Margot and I took a trip to this ADAMCON last weekend, and had a fantastic time. Adamcon is a small, private con that is expertly run by renowned Diplomacy champion Adam Siegel. We attended two years ago and had a great time. This year the con ran so well I now consider Adamcon 2015 the standard for a well-run small gaming convention.

A few of the great things about this year's Adamcon:

GREAT location. Taking place at an rustic resort in upstate NY, this year's convention was well worth the drive. The whole surrounding area was fantastic, there was a nice little town a few miles away where it was easy to wake up early and get some writing done over breakfast. The resort was perfect for gaming, with a big hall for everyone to gather in and lots of small secluded places to get quieter games in. There were a plethora of outside activities available, lawn games, an organized hike, a 5k run, and a paintball excursion. It was just so pretty there you could just sit outside and do nothing, I a sizable contingent was content to just drink by the firepit for

Tons of gaming, and a huge selection of available games. There was a spreadsheet of game requests and I managed to fill a ton of them from the STRATEGICALLY CORRECT library. It was pretty easy to find a group of people for anything, and there was a Tichu tournament and a MTG cube draft. The place wasn't too crowded either, it hit just the right note of enough people to get games going for any complexity (There were people playing Antiquity not too far from Suburbia) with minimal downtime.

Great food. There was a two person chef team preparing meals for the whole con, and they did a fantastic job. They served a chipotle-crusted salmon that was probably the best salmon dish I've had all year, marinated steak, seared tuna, and a good assortment of stuff for people with nonsensical vegan diets.

Great organization. Every single step or the way was meticulously planned, laid out in a big spreadsheet, and perfectly executed. Everything you needed to know was available, and we had lots of advance notice of everything.

Good people. Just a ton of really smart, competitive people having a blast. I don't think I had a single negative experience there, other than losing at Avalon because Merlin is bullshit.

VICTORY. I won our traditional yearly game of Lords of Vegas through a series of shady real estate deals. Even still, it came right down to the wire, with three of my dice locked in a drab and hopeless casino. One more turn could have ruined me.

All told, it was easily my favorite convention this year. Up next on my schedule are Readercon, Gencon, and Essen Spiel.

TOP GAMES I SAW PLAYED

LOTS of Ludwig and Suburbia
The Resistance
BSG
Antiquity (at least twice)
Twilight Struggle
Lords of Vegas
XCOM