Historicon 2019: To Catch a King - A Retrospective

 I was more than a little nervous with my game "To Catch A King" at Historicon this year for a number of reasons, one of which which was the scale - there are over 2,400 mini's on the table.  The following photo's show the initial setup.  I did tinker with it a little bit over the course of the con, but no material changes where made.  The objective of the game was for the British to get the King's carriage across the map and onto a waiting ship.  The French wanted to prevent that.  In the end, the French won 4 out of 5 games but it was a lot closer than that tally appears.

 The French Left flank consisted of Soult's single division on the shore and Lannes corps of two divisions (in the center of the picture plus a reserve force of a Guard infantry and heavy calvary divisions under Napoleon.  Soult's smaller division had a chance of maritime reinforcements over the course of the game.

In the center was Davout and his III Corps of two divisions.

Finally, on the French right flank is Bernadotte and his I Corps of (yet again) 2 divisions.  Opposing I corps is a similar sized Austrian Corps.  Austrians?  During Napoleon's invasion of Britain?  Well the given reason is that they're British Allies.  The real reason is that I ran out of time painting British and had to augment the force with some Austrians!

The British center is held by II Corps which has two divisions deployed between the bridge and around the central village.

On the right flank the British I corps is deployed along a hill and into the port city.  One of the divisions, commanded by the upstart Wellesely has deployed on the reverse slope of the hill awaiting the French.  To the rear of the formation is the British reserve - a heavy cavalary division of three brigades and a horse artillery battery.

Finally the British right flank is anchored by a single division but they have mixed up their orders and deployed to far forward,  Oops....

The sides are fairly balanced with the French having a slight advantage in numbers 32 infantry, and 11 cavalry brigades plus 9 artillery batteries opposed to 28 infantry and 10 cavalry brigades plus 8 artillery batteries.  There were 2,417 figures on the table.

The setup was intended to allow some initial skirmishing on the flanks to help teach rule mechanics and then have everyone in some form of contact by turn 2.

 "To Catch a King" was played 5 times over the course of the con, with the first game being Thursday afternoon.  Both the French and British CiC's were experienced General d'Armee players and from the same gaming group.  That fact was really helpful in managing the game.

 The decisive point of the game came when the Austrians launched a spoiling attach against the French as they were trying to move part of I Corps across a ford to reinforce the main attach in the center.  The attack was more costly to the Austrians in losses but threw off the main French attack as reinforcements were rushed to fill the gap and away from the key objective.  Game 1 was a resounding British victory.

The players from Game1

 The Friday morning game resulted in a French victory and they were able to capture the King at the bridge crossing.  Davout's reputation has been further enhanced.  The French did have an unfair advantage as they had a Priest on their side.

 Furious fighting on the shoreline - lots of casualties on each side but no breakthroughs.

 Davout's main column breaks through and captures the King!

 There just weren't enough British in the areas to mount a counter attack

Lesson from Game 2 - always have a priest on your side of the table.

 Game three was perhaps my favorite on the con so, of course I forgot to take pictures.  I had fantastic players including a full family, the Green Viking and Josh from the club.

The fighting was furious and this was the only game the French heavy cav really was decisive as it charged over the hill and cut the road.  Victory to France!

The game three crew!

Young Andy commanded the extreme British right flank and managed to hold off elements of three French divisions with his single and batters British one.  For his bravery and coolness under fire he was awarded a Victoria's Cross much to the exclaim of his gaming participants, especially the French.  It was a good day.

That's correct, Master Andy is the recipient of a genuine replica Victoria's Cross.

 Game Four (Sat am) was a really hard fought affair with fighting all across the front.  This game played out as close to what I had imagined the game to do

 It was another French Victory, but just by the king of their teeth

 The last game on Saturday was also fun but I was really tired - running big games can be a bit taxing.

 Good friend Mike P commanded the Austrians.  His turn 1 dice rolling was red hot - two box cars in a row.  His turn 2+ dice rolling was not red hot.  Mike is a great guy and a pleasure to have at the gaming table win or loose.

 This was the first game where the king was caught before crossing the bridge!

The Game 5 crew.  Another French Victory.

I was really pleased with how the game played but there was a lot I can do to make the game better.

As I indicated at the beginning of this post, I was more than a little nervous putting this game on as I was using a somewhat detailed set of rules (General d'Armee) and its scope was pretty big.

General d'Armee - the rules actually worked well and players picked up the key concepts by turn 2.  I do think the 4 pages of QRF sheets are hard to process for a new player and I need to make some custom ones that reduce some of the complexity.  These remain, by far, my favorite Napoleonic rules but do need a "lite" version for convention play.

Naval Aspect - My original game concept had a naval aspect with frigates and house rules.  After seeing how big the game really is and the noise in the convention area, I decided to just focus on the land battle which was still a bit of a bear to GM.  For future games where I want a naval aspect I think I'll go with the format I used for "Decision in Delmarva" in 2015 where a morning naval battle sets up the afternoons land battle.  The ship's did serve as nice eye candy!

Napoleonics - I'm hooked - I think this game looked great and was playable so one can do Napoleonic in a convention setting.  I'm pretty sure you'll see another Nappy themed game at Historicon in 2020.  What's the scenario?  I'm still trying to figure that out.....

I do want thank my club mates who were really helpful over the course of the con.  I find myself very fortunate to count them as friends.  Also thanks a lot to Chris Hecht who drove up Saturday to help - maybe one day we can lure him back to the dark side of Historical gaming.  Maybe.....

Tree stands used at Historicon: PVC Foam Board

During Historicon I received a lot of very nice compliments about the trees stands on the table and questions about how I made them.  Three people asked if I would make some on commission basis.  Since they’re REALLY easy to make, I can’t accept anyone’s money but I can point you to my how-to blog posts below.  I also had a bit of a brain misfire when people asked me the material used for the bases.  The correct answer is Expanded PVC foam board.  I have a range of answers at the con.  All of them wrong.  The specific brand I used was Palight.

As for the how-to links, here they are:

Base Construction

Canopies

OK, at least that incident of mis-information and fake news has been corrected.  I am sure there are others lurking......

Historicon 2019: I had a blast

Historicon 2019 is in the books.  In my humble opinion, it was one of the best HMGS events I've ever attended.  The new venue in downtown Lancaster was a HUGE improvement over The Host and I really hope HMGS locks that facility in with a long term contract.  There were some issues with the facility but nothing that would make me want to even consider going back to the Host for any reason.

The convention "vibe" felt a lot more active and positive to me - I know that's a pretty subjective measure but it's an important one.  Also contributing to my very positive experience was this convention was the first I attended as a member of a club (with Little Wars TV) and that was a blast.  It also made running the games a lot easier and I'm very grateful for the all the help I got from the club.

As with past Historicon's, I focused on running my game multiple times and didn't play in any other games - I was just too tired- being a GM can be taxing.  It's also a great fun as one gets to pretend to be both a big top circus ringmaster and carnival barker all rolled up into one.  I ran my game "To Catch a King" 5 times and had an average of 10 players per game.  A majority of my players were people who have played in past games I've put on and it's always very gratifying to see them come back for more.  I really couldn't have asked for a better group of players during the con.

Facility Assessment:
How did the Marriott Hotel and Lancaster Convention Center do as venue?  As indicated above, it was a big improvement over any of the past venues I've attended a Historicon at (The Host, Valley Forge and Fredericksburg).  The Hotel food was good and there were a ton of dining options within a 5 minute walk from the facility.  Off-loading and then loading all the stuff I need to put on a big game was very easy.  Parking worked (I used the Hotel's valet service).  Lighting was good and I didn't get exposed to killer molds, food poisoning and/or asbestos - you know, the standard "Host Experience".

There were some issues that could be improved on:
1) For some reason the up escalators from the first to the second and second to third floors were not working.  There was adequate elevator service for those who have mobility issues but if you were in a hurry you needed to walk up the stationary escalator.  I think the hotel, after seeing the condition of the average convention attendee, made a decision we all needed a bit more cardio in our daily lives.

2) Better maps for finding the loading docks.  Maybe this is just me, but I struggled to find the loading area to unload when I first got there and ended up doing so at the hotel entrance.  It wasn't a problem as I was valet parking and gave the attendants a nice tip but it would have been easier if I could find the GM loading ramp.  Lets chalk this issue up to a 50/50 between unclear instructions and my stupidity.  OK 49/51

3) About midway through my last game on Saturday, one of my club mates mentioned we all needed to be packed up and out of the gaming room we were in by midnight Saturday.  I had originally planned to do the game take down Sunday morning and never noticed the time restrictions.  In the end, it wasn't a big problem and I had a lot of help from the club to get packed up but the instructions on when we needed to be out should have been better communicated.

That's it for issues - Please HMGS make the correct decision and stay at this facility.

Surprisingly, the game won an award on Friday, which is due to the quality of players overcoming the bumbling GM.  The award is greatly appreciated.  There is, however, some controversy on the award as Steve form the club is claiming the flashing led lights used to make ship fire was the real reason the game got an award.  He's probably right.....

I'll do some more detailed posts of the game but I was really pleased with how it played.  I'm pretty sure next years Historicon game will be Napoleonic also!





Coverage of the Game:

OnTableTop (aka Beasts of War)

Historicon Day 2

Day 2 of Historicon was definitely a French day as they won both games.  The Morning game I suspect the French had an unfair advantage as one of the players was a priest!

The afternoon game also went the French way and I was surprised that the game won an award. It’s really due to the fantastic players I had for the game.

Heading out for the third day and 2 more runs of the game!

Historicon day 1 Update

Well day 1 is done!.  The first run of “To Catch a King” went extremely well.  There was a lot of interest in playing so I expanded the player set from 8 to 10.  I was very fortunate to have some experienced GdA players acting as CiC’s for both sides

The players had fun and the game resulted in a crushing defeat for the French.  The almost turned the British right flank but then the dice gods became angry at the French - VERY angry.

The game moved along fine but there are some things I can do to improve playability.

Historicon, Day -1

 All packed up and ready to go.  I hit the road around 2:00 and arrived in Lancaster at 4:00ish.  The new facility is a huge upgrade and I hope the convention stays here a long time.

The table is set up.  I decided not to put out the miniatures last night given the sparse crowd.  I’ll do that in the morning and my first game is at 2:00 today.  Maybe I should read the rules...

HCON Prep: CRUNCH Time

 Yikes - Less than two days until HCON!  Now it's it's just down to packing up and getting all the player aids done

The first picture is the initial British order of battle 8 total divisions and associated support units.

Initial? you ask - yes both sides may or may not have unexpected reinfoircements.  Its really all up to the dice gods.....

Ahh - the real glamour behind putting on a convention game.  Laminating player aids!  As we all know, only the finest games use laminated materials.  I'm pretty much just a poser and hoping the lamination hides the rather poor aspects of my game design.  Its worked in the past!

These are the ship management card for my new Age of Sail ruleset.  The working title is Bucentaure!

We'll see if these ever see the light of day post HCON

Time until Historicon:
2 Days: 9 Hours: 8 minutes

HOLY CRAP!

Historicon Prep: A Mini Burnsides Bridge

 Because I don't have enough to do getting ready for Historicon, I decided to add to the list but building a "kinda" replica of Burnsides Bridge from the Battle of Antietam fame.  I just knocked it together with some scrap EPS foam.  The picture is just after the priming of a 50/50 mix of Black Paint and Matte Modge Podge.  This really hardens the EPS foam.

 There are two reasons I decided to build a new bridge.  The first is practical (if any miniature gaming need can be described as practical).  I've got a simple wooden bridge that looks good for 28mm but just doesn't cut it for 15's - especially for a big event like Historicon.

 The second reason is more sentimental.  My computer randomly puts pictures up as a screen saver and yesterday it went through a trip my son and I took to Antietam in 2005 - here's a picture of the real Burnside's Bridge from that trip.

and a picture of Sean at age 10 from the same visit.  I got a little teary eyed and decided I needed to build a bridge.  I think that's a damn good reason.

Time Until Historicon
8 Days: 10 hours: 31 minutes

July 4th and 1776 and all that...

The US Women's World Cup team is in the finals again after beating merry old England today.  It was a great game and this American team is a lot of fun to watch and root for.

Sure they may be a little brash but who the hell cares - they play superb soccer and the tea sipping goal celebration was priceless.  I just couldn't help teasing my British friends.

Woo-Hoo looking forward to the finals.  There was some controversy at the start of the tournament about the women's team demanding pay parity with the men's.  On moral grounds they obviously deserve it and based on how their play on the field the really should earn twice what the men's team gets.  Maybe we could just get rid of the men's team and have these ladies do double duty.

Pip, pip, Cheerio

Figs and a New Friend

 Our Figs are just starting to ripen.  That means for the next two weeks it's Fig-O-Mania at the Lair.  My Lovely wife kicked off Fig time with a wonderful Fig and Peach cobler.  it was truly spectacular.

 The past two years we've had pretty meager yields due to very late freezes impacting the development of the fruit.  This year, however, seems to be shaping up nicely,  Now I just need to protect the figs from our local wildlife.  A few weeks ago I did trap a raccoon under the tree.  After a fair trial,  justice was dealt swiftly in the form of high velocity lead posioning.  Stealing figs is not a pardonable offense.

For you animal lovers, said offender was mangy and probably had rabies as it was out in the day time.  A small service was held and words were said.

While up the ladder picking figs, I picked up a passenger - a very nice Young adult Mantis.  We have lots of these in the yard and I've always been rather fond of them.  I set him/her back on the fig tree to resume guard duty.  They are fascinating to watch while hunting - an agonizingly slow approach and then BAM! super fast lunge.