The foyer previews the wonderful number of wargames through the Ballroom area. Over the years, the always gracious and primo showman Duke Siefried who would anchor the center. I believe he was running a WWII game this year. Pete "Jodiecon" Panzeri would anchor the right, though this year, sadly, he was serving in Korea). A rotating number of folks would be on the left.

John Fernandes (left), author of GHQ's Microarmor WWII rules, and Jim Moffet of GHQ.

This year, on the right was Nigel Marsh running his Carnage and Glory computer-assisted rules in preparation for the Borodino 2002 Napoleonic Conference to be held in Fort Monroe, VA. I saw the table full every time I went by.

On the left tucked next to the stairs was the GM Help Desk. This is a great idea. Basically, GMs who need help lugging boxes of terrain and lead from car to table can borrow wheeled carts and such to help them. Plus, it can serve as a central contact point.

The Ballroom

Here, you face a choice. To the left down a short hall is a set of named rooms. To the right is the wide open Ballroom.

Phil Viverito, author of Classical Hack, sets up an ancients game.

The Ballroom is wide open, usually packed, and during peak Saturday afternoons can be quite noisy with background chatter. It's a wonderful place to be. There are too many wargames to recount.

The Historicon Program Guide lists events from page 39 to 104, so, whatever your interest, you'll find like minded history buffs, armchair generals, and wargamers from all walks of life scrutinizing tables, rolling dice, and chatting among themselves regarding battles, campaigns, commanders, tactics, terrain, uniforms, and other military minutae. The wargames range across all periods of history on land, on water, and in the air.

I took some photos, so I'll let them do most of the talking, with some additional comments dredged from my all-too over-extended memory.

One I just missed was Fort Duquesne--they had just taken it down. Prof. Duffy clued me in to this impressive set-up--I can say that because the base terrain boards were there and the star fort covered about 3 feet from bastion to bastion. Sorry, folks.

Brian Leshinskie (left, seated) runs one of his Gulf War trilogy wargames. At the moment, Mark Zaslavsky (standing, white shirt) is about to unload naval gunfire on some target.

Mark Zaslavsky umpires a Classical Hack game. This guy is everywhere!

A hard-fought medieval contest.

Unknown host explains a fine point during an age of sail battle.

How come Cossacks never get cold? This is a battle in the snow.

Down the Hall

The same things occur in the rooms down the short end of the hall. These are smaller areas than the Ballroom, but no less exciting and eclectic of content. HAWKS, a club, usually takes much of the left hand room.

Napoleonic action in the "HAWKS" room. Bet the two re-enactors played British?

Howard Whitehouse's Robbin' Hood battle. Sadly, Howard was behind me and thus, out of view.Something about Witness Protection Program...

On the right, 'orrible Howard Whitehouse was running a Robbin' Hood game of some sort. I spoke to him for a bit, dropped off some MagWeb.com rulers and flyers as his players really needed these accoutrements, and learned he inserted every pun, cliche, and idiosyncracy he could think of connected to Mr. Hood. That's Howard. Sure a lot of folks doing a lot of medieval gaming there.

Across the room was David Bonk, running another C&G computer-assisted wargame. He's been doing this for quite some time. As usual, his wargame is packed.

Bonk is at rear, concentrating on the computer.

Down in another of the rooms was Larry "The Sword and the Flame" Brom running a game, though it looked to me to be Franco-Prussian. I spoke to him later, but at the time, he was running through an overview and I interrupted him only long enough to take a photo.

Larry Brom at right in blue provides an overview of the tactical situation.

He and his daughter Lori had the booth two over from us, and a steady stream of folks stopped by to purchase his rules and chat.

More Historicon 2002

Welcome and Introduction
Registration and Tournaments
DBA On-line
Flea Market: Bargains
The Theater: Big Wargames
Re-enactors: British and French
Distelfink Ballroom: Main Gaming
Back Out in the Hallway
"Courier" Room
Dealer Area: Tennis Barn
Don Featherstone
Steve Phenow, Strategikon
Restaurants and Restaurant Fires
War: Age of Imperialism (review)

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