Historicon 2006 After Action Report, Part 1 - Thursday
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Historicon After Action Report, Part 1 - Thursday
First and foremost, I have to give an enormous thanks to my longtime friend and tabletop opponent, Joe Fish. Without his help loading up and unloading the car here in CT, doing all the driving, sharing expenses, lugging all the troops and terrain to and from the car, helping me set up and take down, and helping me GM the 2 triple BoB2 games, well, I never could have done it and survived. For that matter, BoB2 itself would never have come about without his involvement, and that in no way diminishes the very great contributions of the rest of the great guys in the BoB2 group: Ken Baggaley, Ken Blackley, Jan Braeme, Brian Hodson, Steve O'Leary, Maury Richards, Gavin Shanks, Ravi Mohan, and of course my web lackey, Manoj Govindan - take a minute to read the credits when you open it for the first time!
Anyway, as usual the 5 plus hour drive from Connecticut passed by surprisingly quickly with Joe driving and the two of us shooting the breeze - I did complete some last minute paperwork (putting summary sheets into sheet protectors) during the drive, as well as dozing off a few times (too many nights up to 2AM getting it all ready to roll out). We managed to blab so much that we went one exit too far on the PA turnpike, and therefore came by way of scenic Manheim, PA!
Joe and I made a quick tour through the dealer's area and picked up our copies of BoB2 and FoB and chatted with Brent, Jim Mauro, and Jeff. We then scurried off to set up my BoB2 three ring circus which started at 8PM.
Three Ring Circus
#1 "Make Mine a Lager", based upon the battle of Sudomer 1420. Peter Hess had the Catholic Crusaders with another player assisting him (feel free to speak up if you're on the list!), versus the Hussite player assisted by his son(s). I refereed this battle, which was essentially an assault on a line of 3 War Wagons and 4 Gun Wagons drawn across a neck of land created by the shores of two deep mountain lakes. Sounds like it could be boring, right? Wrong-O! It was an absolute corker! The game was incredibly tense...
The initial "Crusader" (played by my Teutonic Knights army) assault broke against the wagons as expected,. but there after the Crusaders broke into the Hussite wagon line three times, and moved beyond them twice. Each time the Hussite reserves managed to throw them back before the powerful Crusader cavalry managed to gain a firm drip on the ground past the wagon line. At the crisis of the battle, each side won impetus only in little packets of 2 to 5, making the game especially tense as each side hunted for the cards they needed most. The game ended in a Hussite victory only after the Crusaders ran out of morale chips and pretty much out of units, too - there were a great many streaming for the rear in rout. Overall, a blast to play and referee!
#2 "The Empire Strikes Back", based upon Ceresole 1550. This is the battle I wrote up a month or two ago when Joe, Barry , and I play tested the scenario. Herman started in command of the French, and then had to leave due to fatigue and heat exhaustion (it was *very* Humid in Lancaster this year throughout the Con, but Thursday night the AC was in utter disarray!), so Andy Cowell graciously took over the French. The French didn't realize the likely effects of the Uncontrolled Advance and Uncontrolled Charge cards in their deck, and so when it came to their deployment, "they chose... poorly!" I saw a lot of Pikes stuck in during the game, and the Spanish Tercio was awesome. Increasing the Tercio's move from 4" to 6" has made it a viable formation again. Remember that Pike blocks still get a double move (12") on their first Move card! The game ended as an Imperialist victory, as the French tried desperately to turn their Medium gun to bear on the walking fortress as it approached! With a Piquet veteran on both sides, this game needed only a little help from us with a few BoB2 specific questions.
#3 "The Wages of Sin", based upon Agnadello, 1509. The Venetians (played by Dave Sweet) are holding a river line but have to fall back in the face of superior number of Papal/French troops storming across the river. Joe refereed this one, and from what I saw David had the dice and impetus against him and was forced to retreat in some disorder.
Everyone seemed to have a good if hot time, and seemed to enjoy the rules. With the help of the players, we had it all packed away by about 12:30 AM and returned to the hotel (Country Suites - nicest rooms in Lancaster, IMHO, and a short walk from the Host) exhausted but happy.
