The crisp fall air begins to creep in, the gardens of Maryland are producing their final harvests, and the leaves are just beginning to turn. This is when the gamers of Maryland congregate for that most sacred ritual – UnionCon!
Run by the UnionGang, this was the second (hopefully annual) UnionCon on the books. What is UnionCon, you ask? Why, it is simply a gathering of like-minded radical folks, looking to play some smaller indie games brought to life on amazing boards hosted by incredible GMs. The emphasis is on cool scenarios, great narratives, tiny corners of history, and weirdo games. Bringing together the best and brightest gamers on the mid-atlantic seaboard, this is the finest miniature wargaming convention the town of Brookeville Maryland has ever seen! But I come to bury UnionCon, not praise it!
This was organized by the Union Gang club under the auspices of the great shadow-lord Broheim. A labor of love and love letter to old and new-school wargaming, the event brought together about 80-100 people over two days at the historic Brookeville Academy. The highlight was over 20 hosted games, run by dedicated GMs, who typically provided everything needed- just add players! I love the style of hosted narrative wargaming- it is becoming (along with display painting) the thing I find most exciting about the hobby. While ubiquitous at historical events, it is lesser known in other communities!
Brookeville Maryland is perhaps best known for the historic Brookeville Academy, an old school and tavern that briefly served as the capital of the United States for one night when James Madison fled D.C. as it was burned in 1812.
Everyone pitched in from the gang, running stickers, bringing things for the cool swap table, and especially making sandwiches! Huge thanks to the Uniongang Sandwich Robots who kept the con running! Next year, hopefully they get more donations to buy oil and critical supplies.
There was also an amazing swap table, fueled by people’s individual collections, but mostly driven by Nate, who had an incredible gaggle of oldhammer stuff, including several old blood bowl editions and two Second Edition 40k boxed sets. I got a cool old dragon and a couple of old cyberpunk RPGs off him!
Also, the amazing @draugr._ was present with his awesome retro 40k art! I picked up some prints and zines that were super rad!
But the true spirit of Unioncon is neither sandwiches nor secondhand RPG books, but awesome oldhammer, historical, and weirdo games hosted by passionate GMs. And over two days, with a morning and afternoon session, the GMs delivered just that! I’ve already discussed the games I helped host, but I wanted to highlight some awesome work by others!
So I’ll try to highlight some amazing games here- I played in some of these, spectated in some! This is neither comprehensive nor the ‘best’ – simply the amazing ones I happened upon! In that sense, it is perhaps reflective of the experience of an attendee.
The Firelock 198x team was here with their incredible art and well-developed alternative reality cold war game: https://drekfortmdc.itch.io/firelock-198x-09-public It looked awesome, like their video game brought to life! I didn’t get to play but heard it was a blast.
The amazing James B brought a fantastic Man O’ War set for 6 players that I got to jump in on! Finally crossed that off the list! I took the Imperial Forces, exchanging fire with the Chaos cultists. Eventually my greatship was crippled, unable to move, shoot, and on fire, but still afloat! This was great fun and inspired me to do some DIY fantasy ships!
Pierce was running his exquisite Sino-Japanese war board again, simulating a small part of the Battle of Shanghai. Nationalist Chinese and Japanese forces fought it out on this incredible street, complete with banners and posters on the wall!
There was also a very cool late WWI French versus German Battle on an incredible, muddy trench board!
@anger_worm was also premiering a cool new Cyberpunk skirmish game called NetJammer- he ran many rounds of it and got some great feedback. It has some really cool mechanics and encourages kitbashed crews- hope to see it again!
Speaking of premiers, the super talented painter, miniaturist, and game designer @dungeon_buddy was here premiering Wings of Woe – a dark fantasy game where teams of Fairy gladiators are forced to battle for the amusement of the Archefey! He’s combining incredible art and mechanics together into a compelling world. Really loved to see this new game here as well!
Conan the Destroyer came and hosted a game of Baron’s War as well with a beautiful set of minis, with a strong focus on eastern Europe and Poland. I heard this was great fun, and it was sure awesome to look at!
And it wouldn’t be a Unioncon without a grot revolution game! Jerz hosted not 1, but two games of Grots vs Orks!
There was also an incredible city board of Polyversal, where rampaging AI troops were stopped by the combined UN forces.
Visiting from LWTV, we also had Dave running an amazing Starship Troopers game- I got to play this a couple weeks later on a visit to their club! This is an absolute blast, fast paced and fun!
And with that, Unioncon is a wrap! Hopefully that gives an overview of the variety of awesome games the GMs brought- a huge thanks to them an all the players! Next time, I hope to be more comprehensive, but this is certainly a good sampling of what to expect! Here’s hoping we’re able to do this again.
-BS