Vintage Historicon Programs from '84 & '86

       I was doing some cleaning and came across these old programs from the '84 and '86 Historicon conventions.    I decided I didn't need to keep them anymore, so took some photos to list them on eBay.  Since I had the photos, I thought I'd share them here, since there are probably other old-timers like me who would enjoy seeing them.

Click any photo to see it larger.

HAWKs Kick off Their 2019 "Armies for Kids" Project.

       This past Saturday a group of HAWKs got a jump on next year’s Armies for Kids project by getting together to start painting the hundreds of 25mm figures donated for next year’s Medieval armies. Th session centered mainly on dry brushing the armor and getting the flesh and hair blocked in.

     For the past 10 years or so, the HAWKs have prepared dozens of painted armies and given them away to kids who take part in specially designated games each year at Historicon.  This year each child who takes part will be getting a pair of fully painted Medieval armies, along with assorted terrain and gaming aids.

Historicon 2018 HAWks Room Photos

   I was only able to get up to the Historicon miniatures gaming convention for a short while on Friday to visit the HAWKs room and get some shots, and was selling in the Historicon Flea Market all day Saturday.  I was able to squeeze in running a game in the HAWKs room on Saturday night, so got some photos then as well.  Even though I was only there for a short while, I had a great time at the con.
  For photos of my game, see: The Dwarven Loot Train
     

The HAWKs room was already hopping when I got there Friday morning.

First stop for me was the Dealer Hall.  The facelift on the tennis barn is really starting to look nice.

One of several Sea Lion games run by Buck Surdu and Greg Priebe, using "Combat Patrol" rules.

Dave Wood's "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" Fantasy game, using his collection of beautiful old school 25mm figures 

Don Hogge's "Congo" game

James "Tank" Nickle's popular train heist game. 

Duncan Adams' Peninsular Napoleonics game using "Combat Patrol: Napoleonics"

Another of Buck and Greg's Sea Lion games.

Pz38ts storm the beaches of  Little Basely by the Sea during Sea Lion.

Harry Kogelshatz brought back his ever popular large scale "Aliens" game

Using action figures for "Aliens"

Geoff Graff's Plastic Pirates Lego game, is a perennial favorite with the kids

David Schlegel's Fantasy game using "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" rules.

Dave Wood's Zulu game using Combat Patrol: Colonials

Duncan Adams' helmed this year's Armies for Kids game.

Some of the armies the kids got to take home with them in this year's Armies for Kids game.

Historicon Game Report: The Dwarven Loot Train

     On Saturday night at Historicon, after I spent the day selling in Wally's Basement (the Flea Market) with my wife, Jennifer; I ran a game in the HAWKs room called, The Dwarven Loot Train, using the underdevelopment "Combat Patrol: Medieval & Fantasy" rules.

An overview of the table at the beginning of the game.

     While the game was sold out in preregistration, I only had two ticket holders show up.  I think the HMGS preregistration system needs an overhaul, or to be scrapped altogether.  Luckily, I was able to recruit my wife, Jennifer, and HAWK, Mike Thomas, to fill two of the empty spots.

The battle kicks off with one of the Dwarf units getting pin-cushioned by a Goblin archer unit that got 3 fire activations before the Dwarves got a chance to run for cover; which happened when they failed morale.

      The scenario involved a force of Dwarves that were escorting three loot wagons, and who were camped overnight in a small village.  the Orcs have caught wind of the loot, and have planned an early morning raid.  Whoever has control of two or more of the loot wagons at game's end is the winner.

The fear of the Goblin Archers resulted in two of the nearby Dwarf Units running for cover within a walled field, as the Orc troops advances.  

      The game started off poorly for the Dwarves when a unit on their far left got caught in the open by a unit of Goblin Archers who proceeded to pelt them with arrows for 3 activations, before the Dwarves broke and headed for cover.   A seesaw battle then developed in the middle, and it looked like a bold counter attack by the Dwarves might turn the tide and save the day, but the Orcs were eventually able to overpower them.  In the end, the Orcs were the clear dominant force on the table, but they had come nowhere near the loot carts; so while it was a technical Dwarf victory in scenario terms, the Orcs surely would have won in the long run.

The pieces are moved into place: on the left, as the Dwarves' allied Stone Giant advances, the Goblins start massing to attempt to overwhelm him with numbers. In the center the Dwarven Commander, mounted on her Warbear, commits herself  to battle to counter the Orcs' Swamp troll as it advances towards the walled field. A unit of Dwarves hops the wall to support her, as a unit of Orcs advances near the clump of brush near the field.

        I had a great time running the game, and players enjoyed themselves too.  The rules worked really well, and after a few turns the players were pretty much running the game themselves, with me simply flipping activation cards and answering questions.

The Goblins begin their wave attacks on the Giant.  They lose a soldier every attack, but with a hit here and a hit there, the wounds start to add up on the Giant.

The battle of the wall heats up, as Princess Snow and her Dwarf Miners charge over the wall.  The Dwarf Commander sends the Orc's SwampTroll reeling back to the woods from where it entered the battle, after it gets a bad morale result. 

The townsfolk spent the game guarding the loot wagons.

The beginning of the end; the hits are starting to added up on the Dwarf Commander, and she and her bear can only do so much.  The Orc archers have arrived and start to add their deadly shafts to the carnage.  Before the Cave Troll (foreground) can enter the fight, the Dwarf Commander falls, and panic sweeps the line. (All units become pinned when the commander dies.) Her bear continues heroically, but doesn't last long.

On the Dwarf right, the Giant falls in a final wave of Goblins attacks.

"HAWKs 1000" Race Game at Historicon

A couple years ago at one of the HMGS cons,  to celebrate the 1000 convention game that the HAWKs had run, we ran a game called "The HAWKs 1000" which was a race game based on the GASLIGHT and Future Race rules sets.  The race had four courses: boats, dog sleds, zeppelins, and cars; and players cycled through each race collecting points. At the end, whoever had the most points was declared the winner.
   We decided to bring the game back for this year's Historicon as part of the HAWKs 20th Anniversary celebration.  This years race had only three courses: dog sleds and cars like before, and this year we added Martian hover-skiffs.  I was selected to run the hover-skiff leg of the race, Done Hogge ran the car race, and Buck Surdu ran the dogsled race.

Martian hover-skiffs on the start line.  On the hill in the background, John Carter prepares to lower his sword to start the race.

  We got twelve players for our game, which we broke down into two teams of 6, and each team cycled through each of the race courses.  Each vehicle usually had 2 occupants, a driver and an assistant (who was usually armed), and players were given a random assortment of "dirty trick" cards that they could play on themselves or other racers. In my race, besides just trying to finish first, there were also a couple side objective that the players could hope to achieve; the first of these was to rescue a  lost explorer who was located in a far corner of the course, and the second was to rescue a Martian princess who was tied to a monolith in another corner of the course.

Another "dirty trick" card results in a Martian White Ape jumping aboard one of the skiffs and scuffling with the occupants.

My Martian hover-skiff race got off to  bang, when on the second turn a participant played a "dirty trick" card on another that involved a pair of rogue Martian snipers with radium rifles popping up on the course and taking potshots at the racer.  One shot went wild (actually hitting another racer!) but the other shot hit the robot driver of the targeted skiff.  The robot needed to make a Save roll, and rolled a 20, which in GASLIGHT, means something BAD happened. So, as GM I ruled that parts of the destroyed robot had fallen into the engine, and the player needed to roll a Save for the vehicle or it would take damage.  He succeeded in rolling a second 20, which on the damage table indicated that the vehicle exploded and fell to the ground.   I let him make a Save for his assistant figure, which he did, and so the assistant set off to finish the race on foot.

In the first race, the player who had his skiff blown up, manages to rescue the lost explorer with his assistant, and finish the race on foot, actually coming in third!

The highlight of the second game was when a player had his skiff crash with only the robot driver survive he tired to use the robot to steal the skiff of another player (who had parked it to rescue the lost explorer) and so I made him roll a Save to see if his robot's programming was compatible with the other skiff's.  He rolled a 20 as well, and so I ruled that in it's attempt to diagnose the skiffs programming, defensive software in the skiff had short circuited the robot.

In the second race, the pair of Martian snipers appears again, and creates havoc near the finish line.

Both runnings of the race were a hoot to GM, and a great group of gamers made for a terrific night. It was a great way for me to wrap up Historicon 2014.

Done Hogge (in blue shirt, facing camera) ran a cross-desert car race filled with bandits and lost treasure.

Buck Surdu (in blue shirt at far end of table) ran an Arctic dogsled race complete with rogue Yetis and wandering penguins.

"Battle of Barnet: 14 April 1471" Game at Historicon

Saturday morning at Historicon I ran my "Warring Roses in the Mist game, which featured the Battle of Barnet fought 14 April 1471, using "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" rules and 10mm figures.  In the battle, King Edward IV arrayed his Yorkist army to fight against he Earl of Warwick and his Lancastrian army on a foggy morning; so foggy in fact that the two armies lined up offset, so both had dangerously threatened flanks.

The game begins, as commanders begin to move their units.

One of the main features of the battle, other than the visibility limiting mist, was several hedges that cut through between the two armies, hindering their movement.   In the game,  the Lancastirans were able to advance their longbowmen to these hedges providing them some cover as the Yorkist army also moved their archers forward.

Exeter's longbowmen rush for the hedges (center of the photo), as Gloucester's men advance (left of the photo).

   The archery duel commenced and after a couple turns the Lancastrian army had received the worst of it, loosing the achery duel in front of all three of their commands (Exeter on the left, Warwick in the center, and Oxford on the right)  As their remaining Lancastrian archers fell back the Yorkist archers poured fire into the Lancastrian foot soldiers as they now tried to move up.

The height of the battle

     The Duke of Exeter on the Lancastrian left, who was badly outflanked by the Duke of Gloucester across from him, quickly found himself in a bad position and his lines began to get badly decimated.  Exeter was slowly pushed back and Warwick found his troops in the center now threatened.

Exeter is pushed back from the hedges by the advancing Gloucester

Meanwhile on the Lancastrian right, the Earl of Oxford, who outflanked his opposite, Lord Hastings, despite having his archers mauled was able to advance across the hedgerow and held his own for a while, but he was unable to maintain any momentum in his attack, and he too found himself slowly pushed back.

Warwick (seen in the center of the photo) with enemy units drawing close, concedes defeat and vows to return another day.

Once the writing was on the wall, Warwick conceded, and the game was called as a Yorkist victory.  All the players said they had a great time, and several said they were eagerly looking forward the the rules being published early this Fall.  As a GM I enjoyed running the game for a super group of players.

HAWKs 2014 Historicon Armies-For-Kids Project a Big Success!

This year's Armies-For-Kids project was successfully concluded at last weekend's Historicon convention with the awarding of pairs of opposing, painted,  28mm Napoleonic Amries, terrain and other gaming aids to 6 lucky kids after completion of a specially designated kids' game on Saturday at the con, GM'd be HAWKs member Eric Schlegel.  We also handed out two complete pairs of 15mm Seven Years War Armies and terrain, left over from our 2012 Armies for Kids effort,  to two lucky kids who took part in another kids' game we ran during the con.

Eric helps one of the kids during Saturday's game (Photo courtesy of Buck Surdu)

This year's armies were provided through generous donations from Jay Hadley, Ed Mohrmann, and the Nashcon staff.   The terrain we gave the kids was provided, and constructed, by Chris Johnson.

The kids checking out their new armies.

Next year we are planning to be putting together 40mm ACW skirmish forces for our Armies-For-Kids project, based on a generous donation of figures from Maynard Creel.  So, if anyone has any 40mm ACW figures, or suitable terrain they'd like to donate, please contact me at cnjpalmer(at)aol(dot)com.

Group shot of Gamemaster Eric Schlegel and the kids with their pile of "loot"!