Without a Paddle: Spartacon 2017

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Spartacon 2017

After missing last year, yesterday I headed to Spartacon in Lansing for some gaming action. A January con in Lansing is always going to have some weather issues, and this year while there was no snowstorm and temperatures were abnormally high, holy fog as thick as peanut butter!

It's about an hour and a half drive for me, and while the way down in the morning at o-dark-thirty wasn't too bad, I did come across some kind of incident involving about a dozen police and fire trucks. I never did see a wrecked car or anything, and it's a lonely country road, and there were people walking in the field. UFO? Bigfoot? Who knows.

The way home was crazy. One of those nights you can barely see 30 feet in front of your car. You were hardly aware of another car until the lights were right on top of you. It was a relief to get home.

Anyway, I played in two games. Of course I went 0-2 on the day! First game was a very cool Crusades game - Battle of Nicea in the First Crusade. A very well presented game by a long-time gamer, who will be hosting his own con in a couple weeks. The minis were absolutely gorgeously painted, and the rules very interesting. He used the new rules, Triumph! Apparently these are an evolution, or reinvention? of DBA. I have never played DBA, so it was all new to me. It seemed to move along well, and even though I managed to lose battles while rolling sixes and a neighbor won battles with ones, I'd like to give it another try.

Second game was a Mongol vs. Eastern European game. I was disappointed because I really wanted to play in a Jacobite game, but it filled up before I got to the signup sheet. Mongols were outnumbered 4-1, and basically all they could do was shoot arrows at the Europeans while they advanced across a narrow front. Not much could be done, and eventually and inevitably the Mongols were overrun.

On the purchase front, I had vowed to spend as little as possible. Early on I picked up an Osprey book on ancient China for $6, and I thought that might be it. Then on a flea market table I spotted a collection of John Jenkins Miniatures Ancient Chinese, including four chariots and some command. $80. Too rich for me on this day, but I talked a friend into splitting it, so for $40 I got two chariots and about six command figs. Considering these are as rare as hen's teeth, it was a bargain. No way I expected to find that at Spartacon!

Without further ado, here's what most of you are interested in, the photos: