Spring Fever - a great convention in Raleigh

Spent the weekend in Raleigh at Spring Fever. Nice little convention. About a third of the attendees were there for a Warhammer Fantasy tournament. The rest were nice people putting on nice games. Saw lots of cool stuff, the coolest, perhaps, was a really nice game of Sharpe's Practice being hosted by Chris from Sash and Saber with really big metal miniatures. Sash and Saber was the only dealer selling big figures. Lots of very nice little toy soldiers (15mm) for sale from Ron at the Game Connection (including Xyston and Corvus Belli), and a dealer with a lot of really old board games. Miniatures of Chesapeake was there selling everything in the world related to Flames of War. Interesting mix of historicals and fantasy/sci-fi. Saw Bob Bryant's fantasy game, nice presentation. Also his Colonial battle rules.Was supposed to run Old West, instead of Darkest Africa. All of the Old West players decided it would be cool to play Divine Right instead. That was a good time. I was dwarves, never could get a good alliance with a strong kingdom, but my ambassador killed the ambassador of Immer (when he challenged me to a duel), and also poisoned the King of Pon. Our warcry (Death to Trolls) was taken up for a while, until we realized that the trolls were a hollow threat.Also played Lord of the Rings risk, and the good alliance won a military victory, scant turns before Frodo and Sam reached Mount Doom.Played lots of Hordes of the Things in 28mm - that was a hoot. We played a big battle game on Saturday night (after Divine Right) consisting of four armies per side, and then a series of smaller battles on Sunday morning before leaving.The convention was small, but nice. There was a really great raffle, in which I won a Pegasus Hobbies pre-painted 28mm medieval stone house. (That will come in useful in the near future for my dark ages stuff.) It was great hanging out with good friends - Carl, Justin, Brian, Elliott, John, Dr. Bob and Joe from Charlotte, Ed Mohrmann, Bob Bryant, and a lot of others. And I made some new friends. I am beginning to really like smaller game conventions.

(photos courtesy of Charles Cabell, who played in the big Hordes of the Things battle on Saturday night. Thanks, Charles!

Tags: wargames, toy soldiers