This article was inspired partly by Don Perrin's editorial in MWAN Issue #131, where he mentions his enjoyment at attending "BobCon," a local "basement" mini convention at the home of Bob Bowling of RLBPS. "BobCon" is typical of other "mini" cons held all over the country. A similar mini convention that I have been part of called AL-CON has been gaining status in the Midwest for almost two years. AL-CON is the name of a small monthly informal gathering of mostly geriatric wargame buddies in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin for a couple years now. Our small gatherings are usually held in the even smaller surroundings of the kitchen/dinette belonging to Al Hulton of Belvedere IL. Al is a bachelor and retired postal worker, the first of the AL-CON faithful to retire from regular work, and now has lots of time on his hands. By graciously opening his home for our monthly invasion, we have honored Al by naming our "con" after him. AL-CON's brain child was and is Bob Pavlik of Glendale Hts IL, another longtime friend and retired Northwest Airlines employee. Another creative AL-CON attendee is Jeff Perren, also recently retired from the Royal Hobby Shop in Rockford IL. Jeff has the distinction of having authored some of the first commercial miniatures rules in the early 1970's, such as "Chainmail" and "Cavaliers and Roundheads." Other AL-CON attendees include Ralph Nuti and Ken Kaergard of St. Charles IL, Bill Garrett of Glendale Hts IL, and our frequent special guest, the ever famous wargamer, cool jazz musician, and carpet cleaner "Uncle" Duke Seifried of Janesville WI. AL-CON EVENTS Games at AL-CON are varied and colorful. Bob and Jeff are the creative forces behind most of our games. The following is a list of some of the past AL-CON events: 25MM ANCIENTS Original AL-CON events began simply with Al and Bob's large DBA armies of 25mm Romans and Gauls. Bob and Al originally each completed 12 element armies of both sides, but over the years their armies have grown to many times that number. We have had many clashes between the Romans and Gauls using the popular DBA rules. Bob and Al also have large DBA sized 25mm War of the Roses armies. The DBA system is the ALCON rules preference for this period, as DBA is happily easy to play and understand. 1/32ND WWII Al (who usually takes days to paint just one figure, though does a really excellent job) decided that buying plastic figures that came already painted was a good thing, so he began collecting 1/32nd scale plastic figures and accessories from the "Forces of Valor," and "21st Century Miniatures" range of WWII plastic figures. We have had some large skirmish games with these figures and they are pretty cool looking, along with some of the nice vehicles and buildings that are already painted in the same line. Of course, Al isn't always satisfied with the paint job on some figures ("where are the eyes"? he asks) and has touched some up. We play using Al's home rules that are written on a few spiral notebook pages, and are so "bloody" that hardly anyone survives the battle (kind-of like the last battle scene in the film "Saving Private Ryan"). 1/32ND ACW Collecting 1/32nd scale WWII figures has led to collecting 1/32nd scale plastic ACW figures, where Bill, Bob, Jeff, and Al have pooled their collections. Our 1 /32nd ACW games are very much in the Peter Young "Charge" genre, using individually based figures massed into units of 10-12 figures, with 10-12 regiments per side. The plastic "Conte Collectible" range of figures are nice, as they are already painted. However, 1/32nd scale ACW figures of many types are used and painted for our games. We use simple wargame rules loosely based on "Column, Line, and Square" system. We also use the large scale terrain items, such as large trees, rail fences, and buildings. 25MM HAWAIIANS A few years ago, Bob contacted Eureka Miniatures of Australia to manufacture some Hawaiian figures for the era of King Kamehameha. Eureka Miniatures came through with a beautiful line of figures for this period. Bob has completed two "Big Battle" DBA sized (36+ elements each) Hawaiian armies, complete with beautiful terrain and palm trees, outrigger canoes, and some good looking accessories, such as Polynesian statues, to add color to the tabletop. Troop types include pikes, blades, bows, and psiloi. There are also a few British naval auxiliary troops included that fire the "big gun." We've played a couple of great games with these armies, again using modified DBA rules. We allow psiloi with slings to use distant shooting, as the scale of our game is smaller than the typical DBA army. 20MM WAR OF THE WORLDS (WOTW) Bob has completed Martian and British forces based on the H.G. Wells classic. The Martian forces have the giant walker tripods that are about 14-16" high in 20mm scale, with smaller ground crawling creatures as well. The British forces defending the English countryside from the invaders are from the 1914/Home Guard era in khaki, and include 18 pounder field batteries. Massed artillery barrages are usually able to kill or damage a tripod. While the British have artillery and Lee Enfield rifles, the Martians have WMD's, including death rays and poison gas (yes, Bob has a large green gas cloud for the table top). We've played several WOTW games and they are a "blast." Bob compliments the game with his period buildings and terrain. 25MM KNIGHTS AND LIZARDS This is one of the interesting games Jeff has given us; a semi-historical game using medieval knights & their retinue versus the Lizard-men, along with the dreaded "mushrooms" (Al has been the frequent victim of these nasties). Jeff's game has a very visually attractive appeal, and utilizes aquarium fauna to supplement the regular terrain. During one of our games, one particularly annoying Lizard-man sharpshooter took down a whole unit of medieval foot! 25 & 15MM NAPOLEONICS In my experience, Napoleonics is one period where it seems difficult to get garners to agree on any one set of rules, scale, and game complexity. Jeff has an existing collection of 25mm & 15mm Napoleonics, but wasn't satisfied with previous rules sets, such as Empire or Napoleon's Battles. Jeff felt he needed to approach Napoleonics from a new perspective, by deciding that the game had to have the following 3 components: The game had to look good. The rules had to be playable. The game had to have a historical feel without any unnecessary complexity. For 25mm Peninsula wars, Jeff used a slightly modified version of Aelred Glidden's Horse and Musket rules from MWAN Issue #106 and we had a very enjoyable game. Uncle Duke declared that it was the best set of Napoleonic rules he had ever played! For 15mm, Jeff took an existing rules set that we had used and enjoyed for AWl called "Lace Wars" (a free rules set available on the internet at: www.freewargamesrules.co.uk), and made slight modifications for the Napoleonic period. The highlights of the 15mm Napoleonic rules are: Players roll a die after moving each unit in their command. A roll of "six" means you used up your command control and your movement ends for that turn. This is DBA "pips" in reverse. You can ensure a unit moves by moving a general to that unit and avoid rolling for "sixes." Units take hits, but they are not marked on the unit. Instead, a roster for the entire Corps/Army is kept on a 3x5 card. When the entire Corps takes a certain number of hits, the effectiveness of ALL units in the Corps drops -1., then -2, or eventually the Corps will lose combat effectiveness completely and retreat off the table. The enemy has an idea of your losses, but not exactly. All combat is based on a six sided die. Battles between units cause an ebb and flow effect on the table, similar to the recoiling effect in DBA, except on a larger scale. Jeff re-based his 15mm troops so that they were massed (with little space between figures) on stands of 10-12 figures on bases measuring approximately 2" x 2". A single infantry base represent one battalion, while similarly massed cavalry and artillery bases represent entire regiments and batteries. The larger number of 15mm figures really looked good massed on the bases. Each player commanded a Corps sized force. The games Jeff has run with these rules have been very good and enjoyable so far. The game accomplishes the 3 requirements mentioned above. We found the rules would allow you to re-fight a large battle, such as Waterloo, in an afternoon. Uncle Duke now proclaimed that this was the best Napoleonics game he had ever played! Part of Duke's enthusiasm is because he has been looking for a rules set to use for his large collection of 15mm "Napoleonettes." Uncle Duke also succumbed to the temptation to "tweak" the rules (currently on 2 sides of one page) into his own version of several pages, but basically doing the same thing with more "stuff' added. Duke plans to use regimental sized bases for his miniatures with 40+ figures on a stand. The regimental stands Duke showed us that he has already completed look very impressive. You may be seeing a Napoleonic mega-game by Uncle Duke at a con near you in the future. 20MM FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION VS THE RIFFIANS Bob and Al are collecting "Woodens" (wooden flats which come pre-painted in boxed sets and are really very nicely done), and we played our first game with them recently, using the updated The Sword and the Flame (TSATF) rules. Our friend, Charlie Prosek of Winfield IL (proprietor of Prosek's Hobby Shop), was concerned that high humidity could cause the "Woodens" to swell into "rounds." Thankfully, the humidity remained low during AL-CON, though we were cautious to prevent spilling beer on the "Woodens." The "Wooden" game used a hex play-mat that eliminated the use of rulers. Bob built buildings and hex shaped hills for the map, and we converted TSATF distances & scale from inches to hexes for the battle. 15MM WWII This is a new period for AL-CON, but not for me, as I've been playing Spearhead on and off for about 7 years and have a respectable collection of early Eastern Front Germans and Russians. However, Bob and I recently have been interested in the Flames of War (FOW) system. In FOW, the maximum battle size is company/ battalion level, and uses some fairly playable rules. FOW uses a point system, similar to DBM/WRG Ancients, for playing balanced competition games. Games are set-piece affairs, where gamers can play various types of "missions," such as a "free for all," "recon," or a "no step back," mission (a favorite of Hitler and Stalin's). Bob is currently painting a 1500 - 2000 point FOW British Desert force and plans to do an Afrika Korps force as well. I found that my Eastern Front miniatures based for Spearhead were perfectly usable for FOW. We played our first FOW game at a recent AL-CON with 1500 point forces of 1941 Germans and Russians. There were two highlights in our game. One highlight was when a Russian infantry company failed it's motivation (morale) test. The FOW rules state that when a Russian company with a Komissar fails it's motivation test can roll the test again, but only after eliminating a stand (representing those unfortunates executed by the Komissar for cowardice). The unit takes the casualties, and checks morale again. In this case however, the unit failed it's second motivation test again with the wrong die roll, resulting in the unit rebelling against and subsequently shooting the Komissar. Another highlight of the game was the Russian "wave attack" rule for the early war period, where destroyed Russian infantry or certain tank companies could re-appear at the Russian base line as a new attack wave. This game was fun, and Bob and I have been impressed with the manufacturer, who has some impressive product support with new books, products, and on the internet (see their cool web site at: www.flamesofwar.com). I expect we will be playing more FOW games at AL-CON. ON THE ROAD AL-CON "road trips" to Uncle Duke's house has given us the privilege of gaming at the home of the master of wargame extravaganza himself. Duke's lovely wife, Annette, graciously puts up with the garners that occasionally invade her home. Our last game was Duke's "Northwest Frontier" game, involving several sides and hundreds of 25mm figures played on Duke's famous terrain. We've had more modest games too, like my 15mm Macedonian & Persian "big battle DBA game. We also discuss war-game theory as we munch down deer jerky and cheese curds, a sure sign that you are in the land of the "CheeseHeads." We also mourned the recent loss of Duke's beloved dog, "Sashie, Dog of War" (known as the "Persian Slayer," when he decapitated one of Duke's 25mm Persian figures with his teeth). Our road trips to Duke's allow us to see what new project Duke is working on. I don't think the average person realizes how much work is involved in one of Duke's projects. His last project for Historicon `03, the "Lord of the Rings" battles, was an immense work that was, perhaps, underappreciated by the Historical war-game public for the amount of work that was involved due to the subject matter of the game.  SPECIAL EVENTS The October `03 AL-CON highlighted our own celebration of the 937th Anniversary of the Battle of Hastings with a 25mm war-game of that battle, using Bob's large collection of excellently painted Mini-fig Normans & Saxons on individual bases and using home rules. After the battle (and a Saxon victory!) Uncle Duke declared, "These are the best melee rules I've ever played." Our second game was a classic: "Cavemen," using 75mm plastic cavemen and various "beasties," including the dreaded saber tooth tiger. Evil "mushrooms" made their appearance again, thanks to Jeff, and Al fell victim to these again. We also had a wargame tribute to the "Master & Commander" film, as Bob found his old collection of painted plastic 1/600 scale Napoleonic ships and his home rules that use a homemade "spinner" to resolve combat. This should give the reader an idea of how old we really are, since Bob made the spinner before dice other than "6" siders had been invented. The AL-CON movie on Saturday evening is always a special event after gaming is over. AL-CON movies include Gangs of New York (GONY), The Ernie Kovacs Show DVD Collection, and We Were Soldiers, among others. Pizza and beer always makes the movie better, and give us inspiration for new periods (Bob is already collecting GONY figures). A recent AL-CON featured our first "Dealer," Bob Bowling of RLBPS, who happens to live just down the road in Rockford IL. Bob was given a free AL-CON "dealer table" (a TV tray) where he did $100 of business with your's truly. I bought 25mm Copplestone and Honorable Boiler Suit Russian Civil War figures for a future project, inspired by my recent DVD purchase of the "Dr. Zhivago" DVD, and future AL-CON movie. Well, I hope this gives you a little taste of what AL-CON is about. My guess is that there are all kinds of AL-CONS out there in various shapes and forms and I would like to hear what kind of activities occur at other "mini-cons." I want to thank my wife, who allows me to attend AL-CONs every month, and puts up with a husband who plays with "those little soldiers."  Back to MWAN # 132 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2004 Legio X This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com