Convention Report, Flintcon 2020

       Well, FlintCon has come and gone, and a great time was had by all. Despite snow and slippery road conditions more than 200 gamers showed up and packed the two halls set up for the convention. All proceeds go to the school programs and the door and kitchen were staffed by parents of the students, they were most cordial and helpful through a long day. This is a very well-run (thanks to Rod Cain, who is a seemingly tireless organizer) convention that exudes a warm and friendly atmosphere. Once again the flea-market had many wonderful things, I broke my own rule and bought a couple of dozen Thoroughbred ACW ironclads at a great price (so much for my "no new minis, no new periods"  rule!). The food was good and plentiful and located just down the hall between the minis games and the Pathfinder area.

         Kudos to Rod and his cheerful helpers!

the gymnasium was pretty well filled all day long

Gas, Guns and Guts
         Presented by Jeff Przyblo this game looked like a real fun time (R.U.P. and The Housemartin played in it and greatly enjoyed the game). It is a Mad Max style road race/demolition game that featured heavily armed cars and trucks battling it out as they traveled down the roadway. A neat trick to the system was that the vehicles stayed pretty much in the middle of the table as the terrain scrolled by beneath them.

 

the different items of terrain that the heavily armed maniacs 

would end up driving past during the game

 

the playing surface, if only Michigan's roads looked so good!

 

the control panel that each player got, 

I particularly like that the marker pegs are .223 cases

Battle Tech Alpha Strike
            Presented by Desmond Wolston and Rider's Hobbies featured some sttractive terrain and some very well executed models.

 

nice paint jobs, my own lances are black and silver but the blue and white looks excellent

Viking Raid
           Glen Cooley presented this sprawling game that features hundreds of minis and three superbly crafted hand-made Viking ships.

 

the boats are made of wood and scratchbuilt, and are just lovely!

 

of course the Vikings set everything on fire (they must have had mal-adjusted chidhoods)

 and tried to steal everything that they could move

what a surly bunch of uninvited guests

 

in the background you can see the wagons full of ill-gotten goods

 

OK, I admit it, I am envious of those boats

Black Powder- Napoleonics

         Presented by Jon Carroll and Rider's Hobbies. This game had hundreds of gloriously colorful figures depicting a clash between the French and the British

 

nicely done Hussars

I think all cavalry should be waving their swords around all the time

(Stew agrees with me)

 

the Emperor's troops advance!

 

the British cavalry are just as adept at sword-waving

and nicely painted as well!

 

the British army seems unimpressed by the French advance

 

I do like the look of large formations of figures

Iroquois Terror, war of 1812
                  Local wargaming legend, Todd Kershner, presented this huge and visually impressive battle from the War of 1812. Magnificent scenery, loads of brilliantly painted 54mm figures and a flash-back to playing with Marx toy soldiers when I was a child (of course mine were painted with Testor's glossy paint, to a MUCH lower standard!)

 

the game began with the Iroquois springing the ambush

 

the fort was huge

 

toy soldier sized figures but collector quality paint jobs, very impressive

 

the stalwart settlers try to defend their homes

 

while the brave Iroquois try to reclaim their land

 

Sharp Practice, ACW

                 Presented by Mike Ovesnik

 

simple but effective terrain, some poor farmer's house is about to get all shot-up!

 

the massed ranks of the Union forces

 

opposed by the equally powerful Confederate forces

 

I like the combination of the printed game mat with the surface overlay pieces

What a Tanker, the Chibi Version
                Presented by Michigan Toy Soldier, I have been advised that this may be the last outing for the Desert Rats for a while and the action is ging t swithc to France 1940 soon. One of these days I will get a chance to play in this game!

The Battle of Cowpens, Regimental Fire and Fury, AWI version
         Lowell Hamilton presented this visually attractive game of the Battle of Cowpens using hordes of nicely painted 15mm figures.

 

Lowell always has such accurate and evocative terrain

the Brits advance

the nervous Rebel militias await the storm

Black Sun
              Lee Van Schaik and Crucible Crush brought us Weird War Viet Nam, where the occult intersects with an ongoing political war. Lovely terrain, and helicopters......I like any game with helicopters!

 

 

the jungle exudes and extra sense of menace when there really are evil spirits in there!

 

the combination of printed game mat and surface overlay worked very well in the set-up

 

the minis were excellently painted too

Freeblades
         Presented by Geoffrey Wing is a fantasy skirmish game with an associated range of interesting miniatures. Trunkmonkey and The Housemartin both partook and tell me that it was a fast and fun game.

 

the terrain was simple but had an air of menace about it

 

I understand that the rules are figure-agnostic but there is a series of minis specifically for this game, the minis that I saw on the table were very well executed and  nicely painted

Warhammer 40K
              This game was sponsored by Gamer's Sanctuary (a local brick and mortar in Flint) and featured complete armies of well-painted figures for interested convention-goers to take a try with

 

I'm unfamiliar with these lads, Orks are more my style

 

Necrons, Eldar and Space marines........Oh My!

 

and finally at the end of the line some Orks!

1882 Sudan

         Presented by Nicholas Wedding and using The Men Who Would Be King rules from Osprey

 

the 15mm figures help create the feeling of the vast emptiness of the desert terrain

 

the English were given the daunting task of assaulting the Egyptian army

 that awaited them from dug-in positions

 

World War One Trench Warfare

              Ray Braemer presented his 28mm WWI trench attack game. the terrain was suitably dreary and shell-shattered and the minis were very well presented. One of these days I won't be running a game the same session that he puts this on.

 

late war German storm troopers on the attack

stalwart British Tommies await the onslaught

Battle of Hoth
             Matt Koltonow presented this simple but hugely effective game of the Imperial attack on the ice planet Hoth

 

the walkers are Bandai kits and the Rebel foot are modern 10mm figures

the massive ice face was scratchbuilt just for this game

 

the only thing missing was a worried C3P0

 

a paint job conversion made 10mm modern infantry into Rebel footsoldiers