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| Photo 'borrowed' from Battleground's FB page - taken very early |
Being too ill to travel far or wide in the last five or so years has prevented me from attending any of the Battleground shows, but with the help of a friend offering transport, I was finally able to attend this excellent show.
The venue itself I thought was a bit out of the way, but didn't see to affect the numbers attending from what I could tell. We arrived sometime between 10.30am and 11am and left around 1.00pm, with the flow of people seemingly constant. The traders were all busy, but not so much that there were huge queues and there were also adequate spaces between the many games so that it never felt too crowded,
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| Stafford and District 19mm "Oudenard" |
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| Super detail on such small figures |
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| Huge 'poster' - those 28mm's are about 6" tall! |
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| Fictional action somewhere in the Low countries |
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| Beautifully painted 28mms throughout |
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| Imperial v Hungarians 1848 |
Sadly I only these two photographs of the Durham Battle of Schwechat 1848 game - toy soldiers at their best !
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| A Durham Wargames Group 40mms game |
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| These huge 'placeholders' were an excellent addition and a great help |
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| Overall view of the table |
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| Intriguing game, but did seem a bit like re-inventing the wheel |
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| General & Kings AWI Battle of Brandywine 1777 |
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| Great looking game superbly painted minis and... |
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| ...the game seemed to flow very fast too |
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| Tyneside Wargames Group "Fall of Troy" (15mm I think) |
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| Bells of St. Maria - Italian Wars Participation Game |
Those brave enough to have participation games on-going never seemed to
get a break long enough for me to chat to, with a few noticeable
exceptions from those games that had extra manpower.
The games
overall were of a very high standard (unlike my photography) and I
seemed to take hundreds of photos of which about half were 'OK' enough
to use - I did have problems with my camera all day that didn't help with my
usual camera-related incompetence.
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| Stunning 28mm figures and terrain |
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| Lancaster Cellermen 17th C, siege using Spencer Smith figures |
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| Gaming as I remember it - a very nostalgic game for me |
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| View of the siege lines |
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| I couldn't have said it any better... |
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| Andre Wiley's new take on an old theme |
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| New flat-pack houses he transported in a large envelope! |
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| Redcar Ironsides WW2 -part 2 Yanks v Ruskies |
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| I missed what this was all about - unfortunately didn't do anything for me |
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| Independent Wargames Group ACW, using "Picket's Charge Rules |
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| Great looking terrain, figures and vignettes all in 28mm |
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| Durham Wargames Group ACW Battle of Port Republic in 28mm |
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| Great terrain... |
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| ...at both ends of the table |
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| Matt Crump's Assualt on Coastal Battery338 Folkestone |
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| A busy participation game, using Bolt Action rules in 28mm |
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| Brompton Bankers "Ronin" playtest, using 28mm figures, terrain etc. |
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| Great looking game, in all respects |
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| Iacta Alea Est "Battle of the Denmark Straits 1941 - the ships |
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| The table - all very confusing to us landlubbers |
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| Kriegspiel WW1 |
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| 2mm "Irregular" figures |
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| Scarbourgh WW2 participation game |
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| Westerhope Wargames group's "Wellington in India" |
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| Greta terrain and figures, all in 28mm |
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| Great fortress too - I want one! |
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| Nate Zettle's Blood and Plunder participation game |
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| Great Schooner |
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| Old Guard Wargmaes' 10mm ACW |
So that was the 'eye candy' (- or at least what passes for it with my skills). I have photo-shopped the occasional bit in photos to eliminate the usual table clutter (dice, coffee cups, tapes,rules etc,) and in a few instances I've also added more 'table' to fill in otherwise unsightly bits of sports hall!
I'm also sorry that I'm sure that I've missed a few games (the cup-cake game for one!) and there are are no photographs of any traders either, but we all know what the latter look like right ?
I did have a rather modest haul of 10 figures, for Jimland, three buildings for modern games (read Zombie) and a pot of flesh paint, for painting flesh.
To bore you even further here's their photographs:
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| Five explorer types and five Oryx - pretty boring huh ? |
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| Two 'Shotgun' houses and a Diner (& spot the paint pot) |
Sorry for the long photograph heavy post, but you've probably looked through it all in less than five minutes and if you get anything from it, then it's been well worth the four hours or so that it's taken me to put it all together - my longest post ever!
That's it for this week, I've been pretty busy doing a lot of other stuff, so plenty to fill future posts with; thanks once more for taking the time to look and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.
Joe, you've got some good photos in amongst that lot. I never saw most of the games 'in action', so seeing troop movement and firing going on looks great. Have to say my favourite game was the 40mm DWG, closely followed by the Lancaster Cellermen's 30mm Spencer Smith game and the Westerhope Group's Wellington in India (personal preference, no doubt). This show just keeps getting better and better, so you picked the best edition of it to come along to.
ReplyDeleteJoe, I'm collecting 28mm Darkest Africa. Though it is an Arab party, you are still partly to blame! lol.
Just remember, when you need to replace that flesh paint its either the ELVEN or DWARF flesh colours that you want. I know you like those fantasy bits and bobs.
(and I can say that because you can't swear at me - in public - on here!)
DeleteThanks Roy (on most counts), I liked all the games you mentioned (esp. the 7YW seige - having built a similar seti-up myself), but there were a lot of very good-looking games.
DeleteAnd fyi, I already use a very old GW Elven Flesh - but it's almost all gone!
As for Adrica, you thinking of "The Wind and the Lion?", Frech foreign Legion v Riffs (etc.) or slavers et. al? There are a great many possibilities. I'd suggest "The Sword and the Flame" rules for whatever you go for - they're old, but still going strong. (I also have about 3kg of Sudan forces if you're interested -teehee)
Technically the figures are Tauregs, but will probably be used as Swahili Coast Arabs. I'm going to base them individually and as neutral coloured as possible, then they can be used for multiple settings and rules.
DeleteThanks for tour, Zab.
ReplyDeleteNp Jay, hope you enjoyed the ride.
DeleteLooks like a great Joe and I love the look of your new diner.
ReplyDeleteThe Diner is superb, but I'll be taking a lot of time building it.
DeleteThank You for a photos sir!
ReplyDeleteNoproblem Michal, here's hoping a few of them peaked you interests.
DeleteNice pics despite the technical problems. Nice loot haul as well look forward to seeing the diner assembled.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brummie, it was a complete SNAfu, me and technology - pah!
DeleteI'll be practising my meagre mdf skills on the two Shogun houses first - only two sides of onstructions, whereas the diner has eight(iirc).
Lots of nice games, diner looks like fun I'm still ekkeng out my elven flesh from about 25 years ago!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain, fun with the DIner ? I thinkI'll be tearing myhair out before it's finished.
DeleteAS for paint etc. I still have original GW paints and their first issue inks (still going strong too)
Looks like a wonderful day out I for one would like to go in the future IF it were closer. But for now I will have to live Vicariously through you.
ReplyDeleteGreat loot as well. I never see enough Pulp figures so those do especially interest me.
Thanks Clint, it was a tremendous day out and one of the few shows I could have stayed a lot longer at.
DeleteI'm even looking further afield now for more pulp, but may have to rein-in for a while
Seems to be a nice mixture of genres and scales. And some loot as well!
ReplyDeleteThere was a really good mix of games in all manner of scales and very few 40K style games )from my point of view a good thing)
DeleteAnother excellent post from our "roving reporter" IMHO :-)
ReplyDeleteI found something of inspirational value in just about every gaming photo, and the pic of the irregular 2mm stuff reminded me that I have a hoard of their 2mm Nappies buried somewhere!
VERY nice haul to finish it all off with too - the diner looks awesome :-)
Thanks WA, I just wish I was a better photographer!
DeleteI was quite inspired too by the whole event and have dug out an old (but very good) set of Colonial rules I haven't played with for about ten year or so.
The 2mm stuff was great too, using the original Kriegspiel rules converted to WW1. I talked to the chap for ages and his enthusiam just oozed.
Thanks for the report, glad you enjoyed the day!
ReplyDeleteThabjs for such a well organized show, I hope it was worth all the effort.
DeleteHaving been off my regular show circuit for quite a few years now (due to illness) I had my faith in shows restored by Battleground. The games all had smething of interest and the variety of traders were very helpful too.
I can't give enough plaudits fo rthis show and can't think of any negative aspects to it.
Thanks fo r taking the time to look through ny report too
Thanks for taking the time for such a comprehensive post, very enjoyable to look through. The Tyneside game was 10mm I think. Glad that you could make it and glad too that you had a great time as we did.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed doing the post, despite the time it took, as I enjoy reading thosesho reports of others .
DeleteI'll stand coorected if the gmewas 10mm, but I blame my age and drugs!
It's been a long, longtimesince I enjoyed a show so much.
Great photos Joe! looks like you had a great time.
ReplyDeleteI´m a Little jelous that all the cool shows happens in the UK and not in sweden!
Thanks HW, I must admit we do seem to have more than our fair share of Wargame shows.
DeleteGood to see you Joe. It wasn't a fictional game. It really was an actual battle.
ReplyDeleteGreat to see you and the game, I think I could have sat for a much longer time just looking at it. Sorry about not realising it was fictional; note to self -must take more notice of the literature!
Delete