HUZZAH! CONVENTION REPORT

This is the first of two posts that I'll be doing in the wake of this weekend's Huzzah! game convention. The second (now posted) is a report on my  Smalle Warre  game which ran on Saturday morning. This post is a brief report on the convention for the benefit of those who are curious or just couldn't make it.  In short, this was another quality experience provided by the Maine Historical Wargamers, and this regional convention has grown into a highly anticipated fixture on the gaming calendar. Once again, they had more people applying to run games than they could accommodate, and many games were filled via pre-registration ahead of time.  I was present on Friday afternoon and again on Saturday, and here is my less than coherent picture essay on the event as I captured it.  For another report on  Huzzah! you can check out AJ's Wargaming Blog where he recounts his experience running his Electronic Brigadier game.  As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX

FRIDAY

 The Registration area (left) and a shot (right) across the main gaming area/vendor area (this space would get more busy on Saturday!)

The convention included boardgames. In the above, there was a game of a very interesting block game, Waterloo 200 going on. Unfortunately, the only action I saw was the game master flipping through the rules, so I didn't get much of a feel for it (but I'm curious). 

Sci Fi isn't my thing, but there was this most impressive mecha-thingy layout just waiting to be used. Very cool.

Above, Mike Paine's spectacular, kid friendly Pulp/China games have also become a fixture at the convention. 

The Alamo seems to make an appearance at most US Conventions, the above being particularly nice (and received with much enthusiasm by the players). 

Above left, the ancients tournament.  Above right, just some cool figs I ran across. 

Above, a superb 28mm Battle of Chotusitz Carngage and Glory game. 

My friend and fellow blogger Mark D setting up his game for Friday night. He uses a variant of Bolt Action to depict contemporary actions.  Despite the enthusiastic assistance of myself and fellow club member Earl, he was ready to go on time, anyway. 

Mark's contemporary troops lined up and ready to go. You can visit his blog for a report on his game and more shots of his excellent collection in action.

 SATURDAY

  A very eye catching Dien Bien Phu game...

...complimented by appropriately impressive headgear. 

 An "Old School" Pas De Charge! game (above). One of the players expressed satisfaction with the system, despite it being "chart heavy." What was old is new again!

Almost in contrast to the preceding, there was a Sharp Practice game running at one of the vendor tables. 

 The Flames of War tournament area. 

There was naval action, of course.

Not sure what this was. I think either French and Indian War or King William's War.

The centerpiece of the convention was the massive Stalingrad  game, which will consume the remainder of this report.  There were several tables, each with a different focus...

 ...each with more detail than this blog could ever capture. You might want to check out this posting on TMP which has more photos and links to other shots. 

That concludes my brief and incomplete snapshot of this great convention. There was much more to the convention than I captured in this report--which covers what I was able to see while walking about on Friday and Saturday afternoons.  Next up will be the report on the game I ran there on Saturday morning. Watch these pages for that in the next few days.

Excelsior!