Scanning early entries, I see I typically do Historicon on Friday mornings. Over recent years, my perception was that our side of the hobby was in relatively steep decline. This year, I took Two and Three with me on a Saturday for some shopping and to let them get some painting in at the Paint n' Take, hoping that as we leave Covid further in the rearview, folks will be coming back in full force.
We started in Wally's a little after 10, and it was packed! Felt like a night and day difference between Fridays and Saturdays. I exclaimed to myself, "Wow, self, Historicon is BACK!" Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. As the line dumped us back into the Tournament section, I did not see the usual Flames of War tables, and heard from a vendor that turnout for these was extremely poor lately. Instead, I saw nearly all LOTR, Warhammer 40k games, and other GW-style Sci-Fi/Fantasy games I can't identify. None were particularly eye-catching, so hardly any made the gallery this year. There was a section of Blood and Plunder tables and some ancients as well, but otherwise it was mechs and space elves all over the place. Indeed, all around the periphery were such games, and on multiple floors.
I think I'm ok with this. If the kids come in, pay their admission, and have a cool place to play, it's probably ok so long as organizers keep the proportions solidly on the historical side of things. In the end, I'm not put out particularly, but I know others will be concerned.
Throughout the facility, I saw younglings playing such games, and a lot of potential customers for the dealers. But several of the vendors I talked with said business wasn't anything special, which is a bit of a bummer. I was glad to see AK Interactiver there with a nicely packed booth with some of the best paints on the marker, but that vendor was not happy at all about the business he was getting. Others noted the kids don't seem interested in, or didn't have the money, to drop hundreds as I did on buildings and rule books. Fair enough.
I'll state my biases here if you are new, but I favor 25mm or 15mm Horse and Musket games, no hexes and nothing with a load of vehicles like ships, planes, etc. Ocean tables are a snooze and too gamey, too detached from individual combatants, a lightly 3D board game. I tend to skip games below 10mm unless the terrain is spellbinding. I was reared on the Duncan McFarland School of Aesthetics: grand manner, ranks of beautifully painted minis (with muskets) over very natural and wonderfully crafted terrain. I also like narrative skirmish games, with a good story in many more genres like horror, witch hunting, Mordheim, fantasy battles, etc.
Dealer Hall: looking for Cigar Box mats, I noted the absence of many of the "usual" standbys in the hall this year. I am accustomed to not seeing Russ and Old Glory now, which is always regrettable to me. As a general matter, the vendor assortment seemed fine though, several new things I hadn't seen before - many also not historically oriented - Sci-Fi, zombies, etc. 3D prints had the biggest footprint I've seen yet, which is also understandable. I bought a bunch of it myself.
Lunch and a far trip to the car coupled with a longer-than-normal session in Hobby University and I had to scramble to cover all the tables. Sadly, I was between sessions, and many tables were being hurriedly packed away. But I must say, there seemed to be a lot of folks who had a grand time in the games still going on. Arguably, this is what matters the most, though I'm a painter/collector and have very marginal views on what is most enjoyable about our hobby.
As for the tables, many were very, very good. I think perhaps the visual splendor was down this year. You'll also see what seems to be an inordinate amount of litter on many of the tables. I used AI to "erase" some of it, and name badges, and even people leaving some nasty smudges here and there. Nothing took my breath away, so it's hard to say which was my favorite. My judgment is only a relative one, i.e., compared to other years. And I don't wish to denigrate the folks who work their ass off to set up a huge game many miles from home. I do salute you. It simply couldn't be done without you.
I heard a stat on site that said, YOY, Historicon attendance was "up 9%." With my own observations, I was unable to untangle whether this was the best Historicon in years or not, and I got a lot of mixed signals. Vendor, player, shopper, you tell me what you thought. This will hold us over til the numbers come in. My final guess is that it was better than average. The kids and I certainly enjoyed ourselves, and actually found enough to do until after 6.
Gallery: I'm gonna be less captiony this time around and less orderly too. The photos are broadly in the order I took them, spanning from 10:15 to about 6 on Saturday. Anything on either side, I missed, and it's also possible I missed a toom here and there, as there are a fair number of nooks and crannies around.
Am I off base? A crotchety old bitch? You tell me. How was Historicon 2025 this year for you?
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| A perennial favorite - 55 Days at Peking |
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| Something new in the flora department! |
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| Can you spot the sneaky tank in there? The Larch. |
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| We've moved into the competition area. |
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| LOTR - but I love this mat. All mats should have some olive in it like this, |
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| When I show up on Fridays, no one can ever tell me where the paint competition miniatures are. Saturday they were in plain view, open to all. |
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| I love the Nighhaunt models! |
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| Back to the dealer hall ... |
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| Nice French Army for sale if you'd like one. |
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| Who says LED is dangerous? |
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| Some zombies for a new miniature agnostic game. Looks fun! |
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| Great! |
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| I always get shots of this booth - we would have died for a setup like this in the mid 80's. Figures from AB |
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| I can't decide if this Bunker Hill game is the best or the Sicily WW2 one at the end. Both are terrific. |
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| Into the better lit of the two ball rooms with a nice Napoleonic game. |
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| Battle Cry! Great game. |
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| Back out for some reason - a problem with my uploads no doubt. Blogger/Blogspot? has really gone downhill in recent years. |
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| Looks great! |
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| 20mm zombie game in setup phase |
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| Surely this masterpiece is a runner up! |
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| Vaughn Monroe often gets the most credit for Ghost Riders in the Sky, but it was Stan Jones what came up with it. |
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| Lovely details |
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| There was an easily identifiable kid sitting in the chair at left rear that I tried to erase and got what would otherwise be sold as proof that ghosts exist, and this one was captured on film to prove it! There are no other arguments other than "ghost," duh. |
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| Painting done, we go into the other ball room - a very underlit one to boot - with many of the tables packed up. We are in the final stretch for the day at this point. |
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| You wouldn't believe there are more game pieces to this Rorke's Drift than there are Zulus! It wouldn't be Historicon without a Rorke's Drift in some scale! |
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| For me, this is a contender. I don't care for Battle Honours 3D miniatures - especially the ones I've broken already, but these buildings are excellent! |
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| Evidently, the force of the blow knocked the man out of his glasses! They remained with no sign of their owner! |
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| You have a lovely village here, colonel; it'd be a shame if something were to happen to it. |
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| I think this Sicily board is best in show for me - I can hear the boots on the cobblestones echoing through these "deserted" canyon streets - very evocative! You know it's filthy with Krauts. |
That's a wrap gents!
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