A very few pics from Wappinshaw

I don't think I've ever been busier at a wargames show than I was yesterday! Had to set up a huge game on my own and manage it for the day. Normally I take 300+ pics at a show - and display the best 50-100 on this blog, as per the post from Carronade last month: Carronade Pics

Yesterday though, I had just ten minutes [usually I take 90+] to scoot round the hall to take some pics. Only took 50, and rushing is not conducive to considered and pleasing piccies AND quite a few of those were of the game I was running. So, below we have a very few pics of some of the games - my policy being that if I don't have a good pic doing justice, I don't share it. Outline report of my day at the show also below.

Gourock were running a 15mm ACW game - Shiloh.

The mysterious Glasgow Wargames Club [one of four in the city] were playing Full Thrust, a game nearing 25 years in age? The explosions were pompoms I think.

One of the participation games this year was by Kirriemuir, who travelled to the Crimea to bring a recreation of the Charge of the Light Brigade. 

The measuring sticks for the 600 seem rather short to me!

My pics for the AVBCW game by GDWS are pish, alas. They were using Bolt Action - after my first game of that I was struck by how it could very easily be used for small to medium AVBCW games and this team proved it. Their model of the People's Palace had interior decorating.

G3 were running games of their self-created Xtreme-G racing on a highly attractive circuit.

Bathgate brought THEM! This is a public participation game based on the 50's film. Great fun had by all who played it.

Flames of War is of course a widely known and played game. Nevertheless, many people still haven't tried it, and perhaps its ubiquity makes it challenging to start with? Using a simple/clean layout and small intro forces to teach the rules, an official FoW Ranger took pairs of new players through the system.

The day before the show, we found out that SESWC were planning to do a Normandy 1944 game using US Airborne and the [still unpublished] Chain of Command Rules from TFL. The Phoenix Club were going to use the same context using Bolt Action. Rather than cramp their style [the games were next-door neighbours in the hall], it seemed polite to throw something else together at the last minute - hence we switched to our Napoleonic game.

SESWC got through 5 games in the day - impressive.

Our other neighbour for the day was Dumbarton, who were playing Warhammer in a game emphasising the larger and more spectacular models for Elves and Ogres. Alas, my pictures for them were double-pish.

Slightly embarrassingly, a generous portion of the decent pics I took were of the game I was hosting on behalf of the Glasgow Phoenix club. I put this down to having plenty of time once the hectic setup was done - with 5 minutes to spare before the show opened. The rush left the French CinC in the midst of the Allied lines for the first two hours until I noticed where I'd left him!

Below - the massed lines of two armies. There is one further allied division on the far side of the town.

...and from the opposite corner. Three years painting on one 17x6 table.

As you may have observed from many of the pics I take at shows, as well as appreciating the spectacle and grandeur of a lovely game, I also enjoy the little details and/or jokes that appear. In a bid to be able to do this here in this game, I've 'won' a few vignettes via eBay.

This game was a hypothetical scenario of a Peninsula encounter between Wellington and Portuguese and Spanish allies on the one hand, and French supported by a mixed German division on the other.

Thanks to everyone who dropped by to chat. I hope you enjoyed the show.
My overall impression of the day is how quickly it went. Arriving just after 0800 there was a very short wait and something of a queue for traders until the venue representative opened up, but the Phoenix Club had enough manpower to assist getting traders and gamers into the hall in good time. Takedown likewise was efficiently done in less than an hour and business on the bring and buy looked brisk.

Personal financial damage was light [for a change]. I took advantage of having Warlord as a neighbour and snaffled a copy of the 100 Days supplement for Black Powder.

My thanks to the punters, gamers and traders who came to the show to make the day what it was. We're still developing, but I hope those who remember the show just three years ago will recognise how far we have come.

M.