HISTORICON!!!!

So in the middle of a very trying summer, the family and I took a couple days to head down to Ole' Virginia and I got to attend Historicon, the HMGS' summer wargaming convention.

On the agenda for Historicon, at least for me intially, was headed down there to visit my buddy Dave, maybe pick up some terrain pieces from the flea market, and also play in the large "Road to Ponyri" Battlegroup: Kursk game.

I struck out on the terrain portion, but was able to pick up all, yes, all, of my French 10mm Napoleonic Cavalry that was BEAUTIFULLY painted and ready to go.  While I will re-base them, I am happy to report that all my French Cavalry needs have been taken care of!

Stuck in traffic outside of DC....

Lots of tables lots of games!

 Most of my afternoon on Friday was spent in the vendor area scoping out the offerings and terrain.

Portuguese or Spanish or Italian hamlet.  Love this!  Although a little steep for my budget (as was most of the stuff in the vendor area.  Gosh if you're going to sell something at a convention, wouldn't you mark it down a little?  Talking specifically about rules and minis here...)

Ken - your paper armies based for Blucher!!

GHQ's terrain maker.  I really loved this board.  Lots of hills and contours.

Massive Team Yankee game.  Those are T-72s spanning the whole board!

Lovely painted SGMMinis - NOT FOR SALE!  unpainted only!

Lovely ship models

Pictures are really just a taste of all that was there.  The Gale Force 9 guys and battlefront people had a neat gimmick - big and small sized Chinese food boxes that you could fill up with their laser cut MDF bases.  I bought 3 big and 2 small!  They were very generous with allowing you to really cram the bases in those boxes.  Let's just say my basing needs for the next 10 years are taken care of - barring any new gaming eras acquired!

Dave and I also got to game in the hotel after the convention, which was also fun because he painted up a Bolt Action 15mm Canadian platoon and a bunch of Shermans to do battle against my 12th SS platoon and Panthers.  (Dave shellacked me, BTW with the majority of my units being wiped out when getting on the board.  He never could get that firefly to hit anything, but then again his infantry did most of the rough work!).

Dave setting up our Bolt Action game!  Easy scenario - 1 platoon vrs 1 platoon.  He had an entire platoon of Shermans with a Firefly.  I had 2 panthers.

Dave's magnificent Canadian infantry

My 12th SS guys - painted up a year ago in anticipation of this game.

My job to keep the center objective

Dave's job to take it!

Lots of dead Germans...

David learned the art of "moving everyone online and shooting the hell out of the enemy"!!

Peanut Butter M&Ms!

Dave's guys flanking the objective

My reinforcements coming on - but the best part was when Dave's Vickers went on "Ambush" and took out Kurt Meyer and mowed down his entire command group as they ran towards the action!  Sh*t!!!!

The next day was my big day in Wally's Basement.  I will host my pictures of all of my looted ill-gotten gains in a day or so.  Also got to see even more super cool games being played as well as participate in a HUGE Battlegroup: Kursk game in 15mm.

gorgeous scenery at a massive 28mm Bolt Action game.

More Bolt Action

Bolt Action

 And also a special treat for Ken - an Et Sans Resultat game hosted by the author.  I got to see a little bit of it but had to leave when the game started as Wally's Basement (flea market) was opening.  I did get to chat with the author a bit and I have to say, I really like his philosophy on Napoleonic gaming.

One of the battlefront display boards!  Awesome!

 The next batch of photos will be our big Battlegroup: Kursk game!  Dave and I commander the right flank, driving on 2 major objectives while our sister battlegroup to the left had to cross a river and Seize "Ponyri-1" which was a satellite village of Ponyri station.

David holding the "bite sized" rules for BG Kursk  Mike from Potomac Wargamers was one of the hosts - he walked us through and did alot of the looking up for us.

tanks and mech infantry crossing the line of departure

The battlefield!  At least our half.

tanks moving out!

All in all, a wonderful time that took my mind off all of the busy and crazy things going on this summer and much needed.  Also my daughter Christina got to truly meet her Godfather David and spend time with him, which she is still talking about!