Conventions and Events

By Tom “Chairborne” Mullane

HMGS’s flagship convention, Historicon got underway this past week at the Lancaster County Convention Center and a number of No Dice No Glory writers and gamers were in attendance. Mitch Reed, Tom “Chairborne” Mullane, Matt Varnish, Scott Roach, Glenn Van Meter, and a whole host of other friends, podcasters, game designers, and friendly folks made the trip and had a blast.

Read on to get a peak at all the great games and goings on from the NDNG crew.

The boys are back in town! The NDNG crew went to Historicon 2023 in scenic Lancaster PA. It was a full crew, with Tom, Preston, Scott and Matt gaming and creating mayhem. We have a bunch of guests on the show and we talk about our Firelock Ironman and about wargaming in general. 

By Caroline Gilmore

Walking through halls with painted murals of America’s biggest historical moments and portraits of George Kennan and President Barack Obama, it felt as if I was stepping into a new world. Well, perhaps not a new world, but definitely a new part of my world. It was June 22nd, the start of my first time attending a Connections Wargaming Conference at the National Defense University.

By Mitch Reed

I hope many of you can recall my article from the Connections Wargaming Conference in 2022 and the podcast from 2019 that spoke to this event. The 2023 event held at National War College in Washington DC was yet another for the record books and we here at NDNG were glad to attend in force as well as help sponsor the Dice-Breaker social event.

By David Garvin

On the 9th of June, Paxsims hosted Connections North, a conference on professional wargaming. According to its website, it is “…a community of practice devoted to the professional use of wargames (and other serious games) for education, training, and policy analysis in Canada.” There were over 70 in attendance, ranging from military members, and civilian members of the defense community as well as many in various think tanks, government departments, and me. The conference was held at the impressive Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

By Kreighton Long

Last Saturday, 8 October, I had the opportunity to attend the Call to Arms convention in Williamsburg, VA and compete in the Bolt Action tournament. The tournament was organized by seven-year TO veteran Kalissa Skibicki. Twenty competitors checked in Saturday morning for a day of competitive gaming. The tournament progressed smoothly and after three different scenarios with three different opponents, the tournament came to a successful conclusion.

by Mitch Reed

Last month wargamers of every ilk converged at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) facility in Alexandria, for the annual Connections Wargaming Conference. This was the first live event since 2019 due to COVID19 and many people, including myself, were excited to have an in-person event.

By Mark Greenwald

What’s the best thing to do in Spain? Visit Barcelona, Sagrada Familia, Madid, Prado Museum, Granada, Alhambra Palace, Segovia, Roman Aqueduct, Seville, Alcázar, Cordoba, Toledo, Valencia?

No, my friends, the best thing to do in Spain is go to a board game convention in Badajoz! For me, it’s been since 2019 for a game convention (GenCon and WisconsCon). I really enjoyed spending a long weekend making new friends in Spain while playing some historical board games.

First up…why is a convention named for an acorn?  Well, Badajoz is famous for producing Iberico Jamón (ham from pigs fed on acorns). Badajoz has been settled since Neolithic times, with several Dolmen and Roman ruins nearby (it was part of Roman Lusitania).

It was also a Muslim Taifa kingdom, so has medieval ruins to explore as well. The convention takes place in January, which is great because Badajoz can get really hot during the summer.

Conventions are back and the NDNG crew attended Historicon 2021 to take it all in. I quickly realized how much I miss the cons, the gamers and members of the NDNG crew. We had a full house of our staff at the event, with Tyler Stone, Thomas Mullane and Glenn Van Meter hosting the Firelock Ironman with appearances from Ben Hudler, Glenn Goddard, Steve Murga-Jones, Dr. Chris Woltz and Howard West playing in many of the games at the event which we will briefly talk about here.