Historicon 2009 report
Hi guys, We had a great time at Historicon this year and picked up a "Pour Encourage Les Autres" (PELA) Award (Selected from all historical miniatures events throughout the convention) for our Bunker Hill game. In the end we ran it a third time on Saturday as there were so many players that wanted to join in. A number of players went out a bought a copy of the rules. Each game when to the final turn (12) the first being a minor Colonial victory with the redoubt contested, the second a major victory for the Crown when the light infantry took on all three regiments by the wall and drove them off and a concerted assault on the redoubt from three sides. The final game was a minor victory for the Crown with the redoubt taken but the wall still in Colonial hands. Sorry not see any of the other BG games. Regards, Richard Claydon President Boston Trained Bands http://www.bostontrainedbands.com/

Well done, Richard - sounds like you've done a splendid job promoting the rules. (Unfortunately, I can't see your pics - will they be/have they been posted on your BTB blog?)

Does this work? We hope to get some more photos in the gallery of our site soon. Rich.

I missed your Bunker Hill game ... Congratulations on your award! Maybe we can hook up next time. I ran a BG! game on Saturday. We had a lot of interest from passers-by. I know of two that ran off to the dealer area to buy the rules. One guy liked the look and style of play so much, he wanted to get the 7YW version; but alas that was sold out. Maybe we should be getting some kickback on the sales. :wink: My buddy has the pictures of our game. As soon as I get them from him I'll post a short battle report. We are still learning the rules but I feel pretty comfortable with them so I should able to host a participation game, maybe at Cold Wars next Spring. One question I wanted to work out at Historicon was how many units/regiments do you need per player? I'm not sure I have landed on that yet. Do any of you have any rule of thumb for the # of regiments/units per player? Of more importance ... I bought some GMB French flags and the Osprey on the French in AWI. I need to get my order for my Front Rank French in; ASAP. Mike B

Hi Mike, The number of units per player varies depending on a number of factors, such as familiarity with the rules and what the tasks are for the units. For example Bunker Hill at conventions has 8 players 2 colonial 6 regular. The colonial players are adjusting their defensive positions so handling 3 or 4 units will not be a problem as a number of them will just stand and wait for the regulars. There is only one command more boring than standing behind defenses until the end of the game. For the regulars each player had one battalion of infantry except one who had the artillery and the reserves. I did this as the 12 pdrs can shoot but not move the 6 pdrs can move but not shoot until turn 7 and the reserves are not on the table until the same turn. By using this set up every one has elements to move and shoot but the movement is divided up amongst the most players. In the Flames of War game we ran each player had a number of units but most knew the rules and so without the learning curve it ran smoothly. Rich.

Photos from http://www.littleleadheroes.com/ used with permission. Rich.

That's me in the red shirt! I had a good time playing the game and I did go out and buy the rules (and both scenario booklets). Thanks for running such a well balanced scenario. Also your terrain and figures were top notch. Very much worthy of the award. FYI, that battery that repulsed two charges, we forgot to give it -1 for EACH 50% outnumbering. It should had somewhere between -4 and the maximum -6 in those fights instead of -1 for being outnumbered. Something to remember for future games. I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure an extra -5 on each of the fights would have insured that it would have lost at least one. I don't think it would have changed the outcome however. The Americans were just devastating to the grenadiers when the grenadiers failed to charge home on their initial charge. Once the grens fell back our fate was sealed. Also after reading the rules there are some limitations to how close skirmishers are allowed to get to enemy formed units. Something that's difficult to enforce at a convention game, but in a game with your friends/club it would prevent some of the 'crazy' things the American skirmishers did in our game. My AWI figures are based a little differently since we play mostly Volley & Bayonet, but I think I have some ideas on how to make my figures work for these rules. Instead of counting actual 'figures' for strength and casualties, I'm going to use 'strength points', one per figure that would be in the unit, marked in a roster card on the back of each stand. My units are all based in battalion stands, two or three per regiment of uniform number of figures. Using the stand roster (something players in my group are already used to doing for Volley & Bayonet) I can achieve the differing figure strengths that BG units need without re-basing. Once I try out the system and get some games played the game reports will probably end up on my Blog ( http://ajs-wargaming.blogspot.com/). I'll post here if and when that happens. In the meantime, thanks for the great game. I hope our two clubs can get together for some larger multi-club games. AJ Member - The Northern Conspiracy Wargaming Club - http://thenorthernconspiracy.org/

CharlesBTB + mikeb It's really fabulous to see the games you put on :D I don't know about kickbacks but it's really good to see you guys giving the BG game an outing at the premier US convention and finding out that people have bought the rules as a result. You've made an old man very happy ! My private grief is that I arrived in Washington on business on the evening of the 19th. It would have been fabulous if I'd been able to get up there myself and see your very impressive games. Next year it's in Baltimore, I understand, which could be a little easier as normally when I go to the US it is to DC... EC

You can fly into BWI airport for your trip to DC. That will get you within mass transit range of Historicon next year. Next year will be their first year in Baltimore. It may not be the best first impression of the convention. I'm sure they'll have some teething pains in the new venue.

Richard (and any other interested parties), I've put a short write up of your game with photos on my blog: http://ajs-wargaming.blogspot.com/ Also, there are additional photos on our club's image galleries here: http://thenorthernconspiracy.org/events/2009/Historicon/index.html#BrigGren Thanks again for the great game, AJ

Thank you for the really nice write up AJ. Your observations of the rule changes were spot on all to make the game run a bit faster and make it a little easier for first time players. Hope to see you at HAVOC or Huzzah! Rich.