Today I spent a fair amount of time travelling too and from
The English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, and in between had an excellent
time at the annual Tripples wargaming convention. Its over 2 years since I last went to one,
and that was in York where I spent most of my time playing FOW instead, and
this time round was no disappointment.
Truly a joy for anyone into historical wargaming, and not half bad for
those into fantasy either! Hoping into a
car with Michael at 7:30am we headed for Frodsham to pick Aidan up, sadly
lacking Red – MIA due to work commitments, and we arrived back in
Cheshire/North Wales around 7pm.
The traders list was a very complete one, with plenty in all
shapes and sizes, Flames of War, Warlord games stuff and GW bits all
represented, plus all manner of other manufacturers including Essex, Dixon,
Plastic Soldier Company, 1st Corp, Kalistra, Fieldworks and the
Wargames Emporium. Even spotted one of
the Perrys and Paul Sawyer at the Perrys stand.
There was even 2 Darleks (life-sized and active) and several Doctor Who’s
at the entrance.
There was also a fair number of demo and participation games,
covering a wide range of scales and periods, with some fantasy (a Gothic style
one was one of the best looking).
Spotting a Kursk-based 28mm game early on I did something I haven’t
before and joined in. It was a massive
battlefield, and looked ace, the T-34’s and SU85s from 1st Corp were
particularly nice, and the overall aim was to reach the far end with some of
your troops by turn 10. The rules were
based on Blitzkrieg Commander, and it ran very smoothly and I enjoyed myself
enough to be thinking of buying tanks, men and rules by the end! Plus two of my three T34’s made it past 2
PaK40’s and a dug in 88 to reach the end and gain me a prize of a blister of 8 28mm
Germans. Good stuff.
In the afternoon Aidan involved us in a large Doctor Who
game, which lasted a fair bit longer. It
was good, but a bit tedious for me because my characters spent most of their
time doing not a lot until a big melee in the end, and to be honest I’ve still
little idea how it ended or what happened apart from lots of aliens turning up
and Aidan winning by default.
On to purchases, and with so much on offer I could have
spent a fortune, especially on scenery, some amazing resin city bits which
would have made a great 15mm Stalingrad!
In the end I was exceptionally restrained, and only the below list made
it back to the car:
- 5 x Vallejo paints
- 1 x Army Painter Spray
- A box of Perrys Wars of the Roses infantry
- A couple of packs of Gabions (ironworks I think)
- A load of stamina and disorder markers for Hail Caesar and Blackpowder
- A couple of extra figures in comfort foam trays for my FOW infantry and tanks
Added to the cost of getting into the show (£5 this time)and
petrol costs (far too generous Michael!) a total cost of £67.35 for the day,
less than my two companions who both picked up various bits and pieces and
bargains.
Other than that general comments would note we took food
rather than buy, we watched Doctor Who win a 50 metre sprint against 2 Darleks,
and had a very good time. Reds
observations that it is lacking something in atmosphere compared to the
previous University venue is right I feel, although not disastrously so. The reason for the change would appear to be
forced by the University no longer allowing external groups to book its
space. The bring and buy (apart from
Aidans star purchase of musketeers) was a bit quiet, and the competition space
was shoved off to one side and didn’t look a fun place to be, but the rest was
excellent. I took a few pictures, but
their on my phone so I’ll put them up on here when I get chance another day.
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