Hey Game Fans, we’re back with a roving report about the experiences we had this weekend at The Recruits Convention in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Billed as a Wargames Convention for all genres and eras, Recruits is a Convention over 3 days, with a host of events, vendors, and manufacturers over the span of that time. Entry Fee was very friendly, with a badge costing 5 dollars, (I believe they were free for students). I took the Wook with me, and we spent the entire afternoon banging around the convention, looking for shiny things and awesomeness. We were not disappointed, (and i got demoed into buying a game). Now, we’ll be putting the pictures to go with this story up later in the week, but we would love to thank the OSG (Organization of Strategic Gamers) for putting on such a fun show.
This Convention had a little bit of everything for the Gamer. There was a much lighter emphasis on roleplaying, though i did see one table running Dungeons and Dragons. Wargames were the star of the show and just about every historical era i can think of had at least some representation in either a vendor or an event. World War II remains a popular topic, as we saw several tables playing Flames of War (on some giant maps). And there were at least two different old school WWII wargames. Warhammer 40,000 was represented (a little), and Warmachine and Hordes had an entire room to themselves. I was very pleased to see the Kansas City Produced Freeblades with a big presence.
The vendors who were present at the show were a mix of local stores and collectors who’d put together a variety of resources for the Wargame enthusiast. Scales ranged from 15mm science fiction models from Micropanzer to the larger scales expected from Bolt Action, and a couple of uniquely sized games. If you were looking for historical minis you could do a lot worse than catching one of these events and taking a hard look. In addition to the Wargamer vendors, several stores were catering to a larger board and rpg crowd, and i was pleased to find books i’d read as a high school student sitting next to the new Starfinder book from Paizo.
We managed to get a demo at the Warlord Games table on a game that caught both of our eyes, and we’re basically hooked. Test of Honour (and expect a boxload of articles to rain down about it) is a historical skirmish game set in feudal Japan. With quick playing rules, a small army size, and dynamic action, it’s one of the first miniatures games i’ve picked up and thought, yeah, i could very easily play this game once a day without the game becoming a chore. Like i said, we’ll get to some detailed writeups on that later in the week, but I bought a starter set and a Samurai Warband for it and still don’t feel bad about the price i paid.
The convention was busy, and that’s always a good thing. I am always fascinated by the age gap in Wargamers, and i wasn’t surprised to see the legion of Greybeards (a term i use with love and respect, because someday i will be a Greybeard). The mass of high school/early college age kids was a bit of surprise, but not an unwelcome one. The community seemed healthy on the first look, and i am always happy to see growth.
Overall, I had a lot of fun at this convention (The Wook had an equally good time, I haven’t had him ask me to try a demo again in quite a while, and he was all about getting in another round of Test of Honour). It’s close enough to home base that it’s an easy drive, and Lee’s Summit has a lot of things going for it as a venue to host a convention. Again, a huge shout out to the OSG and Lee’s Summit High School for putting on this event, and we may have to try and get back again next year. Like i said, we’ll have a picture gallery soon from our coverage of the event, and we’ll go into a deeper dive on Test of Honour later in the week. For those of you who want to take a closer look at the event, the site is here. Check them out, and if you’re close enough, think about popping up the next time there’s an event. Happy Gaming, and Game On, Game Fans.
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