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By Bob Giglio, Convention Director
This year’s “Historical Miniature Gaming’s Biggest Summer Vacation” at the
Lancaster Host Resort & Conference Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was the largest attended
ever for HISTORICON in it’s first twenty-four years – a huge success!
Total attendance this year was 3,667 – that’s up 12% over the attendance for 2007
(which was 3,272). As last year, the majority of those that attended arrived by Thursday to really
enjoy their convention gaming “vacation”, as pre-registration was bustling both Wednesday
night and Thursday morning (after last year’s crush, we anticipated the early arrivals and added
additional staff to handle this). The Lancaster Host had to again use their reserve parking (gravel)
lot starting on Thursday morning – the first day of the convention. And once again, the line for
the Thursday opening of the Expo Center where attendees could purchase hobby products from the 94
vendors attending this year, stretched back to the outdoor patio where they grill the hamburgers and
pit beef!
There were over 600 games, plus tournaments, seminars, painting and other events, and the Flames of War
US National Tournament was held at HISTORICON – yet all were accommodated well enough with just a
bit of juggling to make it work for everyone. Even the weather was nice for July, and that meant the
A/C throughout the venue held out adequately (while I am still concerned about the residual moisture in
the hotel, I believe the problem in the Expo Center is fixed and will probably handle temps 10-20 degrees
higher than what we saw this year). Of course the coldest air-conditioned area was the new
40’x80’ carpeted poolside pavilion where the painting events were held. Speaking of painting
events, these were filled to capacity, and by Friday they were turning away would-be hobbyists that wanted
to take classes!
While there were too many events to really mention, a few will be highlighted here.
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The Military Seminar Series:
In its third year, had the largest number of speakers and seminars (including theme related)
ever at an HMGS East convention, with an average of 26 attendees per seminar (for a list of
the seminars that were presented at HISTORICON 2008, click on the following link for
The Military Seminar Series.)
Author and military historian René Chartrand was one of the Guests of Honor, and this was also
his first time at an HMGS convention. His theme seminars were well received, and he was excited to
see such interest in military history and the convention itself, and is anxious to return. I think
that with the recent growth of the Military Seminar Series we can honestly say that HMGS East is
meeting its commitment to the educational aspect of its charter.
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Annual HMGS East Awards Presentations:
At this year’s Annual Awards Presentations, the HMGS Legion of Honor inducted two new members:
Bob Giglio and Jean Lochet (see the link to the
Legion of Honor
for more details). While the 2008 “Game Master of the Year Award” was presented to Glenn
Kidd. And, two of the HISTORICON 2008 vendors were recognized for winning Origins Awards –
Splintered Light Miniatures for Best Historical Miniatures Line of the Year, and “Check Your
6!” for Best Historical Miniatures Game of the Year. In addition, a special award was presented
to David Arneson. For more information on all of the aforementioned, as well as photos, go to
www.hmgs.org
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Gamemaster Guests of Honor:
This year Bill Protz and Jim Purky were Guests of Honor and ran their “big battalion”
SYW theme games in the main lobby of the Host, besides hosting a seminar. Their games were well
received, with nice H.G. Walls terrain. Both GMs have not attended HISTORICON for quite a number of
years and were impressed with the changes to the hotel, concessions and overall convention, and said
they would be returning.
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HMGS Game-Master Awards:
The “Best of Show” GM Award was presented to Nigel Marsh, Lyle Bickley, Dave Bonk and John
Snead for their “ Battle of Mockern, 1813” game (Napoleonic Carnage & Glory 28mm).
The “Best Theme” GM Award for the “World on Fire, 1754-63” theme went to Bob
Baldwin and John Curran for their “Great Voyageur Trapper Challenge” (25mm) game. For
the full list of dozens of other GMs that received awards for their games at this year’s
convention, click on the following link for the HISTORICON 2008 GM Awards.
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Osprey Campaign Competition:
This was the third year for this competition, for the “Osprey Award for the best use of a
Campaign book in designing a game at HISTORICON”. According to Richard Sullivan, Marketing
Director of Osprey Publishing who attended with assistant Jo Argyle – “Jo and I saw some
excellent entries [36] this year and are very sorry about the two we missed in the excitement of the
show and the rabbit-warren that is the Lancaster Host…The eventual well-deserved winner was
‘Blood & Sand: Gavutu-Tanambogo, 7-9 August 1942’, by gamemasters Hayes
Wauford and Robert Brown for which they used the Campaign title
Guadalcanal”.
[For more info, and two photos, click on the following link for the –
Osprey Blog
– one photo is of the game at a critical juncture, while the other is of GMs Hayes and Robert
receiving their award from Jo…their prize also includes ten Osprey books of their choosing!]
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Raffle:
Tim Daun of Aliso Viejo, California won the raffle for the 1st Hussar fine art print by
military artist Keith Rocco. The look on his face as it was handed to him was indeed priceless as
he said, “I can’t believe it, I actually finally won something!”
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Iron Paintbrush:
Was in its second year, and was again warmly received with eleven teams entering. The winning team
managed to paint and assemble a “highwayman” type of piece within only one hour. This
team is now rightfully called THE Iron Paintbrush, and the one to beat at HISTORICON 2009!
Convention Lodging:
Those who could not attend HISTORICON 2008 should start making plans now to attend in 2009 –
July 16-19 – by making hotel reservations. Over the next few weeks the Convention Lodging link at
the left will be updated for a list of hotels that have Group Blocks reserved for attendees already for
2009. Note that two of the hotels will be the Holiday Inn Express and Strasburg Inn, but there will also
be a new hotel (Comfort Suites) added, and is close to the convention site. Regardless, check back in a
few weeks for lodging info!
Convention Themes:
To see the Convention Themes for HISTORICON 2009 (and 2010 and 2011) click on the Future Conventions
link at left.
HISTORICON 2009 “Silver Anniversary”:
We hope those who attended HISTORICON 2008 enjoyed themselves enough that they are looking forward
to “Historical Miniature Gaming’s Biggest Summer Vacation” next year – and tell
your friends. After all, 2009 will be the 25th Anniversary of HISTORICON, and we have some
special things planned for the “Silver Anniversary”, so don’t miss it – mark
your calendars now!
Last, but certainly not least, is that I’d like to extend my “Thanks” to the staff
that helped make HISTORICON 2008 a great success (a full roster of their names is listed below). We
would like to give a big “Thank You” to Duncan Adams as the Events Manager and Richard Brooks
as Seminar Coordinator, for both having spent the last three years in those positions for HISTORICON
(2006-2008). Duncan will now be going off to save those vacation days that he’s spent each year
doing convention work, and back to painting figures and a well deserved (semi-) rest! While Richard
will now get to spend his full time (if he can avoid the “honey do list”!) on his hobby
company –
Recreational Conflict
– where you’ll find him in the Vendor Hall hawking his wares. To both, thanks again!
Convention Committee (Senior Staff):
Convention Director – Bob Giglio
Convention Director’s Assistant – Roni Giglio
Deputy Convention Director & Registration Manager – Neil Brennan
Events Manager – Duncan Adams
Vendor Managers – Jeff & Monica Hobbs
Promotions Manager – Kathryn Plamback
Publications Manager – Don Perrin
Resident Artist – Rich Hasenhauer
Webmaster – Jim McWee
Coordinators:
Awards – Pete Panzeri
Convention Liaison (Cold Wars) – Frank Preziosa
Events – Tim Mullen & Nick Zizo
Vendors – Michael Betz
Flea Market – Matthew Grove & Chris Johnson
Painting – Heather Blush
Registration – Jon Paul Colegrove, Mel Follmer, Kathy Higbee, Michelle Preziosa & James Thomas
Seminars – Richard Brooks
Theme – Jim McGaughey
Tournaments – Scott Holder
Staff (in alphabetic order):
Donna Betz, Jonathan Burger, Dan & Don Carlucci, Wayne Cooper, Roger Covington,
Richard & Lindsey Crouch, James Curtis, John D’Addario, Mike Dolan, Bruce Eggleston,
Paul Fasciana, Dennis Fischer, Mark Follmer, Geoff Graff, Wayne Hamilton, Steve Hanson, Emi Harrison,
William Harrop, Devin Haynes, Jim Hergenhahn, Brian Higbee, David Hixon, Jerry Hurwitz, Todd Kauderer,
Chris King, Amy Krumm, Bob & Cleo Liebl, Asher Lurie, Mike McGrath, Ben Pecson, Rick Schirtzinger,
Bob Scripp, Eugene Suchora, Darrel Swanson, Matthew Tate, August Thiesing, Bruce Witver, Bob Yatison,
Liz Zizo.
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