Battleground Stockton Gaming Show - and More Local Heroes

Last year I posted about meeting Andy Callan at our local wargames show (Battleground) and how, indirectly he was probably responsible for me staying in "the hobby" in my youth. Side note. Battleground is a bit strange as a show because it is free to enter and attracts a lot of families. Sure there are the usual crop of crusty sandal wearing wargamers, but also some really interesting talks and of course, the infamous "Cake Wars" game, where you get to eat what you kill :-). 

I was doing a demo session for Blood Red Skies and found three of my four sessions were Dads and Sons - the kids always won :-)

A year on and it happened again (no not Andy Callan) but someone else who had a big impact on my hobby was at Battleground this year, Mr David Clement. 

Actually it only really dawned on me when chatting to him why this was. 

Back in the early 80s when I was just a neophyte gamer things were very different. We had no internet, and indeed no dedicated magazines - wargaming was an adjunct to modelling and appeared on and off in magazines such as Airfix and Military Modelling. There were no retail stores, GW was embryonic. The only way to learn about new games and models was therefore in the irregular articles in magazines or at locally organised shows, and there were several in the local area, but the first I remember attending, and most easily accessible to me as a youth relying on public transport was "Models, Wargames and Board games" in Stockton, and David was one of the two organisers along with his friend Tom Davidson. 

The show was held in a rather small hall venue (Corporation Hall - now demolished). 

I remember the first time I attended - you had to go down a few steps to the hall floor and there, crowded in, were what I thought were dozens of trade stands and games. Actually I suspect there were rather less than a dozen, and like the magazines we read, the show was part modelling and part wargaming, but I was hooked. Here was a window into new games, new products, new ideas.

I pinched this pic from a Facebook post David made

David and Tom continued to organise local shows for over a decade, and without them, the current Battleground show, the spiritual if not actual successor probably would not have existed.  The current show is organised by the fine chaps at Pendraken Miniatures btw - and what a good job they do.

So having the chance to sit down and chat with David at Battleground was quite interesting. We chatted about the old show, Blood Red Skies, model ships and "stuff" and on reflection I realised that David and Tom's work in organising their little show was another big influence on my gaming habits.

David - he beat me too :-)

Tom has passed away, and I think David would not mind me saying his health is now not great, but he says he still enjoys his games and is looking forward to playing some more BRS. 

Battleground Stockton is a great show well worth a visit for hobbyists, families or just the curious. Give it a try next year!

  

Meeting one of my Wargaming Heroes

The highlight for me of the Battleground Show was meeting one of my wargaming heroes. As I've got older I've had the chance of meeting and on occasion working with (ok holding their pens) some wargaming folks who have made a mark on the hobby. The Fire and Fury guys, Dave Manly (Mr Naval Wargaming), Roger Gerrish and Andy Chambers (he prefers Evil Overfiend) to name drop a few.  

However I ran into this nice chap at Stockton and he was wearing a badge saying "Andy Callan". 

"Are you the real Andy Callan" says I - "you know, Loose Files and American Scramble Andy Callan?"

and it was. 

And I was very happy to meet him because I think he saved my wargaming life. Back in the late 1980s,  (September 1987 to be precise), Wargames Illustrated issue 1 was published, including a set of fast play American War of Independence rules called "Loose Files & American Scramble". At the time I was just out of University and living "Dahn Sarth" selling computers and software to Yuppies (look it up if you're younger than 50) and picked it up. I lost my job a little later and decided to come home "Up North" for a couple of weeks to catch up with friends and family (pre mobile phone & internet days) and then head back down to find another job.  Sadly my Mum's cooking and home life was far too attractive and decided to look for a job here, in the middle of one of the worse unemployment black spots in the nation during a depression (Doh!). I was broke, on my arse and without two quid to rub together. I really couldn't afford to spend my few ££ on toys and my gaming life was looking threatened. Then I remembered the WI and that set of rules. I managed to get a lift through with my mate Steve Irvin to Irregular Miniatures, who at the time were operating out of a series of ramshackle sheds in darkest Yorkshire. Armed with a tenner I had hoarded from my "Dole" and assisted by Ian Kay's generous throwing in of some freebies I managed to get enough 6mm AWI figures to field two small forces for both sides. I diligently painted them up, and they became my staple game army for the following months. Without them, I think I may have drifted out of wargaming. True story that. Thanks Andy!

Interesting fact  "Loose Files and American Scramble" is the only piece to be repeated in Wargames Illustrated, once in issue 1, and again in a later edition. They're an interesting, fast and dirty AWI set of rules with the added advantage of being fun. They look good in 6mm and thinking about it, if Warlord ever do AWI in "Epic" scale they would look even better. Hmmm  

Anyway I bought a copy of his new rules "Never Mind The Billhooks" which I hop to get on the table in the new year.

Cheers!

Show report - Border Reiver, Gateshead

There has been a couple of wargames shows cancelled over the last year - Derby being the latest, although given how piss poor it was in 2017 that's no surprise. Triples also seems to have breathed its last. That means in the North we are losing opportunities to wander around and look at the toys in person rather than on line. I'm a bit saddened by this.

With that in mind I decided it may be worth while to have a run up to Gateshead for the Border Reiver show held at the Gateshead International Stadium yesterday.

Border Reiver this year was not bad at all. There was a fairly upbeat feeling in the room, and footfall on the morning seemed quite reasonable. There were some traders - Warlord being the most noteworthy, but most of the rest were fairly local rather than "national" and as a result at least for me the choice was not great - in fact I only had 2 definite items on my shopping list, and I managed to find neither - though one trader has kindly agreed to forward one item post free - which was very welcome. The two biggest "misses" on the trade side were Old Glory, and Dave Thomas. I think OG had decided to stay away due to previous poor customer turn out. Dave Thomas has decided that after years of trading at just about every show in the land, it was time to put up his feet and enjoy the weekends. Gateshead was the first show I have attended where he was a regular, and I have to say he was missed. I doubt he will read this, but just in case can I say "Thanks" for the years of service and chats up and down the country - first rate gang and I suspect a big set of boots to fill.

DTs stall at a previous show

I would stress the show overall was quite good - well organised and a good venue, so hopefully they can grow and maybe attract more gamers and traders next year.  

Spring is here! April excitement, Salute, plans and plots

April in the UK is great. Spring is here, beautiful crisp sunny mornings (between about 9.02 and 9:30 am), flowers appear, lots of daffodils, and for the wargaming community, we all come out of hibernation to sniff the fresh air, soak up the sunshine, and for Salute, this year held on April 14th at the ExCel.

Salute remains wargamings big UK event. VERY big. I've a love\hate relationship with Salute. In the past I've had a mixed day at Salute - sometimes it can be overwhelming and for me it is a long haul - 260 miles each way and no change out of 4 and a half hours drive, plus another hour in the queue. I've been a couple of times by train and last year the luxury of a car share where I got to be the passenger all the way both ways. This year I'm "designated driver" but we've wangled some accommodation so the cunning plan is to cruise down Friday then Tube \ DLR to the ExCel. It can be a pain getting in but once you get in however, well, you get to feel the love :-).

This year I'm helping demo Dropfleet Commander at the TT Combat DZC pitch, alongside Emily K who is demoing Dropzone Commander. I'm looking forward to this as it will be the first chance to meet the new TT Combat DZC\DFC team and chat about "the future" after they took over Hawk Wargames. Additionally there will be the "show specials" available, plus hopefully the new Dropfleet Destroyers on sale for the first time. That could be expensive :-(

But there's more! Rather a lot of companies use Salute as a showcase and launch games to coincide. This year there are two games I am really looking forward to playing -  "What a Tanker" from Two Fat Lardies, and (no surprise) Blood Red Skies from Warlord Games. WAT has a release date of 9th April but Rich (the Lard Meister) is running a "rolling" demo game where you can just turn up, drive a tank around to get a feel for the game mechanics, have fun, then probably blow up!

Blood Red Skies isn't due for release until mid May but customers who pre ordered (err me !) will get theirs a month before or can arrange to pick up at Salute - there's a link here if you want to do that - and if you have not pre ordered if you are quick you may still get one. Warlord are planning to have a limited supply available at Salute, and they're running a stunning demo with a 1:200 scale attack on the USS Hornet which should be spectacular.

And then there's the other stuff that you just run across when you are wandering (assuming I can escape the stand for a while).

So it is looking like a rather busy April, and I'm really looking forward to these new games landing.

On the subject of Sporing and Spring Cleaning I've done a bit of tidying up here on the Blog, a couple of layout changes, and importantly a nice, shiny new "follow" button which for some reason (probably my incomprehension) should have been there all along but wasn't. It's over here somewhere near the top ================================>>>>>>>>>
Please click it - not only will you get notifications on any updates here but you will also (probably) get a nice warm feeling from knowing you are making a curmudgeonly old gamer a bit happier. Thanks :-)

Battleground 2017 - pleasantly surprised

It's all been a bit "doom & gloom" at Chez Renko in relation to conventions recently. Derby was "sub optimal" and our local show "Battleground 2017" has been a bit "meh" - not actually bad but it felt lacking in both footfall and major traders. Combined with the fact this happens on the Black Friday \ Cyber Monday weekend I was not expecting much this year but...

I was pleasantly surprised. The venue and organisation are excellent - due no doubt to the diligence and hard work of Leon Pengilly (from Pendraken\Minibits) who does the organising and associated donkey work that goes on behind the scenes. The venue is at Queens Campus Stockton, which is certainly a bit "out of the way" but nothing as rural as Derby, and here there was plenty of free parking and entry was also free.

Obviously the show was much smaller than Derby too, and there weres no competition games, but there were plenty of traders including Dave T and Warlord, plus some of the more locals - particularly worth a mention was Cozzmic Cakes who do, well, cakes. OK not something you would normally expect at a games convention but they are very nice cakes and available with a geeky slant if required. There was also a busy "table sale" area. I tend to be not too keen on this idea, where punters hire a table for an hour to sell their wares, as I prefer a bring and buy where you can make one sweep and see everything on sale, whereas a table sale means you have to call over every hour or so just to check on the rotation, but this one seemed to be busy and popular so what do I know?  One definite bonus was there was plenty of room to circulate with none of the crush we got at Derby.

Lastly there were a good number of demo games. None were what you would call Salute level showstoppers, but all were solid and interesting.

Crucially footfall seemed to be up this year - in fact most stalls seemed positively busy up to 2pm when I had to head off to another appointment, and in my usual round pressing the flesh and chatting most traders seemed upbeat on the whole.

So well done to Leon and his team. I'll finish up with some pics of just some of the demo games, including the popular Cozzmic Cakes "Imperial Knights vs Cup Cakes" (I kid you not). Looking forward to next year.

 

And for completeness I suppose I should mention - Hussites and Derby

Given the earlier post about the Hussites I think it only fair to report on the result of the Impetus Competition and our trip to Derby for Derby World Wargames, which actually happens now in a large shed on Donnington Park. I should apologise for the pics - I'm rubbish with the camera on my phone and was really concentrating on other "stuff" for the most part to take coherent pics..

 The venue moved from the University to Donnington Park a couple of years ago and it is a bit of a mixed blessing. It certainly has more room, and everything is under one roof, but the noise level is high and the other facilities not that great. On the other hand the traders love the easy access and there is plenty of parking. It was as always well organised by the Derby Club, who have plenty of experience at this sort of thing so it runs like a Swiss watch.

The Impetus competition is a small and friendly affair - this year only eight players which put us rather embarrassingly less than the number playing WRG 6th.  It was an open format with the following armies present

Hussite, Chosun Korean, War of the Roses Lancastrian, Thracian, Italian Coalition, Parthian , Carthaginian and last but not least British & Welsh Kingdoms. 

My first round game was against the damned Italians. It was a close run thing, with the Hussites deploying badly and spending the first few turns getting their cavalry back inside the protection of the wagons, then trying a complicated wheeling to get out again. It wasn't quite shambolic but it took time - not helped by one of the generals having a crisis of confident and dropping from Poor to Incompetent. In spite of this I did succeed in turning the Italian flank and it was looking as though I may get a win but we ran out of time, resulting an a low scoring draw. As always the wagons did their thing and anchored the whole army.

Second game was against the Lancastrians. This time I decided to flank march my cavalry with the intention of falling on his exposed flank. This worked, but instead of arriving mid game when the opposition would be strung  out and disordered, they arrived on turn one to find the opposition waiting in their deployment zone. On they charged anyway, to be met by a resounding check all along the front - this shouldn't have happened, and the result was a third of my army was pinned in a corner outnumbered and too far away to be supported. In the end they broke, taking a significant proportion of the opposition with them. Both sides glared at each other, then offered a draw as he had no intention of trying his already battered army against the wall of wagons, and I couldn't launch a credible attack. Another low scoring draw :-(

Last game was against Parthians. This was a beautiful army but totally ill equipped to deal with Hussites. To be fair they did their best, attacking the Hussite cavalry that refused to move far from the  protecting fire from the wagons, `and in the end this was the deciding factor, leaving me with a win that looked a lot better on paper than in reality.

Overall I finished in a creditable second place, and a lot of fun was had. In my incompetence I seem not to have a good pic of armies before we started, however here are a couple of shots snapped between turns of the others.

Other stuff - spending was fairly limited - for reasons I bought some more Hussites (can't resist a Hussite)  and some Pig Iron miniatures Colony Militia, which hopefully will get converted into Serenity\Firefly Browncoats at a later date, plus some interesting fantasy character figures.

The demo games were of typically high standard and almost too many to mention, however mention must be made of the near legendary Sir Rich of Lard Island who was demo'ing Sharp Practice 2

and nearby was more SP2 - this time a Retreat From Moscow

and a final mention should go to the lads of Daruma who were showing off their SLA Industries :Cannibal Sector skirmish game. This looks very much like the one that got away, ie something I would really like to try but know I can't give enough time \ money to. Which is a genuine shame.

So that's my belated roundup of our trip to Derby!

Dropfleet Commander Pre-Launch – Firestorm Games Cardiff 20th August

I arrived home just before Midnight having driven back from Cardiff (OK shared the drive -Paul & I took turns). This morning having had a night to think over the event, here’s my impressions. I should add I was there as a Talon – i.e. a Hawk Wargames volunteer and I was running a couple of demonstration games of Dropfleet using the Beta \ Admiral set of rules. 

The original plan was that this event would have been preceded by the Kickstarter release of Dropfleet Commander, so the public could have attended with their own fleets to take part. Due to some delays with the Kickstarter Hawk obviously thought it was necessary to change the format to more demo and painting tutorials.

I had volunteered rather rashly – we faced a five to six hour drive to Cardiff on a good day, and in the event the trip down from ‘t North was far from good – seven and a half hours in total to reach the venue. We arrived around six on Friday evening and had a good look around. I have to say we were impressed. I had attended an event several years ago in the old venue, but the new one is a quantum leap forward – massive gaming area, great facilities. Shortly after we arrived the Hawk team also came in, and we volunteered to help set up. That proved a mixed blessing as it took some time but I also got the chance to get the demo briefing so saved myself half an hour for tomorrow so we planned to have a “proper” breakfast rather than rush down to Firestorm. It was also great to catch up with some of the older Hawk hands such as Louis (fine chap) and also meet the new members of the team – particularly Liam who is now handling the Talon program.

Next morning started badly - the promised cooked breakfast at the pub was not to be as there was a power cut - so we ended up with a less than satisfying one at McDonalds. 

Arriving back at Firestorm everything went very smoothly, and it was clear to me that the Hawk Team have massively upped their game as far as organisation went. Hawk have always been good with the imagery and their presentation material, painted models, cabinets, banners etc. have always been first class, but in the past their organisation and engagement has sometimes been patchy as they were sometimes swamped by not having enough warm bodies to cover the conflicting demands on their time. This was very different. There were plenty of bodies available, and the briefing and general organisation (by James) was pretty damned impressive – dare I say professional. The demo games were tight and universally well received, and the painting and modelling sessions busy and fun. Dave Lewis gave a very good Q&A session on where they were with the game and dropped some big hints about the future direction of both DFC and DZC. The last part of the day was going to be a massive public participation game of both systems, with Dropfleet action affecting the Dropzone game, but mindful of the long drive home we left a little early, so I can’t say how everything went after that – well apparently from other reports. Sadly I was so busy I only got a chance to take a few pictures.

Was there a downside? Clearly the implications of the delay in the Kickstarter meant this was not the event originally envisaged, and the admirable insistence that no retail stock would be released before the KS backers got their pledges fulfilled meant there was no sales, however everyone was rewarded with a Frigate sprue and also anyone pre ordering more than £75 of Dropfleet through Firestorm got a Cruiser sprue as well. Firestorm Games was superb, but it did highlight the need for a similar venue more centrally located.

Final impressions. Dropfleet is going to be a winner. The rules are solid, gameplay interesting and the models beautiful. More than that, I got the impression that Hawk Wargames has finally steadied itself and grown into something more than Dave and his friends trying valiantly to cope with the runaway success that was DZC. They now have an organisation that has the capacity to deliver the product without the problems of the past, and plans and capacity to support it in games stores and clubs. Looking good for the future.

When I first joined the wargames club - 28mm Ancients

When I first joined the wargames club back in the Second Sheet Metal Age, when God's Dog was still a puppy, White Dwarf was in single figures and all that, there was really only one big game, the one that showed you were a serious wargamer - 25mm Ancients using WRG 5th or 6th Edition.

The armies were big and quite expensive, but the biggest and most obvious sign that you played was the big metal cantilever toolbox universally used to haul your troops around - like this, but bigger.

When full of 25mm white metal figures these weighed a ton, and you had to seriously weigh up (literally in some cases) the desirability of adding that unit of Hoplites to the army with the possibility of getting a hernia. This was particularly the case at the Hartlepool club where the games rooms were on the top floor and only accessible by a series of about a hundred narrow stairs.

Things have changed now of course. The arrival of cheap plastic figures from Perrys, Gripping Beast,  Wargames Factory, Warlord Games, Conquest, Agema and Victrix have made 28mm (scale creep) ancients gaming both cheap and portable.

So yesterday we had a great time playing Impetus at Waugh Games - half a dozen like minded souls just having a good time doing ancients like the old days. We had six players and a good selection of armies - A Republican Roman, Early Imperial Roman, Ancient Brit, Carthaginian, Selucid, and Mongol (there's always one)! We were playing 350 points which is the current competition standard. One interesting point was just how small the two Roman armies were - probably because they both went for a lot of A class legionary units.

So here in no particular order is some pics I shot between moves

Selucids vs ABs

ABs lining up

"The important thing about a pike is the unpleasant stuff happens a long way away" Selucid Pikemen ready to roll

Meanwhile the ABs camp is full of the usual pre fight activity

Mongols vs Republican Romans

OK there are not many of us but we are A Class and rock hard - and also very pretty - Republican Romans

Early Imperials advance against Carthaginians

Hanibal and his lads get stuck in - this ended badly for the EIR Auxilia

Oh look, bloody Mongols outflanking AGAIN

Selucids bracing for impact

EIRs doing the grinding thing they do so well

Republicans bouncing Mongols (the suspicious Cav on the end is a proxy Mongol)

and now the Mongols are in the rear - AGAIN

Crunch

Sometimes having the longest stick is worth it

More bouncing Mongols

Selucids vs Republicans

EIRs and ABs

A road? Mongols try to get even farther onto the Carthaginian flank

EIRs grind towards the ABs

Selucid vs Republican Romans

EIRs vs ABs

EIR setup vs Carthaginians

Proper wargaming :-)

and here is an interesting thought - most of this was plastic, with the odd metal figure in there. You could probably buy a 350 point army using plastics for £60-£80. That's brilliant