The registration desk was hopping at Advance the Colors when I showed up. The Great Lakes board, decked out in special red T-shirts, fielded the stream of gamers, signing them up and directing them on their way. On a whim, I purchased a Great Lakes T-shirt, as well. I noticed Dennis Frank's DBA Tourney was almost full, so quickly signed up, dropped off my donations to the auction and made my way into the convention.

The Sharonville Convention Center was much less cramped than the Holiday Inn of the previous years. We were on the second floor, in a large, high ceiling-room, with gaming tables and dealers together. The crowd seemed thinner because of the wide open spaces. Actual attendance was about the same -- it just looked like less!

As time for the tourney drew near, I unpacked my barbarian Thracians. For fun, I'd brought a "low percentage" army that had little chance of winning it all. Half of the Thracian army is Auxilia infantry -- loose formation foot that moves quickly, operates well in terrain, but doesn't pack much of a punch. I'd painted them awhile back, but had little chance to use them.

My Thracian foot rushed towards our first opponent, Adam Caudill's Vikings, along the slopes of a vineyard-covered hill in the center. Disaster nearly struck when I rolled six consecutive ones. Our second surge was successful, though. We swamped the smaller Viking force contesting the vineyard and squeaked out our first victory.

George Soika and his Carthaginians were our second opponent. This was a bloody, swirling battle. His cavalry drove in my right wing on one side of the battlefield, while my Thracian foot did the same to him on the other. Before long, each of us was one element away from losing. Then, the Dice Gods frowned upon my Thracians, and we were defeated.

My final fray was against Tony Guido's Gauls. My speedy Thracians again swarmed onto the flank of the enemy battleline. The Gauls fought back with fury, though. My general was slain by their warband and my light horse trampled by their cavalry. We caved in his left wing, though, and avenged our leader's loss. All three battles had been close and hard-fought -- I was quite happy with my 2-1! Dennis ran a great tourney, as usual.

I spent the rest of the time shopping and watching some gorgeous games, like The Colby's "Crisis in Colonial Africa" and Chris Velas' "San Juan Hill." Hats off to the GMs of ATC, but especially to David Van Hoose, Jack Shaw and Andy York and the rest of the staff for putting on a great con!