Historicon 2016

Historicon happened, as you probably already knew.  I am still sore from it.

Thanks to the new job, I wasn’t able to get down Thursday to check in/check out the vendor hall (which I did last year and strongly recommend).  Instead, I went down early-early Friday, stuck around through Saturday, and headed back Saturday night. I’d say it was something like 24 hours of standing on concrete and leaning over tables. It’s possible I’m too old for this.

Painting Competition

In the interests of not further burying the lede, the painting competition was very, very kind to me.  Four entries, four awards plus Best of Show.

I’d entered Tercio Creativo’s Zurraigo.  I love this mini and how it came out.

Historicon 2016 Painting Contest (4)

I also entered my A7Vs into the Flames of War platoon category.  I’m extremely pleased with how these came out, and I’m looking forward to continuing to apply these techniques.

Historicon 2016 Painting Contest (3)

I entered a different set of Maquis than the set I entered into the Capital Palette last year. This batch (in fact, every Partisan model I painted after that batch) benefited from the seminars I took at NOVA.

Historicon 2016 Painting Contest (2)

I’d brought these in, not because I thought they’d all that well (there are more half-assed things about them than I can count), but because they were a breakthrough for me. I’d also planned to enter them into the Historical Unit category, not realizing that it was 1 entry/category (I got my wires crossed with the Capital Palette) , so I dumped them into the Open category.  I can only presume there was no fourth entry into the category.

Historicon 2016 Painting Contest (1)

In front of us in the mini pickup line was a young girl: probably in her early-mid teens.  They handed her her figure and a plaque for 1st Place, Youth Category (I think?) , and she literally  just started screaming “YES! YES! WOO! YES!” and literally ran off, holding her mini and award over her head.  I know how she felt: I might be a miserable, crabass, and this might not be The Crystal Brush, but it’s immensely encouraging and thrilling and an honor to win one of these, nevermind Best of Show.

Gaming

I really sucked about taking pictures.

I’d been really looking forward to The League of Augsburg‘s Battle of Pennyburn Mill game for quite some time.  I had no idea Clarence was not only in the US, but is (relatively) just down the road.

Pennyburn Mill (8)

Pennyburn Mill (7)

Pennyburn Mill (6)

Pennyburn Mill (1)

Pennyburn Mill (5)

Pennyburn Mill (10)

Pennyburn Mill (9)

 

It was a lot of fun; strongly recommended.  I hope they run another game next year; I’ll make sure it’s on my schedule.

I cruised by the Bolt Action tournament: I was disappointed that one wasn’t being run on Saturday… I’d have been all over it.  With my game scheduled for Friday, I couldn’t commit to playing in the Friday BA tournament.

I did grab a photo of this amazing Home Guard army:

Homeguard

I watched some of John E’s Strange Aeons game, which I really need to make time to play:

Strange Aeons

I’d signed up to run my Amien, 1918 game; the only TGS game in attendance. It went less than smoothly: only one person who’d signed up showed up, though I was able to dragoon someone who’d been chatting with me about it into playing as well.

The scenario… might not be a great one for a con game.  For the Germans, the first 1-2 turns are just about waiting.  The Brits show up, they shoot, they kill next to nobody; repeat.  The Germans… sit there. There’s not a lot of agency at the beginning.  I could tell it was frustrating the kid playing them.  Once the rolling barrage has moved on, that totally changes: the Germans have just as much control over what’s happening as the Brits, and are (potentially) in a stronger position (since they’re entrenched)… but that’s after.  Nobody wants to wait to play a game after, they want to start playing the game, you know?

Also: it’s worth noting that it was kind of a huge hassle. Not only did running a game prevent me from participating in the BA tournament, it imposed a lack of flexibility over my Friday evening. In terms of saving $25 on the GM Badge: I don’t think was worth it.  Heck, I took a day off from work, my first week, because I’d been committed to running a game on Friday. At that point, I’d assert that it definitely wasn’t worth it.  If I’d had participation in the game, I might feel differently, but I’m not sure I’m going to run a game again next year.

Saturday, most of my day was spent in the By Fire & Sword tournament. I came in last. This is entirely because 1) I don’t play the game enough and 2) need to build the rest of my models.

The game can kind of be a little incoherent: the layout doesn’t put rules where I expect them, and between the core rulebook, The Deluge, and the revised rulebook the inconsistencies can be maddening.  I’d love for a native English-speaker with time (so: not me) to literally just rewrite the rules in a more straightforward format.  There was noise about a revised rules-only book coming out: maybe that’ll be it.  Anyway: it’s not like BA or even 40K where you can not play for a year but just pick it up and go.

By limiting myself to the models I have assembled/painted, I’m pretty cramped in what I can run, and that doesn’t do me any favors.

I’m sure they’ll do one next year: if I’m going to play in it, I’ll have to better prep for it.

Shopping

I was pretty good this year.  I picked up a bunch of stuff for WWII Flames of War: got a lot of good deals at the swap meet.

Importantly, I’m still at the “I have painted more than I’ve bought this year” level, though I’d kind of expected it to be the other way.  What’s really encouraging is that last year, I was good up until Historicon and on contact with the vendor room everything went up in smoke.  This year, I’m still on point with tracking purchased/painted/sold data.