Mad Mac's Attic: Historicon 2017 Recap in Fredericksburg, Virginia

Historicon 2017 is now in the books and, unfortunately for me, was the last miniature gaming convention held in historic Fredericksburg (at least for the time being). Held from July 13th-17th, the temperatures were high, the restaurants and hotels were great, and I had a blast at the convention center.

One of the many impressive games during Historicon 2017

My son accompanied me and we were determined to play in more games and buy more "toys" this year, knowing it was our last Historicon for awhile (we are not planning on making the trek next year to Lancaster, Pennsylvania).

I'm not privy to the convention statistics, but it seemed that attendance was very high throughout the week. The parking lot was almost always full and the gaming rooms were packed. On the negative front, it seemed that the vendors, for the most part, were experiencing a decrease in total sales. Again, I'm not sure of the accuracy of that statement, but heard several merchants lamenting about the lack of traffic in the vendor hall.

As for gaming, I was able to play in a Chain of Command game (great), an Et Sans Resultat demonstration game (great), a SAGA multi-player game (awesome), and learned how to play the Triumph ancient rules (Very Good). My son played his hand at Frostgrave, played a critical part in the Battle of Bouvines, more SAGA, and was my opponent in Triumph. I enjoyed all of the games, but James McWilliams' SAGA game was my favorite part of the convention. James, again, proved to be the consummate game master, ensuring that everyone not only had a great time, but taught the details of SAGA in a way that made all of us believers in the system.

I particularly enjoyed chatting about game mechanics with David of Et Sans Resultat, and admired the huge amount of work and original ideas that he put into this relatively new Napoleonic rules system.

The quality of the games and terrain seemed excellent. My pick for "best terrain" was Bill Johnson's Age of Piracy game in Exhibit Hall A. It was obvious that the host went way "over the top" in putting on an impressively beautiful game.