Historicon 2002 would be a pivotal convention insofar as SAGA Publishing went. With the economy taking a nosedive and sales of booklets running at a slow pace, it was imperative to have a good showing. To that end, we determined that we would maximize the exposure of our rules and get our own room to put on all of our games. At first, I didn't know if this would be a good or bad thing, in respect to having the conventioneers see our games, but in the end it proved to be a very wise move.

We had planned on running several games at the same time. The Limerock Room had three large tables, so we could have a Renaissance Warfare game running concurrently with an Ancient Warfare and Medieval Warfare demo. Our new Napoleonic Warfare rules would also debut, with Bruce Taylor and Jeff Ball running the playtests.

On Thursday, when we arrived a little after 2 p.m., everything was in full swing. Paul Schneider, Jim Bleed and Ken Brate brought plenty of figures and terrain to run our Saturday series of games, the Campaign for England - 1066. Thursday itself would be a light day, what with the six hour drive and all. Jeff and Alex Aimette were each running the Battle of Tewksbury (Medieval Warfare) and Marston Moor (Renaissance Warfare) that afternoon and evening. I had a Player's Workshop planned for Thursday evening and that would pretty much do it for the day. Most conventioneers arrive Friday, so the Lancaster Host was not all that crowded…yet.

The registration this year was in the old country-western bar (it finally succumbed to economic pressure and closed) at the entrance to the convention center. At the time of our sign in, there was little in the way of lines or waiting, so this went very quickly. At the far end of the lobby, where the registration used to be done, Duke Siefried had his huge WWII extravaganza set up, Summertime for Hitler. The huge 6 x 24 foot game was well-attended all weekend, with Duke serving up a multi-media event, slides, music from the Mel Brook's musical, Springtime for Hitler and a beautiful geo-hex terrained field of battle.

Of course, we made the obligatory first round of the dealers' area within an hour of arriving. This year, we were fortunate to have SAGA products made available from two of the dealers, Steve Mynes of Age of Glory and Jay Wirth of Renaissance Ink. This proved to be a great move on everyone's part. As always at Historicon, the tennis barn (where the dealers' area is located) was packed with merchandise. One thing I never understood, though is the guard at the entrance checking to make sure everyone had an identification badge for the convention. To me, it would make sense to allow the general public into the dealers area to look at and perhaps purchase items.

We grabbed a bite to eat, meeting up with our other roommate, Mitch Abrams, and then it was time for the Player's Workshop. This idea for this sprang out of the thought that perhaps it would not be a bad idea to sit down with interested players, both those who already played AW/MW as well as those who might like to get a feel of what the rules were like without actually playing a game, in a relaxed and conversational setting. I was pleasantly surprised to have a dozen people signed up for this. The workshop went very well, with a spirited question and answer that honed my wits for the big tournaments on Friday.

Friday morning, we had the 25mm Ancient Warfare tournament, and the 15mm Medieval Warfare tournament (run by Steve DeLucas). We had sponsorship from Age of Glory (Foundry) as well as T.A.P.S. and Miniature Wargames. The tournament featured fourteen players in the 25mm bracket and ten in the 15mm bracket. As usual, there was little in the way of rules problems and what items did come up were easy to deal with. Unfortunately, an incident at a table behind us (using some other system) was not so pleasant. More than a couple of eyebrows were raised and the tone of the conversation during that game! To my mind, the reason we play games is to enjoy ourselves. To go to a convention to argue and have a miserable time is foolish and a waste of time and money, not to mention the fact that another person also has a bad experience.

I actually got to play in the 15mm MW bracket as we were short one player in each area and the 25mm was evenly matched one player using a borrowed army. My first opponent was none other than Steve DeLucas. He used Russ and I used his Teutonic Order...a good idea as this is the army I am building for use at Fall In. Steve opted to place light delaying terrain (brush and rocky ground) in the center to keep my close order foot and knights in line, with a woods on his left, most likely to use as an ambush. My own terrain picks consisted of clear and low hills in my center and right. I determined to load up with knights and skirmish cavalry on my right while holding the center with close order crossbow and spear-armed heavy infantry. My left I simply held with two units of skirmish infantry and a unit of knights with a general.

Steve duly advanced against my weak left and moved toward my center while my own attack aimed at his own left. The Rus were tough, sending in cavalry and units of loose order foot to stop my advance, but the Teutonic cavalry simply smashed through the Rus heavy cavalry and were soon in the rear of the enemy army. Steve kept pressure on my left and center, but the Teutonics would not be stopped as they continued to attack. Finally, Steve's general was killed in a close combat and the battle came to an end. It was closer than it sounds, with me getting a 5-3 victory (in our two-round tournaments, the most points you can get is 5).

The 25mm tournament had five players with a perfect score of five, Rich Jarosz (Later Carthaginian), Paul Schneider (Sassanids), Alan Kaplan (Macedonians in his first AW tournament), Bruce Taylor (Alexandrian Imperials) and Jim Bleed (Alans). We had an hour and a half between rounds, so everyone had a chance to eat and hit the dealers' area again before commencing battle.

Jeff Ball and Alex were running their events again in the Limerock Room while the tournament was in progress, allowing non-tournament players a chance to check out the games. This added exposure was a real plus, as the weekend would later prove out.

For the second round of combat, I was to face another 5 point player, Kelly Wilkinson. For all of our years of playing in WRG tournaments, Kelly and I had never played against each other. His army was Arab Conquest…plenty of camels…just what knights love to face! This game was one of cat and mouse, me unable and unwilling to commit to charging and being disordered (thus losing the benefit of my wedges) and Kelly not wishing to attack my solid lines of crossbow and long spear armed heavy foot. We both settled for a draw as some of our units did get into it at the end.

When all was said and done, the winner of the 15mm AW tournament was Rob Robertson, getting a gift certificate from Wargames. Second place went to Mike Lewis (his first SAGA tournament), best sportsman to Mitch Abrams, Jevon Garrett winning the much coveted 'Next to Last Place' award and Dave Smith picking up the prize for most attractive army, terrain and presentation.

The 25mm tournament forced us to go to a tie breaker as both Bruce Taylor and Rich Jarosz had perfect scores. Rich had beaten his opponents by a slim one point more than Bruce had, however, so won the tournament. Both players were awarded packs of Foundry figures. Karen Jarosz won the Best Sportsman award and Larry Irons won the Time Machine Miniatures 54mm figure (painted and based with a plaque by Ken Brate) for most historically accurate army (Polybian Romans.)

After dinner, there was a second Player's Workshop held in our hotel room as the Limerock had been double-booked with a sea battle game! This worked out okay, however, as ten of us had a nice discussion of the rules and my philosophy behind them. The next day, Saturday would prove the busiest and most hectic of the whole convention.

We had planned on doing the 1066 campaign, with each battle determining the situation in the next game. The more damage the Saxons could do against the Vikings at Fulford Gate, the worse off Hardrada's army would be fighting against Harold at Stamford Bridge and likewise for Harold at Hastings.

Paul Dobbin's was running his great looking Death of Achilles Ancient Warfare game next to us with terrific terrain and fantastic walled city of Troy. Paul has promised a write-up of the game for SAGA and due to the popularity of the game, he has decided to do a scenario booklet for SAGA Publications as well.

We set up our Fulford Gate scenario, telling the Saxons that they would do best to just try to kill as many Vikings as possible, outnumbered and outarmored as they were. Unfortunately for them, the Vikings were fighting with a vengeance. The battle was one of attack and counterattack until the Viking berserker unit got into action, cutting its way through first a Saxon thegn unit and then destroying a unit of fyrd. As the Saxon army reeled under this assault, the Vikings threw all of their units into the attack, finally rolling up the Saxon flank and causing the army of the northern earls to break and rout. The total losses to the Viking army were only 1 stand of berserkers, 1 stand of archers and 4 stands of lightly armored foot. No huscarls had been lost. It would be a tough day for Harold Godwinson at the next battle, Stamford Bridge.

With only a half hour between rounds (the way the games were listed in the PEL, we read the start as 2 p.m. instead of the 3 p.m. we had requested…we read it wrong!) Managing to get the game set up and running was a miracle in itself. Watching the Vikings hold off the Saxons was amazing. The Saxons attempted to get over the River Derwent, unfordable, but for the game, we decided to treat it as a disordering, slowing obstacle. They also had to deal with two Viking units on their side of the river to get to the bridge and cross. The Vikings lined the banks of the river and fought off the Saxon attacks, until Eystein's reinforcements arrived. With that, the berserkers once more went into action, sweeping the Saxons from the bridge and effectively winning the game for Hardrada! Harold's Saxon army retired from the field and Hardrada set about re-establishing the Danelaw.

Now what? The Normans had landed in the south of England to little opposition. We decided to rewrite history a bit in order to fight the final battle for control of England. We moved ahead to 1068. William's Normans and Hardrada's Vikings could not co-exist. The Normans moved north and the Vikings moved south to meet at the Battle of the Midlands.

The Norman army attacked the Vikings (who were uphill, we opted to use the Hastings map anyway) piecemeal…a bad mistake. With a co-ordinated effort, Hardrada's huscarls threw back the Norman attacks and attacked the Norman foot, cutting them to pieces. A Norman flanking attack failed to stop the Viking center from cutting through much of the opposition. The battle ended with a Viking victory! The Danelaw would remain and York would be the capital. This was a lot of fun and everyone enjoyed re-writing history!

As usual for Saturday night, we retired to the bar and met up with many old friends. Russ Lockwood (Magweb) and I talked about co-operating with SAGA and Magweb more closely. Steve Phenow (Strategikon) filled me in on his adventures in the motion picture business (he is a consultant and worked on Gladiator, Gettysburg and the Patriot among others) and Arty Conliffe and I talked about working together on a project. All in all, a good end to a fine day.

Sunday we packed everything away, ran back over to the dealers' area one last time to pick up a couple of books from Dennis Shorthouse and Art Fossa and then said farewell to Lancaster until November, when Fall In arrives. Oh, SAGA Publishing did very well by the way, selling out of three titles and bringing home one bag of books instead of the six we went down with. A very good convention from all aspects!