Another Game Faire has come and gone. Held in Spokane, WA on the weekend of April 26-28, this was a broad-spectrum convention, with board, RPG, CCG, and miniatures gaming all under one roof.

As opposed to last year, I actually ran some games this time around.

On Friday night, I hosted two sessions of Clay-o-Rama. Clay-o-Rama is a game where each player is given 15 minutes to sculpt a fighting ’creature’ from a single can of Play-Doh. The creature is given attributes according to how it was sculpted: more legs = more movement, more arms = more attacks, etc. They can also be given ‘special’ powers, which are completely random but useful. The first session had seven players, but ended a little too soon due to player desertions. Session number two also had seven players, but they were made of sterner stuff and it was a fight to the bitter end. A young lady named Anna emerged as the sole survivor. I believe Anna was the youngest player (8 years old) at the table, but a couple of adults indulged in the game, myself included! This is a truly fun game, and everybody should try it at least once. (I should threaten to bring it to Enfilade one year. I would give bonus points to the players who can sculpt shako cords on their ‘infantrymen’!!)

Things got a little more serious on Saturday, when I hosted two sessions of Armati. I managed to borrow enough 15mm figures from John Kennedy (thanks again, John!) to represent several different armies. In the first battle, Marian Romans (played by Terry Griner) squared off against the Gauls (with me as their leader). The Gallic hordes screamed in against the Roman battleline, oblivious to their crumbling flanks, and ran headlong into an immovable object. The Roman army was set up in ‘deep’ formation, which allows the Roman infantry to survive the impetuous charge of the barbarians. Needless to say, not a single Roman cohort was lost and the Gallic army broke.

Battle #2 found those same Romans facing a Parthian army. Once again, my (I was the Parthian commander) flanks crumbled while the center pressed onwards. This time, the Parthian cataphracts managed to send off some of those tough Roman troops, but not enough of them before the Parthians finally lost heart and retreated. One thing about the Parthian army in Armati: it is very fragile. In Armati, a battle is won or lost by destroying a certain number of ‘key’ units in the opposing army. Parthian horse archers are ‘key’ units, so they need to be maneuvered carefully, which of course I did not do. Oh well, live and learn!

Game #3 of Armati pitted the Pontic army against those tough Romans. This time, my right flank did not collapse and actually managed to get close to the Roman line of infantry. But not before those legionnaires taught the Pontic phalanx a thing or two about sword-slinging. In the last game, the Marian legions were used to represent Republican Romans while I brought out the Carthaginians. At last, I thought, I have a chance with the troops of Hannibal! Nope, sorry!! Believe me, I was starting to get a little disgusted at my ability to roll ones on a D6 when I really needed sixes by the time this fourth match was done. But it was still quite fun to match wits with my opponent. Thanks again Terry.

Seekrieg was on the menu for Sunday. The scenario was set in 1904, with a Russian cruiser squadron trying to make it back to Vladivostok being intercepted by a Japanese force. There were eight ships, four on each side, and eight players. The Russians made a bold decision by deciding to engage the enemy instead of just trying to run and survive. To make a long story short, the Russians lost their two largest cruisers while the Japanese had one cruiser sunk and another heavily damaged. The Japanese concentrated their fire on one ship at a time, while Russian gunnery was appropriately atrocious. Many dud shells and just plain bad dice rolling really seemed to hurt their cause.

What else was going on outside of my microcosm? Well, there was the usual slate of RPG’s, with tournaments in Hackmaster and D&D. The board gaming crowd seemed to be very thin this year, however. Many folks from Sabertooth Games (the designers of the Warhammer 40K CCG) were present, and their table was busy all weekend. My 12-year-old son Jared won two prizes in the painting competitions, one for the youth category and the other for vehicles. I’m not sure who was more excited, Jared or me, busily snapping photos at the awards ceremony.

There were several miniatures games besides my own. Napoleonic naval games ran all day Friday and Saturday. A WW2 naval scenario pitting the Royal Navy against Italians, using the Seapower rules, looked very interesting. Several scenarios of Battleground WW2 were in operation, plus a couple of tables of micro-armor were present.

One thing was a little troubling. As my Seekrieg game was winding down, my friend Mark made a comment about the convention. As he looked at the convention program he said, “This looks exactly like last year’s program. The same people are putting on the same games.” He was right. Not much had changed from last year, or even the past several years. Sometimes continuity is a good thing, but it can be bad to stagnate. Is this a symptom of the dreaded ‘greying of the hobby?’ Or is it just a condition prevalent in a small, local convention?

In all, it was a great weekend. Seeing friends, playing games, and watching my kids enjoy themselves made the drive from Everett worthwhile.