Just back from Historicon 2021!

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. Usually Historicon is a five-day event that takes place in July, however Covid canceled the normally scheduled 2020 and 2021 event and the Historicon took the place of the Fall-In which is usually held in November. Historicon 2021 took place at the Valley Forge Casino from 10-14 November, two years from the last HMGS event at the same location.The venue makes it hard to gauge how big this event was since it was so spread out, but the crowd was light as compared the normal Historicon, however it felt as if the attendance was more in line with the turn out for the Fall-In event which is usually held at this time of year. No matter the actual size the event was a lot of fun and it was so great to re-connect with so many members of our community that I really missed.
Our own “Tails-men” who run the Tails of the Sail podcast that supports the various games produced by Firelock held the traditional NDNG Ironman, this time featuring the games of Blood & Plunder, Blood & Valor and Oak & Iron. These were three sperate tournaments over a day and half that each had three rounds of Firelock fun.For players who played in all three events, Firelock provided special prizes and handed out a special prize for the overall winner of the Ironman, their face will appear on a special model that will be produced from the folks at Firelock.
This event was a huge hit! We had 20 players for Blood & Plunder, 22 for Blood & Valor and 14 for Oak an Iron, with 12 of players who played in all three events. We noticed that the average age of these events trended much lower than many of the other events at Historicon, a lot of this was due to the fact we provided loaner forces for many of those who wanted to attend and try out these great games. This was key in attracting new players into the three game systems and they got to play some of the games they have only read about over the last eighteen months.
For anyone trying to grow a game, I recommend that they provide forces for new players, I feel it goes further than a demo game because they get to deep dive into a game system, and they can enjoy the camaraderie with members of the community who play these games. From what I saw and heard; the Ironman was the best attended event at Historicon.
We had excellent support from both and who supported the events with amazing prize support. It was a great success, and we plan on holding more Ironman type events in the future.
Howard west supported both he Team Yankee and the Flames of War Nationals that were sponsored by Battlefront Games. Howard plans to write up the details of these events in an upcoming article on NDNG in the next week.
What would a HMGS event be without the vendor hall and Wally’s Basement. I felt the vendor hall was smaller than past events, but this is not a compliant, it still had all the popular vendors and there was plenty of merchandise to take home. Wally’s Basement is a hidden gem of an HMGS event were fellow gamers sell items they are trying to get rid of or have made for sale. It did feel like it was much smaller than in previous years, however much like the vendor hall, you still had a lot of buying options.
One person I finally met at the vendor hall was Nelson Martinez from Mythicos Studios who produce the game Mythic Americas. We have covered in the past, however my talks with Nelson made me a fan of not only the game but what he is trying to do within our community, and I plan to take the plunge.
A huge shout out must be given to the folks from HMGS, they pulled off a great convention as we are coming out of Covid and endured the push back from many who were not happy to be masked thought the event. Despite the vocal minority I felt that the event was conducted safely and everyone I saw complied with the rule on masks.
Personally, I had so much fun at this event. Cons are such a big part of our hobby, and the lack of major events was something I really missed over the last year and a half. I was great to see so many of my old friends and to finally meet people I have gotten to know virtually over the pandemic.One such person is Steve Toth from the excellent who may trade in his wings for sails and a boat.
I am very excited for the next convention and NDNG will be there provide some gaming fun for you.