It was that time of year again, another Historicon Wargame Convention. The event was held at the same location in downtown Lancaster Pennsylvania. It’s a great location, as the restaurant scene in the area is fantastic (with many in easy walking distance of the hotel). You can find parking garages all over the area and most was subsidized with vouchers at the convention (although HMGS could have done much better job on explaining this clearly on their website).
I always look forward to these events, as I get to run into old friends, see great games, get terrain ideas and of course buy my fair share of hobby stuff! This event was probably the first convention since covid to have the old “feel”. I ran into a number of friends I had not seen in a long time and the vendor count was up from the more recent conventions.
A group of us decided to travel up together. We found a place to stay and agreed to ride up together (which made the drive go much faster). It was a short trip of a few days, as I had plans to travel right afterwords, but the event works for either long or short stays.
I did my shopping run going through the dealers hall and flea market, picking up a number of things from both. It was good to see a good selection on manufacturers that has been missing the last few years. I tend to focus more on these, as I have my own local hobby shops and do not need to see more retailers! The flea market was good, although I am not sure the new schedule (10 am and 7 pm) is the best. I know these is a desire of some to not conflict with the vendor hall, but I think this is misplaced. While there are those gamers that might not spend as much in the dealer room, do to deals they find in the flea market. However, I feel these are more than offset by people who buy something in the flea market that they had no plans for and then go to the dealer hall to fill out their purchase. Hopefully, they will fix this next year, as seven is when most people want to meet up with friends for dinner!
There was a great selection of games. I did not see anything that I would say was an amazing stand out. However, this was not because there were no good games. Quite the contrary, the overall quality of the average game was high (maybe higher than I have ever seen). I think this has a lot to do with the newer game mats you can get commercially, as they were on full display. I think this shows up in the pictures. Actually, I only saw three games using bright unearthly felt, and these stood out like a sore thumb!
Well, I did my purchasing, met friends and saw great games. What is not to like! I heard they are cancelling Cold Wars next year, due to some internal HMGS issue). So that was a disappointment, but maybe that will give me the incentive to go to Adepticon for the first time, we shall see.. In the meantime, there is Fall in to look forward to, back at the old standby Lancaster Host. That will probably be my next convention travel!
- Manteuffel