Highlights of my Olustee Project at Historicon 2018

       I must say that I am very happy with how my games turned out. After setting up the table on the Thursday of the convention, several people were able to identify the battle without any need for signs. That is a honor for me to represent a battle in that way. About 38 people knew the battle without the signs throughout the convention. Several people were re-enactors of the battle and plenty had recently been to the battlefield this year. And quite a few people told me some interesting stories as re-enactors. It was really cool to have that kind of connection to a battlefield we had all been to.
    As for the games, I ran five games with six players. I had one on Thursday, two on Friday, and  two on Saturday lasting roughly six hours. I say roughly, because Friday night's game ended early due the Confederate players having to leave early. Four of the people who signed up for Saturday morning did not show, so we had to find players which has not happened before in any game I have run. I am pretty sure that heavy drinking was involved that prevented the attendance. However, that was probably for the best, since the Saturday morning game still ended up being the most violent of the five games. One turn saw 6 regiments destroyed in a melee. The game ended with 13 regiments lost and I ran out of casualty figures! Some other games had a cavalry line, ridiculous assaults, and six-fest in rolling sixes on  D6 dice. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
     This game won two awards. One was the PELA Award given for great inspirational games for that time slot. I won that on the Thursday game. The PELA Award you can only win once per Historicon. My wife, Kalissa was a judge at that time and had to abstain for obvious bias reasons. However, the other judges thought it would be great for her to pick out the award. She said that there were no American Civil War modelled awards available, so she picked on with Napoleon on it. She knows I do not like playing the French in wargamings. I usually loose horribly with them. So thank you, my lovely wife!
     The second one I won was "Best in Show" Now, I am not going to toot my own horn to say I knew it would happen. There were some good games out there like the St. Elmo game and the Stalingrad game next to mine. However, several judges told me they were disappointed that they could not give me another PELA Award, because I had already been awarded one. That gave me an idea that it might happen. Besides, my real successes were that everyone was well involved and having fun with the game. I did not have anyone waiting long for their turn. So no drooling guy asleep waiting for their turn (I've actually witnessed this once!). There was plenty of dice throwing and action! The point is that I showcased an American Civil War battle with the actual visual violence and field problems of the day while still using an engaging rules set that gave people the fun to play and possibly inspired more people into gaming ACW. If that is not an awesome goal attained, I don't know what is!
    Lastly, this is a shout out to all the people whose fault this project was:
           
             Thank you, Sash & Saber for your support and awesome figures.
             Thank you, Flag Dude for you research and beautiful flags.
             Thank you, Rich of Fire & Fury for writing up a nice scenario to this battle.
             Thank you, Jay White for making me want to do an ACW game after making some of your                                                                                 commissions and your This Hallowed Ground rules.


  Below are some more pictures of various game highlights. Enjoy!

This is the beginning set up. The table was 6' x 18' long.

Union infantry columns on the road to battle.

Dismounted Confederate cavalry fighting in the woods against the U.S. 8th Colored Troops.

The pond was a natural impassible obstacle that caused many problems for the Union troops.

Confederate Artillery Train Car.

Into the woods!

Saturday Morning's Turn 5 Melee before rolling!

Saturday Morning's Melee Aftermath on Turn 5. Six regiments were destroyed!

Confederates in march column.

Saturday evening game with a Confederate cavalry line.

Saturday evening game with a Confederate cavalry line.

A mix of a melee in Saturday evening's game.