Advance the Colors 2018

I went to the Great Lakes HMGS convention Advance the Colors yesterday in Springfield Ohio, the home of Jonathan Winters and unabated heroin use. It's 15 minutes from my house, so I thought I would see if I could find anything in the flea market to fit my needs and minuscule budget.

I had originally planned to go Friday as well and get in a ECW game set in Scotland, but work interfered and the game wasn't offered again. So, I figured it would still be a worthwhile way to spend Saturday morning.

Upon getting there, I immediately ran into two or three folks from the old DBA days. They were all nice enough to be pretend like they used to like me and then quickly remembered they had to be somewhere fast. One thing about AtC: it is *really* small, prolly a hundred or hundred fifty dudes total. Not that I mind, but just so you know, it doesn't take long to see it all. There's usually about 8 to 12 games going on at once. This year, there was a Flames of War tournament and a Bolt Action tournament going on. At least two thirds of the people there were there for one of those. In fact, one of the reasons I went was to watch some of the BA, but it turns out there were two yinzers there; Rich and Howard playing FoW. So I kibbitzed with each of them for a bit before moving on. I also ran into 'Ferkin', the dude from Columbia Games whom the 'Ferkin' army is named after in their Wizard War series. I met him before; he's a good dude; retired now. I bought a really nice rubber (cut-able) sheet of flagstone made by the Miniature Building Authority off of him. OK, so this thing is EXACTLY what I need and I was very excited. I ran home to look on their site to see how much they cost retail and there is no sign of them on their website! NOOOOOOOOO! I finally found my cobblestone solution and there's no more to be found? Fuck, fuck and double fuck. I called and left a message for them. Hopefully, they have some left in a corner of their warehouse; I only need maybe one or two more sheets.

I meandered through the 'dealer hall'. I mean don't get me wrong, it's all very nice but it just can't compare to the large conventions out East. But I did find some nice foam bamboo huts and some used (painted) 15's. (Federal ACW in greatcoats, $1 for a stand of three, so I bought 10 stands for a Brigade.)

These were very cool. The guy casts the stones in about 3 or four inch sections, then glues them together and paints them himself. This fortified house was $100. That's not bad at all for this nice work. Plus, all his stuff comes apart for using each individual floor.

This ruined tower was only $50! The sticks are from Hobby Lobby and cost a few bucks for a giant bag.

$75 wizard tower.

Nice! For the price he was asking, you could get the catalogue for Miniature Building Authority. (their price range from $125 to $400 per building.)

The main hall where the two tournaments were being held.

Some Bolt Action action.

I don't know who makes these buildings but Rob has them at Legions. I really like them.

Soviets vs. British paratroopers. Okay, so this is a huge reason I don't like tournaments: you end up fighting guys that never fought in the war, sometimes even the same nationality fighting each other. That's stupid.

The board looks cool though. Actually, all the boards were well done.

Reminds me of World of Tanks!

Some guys fighting other guys.

I liked this board but, again,, it was Soviets vs. British.

Buncha Sissi's.

Flames of War theme was Stalingrad. Sucked to one of the guys (like Rich) that brought a tank company. Stupid game anyway.

Howard's Soviets in the outskirts of Stalingrad.

All in all, a fun couple of hours. Beats the shit out of hanging out where I live and it's always good to get the geek stench on you. There *was* one woman there but I heard her friends assuring her that the guys were just as afraid of her as she was of them.