Spartacon Report

Of course, winter came back with a vengeance two days before Spartacon, and its effects were still lingering Saturday at o-dark-thirty when I began my trek through the hinterlands of mid-Michigan on my way to Lansing. I left a little earlier than usual, and it was a good thing, as it took me longer than usual to get there. But made it I did!

 

If you're counting wins and losses, I guess you could say I went 1-1 on the day. Here's what transpired:

1. In session 1, I played in a WW2 North African, um, well, I guess furball is a better description that battle. Definitely a con scenario, with Germans, Italians, British and Americans all converging on a town from the four corners. I should have known I was in trouble from the get-go when I could see my likely adversaries not only knew each other, but had played these (home-grown) rules multiple times before. And I was assigned the Italians with another newbie. I know virtually nothing about Italian armor, except for a vague notion that it isn't any good. We got pretty well hammered. Still, what I do like about games like that is it gets you moving and rolling dice almost right away, and things move quickly. Plus the terrain was very well done, and the armor pieces extremely well painted, which is always nice to look at.
2. In session 2, I got a few guys I know to join me in a Russo-Finnish battle using Arc of Fire. Having just played in my first game of that recently, it was good to see we pretty much had it right. We played the THe Church Village scenario from the Skirmish Campaigns book, and I took a Finnish MMG squad. I provided covering fire while three other squads moved around the left to take one of the two buildings. Ultimately, the plan worked, but after a slow start, the Russians did inflict some heavy casualties toward the end before finally breaking. I think the two Russian players were frustrated about the game, when in actualtity it is just that the Russian troops are that bad. The argued that for a con game, more evenly matched opponents would make a better game. Maybe so, but having now played two of these scenarios from that book, it gives a good impression of how tough it was on the Russians. Perhaps the only downside to this game was probably half of the Finns were really German figs, and the Russians were in summer uniform. Can't have everything.

 

All in all, it was a good day, and I got to see some people I hadn't seen in a while. Oh, what did I buy? As planned, I bought the Guadalcanal CY6 scenario book and a bunch of planes from Dave Winfree at I-94 Enterprises. Unexpectedly, there was another vendor there with a bunch of Crusader minis at 20% off. Since the closure of Crusader USA, these are getting scarce, so I jumped on a box of early WW2 French and a pack of Group Franc. So there you go, I guess I'm committed to the French now!

 

Without further ado, the photos:

 

The Italian force in session 1. Don't ask me what kind they are!

 

Overview of the session 1 game. Italians at lower right, British at upper right, Germans upper left, Americans lower left.

 

This has been at Spartacon before, and I always think it looks way cool: Squad Leader with miniatures. The recreated boards just looks awesome.

 

Americans, coming to get us Italians.

 

An overview of the hall.

 

A 40 mm AWI game, Battle of Rhode Island.

 

Napoleonics in 15, maybe?

 

 

Anolther view of that AWI game - nice building.

 

Meanwhile, lots of smoke over the Italian column.

 

DBA tourney.

 

DBA tourney.

 

DBA tourney - my friends Jon and Ben are in this!

 

Dave Winfree himself ran a CY6 Flying Tiger scenario in session 2. Alas, you can't play them all!

 

RAF in the CY6 setup.

 

Japanese in CY6.

 

Swiss and Burgundians?

 

I think this may have been another WW2 skirmish.

 

Another WW2 game.

 

Great looking table with an AWI 15mm game, apparently based on Brandywine.

 

Another view.

 

And another.

 

Here come the Finns out of the woods. That's my MMG at left.

 

Squad Leader.

 

Another view of that AWI game.

 

Overview of the Russo-Finnish game. Finns at top.

 

Aztecs and Conquistadores.

 

Aztecs and Conquistadores.

 

Looks like Dave's CY6 game is going well.

 

I think an ACW game?

 

Sudan.