Historicon 2026

I managed to make it up to Lancaster, PA for the HMGS convention Historicon. It wasn't guaranteed that I would make it, one of my dogs has been dealing with some medical issues and luckily my girlfriend is a wonderful human being and agreed to take care of my dogs while I ventured north to roll dice and push lead. 

I am a fan of the Lancaster County Convention Center as a venue. Not everything is perfect but there isn't much to complain about in my opinion. There are plenty of inexpensive parking garages nearby, the facilities are top notch and there are good food option.

The theme of the convention was the American War of Independence (a no brainer with the 250th anniversary of our nation). There were reenactors in Continental Marine uniforms and plenty of themed AWI games. There were other games not in theme as well. Here are some photos of different games I stopped and watched:

Attendance seemed healthy and it was a pleasant surprise to see new vendors offering different products. One of the new vendors was Podrek Miniatures. They were offering quick-play rules and 3D printed figures for 6mm games. The rules and ranges included ACW, Sc-Fi and Renaissance Italian Wars. 

Chase, the proprietor, was also offering demo games for the Italian Wars variant. The rules were aimed at 5-10 units per side on a table size of 1'x1', 1'x2' or 2' square and length of about 30 minutes. 

If you know me, you know I love 6mm, I love pike and shot and I love bite-sized games so it's no surprise that I bought two starter armies (French and Imperial/Spanish) and the rules. 

My good buddy Rob joined me at the convention and we managed to get in a game of Ravenfeast Big Battle (more on that here in its own post) and we also participated in one of the themed games, a refight of Brandywine using beautifully painted 28mm figures and Black Powder rules. 

Rob and I (and everyone else playing) enjoyed our time with the game even if the GM had a bit of a laissez faire attitude about GMing and there were only quick reference sheets for about half the players. In the end, the Americans "won" because they managed a draw. 

Later that evening, Rob's son managed to join us and we played some gladiator games with the always fun Blood Sweat and Cheers rules. 

It was another great time at an HMGS convention and I managed some nice purchases: a miniature storage case, the Italian Wars armies and a book on Scottish civil wars and feuds during the 16th century. Rob and I have been attending these things for nearly three decades and I always cherish the memories made from these get togethers where we catch up, eat unhealthy food, drink beers, push lead and roll dice. 

A (musket) blast from the past...

While going through some old emails looking for hobby related messages, I uncovered photos and a battle report from April, 2015 with my old gaming buddy Frank. I decided to post this much belated battle report although the details will be fairly vague. 

The game was a refight of the Battle of Brandywine using Sam Mustafa's Maurice rules and Frank's 10mm Old Glory AWI armies. As a side bar, I once owned 10mm AWI armies myself...also Old Glory 10mm. I have to say that their 10mm AWI range is probably one of my least favorite. The figures were a bit 2-dimensional and felt flimsy. But I digress...

Here is the initial setup, I had the numerically superior but qualitatively inferior American army against Frank's British. 

Some more pictures of the battle. In an email posted after the game recapping the battle to my gaming buddy Rob, I stated the following: 

"It's tricky because it's a small battle table with a good amount of units compressed in there. The Brandywine "river" crosses the battlefield in the center. There are fords and roads but also lots of woods and hills. In Maurice, the only movement penalty for woods and the river is that you gain a disruption when you move thru it, which is huge (no movement distance penalty tho). ‎Also, units in different terrain types can't be included in the same "force". It really screws up both the attacking British and defending Americans. I was the American army and managed to fight Frank to a draw. He was about to crack my army morale but the store was closing and we had to call it. Both armies had "oblique movement" national advantage but the British also had "steady lads" and "Lethal volleys", plus they had some elite infantry units." 

I remember having a fun time playing this game, it reminds me that I really need to get in some more games of Maurice. Perhaps I should motivate myself to finish my French Revolutionary armies. 
Back in 2015, I was playing far more frequently at my local gaming store with old friends (Alex, Frank, Steve and the store owner Chris)...I hope I can return back to gaming that often sometime in the future. For now, I will continue to paint armies in preparation for future tabletop battles.

More Entrants...

I snapped the last of my photos for the painting competition and I disassembled my homemade photographic white box.  Here we go:

First up is the Revolutionary French Army comprising of 5 National Guard battalions (les Bleus), two former Royalist battalions (les Blancs), a converged Grenadier battalion, a Dragoon regiment, five bases of skirmishers and General Dumas. I will be adding to the army quite a bit...

A closeup of the converged grenadiers. I like this unit quite a bit, I will probably enter them to compete against my Austrian infantry in the pre-20th Century Foot category.

Another angle of the Grenadiers...so much bearskin!

A battalion of lowly "les Bleus", the less than steady backbone of the army.

Two battalions of former Royalist infantry. I think the next couple of battalions will have violet trim. I love me some pastels.

And what self respecting French Revolutionary army would march into battle without some clouds of skirmishers to swarm the enemy and cover the advance of the attack columns.

And that is it. Until next year, maybe those Sassanids or the 1860s Canadian militia will make an appearance in the 2024 competition!

 

Pendraken Painting Competition 2023

Here we go. I was able to rig up some semi-proper lighting and snap some pictures for the competition. First up are some Italian L3/35 tankettes as previously documented in the prior blog post. 

I can't tell if this photo is blurry so I might have another go at it.

Here's another go...

The tankettes will be entered into the 20th century vehicle category.

And to provide some proper infantry support to those not so hard-hitting tankettes, we have some Italian infantry from the CTV.

In this photo, we get to see some of those nifty support weapons to lay down some extra firepower. These fellas will tossed into the 20th century infantry category.

Next up is a single Revolutionary French officer painted up as Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. Allez! He will go into the single base category.

Here we have some Revolutionary French dragoons, I used AWI Continental dragoons in French helmets as a proxy.

And here is another angle. They will go into the pre-20th century Mounted category.

And the last of the entrants (for now) are some Austrian infantry representing the Ancien Regime and ready to smite out all of that revolutionary fervor.

Forming up in march attack to show off the flag and their powdered hairstyles. These white-clad warriors will head over to the pre-20th century foot category. I intend to enter some French "Les Bleus" as well and I might cobble the whole French collection together and enter it into the Army category.

2023 Begins...

 Its been a few months since my last post. Sometimes real life gets in the way, been trying to keep up progress with painting. I've painted some more 15mm stuff for Krapistan (mortar teams, tanks and carriers) and am nearing completion of that project where I can game it (I imagine I will continue to add to the armies). I painted some 10mm WW1 Belgians, some Blitz Bowl Skaven and continuing to make progress on my 10mm French Revolution project. Here are a few photos of them:

My first Austrian unit. These guys are from the same range as the French but are a bit more static. I like them, they look like they are fighting for the Ancien Regime. I used a combination of GW contrast paint and drybrushing to paint the white uniforms. I like how they turned out and look forward to painting more.

These are French dragoons, likely the only cavalry regiment I will paint up for the French. I used American AWI dragoons in French helmets to depict the French cavalry. I love the green and pink combination.

Lastly is a French mounted officer. I painted this fellow up as an homage to Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. 

I have painted up more that I didn't snap pictures for (more Les Bleus, Les Blancs and some artillery). I am gearing up for a game with one of my friends at the end of January. A refight of the Battle of Palo Alto using Field of Battle 3 rules...look out for more updates on that!

10mm French Revolution

I've always been intrigued by the armies of the French Revolution. 10mm is my preferred scale and years ago I was able to pickup some of the Pendraken French Revolution packs at discount on eBay.  In 2019, I painted some up and based units on single bases, I even made a blog post about it! Last year, I ordered some more of the figures from Pendraken as well as some figures from Magister Militum to fill in as proxies for some of the gaps in the Pendraken range. Recently, I decided to rebase those previously painted figures for Maurice. I think Maurice is the most ideal choice of rules for me to portray the tactics of the French Revolution (more on that). My armies are based depicting the restructuring made by Dubois-Crance prior to the almagamation.

First up is a former Royalist battalion in their not so splendid white uniforms and tarleton caps. I gave this unit pink facings because one should always use pink when one can when painting historical miniatures.

Here is a closeup of some former Royalists skirmishing. There are two poses skirmishing (one firing and one loading). I experimented with GW contrast white paint on the uniforms, I like the result which is good. I will need this for when I tackle the Austrians opponents.

Here are 3 battalions of French National Guard, "Les Bleus", in attack columns. I plan to rate the National Guard as conscripts but will allow them to use massed formations to replicate the assault columns and allow them to form "groups" with battalions in line formation.

Closeup of a stand of Les Bleus showing some of the chaos in their uniforms. Bicornes worn fore to aft and side to side, phrygian caps, bonnets du police, and lots of striped pants in national colors!

Closeup of the command base for a National Guard battalion. More caps and more striped pants. I drilled out the flag staff on the standard bearer and added brass wire so that I could fit the slightly oversized flags. 

Here we have a battalion of grenadiers. Bearskins, bicornes and more striped pants to show off revolutionary fervor. 

Closeup of some grenadiers, I really like these sculpts. So much character. 

Another closeup of grenadiers but here we have some former royalist grenadiers showing off those white uniforms and pink facings.

The last unit shown is a unit of skirmishers also known as "irregulars" in Maurice. I will probably allow them to form movement groups with regular infantry units.

And a closeup of the French skirmishers. Neat little poses.