Once again the MGM group did a first rate job with Spartacon. The Lansing Center is a terrific venue, good fighting, ample room for a good number of tables (about 10 games in the 9 am session) and space between them, carpeted floors and hot food available from just before noon till the late afternoon. There were a couple of no-show GMs at the last minute due to the flu bug making its rounds, but that is beyond anyone's control.

I took part in a Johnny Reb III game in the morning and got my clock cleaned, but the group was very amiable. I've only played JR3 twice in the last four years and there still seems to be one or two items that run counter to my intuition, but that is for discussion elsewhere. The scenario was set in 1862 in Kentucky, so green troops abounded on both sides. The battle was for control of a ridge fine that ran most of the length of the board. The opposing forces were very nearly equal in number and quality, with some small differences in make up. Each side had roughly two brigades advancing along the length of the ridge, which had ravines and woods fining both flanks and covering one to two feet of each edge.

The South (my side) made reasonable progress at first, but the woods forced us into a disproportionate number of skirmishers which were gobbled up up by one union regiment coming down the road in a travel column. That action knocked out both the CSA guns, and in essence, all of our left flank. A counter charge by our right broke into the open and took the blue bellies' guns, but was too extended to hold the position and was beaten back three turns later.

In the afternoon I got to play in 1/18th scale "Battleground" scenario (with some slight modifications to the original rules). We all took off our shoes (biological warfare?) and ran two or three soldiers each. The Germans (my side) had a squad with a tank crew and a crippled Panther versus two U.S. sections and two Shermans. Not truly a simulation, but some good old "toy soldiers" on the floor gone waaaaaaay overboard. Fun to do as a change of pace, but I wouldn't want to foot the bill for the vehicles, buildings and figures.