Each year the HMGS (Historical Miniature Wargaming Society) puts on a massive convention called Historicon. Lately they have been held in the Lancaster Convention center in Lancaster, PA. This was my third trip to Historicon and this time out I played in six games.
Played the battle of Azincourt using the Midgard rules from Too Fat Lardies (TFL). I had the right flank of the English. My archers couldn’t hit anything (maybe too much captured wine the night before?) so I pretty much got swept off the hill. Had a lot of fun and I love those rules.
Played a game of Nimitz/Halsey trying to push a British convoy into Malta in summer of 1941. I had a couple of task forces including Prince of Wales, a Town-class cruiser and half a dozen Tribal-class DDs. The operational game using Halsey is really cool and we got the convoy to Malta, but it was intercepted by the Italian fleet. Unfortunately time expired just as we got the ship miniatures on the table for the tactical game. I love the operational rules (Halsey), but didn’t really get to play the tactical ones (Nimitz).
Played a game of O-Group, the TFL battalion level rules. The German infantry battaliion and a platoon of Stugs were defending six Built Up Areas (BUAs) from a US infantry battalion with a company of 76mm Shermans. I had a company on the right flank. Big fight over the BUA in my sector, my company went “hesitant” (no manuever, can only fire at close range) four times. I had two platoons annihilated, the Company Commander killed, and lost the BUA, but counter attacked with the reserve platoon and ejected the Amis from the BUA on the last turn of the game for the win. I won a 250th birthday of the US Army coffee mug!
Next up was a game of Chain of Command 2.0 set during a hypothetical German airborne invasion of Malta. A German fallschirmjeager platoon has taken Luqa airfield and a platoon of the Royal Irish Fusiliers need to retake it before the Germans can fly in reinforcements. I had the Brits. On the last turn of the game the victory condition building was being held by a single German soldier with one point of shock and a wounded Senior Leader. We got within 2 inches of the building before being pinned by fire.
Next up was Et Sans Resultat (ESR) a set of operational level Napoleonic rules where each base is a battalion and an inch is 150 yards (12 inches = 1 miles). I had Massena’s corps, and my two compatriots, who had a corps each, were were attacking two Austrian Corps. It was a bit of a demo/learning game put on by the author of the rules so we played for a couple of hours, learned a lot about the system, but didn’t reach any sort of result, although the Austrian’s were in deep kimchee in the center. Great system!
Finally was a spectacular game of the Battle of Bunker Hill using Live Free or Die in 28mm. The table was simply outstanding, easily the best table I saw at the con.
I had Clinton’s brigade and landed on the beach after the initial British assault went in. I also controlled the British artillery, both the battery on Morton’s Hill, as well as HMS Spitfire. By the time I landed my infantry, my colleagues had pushed the Rebels out of their redoubts and completely off Breed’s Hill and hotly pursued them toward Bunker Hill. We ran out of time before reaching Bunker Hill but inflicted 12 stands of casualties on the Americans while suffering only 7 stands of our own so we got the minor victory.
It was a great con, saw all my old Lard America friends, played a bunch of beautiful games, drank a few adult beverages, and came home with too much stuff from the dealer’s room.
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