NashConis an annual miniatures wargaming convention in Nashville, Tennessee, organized by HMGS-MidSouth. It focuses heavily on historical tabletop wargames but also includes fantasy, sci-fi, and skirmish systems. Here is a quick report on the convention and the Blood & Plunder and Port Royal events our crew hosted at the Nashcon 2025.
About The Nashcon Wargaming Convention
NashCon is run by the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society – Mid-South. While it doesn’t reach the massive scale of GenCon, Adepticon, or Historicon, it is one of the larger historical miniatures gaming conventions in the southeastern United States. Held each August in Nashville, Tennessee, it offers a variety of tournaments, large battles, and demo events across a wide range of periods and systems. Average attendance is around 700-800 people.
The convention is held at the Sheraton Music City Hotel adjacent to the Nashville Airport Hotel. The venue is comfortable and conveniently located near the airport, making it accessible for travelers flying in. The con has continued to grow year over year and is beginning to push the venue to its maximum capacity for gaming tables and events.
Most events are held at 8×6 tables in one main large room, with the vendors set up on the outer walls of the main hall. Additionally, smaller conference and meeting rooms are scattered throughout the hotel’s convention center.
Nashcon Scheduling Setup
The schedule is extremely uniform, with events divided into three 4-hour time slots on Friday and Saturday and a single 9-1 pm slot on Sunday. That is one area where the convention could improve. A fixed slot of 4 hours is difficult to work with as a game organizer. Having it set up in 1-hour blocks and allowing events to span multiple slots would be much preferred. It would allow more throughput on events and more opportunities for players to participate in multiple game systems rather than being locked into a single long game. I feel like this is a byproduct of the con originating as a “historical game convention,” where games are much longer than many modern games.
Photo of the Nashcon vendor haul and Age of Sigmar tournaments by Andy Cowell
How much is Nashcon?
One day passes are $30
Weekend Passes are $45
$5 discount for all HGMS members
Registering for tournament events is “weird” at Nashcon. If you preregister for a Tournament, you get a free weekend pass. But at first glance, the tournament price looks higher than it should be. It’s essentially $5 for the tournament, and you get a free badge… if you come for the weekend.
Standard events are typically free with entry passes.
A double queen hotel room is $199.81 per night after taxes/fees.
Food & Drink Options for Nashcon
The food situation at the hotel is ok, but not great. The hotel provides a hot lunch/dinner that varies per day with stuff like hamburgers, turkey sandwiches, wraps, tacos, runs about $10-20 depending on your choices and drink selection.
The hotel is in a business district, so there are several restaurants within a 2-3 mile drive.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much within walking distance (< 1 mi).
The hotel has a full bar, and alcohol is allowed in the game halls.
Blood & Plunder Events at Nashcon 2025
I (Jason Klotz) set up and scheduled multiple events for the con. Garrett came up from Chattanooga and helped out with setup/tear down, and helped run the narrative event and Gaslands event.
Our Port Royal “Learn to Play” event was a hit. All four tables ran at full capacity, with a waitlist of six more players hoping to join. The terrain definitely helped spark a wave of interest and connection. The room buzzed with excitement as newcomers into the game’s risk-and-reward and reaction mechanics.
At least 2-3 Kickstarter backers attended. They had purchased the game, but had yet to take the time to fully learn the game. They were eager to finally learn the rules and get into the action.
Players lingered after their sessions to learn about the campaign system and find out what it takes to get into the game. With a strong turnout, by the end, at least two starter sets had sold on-site (because they brought them back to show me their newly acquired loot!).
“Flames of Tobago”– Blood & Plunder Narrative / Learn to Play Event
This was the event I was most excited about for the con. I soaked several hours building custom terrain for 2 full 4’x6′ tables for the event. It featured 4 players per table, with 2 playing as Dutch and 2 playing as French on each ttable.
The game was a custom scenario I created, loosely based on historical events from the 1677 Battle of Tobago. Each team had two 2 secret objectives from a list of 10 that added some spice to the game.
Historical Background
In 1677, the Dutch and French were locked in a brutal colonial struggle over the island of Tobago in the Caribbean. The island was torn by conflict multiple times, but in December the French launched a major campaign to seize the Dutch-held colony. The French landed a substantial force and attacked the Dutch fortifications, leading to a destructive battle and began a scorched earth campaign against the rest of the island. This scenario zooms in on a skirmish within that larger conflict, where the Dutch attempt to defend a key sugar plantation and nearby supply outpost from an advancing French landing force coming through the jungle.
Photos from the “Flames of Tobago” Event
Blood & Plunder Sea Tournament
We had 9 players for the sea tournament. The 3 randomly determined scenarios were
Round 1: Chase’s End
Round 2: Encounter w/1 Shoal at the center of the table.
The following were the final rankings for the tournament and their respective lists. NOTE: Players can edit their lists on forcebuilder after submission, at least 1 list has been edited from its original validated version at the time of the tournament.
Here is a collection of photos from the event. Enjoy!
Gaslands: Refueled at Nashcon 2025
I hosted a game of Gaslands: Refueled on Friday Night. Unfortunately, I didn’t take many pictures, but it was an … um… interesting game session. There were some folks at the table who had consumed one too many adult beverages, and it changed the focus of the game and severely slowed progress to the point that we called the event early.
If you haven’t tried Galsands, you should totally try it. It’s a great game with mass chaos. Its rules are light, fast to play, and the minis are simple Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars, so you can get into the game for just a couple of dollars.
Gaslands photo by Andy Cowell
Other Games at Nashcon
There were easily 100+ game events to pick from among around 40-50 different game systems. If you can’t find something to try or enjoy, you are doing something wrong. There are miniature games from all eras in every genre.
TheDiceKeep put together a short video of their photos from the event:
Final Thoughts on Nashcon 2025
I had a great time! I met a lot of great new people, hung out with friends, had a fun time running games, bought more minis and terrain that I don’t really need, and barely slept. Sounds like the perfect gaming convention weekend!
If you’re in the Midwest and enjoy Blood & Plunder, or wargaming in general, you should definitely put Nashcon on your calendar for August of next year. We’d love for you to come play some Blood & Plunder with us!
A big thanks to Garrett for helping out and to all the great players participating in our games. at Nashcon 2025. Hope to see you next year!
