their tracks. Pat Condray has a new booklet out on the Age of Marlborough ($10), Phil Viverito published the Classical Hack Scenarios (Rome) booklet ($18.95), Terry Gore and Bruce Taylor brought out Ancient Warfare ($25) rules, Leo Walsh of TCS had new ships, and the wide variety of other products will overwhelm you. Ancient Warfare I watched an Ancient Warfare game for a couple hours, pestering author Terry Gore with questions as the Romans and Carthaginians slugged it out on the tabletop. I'll do a full review of this set later, but here are some initial impressions of the rules. It's a 1:30 scale, with 1"=25 yards (15mm scale) or 1.5"=25 yards (25mm scale), and each turn is 5-10 minutes. It looks to use the standard WRG mounting scheme. Both sides began at each end of the table and proceeded to use a strategic move (like a March move--it's faster than a tactical move) to start moving closer in order to get to 12" apart, which switches into tactical orders. As in Medieval Warfare (Gore's other rules set), Generals receive a certain number of orders per turn, which both sides place in secret. The orders are revealed, and then comes move, missile fire, and close combat. Charges and countercharges are performed simultaneously, while movement has the side with initiative move first, then the other side. Close order infantry is 4", loose order and open order 6", mounted 8", mounted sirmisher 10", and wheels cost double movement. Javelin range is 2", foot bow out to 10". Close Combat consists of adding up factors and modifiers, multiplying by the number of eligible stands in the melee, and dividing that number by 10 to get the total number of figures killed. The turns move pretty quick, and the players at the table seem to grasp most rules immediately--although having two umpires for 8 players helps with questions. The battle lines clashed, dice were rolled, and you can certainly tell the players were into the game based on some of the remarks flying about... After a particularly miserable run of die rolls, one player exclaimed, "If the gods are against me, I'm turning into an athiest!" The C-in-C, admonishing a subcommander for not moving forward quickly enough, scolded, " You have to move up and get into the fight." Nonplussed, the subcommander replied, "I just want to see what the left flank does so I can decide whether or not to join the other side!" And finally, a commander summing up the state of his command, noted, "Lost a stand, no general, disordered, being pushed back.." His fellow commander, innocently interrupted, "How bad is it?" I look forward to taing a more indepth look at Terry's rules in the coming months. Ancient Warfare seems to be a derivative of Terry's Medieval Warfare set, and I've already told you that I enjoy playing those rules. Incidently, the Roman left flank collapsed, the center routed, and Hannibal had once again beaten the might of Rome. Other Games Meanwhile, over at the next table, a huge trireme bash swirled across the tabletop. Quite an impressive sight. And at another table, Brian Leshinski had a three-table Midway game in 1/700 scale that boasted some fast and furious action. The fleet ships moved on a table each, and Midway made up the third. He used a 3W game, Salvo, for strategic movement, and played the tactical attacks on the table. Last I saw, the Yorktown was in multicolored cotton flames, Japanese planes were falling from the skies, and one Japanese carrier was in flames. I learned later that the Hornet had been sunk as well... Nearby, Rich Hasenhauer's Battlefront, now four years in development, was churning through another version using 15mm troops, where a stand is a squad. It's got a Fire and Fury style movement chart, a lot of good-looking cards with the basic fire values at various ranges, and a chart with lots of fire modifiers. It seemed to go fairly smoothly all in all, with a US attack upon a retreating German position and the appropriate amount of carnage from direct fire and artillery strikes. Only thing that seems a bit odd was placing hull-down counters after move every move in front of every unit that moved. Melee seemed to be Fire and Fury style as well. Artillery uses templates on the attack. If you have seen Duke Siefried's Aztec extravaganza, then what can I say? A lot of flashy terrain that attracts a lot of attention. Then there was the St. Nazaire game in 20mm scale, with the dock area in absolutely wonderful terrain. I don't know, between Pete Panzeri's Alamo, Duke's Aztec temple city, and the St. Nazaire docks, it's a real close race for best spectacle... And let's not slight Jim Wheton's Hot Lead and Cold Steel 1809 game on 4" hexes. Another batch of lovely terrain. Rubber Band Wars Now, I have to hand it to Mark "Princess Ryan" McLauglin, who has a considerable amount of patience to host or co-host kids games after kids games. This 54mm plastic ACW extravaganza was on a table so large and square, you couldn't reach into the middle. And these 8-10 year olds were advancing down the flanks instead. The idea being to capture the flag or something like that. In reality, the aim was to prove your aim--all casualties were calculated by the accuracy of your shooting rubber band guns, ping-pong ball bazookas, and nerf dart shooters. Absolutely wild! Bet you could get a dozen grown-up kids to play, too! Lots of WWII game around--must have had something to do with Saving Private Ryan and the upcoming Thin Red Line. Phil Viverito was running his Classical Hack game or three, Robert Haworth will be coming out with Painted Sunset (Old West scenarios), David Bonk ran his Napoleonics on the computer game,and there were too many to mention without reprinting the program guide. To a Close And so Sunday rolled around, and it was time to pack up the booth, pack into the car, and head out on the highway with the rest of the pack to get on home. Historicon was another successful and enjoyable convention, and the changes made vis-a-vis the dealer and flea market areas was a welcome relief. Back to MWAN #97 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com