a historical miniatures wargame convention, held each January, in Lansing, MI. Spartacon is run by some old college friends, whom I have happily stayed in touch with over the years since I left town in 1991. Ray, Dick, Bob, Mark, et al, set the bar pretty high with some truly gorgeous games, which are assembled from all over Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, Kentucky, and even from as far away as Philadelphia, PA!This year, after 18 years of clear (clear-ish) January weather, we got socked. Lansing picked up 7" during the day, and points south toward the Detroit metro area got even more. This affected attendance. 130+ passed through the doors, and a number of games were understandably canceled. Still, everyone seemed to have a great time; players played, dealers sold stuff, flea market folks transferred some junk, and on site concessions sold food. Everyone won! The visual standard of the games was very high as always, but I only participated in two of them, both with the big 54mm figs, which I now prefer.
This year 54mm came out strong with 2 very nice games, which were booked up, and drew admiring crowds. The first was a 54mm Battle of Trenton, using Ken Cliffe's gorgeous "All the Kings Men", metal figs. I commanded the Hessian grenadiers and a light gun. My grenadiers fired a devastating volley driving off some American light troops that had the audacity to approach across an open field. After that victory, I lead them into a charge against another rebel unit. With my substantial superiority in numbers, movement, and in some cases a 2:1 match up in melee, I was soundly defeated. Yep, I blew all 14 die rolls! Failed my morale roll, and ran away. We lost the game pretty badly.
The other 54mm game was run by Tod Kershner, with his homegrown war of 1812 rules. Tod is one of the co-authors of Age of Reason Seven Years War rules. Tod always has some clever mechanics, and his games visually do not disappoint. He was helped with figures and terrain this time by Dale Wood, who painted up some of the excellent Barszo, US Regulars and Indians. Dale also scratch built an excellent limber and gun team. A great looking game. The scenario was simple: get the gun and supplies across a river, with the far bank held by Glenngarry light Infty. and a company of light troops of the 49Th foot. Indians could be anywhere and were. After a hard fought fire fight and some nasty melee, the US forces of Free trade and Sailors rights, triumphed over the bloody handed forces of Albion and their native minions, (we won on points).
