This year’s Historicon – North America’s largest historical miniatures gaming convention – has been delayed from July, to take place in November, due to Covid regulations making its customary 4-day summer convention unfeasible. The event’s organiser, the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS), announced the change of plans in an email to members from society President John Spiess this week.
In it, Spiess said the society had made the call after “extensive and sometimes exhausting” discussions with the venue – Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County Convention Center – over the requirements to hold a convention this summer. But, with venue capacity restricted to 25%, strict rules about table spacing and social distancing between guests, the event simply would not work, Spiess said (and might well run a serious financial loss if it went ahead). Instead, the con will take over the timeslot and location of another HMGS event, Fall In!, in early november.
Ordinarily, the HMGS holds three conventions a year – Cold Wars, in Ocean City, Maryland in April, Historicon, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in July, and Fall In!, just outside of Philadelphia, PA, in November. All three events were cancelled outright in 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The rescheduled convention is still planned to last the original 4 days. It’s set to feature a bunch of different miniatures-related attractions, including tournaments, teaching groups for hobby skills and gameplay, a flea market for tabletop stallholders and guests to sell or exchange their miniature wares, and – of course – large numbers of bookable game tables to play pretty much any historical miniatures game under the sun (there’s reportedly a fringe of sci-fi and fantasy games present, too).
Ticket prices and bookings for Historicon 2021 are not available yet, but new information on that will likely crop up on the convention website once more of the arrangements have been nailed down.
The HMGS is a registered non-profit charitable foundation in the USA. According to its official website, it was founded in 1986 “to officially promote that wing of wargaming as both a legitimate adult hobby and as an alternative method for the study of military history”. It’s run by six directors and some additional officers, who cooperate to run conventions and other activities to promote the hobby in the USA.
Fan of historical tabletop minis? You might like to check out Warlord Games’ giant new American Civil War Black Powder set. More of a salty seadog? Check out our review of naval miniatures game Victory at Sea.