Berichten

Palmyran players ford a branch of the Tigris river with relative ease, as they advance upon the  ancient Sassanid Persian Capital of Ctesiphon in Iran. 

The Sassanid team for game 1 (Thursday AM); To the Strongest! rules, by Simon Miller. 

Armored and Light Cavalry, Camelry, and Elephants get into action on the flanks

The Palmyran center has four solid units of Eastern “Roman” infantry, which the Persians lack a good counter for. 

A lonely elephant mixes it up on the Persian right!

Action on the Persian left; watch out for that Palmyran light cavalry in your backfield!

Action on the right again.

The 2 units of deep Levy (8+ save) look kinda lonely in the center!

View from the Towers of the city…  fortified camps in TtS! terms. 

Light cavalry trying to do what they do best!

One camp taken!  Spearmen have fallen back (with difficulty) to defend the next one!

Roman/Palmyran Auxillia attack the camp; the Spearmen have only one hit left – if they can take the camp, that’s 6 VM total and the game!  In the event, the attack is repulsed with the destruction of the Auxilia, but the Palmyrans ultimately prevail!

Game 2, three of the four Palmyran players. This time, the river slows them up a bit., and the Sassanids press forwards aggressively. 

Team Persia in the lead!

Crunch Time!

Cataphracts battle it out. 

Camels and Cavalry and Elephants, oh my!

Light cavalry play cat and mouse. 

The Persian Levy Spearmen again prove to be surprisingly effective, but the rest of the Palmyran infantry is devastated. In the end, a second, very close win for King Odenathus!

Age of Sail

Hexes on the tabletop

Airpower Boardgame writ large!

Test of Resolve – Scots vs English HYW rules teaching game. 

Infamy, Infamy!

Wahtta Cowboy… a game of a movie of a game of a… PELA winner.

One of at least 2 tables involving a certain bridge in WW2

Saxon England?

Small but lovely!

Marks Game room, with Miles (age 12) in attendance. He’s probably played more games than you have,. LOL!

A Joe Swartz extravaganza

Mars attacks!

Another view of a table seen earlier

Likewise ; looks like some sheep stealing Vikings on the scene!

Ben Hur! One of 3 (?) different circus Maximus games

The ever expanding Shogun extravaganza returned with new additions yet again. 

Triumph!

One of a number of nice looking games in the Ancient/Medieval tournament section. 

likewise

and again. 

Part of a huge D-Day game. 

Naval game with a cameo by my freind Kevin Carroll, who just got himself elected top the HMGS board. My sympathies, Kevin!

More Ancients competition. 

Likewise

Beneath the walls of…

ToR Scots/English intro game

Blurry Galley warfare

Picket arrives with his charge!  A well deserved PELA winner. 

Just the Confederate gun line left behind. 

Bungle, in

the Jungle!

Vittoria, 1813

Ships with LED cannon fire!

St Mere Eglise

Car Wars

The big stompy robots guys!

Setting up for the Battle of Sitka, Alska, 1804. 

Russians and native allies vs the local Tinglit Indians. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Sitka

When I first started in practice (40 years ago, wow!), I had a pair of spinster sisters in their 90’s; their father was the first US territorial governor of Alaska. They grew up at the then capital – Sitka!

Zulu!

“The Mummy”

54 mm; may have to steal the Pyramid construction…

Set up for the Battle of Sitka is completed. 

I had a great time at Historicon this year, once again. I was unusually organized this year, and had the car all packed up by Tuesday night. With plans to run 9 games, and provide figures for Tim and David’s multiple smaller games with their new Test of Resolve: Hundred Years War rules, that was a necessity! I actually managed not to forget anything this trip, either. Perhaps because of those things, I actually slept well the night before the drive to Lancaster, which was unusual!  The drive was exceptionally smooth, and I arrived circa 2:30, and was able to check into my room at the convention center, and unload the car. Tim and David arrived from the UK circa 5 PM, so I set up the table and troops for the Battle of Tewkesbury, and then we headed out for dinner. 

 I was too busy GM’ing to take many pictures, but this is the crisis of the battle: Somerset’s flank marching command is being intercepted by the Reserve Battle commanded by Gloucester, who just became aware of Somerset’s presence as the Lancastrians crested the small ridge that had heretofore concealed them. At the same time, the Yorkist ambush has been sprung, and the mounted Scurrers hidden in the woods have struck the flank of Somerset’s Battle with effect. At the top of the picture, Devon (L) and Hastings (Y) have been battling it out, with the action rather favoring the Yorkist cause. After much exchange of arrows and cannon fire, the centre battles of Wenlock (L) and King Edward IV (Y) have met, with the figurehead Prince Edward and his small retinue deciding who they might best aid (without losing the vital Prince in the process!). At this moment, in a furious melee, both King Edward AND Wenlock are simultaneously laid low (both rolled 1’s in melee against one another at the same time!).  The Yorkist lose heart and the victory goes to the Lancastrians!

Some Weds night table setups for the following morning

Gettysburg – Pickett’s charge in 54 mm on three 6 x 20 foot tables!

Union defensive position

The wide open field to be traversesd, with some fences to hinder the advance without providing much cover! 

Picket’s boys and their supporting artillery. 

Pratzen heights assault in 3mm

All of Austerlitz in 3 mm. 

Jumble in the Jungle!

I spent all of 10 minutes in the dealer hall this year, picking up a bottle of super glue for repairs for $5; just too busy running all of those games! I browsed Wally’s basement every evening, finding little of interest to me.  Unfortunately, I did pick up something else at the Con. Saturday night I started felling hoarse (not unusual at game #8, but then later developed a runny nose and a cough. I felt worse Sunday AM, donned a mask, and had Tim and David take over for me, then drove home feeling gradually more flu symptoms. A test upon return home confirmed that I had finally gotten COVID after 3.5 years of avoiding same. Went straight to bed for 36 hours! Resumed working remotely yesterday and will do so again tomorrow. Hence the big delay in Historicon posts this year!

One of them involves a number of units of Scottish Spearmen.

Rummaging about, I found these chaps in the Lead Pile from ? 20 years ago.

They are Essex figures IIRC. 

I gave the unit Scottish an Burgundian flags, so with some shuffling, they could represent either. 

The Scottish Royal flag was created from an image on the web. 

The Burgundian flag is a download from Warflag. 

All ready for the trip to Lancaster, if not the House of Lancaster! Packing the car starts tomorrow for Wednesday AM departure…

Most likely the officers and wealthier men approximated the regulations, while many other probably wore grey uniforms faced in the provincial color… if they were lucky. 

The facing color for Carinthia (Kärnten in German) was red, with the cockade being red-yellow- red-white, for Styria (Steirermark) white facings, cockade white-green, Carniola (Krain) light blue with white-blue-red cockade, and Salzburg yellow facings with cockades white-red. 

The figures are once again from Piano Wargames, and the flag is from the previously referenced Mal’s Small World blog site. The coat of arms of Carinthia are displayed on this side.