I made it to Spartacon, held Jan. 11 in Lansing, MI. My greeting when I came through the door was, "Aren't you supposed to be in California?"

My replay was, "That trip was cancelled. Any of you have any 28mm World War II Soviets and Germans? I left mine at home!" I am not sure what brain dead spell I went through on the Friday before when I carefully made sure I had everything, and completely ignored my pre-packed bag full of 60 plus Soviets and 20 Germans, plus a Tiger II and Hetzer. Luckily, I had finished another German vehicle on Friday evening and stuck it in with my terrain.

I was too late to make the first set of games, so I toured the hall. It was pretty full with a lot of games. I saw four World War II games -- two Battleground WWII and two Command Decision. There were some British in Egypt supported by a gun-boat. It looked like the Americans were going to do a helicopter assault in Vietnam. These were interesting. The Skyraider and UH-1s were all wood. In the corner was a large, (speaking of wood) 28mm naval engagement. It looked like three Cogs (merchant vessel sailing ship from 1100 A.D. or therabouts) being attacked by a swarm of Vikings in longships. Nicely done hand made wooden longships. There were also some Napoleonics, a Spanish Civil War game, and a naval World War II action. The American Civil War was also represented, as was the Boer War and some Romans fighting escaped (ala "Spartacus") slave forces. Almost forgot, a nicely done 28mm Boxer Rebellion battle in some nice terrain. Lots of games. Lots of dealers as well with three walls lined with them. Tank kits, vehicles, troops, paints, buildings, and a lot of books.

I set my table up after lunch. I had the Soviet troops and the German troops, but the figures didn't match my order of battle very well. Okay, what you see is what you get -- almost. The German company (28mm) holding the town were all veteran troops, "4-4" in Arc of Fire terms. They even had Steiner's platoon with Corporal Steiner leading them. He was a 3-4 plus had 3 cards instead of 2 like everyone else. The Company HQ, two infantry platoons, heavy machinegun team with a MG-34, and the off-table mortar battery of two 81mm mortars had four minefields and four anti-tank obstacles in place. They also had two to three foot snow drifts (rough going) except on the roads (which was open ground). They had one armored vehicle. A Jagdtiger. They also had 12 panzerfaust 60. The Soviets had a weak SMG platoon (understrength squads) and a full strength Rifle platoon. A Leutenant commanded the SMG platoon from a BA-64 armored car. The Rifle platoon Leutenant had a jeep and a Commissar with a LMG. Supporting this force was one salvo of 12 122mm gun, firing either HE or smoke, and armor. The SMG platoon had three T34/85 and two SU-122. The rifle platoon had three T34/76 and two IS-2. The rifle platoon attacked from the east, the SMG platoon from the north. The first turn was slow as the players learned the rules, but the following turns speeded up. The battle was furious and resulted in heavy casualties on both sides. The German 2nd platoon was wiped out and the Soviet SMG platoon lost most of its men and tanks. A furious battle.

For the third set of games, the hall thinned out quite a bit. The Vikings were at it again, with what looked like a raid on a Viking hall taking place. A complete Viking village and Viking fort in a fjord had several Viking longships pulled up near it unloading figures, mostly armed with axes. Another game was also being run -- Vietnam again, only this time an attack on a NVA stronghold. I sat down to command part of Kampfgruppe 'Peiper' in a "Bulge Game" in 1/285 using COMMAND DECISION III. Well, my Tigers and two of my three SGIII platoons had rolled right through that minefield. Forward men.

Almost forgot. The German company in my game had 20 men.