Historicon Revisited

One of my biggest problems with this fantastic hobby of ours is my ability to get distracted incredibly easy. I'm not sure I can emphasis 'incredibly easy' enough! A new game, new line of figures, seeing someone else's project, etc. etc. etc.

Well, this is what has happened with my original idea for Historicon 2017 and the Ghostbusters game. Since I wrote up that post I've had a few more ghosts and such come in, and I pretty much completed the hotel complex that was to be haunted - I even came up with a name that I thought was perfect for the game, "Ghostbusters: Dead and Breakfast" -  but I've felt zero inspiration to go any further.

And that is mostly because I've caught the WWII bug again. I've hosted a few Bolt Action games (modified a bit) with an old friend and it's been a blast coming up with scenarios and missions - it's felt a lot like the old RPG days as a teenager where I'm running a very narrative driven game and throwing in random events throughout. I think it's been some of the best games we've had all year, it's just too bad I took zero pictures to put into some AAR's. As well as really enjoying building and modifying the 4Ground damaged church I completed last month; this new project will allow more of those kind of builds.

Here is a photo of a quick table I made up of one of our first games that got the Bolt Action bug going. Very story driven with the capture of a wounded German officer holed up in one of the buildings after an attack by the French resistance.

It's really made me stop and rethink next years Historicon event. One of my biggest strengths, I think anyway, is my terrain and table making ability. I'm not sure that Ghostbusters is going to give me that "wow" factor visually - at least what I've completed already. I do think it's possible, just not with what I was going to do originally.

So, what does all that mean? Well, I think I'm going to completely switch gears and go with a WWII game. I really think it will give me that "wow" factor I'm looking for for Historicon - it is supposed to be the biggest historical miniature event in the US, right? You have to go as big as you can! And my goal is to actually be able to run two completely separate games on the same table.

For the first game, I want to incorporate two things that I've been interested in for quite some time into the game and especially the table - a train bridge and the French resistance.

Visually I'm thinking something like the movie "The Bridge at Remagen", something like it mind you, not exactly!  The big thing is I don't necessarily want one bridge taking over the entire table. And honestly, while brainstorming the layout over the last week or so I'm thinking of having two bridges, and then that'll give me two major objectives. This will also give me an opportunity to model a river - something that I've wanted to do since my very first model railroad layout when I was just a wee lad.

From the scenario and narrative angle, I want something sabotage-esque involving the bridges and railroad tracks, as well as other objectives - perhaps a communication building, maybe a truck convoy, a downed pilot rescue - with the French resistance leading the way. Think the movie "The Train" (I absolutely love "The Train", easily in my top 3 WWII movies!) and early on in the movie "The Longest Day" - the sabotage the resistance did before the Airborne landings, as well as the beach landings.

With all that being said, the resistance figures are already well underway. The only thing I'm missing from my wish list would be horse mounted French resistance - I think that would be pretty fun to have on the table!

Some German officers and some other guy, waving or something, who can be used as objectives or just table fodder, have been started as well.

And several basic German Wehrmacht guard type figures.

One of my two bridges has arrived already. This one I originally envision being connected to the other, a girder bridge, as one large bridge but that would put the two together at almost 40+ inches in length! Once I start laying stuff out on the foam board I'll get a better sense of which direction I want to go. There are other bridges I've looked at as well, but haven't decided on yet, though I have a few I've narrowed it down to. Stay tuned.

For the second game I'm looking at a Kelly's Heroes game. Such a classic movie with fantastic characters, and something that I think would be pretty fun to put on the tabletop. I already have Warlord's excellent Oddball Heroes box set, but I'm going to need to get some more figures to round out the rest of the squad.

I also ordered Warlord's Oddball Sherman - I already have the Company B version of this tank - but I want to have all three of the Sherman's in his platoon. But it was mostly because this one has the four crew member figures!

The table will more than likely be 8x4, and much like The Chicago Way Historicon board, it will be cut into equal parts for ease of transportation.

Lots to do and to work out, but I'm feeling inspired by this one (for now at least lol!) despite the fact that I haven't had full day off since early-October. Every day it's been me and Jack for a couple hours in the pastures, and then hand walking two and three times a day as part of his rehabilitation - plus all the normal farm chores and my feed business. This photo was a particularly cold morning, about 26°F, but I can't help but feel bad the poor guy. He has essentially been stuck in his stall when not out with me. I think he lifted his head up maybe 6 times in the hour we were out despite the miserable conditions.

As always, thanks for looking!

Ivor