HistoriCon 2013 Saturday - USMC in the ACW

Last Saturday at HistoriCon, my friend Frank Hodge and I spent the morning in seminars and then joined our friend Grant Greffey for his latest WarZone scenario in his Dr. Orenstein series.  What follows are a few notes that I took from the first seminar, with others to follow in subsequent posts.  Any errors in this account with respect to the history of the Marine Corps and surrounding events are my own.  

HistoriCon 2013 Friday - DBA and GHQ

De Bellis Antiquitatis 3.0
Today at HistoriCon, I was reminded of what I like about the elegant miniatures game De Bellis

Pike refusing the flank against a knight charge

Antiquitatis (designers Philip and Sue Barker and Richard Bodley Scott, publisher Wargamers Research Group), colloquially known as DBA.   Years ago, my friends and I would play earlier versions of DBA avidly.  We closely followed rules changes and army list updates as they came out, the latest edition being DBA Version 2.2.  Over time we fell away from DBA in favor of boardgames and other distractions.  Occasionally we'd say, "We should play DBA again some time," and another of us would say, "Yes, that's a good idea.  I like DBA.  We should do that."  And then we wouldn't.

HistoriCon 2013 Thursday - New Orleans and Warrenton Junction

Although my primary interest is boardgames, I've been known to push lead around the table from time to time.  With last year's move to Fredericksburg, Virginia, of HistoriCon, the biggest Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS) event of the year, I've had a golden opportunity to revisit miniatures gaming and see the latest in the hobby.  Today was the first day of HistoriCon 2013, and for me it was "Leo Walsh" day, as I participated in back-to-back games run by the co-designer of High Noon and Age of Iron.

WBC: Thinking about August in December

I'll preface my remarks by stipulating that I am a relatively new member of the Boardgame Players Association, and all I know is based on what I read in the newsletter and elsewhere online.  None of this represents any kind of official news or information from the BPA.  Caveat lector.

HistoriCon 2012: A Submariner's Life and a Gathering Storm

I must say that HistoriCon offered many more lecture opportunities than I've seen at my favorite boardgame conventions, WBC and PrezCon.  After the "Battle for Manila Bay," I turned my sights to a series of presentations by historians on topics of interest.

HistoriCon 2012: High Noon and the Battle of Manila Bay

High Noon

Image (c) Leo Walsh
Used by permission

Friday morning at HistoriCon opened with a demonstration of High Noon (designer and self-publisher Leo Walsh), a home-grown 19th Century Western skirmish game.  Leo had a large, elaborate Western landscape set up in 25mm scale - right down to gullies that descended below table-top level and bald eagles that graced some of the rock formations.  The rules were pretty detailed, and I particularly liked the wounding mechanism (example to follow).

HistoriCon 2012: Borg Attack

Thursday afternoon at HistoriCon 2012 saw me in command of Star Fleet's task force at Wolf 359, assigned to stop the approaching Borg cube that threatened Earth.  The task force consisted of approximately twenty capital ships and perhaps ten interceptors.  The fleet focused nearly all firepower on the Borg propulsion systems to slow its progress toward Earth.  The Borg destroyed a number of Excelsior-class and other major starships with its torpedo missiles and did considerably damage to the fleet with beam weapons and collisions, but our unrelenting focus on propulsion turned out to be successful, as we rendered the cube dead-in-space outside weapon range from Earth.

HistoriCon 2012: A boardgamer's reflection

HistoriCon came to Virginia this year, and though miniatures gaming takes a distant second to my boardgaming preference, I couldn't let the opportunity pass to spend at least a couple of days in the world of scratch-built terrain and tape measures.  Inexcusably, I forgot to bring a camera both days that I attended, a virtual crime at a miniatures convention.