Broadside 2025 : A Jolly Good Show

Last Saturday (14th June) I was able to attend the 'Broadside'  gaming show at Medway Park Sports Centre in Gillingham, Kent, and had a thoroughly pleasant day, I'm glad to say.  

It's a 'medium sized' show, the program listed 21 demonstration games and a very respectable 30+ traders, plus 'other activities' which included book signing by novelist/comic book writer Dan Abnett, a Painting Area and several Participation/Promotional  games.  I do like this size of show, much more relaxed than the likes of Salute and Partizan,  with more space and time to look at the games etc, and this is a really well-run ( by the Milton Hundred Wargames Club) example - it was nice to hear that they had their best attendance yet this year! 

I travelled by car, arrived only about 10 minutes after the show started, but was lucky to get a parking space - there was an athletics event at the sports centre as well, so things were quite busy!  I was slightly surprised to fined that there was a queue to enter the show hall - a sign of the good attendance.

 I had a good look around the games and took some pictures, which I'll show a few of here - though even with a smaller show I seem to manage to miss some games.  Admittedly I don't tend to look too hard at Fantasy and Sci-Fi, though I did try to pay attention to some, honest! A few games I'd already seen at other shows, so took less pictures of them. Anyway, here we go: 

18 feet long?

 

...yes, seems about right!

First  and biggest, Retired Wargamers Reloaded and their mammoth Berlin 1945 game - already seen and extensively photographed at Salute, but I couldn't resist a few more pics! Much easier to get a good look at the table at this show, of course. They won the 'best in show' prize, which is voted for by all the clubs and groups putting on games ( though only by one vote, I gather! ) - can't really argue with that, though there plenty of other lovely setups. 

..how many tanks?

   

Much smaller ( but perfectly formed ) was this game of Gela, 1943 by Canterbury Crusaders Wargame Club. This was being run by Oliver Toms, son of my old friend Tony and (I think) using mainly Oliver's  collection ( Oliver's Army? sorry, that ages me! ) - a nicely 'different' clash of Italians using captured French tanks vs. US Rangers.   

   

The scenic mat they were using looked really good, it's from Geek Villain and is designed for Sicily, so pretty much ideal.   Ooh, I may have to look into that..!   

Very nice to chat to you, Oliver, and a very nice game! 

Skirmish Wargames presented their Wild West Shootout game 'The Last Gun Standing' in 54mm scale, with a great 'main street' setting 

 The game and rules emphasised a 'Hollywood' approach, and sure enough there was even a rooftop movie camera and crew filming the proceedings!  

Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society showed their 'Desert Encounter 1941' with rather nice models and table, and were very happy to chat and explain their home-grown rules ( which you could also buy).   

 

It was nice to talk to the gents running this, and I learned from them that their founder member George Gush (one of my wargaming heroes, as you can tell from the  heading of this blog)  is still around, though very elderly and no longer attending their club. Best wishes to George, for all your inspiration. 

Society of Ancients put on a game of The Battle of Granicus, 334BC : always nice figures, and a clever use of carpet tiles for the terrain and the river. I think the rules were Impetus. 

 

  An interesting piece of Sci-Fi terrain: Battletech demo'd by its makers 

 Next a rather interesting mash-up of past and future, as Friday Night Fire Fight's  game World War Z depicted futuristic combat in the setting of a city clearly inspired by Venice  ( the game perhaps inspired by the  Zombie Horror movie of 2013? I have no idea of this stuff! ). 

The juxtaposition of Sci-Fi vehicles and Aircraft against the historic backdrop was really interesting, what a good idea!  (you may need to look carefully to spot the aircraft among the buildings, but that's down to my amatuerish photography)  
 

 Back to 'historicals' now - SEEMS  presented a WW2 tank skirmish game TANKS in Normandy   using the TANKS rules. 

 

 Real Time Wargames brought their The Ruin of Britain  Dark Ages Battle and Campaign Ruleset - nice battle setup, complete with Holy Grail.. 

 

I like their approach of always including a campaign system as well as tactical rules, and I bought their Italian Wars set a few years ago - though I have severe doubts about ever having the wherewithal to paint Italian Wars armies! 

One of the highlights of the show for me was the Postie's Rejects group's  Rivoli 1796 game, organised by Richard of My Wargaming Habit blog fame,  and notably using 2mm semi-flat MDF figures from Commission Miniatures (which I have also been using for my 1859 Risorgimento project), and Volley and Bayonet rules.    

Richard (2nd from right) Umpiring

The whole thing looked splendid and there were some nice touches in the terrain, especially Richard's clever home-made woodland ( foreground ) made from domestic pan-scrubbers(!) and the use of Brigade Models  2mm scale  Mediterranean Village models to represent build-up areas, a classic example of how 'one scale down' buildings can work on the table. 

 

 

I'm afraid I hit a wrong setting on my camera and took several photos which were not properly focussed, so  my apologies for the lack of close-ups of the very nicely painted and based figures! I would strongly recommend having a look at Richard's blog for his report on the game. It was by all accounts a close game, with the Austrians very nearly reversing the historical result. A great game, very interesting and quite inspiring! 

 Another 'promotional' game was from Brickskrieg, a wargame using toy construction bricks, an interesting idea for bringing younger players into the hobby?  Note that the rules are available as a free download from their website. 

  

 Hailsham Wargames Club were on-trend given the 250th anniversary of the American War of Independence - their game portrayed the Battle of  Freeman's Farm, Saratoga 1777.  

 A nice-looking game, and also topical for me, having recently read Robert Graves' novel Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth,  the plot of which culminates at Saratoga. I didn't ask if Sergeant Lamb was on the table..

 

The next game -Race to the Seine  by Shepway Wargames Club -  had a rather uncanny element of synchronicity for me. The game portrayed the 'desperate race to get as many German troops across the Seine river to regroup following the Falaise pocket disaster' - and only the previous day, I had been to the National Army Museum in Chelsea to see an illustrated talk on the very same subject! 

The talk was 'Gaps and Chaps:a fresh look at the escape of the German army from Normandy 1944', by Canadian military historian Marc Milner, and most interesting it was, too!  (many more of the regular  NAM talks are available at  https://vimeo.com/nationalarmymuseum and thoroughly recommended )       

The game was a splendid sight, a really nice table that fully  lived up to the standards set by the Shepway club's  Dornier Down game last year.     

 

Another really nice looking game was Deal  wargames club's Gradual Sunset, which portrayed Thai army operations against Communist guerillas, 1980-83. I had seen the same game, or variants of it, at the Cavalier and Warfare shows in February and November, so I'll say no more on this one.   

 

Given my early arrival and the  very manageable size of the show, I also managed to have a go at a participation game: this was Robin Hood  by Big on Strategy group  ( a couple of chaps from Milton Keynes, as it turned out ) who were presenting a skirmish game in 54mm depicting Robin Hood and his Merry Men's ambush of a wagon stuffed with ill-gotten 'tax' money collected/extorted by the Sherriff of Nottingham and his evil henchmen.  The rules were from John Lambshead's recent One-Hour Ancient and Medieval Skirmish Wargames .  

My objective was to escort the wagon-load of money along the road and off the table edge, while fighting off   Robin Hood's ambush - victory points were also available for killing Robin, the Sherriff and other characters. The rules were very simple and quickly picked-up, with initiative and combat driven by the draw of playing cards rather than dice. That mechanism worked very well, the combat card draws being 'opposed' ( i.e both players draw cards, with the number of cards determined by the characters' weapons, skills etc )  which certainly made for tension and excitement!    Here you can see my opponent (in the blue shirt,  a chap from SEEMS who's name I shamefully didn't get!) mid-draw..  

The game was great fun, lots of laughs, mainly becuase my card-drawing turned out to be just catastrophically bad!  I was certainly the worst player of the day, losing all but one of my characters - if the cards gave a chance of them dying, they would inevitably die! 

I did have one success, though - my last remaining man-at-arms managed to take down Robin himself! 

Though by this time, the Sherriff was already dead by the roadside..  As the game went on and the cards confounded me at every turn, at least we all laughed a lot! My opponent was a good sport (easy for him, he was winning!)  and the umpires David (left)  and Mike talked us through the game and gave some useful  hints, and a really fun time was had - my thanks to all three of them!  

 

And that's all for the games - as usual I will have missed quite a few, either from my incompetence or my lack of interest in some of the non-historical games.  As usual, there are other blogs with many more and better pictures - I can strongly recommend Postie's Rejects  Ray 'Don't Throw a One'  and Big Lee's Miniature Adventures  reports, as ever. 

I did a little shopping, too - a few more 6mm scale railway tracks from Blotz, for my 1859 project, and (influenced by the Rejects' Rivoli game) a 2mm scale Mediterranean Village from Brigade Models - we'll see how that looks with 6mm armies!  

One really nice feature of this show is the 'flea market' area, where you can book a small table and sell off your unwanted 'hobby stuff'.  For me, this seems to work better than the usual 'Bring and Buy' stalls, which always seem to be too crowded and hard to approach, this is all a bit more casual and one can chat a bit with the sellers.   I picked up some books - first an Osprey that will be useful for my 7YW armies.. 

 

...and then a couple of vintage books on the great military engineer  Vauban : 

 The sellers of these two books were the Whitehall Warlords club, and I noticed the biography (right of picture)  is inscribed with its previous owner's name - that being Seamus Bradley. Many years ago (probably about 1987/88) I was a member of that club, and I remember Seamus, who was a thoroughly nice chap and made me very welcome. So it's nice to have a souvenir to remember him by - I am told that he has now passed away.  And of course,I think  they will be interesting to read. 

And that, as they say, was that. I had a thoroughly good day at the show, which was well-organised and well-attended. My only very slight gripes would be about the almost-full car park, and a paucity of catering facilities - luckily I had brought sandwiches for lunch -  but I did later find that there are several perfectly pleasant cafes in Gillingham High Street, only two or three minutes walk from the venue. I will try to remember them next year! 

Many thanks to Milton Hundred Wargames Club for putting on the show, and all the clubs and traders etc who ran games, tradestands etc. Great to meet and chat with a few gaming friends too, of course! 

Next time, I hope to post an 'AAR' showing my first game with the 6mm Risorgimento 1859 Italy armies and Neil Thomas 19th Century Europe rules;  the game has been completed and worked pretty well.  Until then, keep well, everyone. 

Risorgimento 1859 : Preparing for Battle

Having painted and based a reasonable  number of figures for my 'Risorgimento' 1859  Italian campaign project, I have recently managed to complete some scenery too, and found I had enough of both for battle to commence. 

This has all been inspired by Neil Thomas' excellent book Wargaming Nineteenth Century Europe 1815-1878, and I took a look at his suggested scenarios for a first game - one thing Mr. Thomas does very well is scenarios.   As I have limited space and not too much 6mm scenery, and have not used the rules before,  I thought a small battle would be the best place to start. It turns out he has just the thing: Scenario 5 - The Minigame.   This is designed for a table only 2 feet ( 60cm ) square, and five units per side - ideal for me. 

The terrain is very simple - a  village at a crossroads, a wooded area and a hill. Using my Hexon terrain and  6mm scenery I was able to create the table layout  quite easily.

The Battlefield: North at the top 

 

The hexes have no bearing on the game - just very easy to use and give a nice look! As you can see I don't have many trees, but there were just enough ( from Heroics and Ros, I think ) to mark out a 'wooded' area.  Buildings are from Timecast and roads MDF from Pendraken, 'surfaced' and painted by me. The village and the hill are objectives for both sides - to win, both must be controlled by the end of  Turn 10. 

Dice were rolled and a table consulted to decide on army composition. The resulting Austrian force was as follows: 

        2 x Line Infantry

        1 x Skirmishers

        1 x Cavalry

        1 x Artillery

   Quite a nice mix of an 'all arms' force. 

Their Piedmontest opponents came up with quite a different army: 

        3 x Infantry

        2 x Artillery 

This could be interesting!   

Next, roll for sides: Piedmont won an opposed die roll, and opted to be 'Defender', which seemed sensible given their lack of fast-moving troops. As Defenders, the Piedmontese now rolled to discover their baseline - the dice determimed this would be the Southern table edge.   

Finally 'Pre-Battle Events', an interesting way to introduce some 'friction'  - quite fun for a solo gamer. Each side rolls a dice and consults another table : the Austrians rolled up 'Flank March', meaning that two of their units will appear on either enemy flank. At least one of these must be Cavalry, and none may be Artillery.     Another die roll will decide upon which of Turn 2, 3 or 4 they arrive. 

Piedmont was less fortunate, rolling up a 'Bogged Down' event -  one Artillery unit is eliminated. Not so good! 

Here are the resulting armies: 

Austrian attackers

   

defending Piedmontese

 

Figures are a mix of Baccus metals ( they have a Risorgmento' range for this exact period )  and Commission Figurines MDF ( a  polyglot mix from their ACW and Napoleonic ranges ) 

Working more or less from the suggested  army lists which are also in the book,  the units are organised as follows: 

Austrians:    Line Infantry ( 2 units)  Average Quality, Rifled Musket, Loose Order 

                    Skirmishers  (Feld-Jagers)  : Elite,  Rifled Musket

                    Cavalry  ( Cuirassiers ) :  Average Quality

                    Artillery : Smoothbore 

  Piedmont:   Line Infantry  (2 units) : Average, Rifled Musket, Loose Order 

                     Grenadiers (1 unit ) :  Elite, Rifled Musket, Loose Order 

                      Artillery : Smoothbore. 

Conveniently, both sides get just one Elite unit, and artillery are equally matched - the Austrians just have that one unit advantage owing to the poor quality of Piedmontese roads! 

Now to deployments - Defender first, each side within 15cm of their baseline, omitting the Austrian 'Flank March' units.   Here's how they deployed:

Initial setup - Piedmontese nearest the camera

The defending Piedmont general secured the hill objective with a unit  of infantry and his guns, placed his Grenadiers more centrally by the road,  and  was wary of a possible flank attack through the woods, hence placed his other infantry unit on there.  The Attacking Austrian general was obliged to use his cavalry unit and one other for his Flank March - he chose his next-fastest moving unit, the Feld Jagers. That gave something of a quandry there were only  remaining 3 units - two infantry and one artillery -on the table at the start. How to attack against superior numbers?  He decided to 'demonstrate' at first, placing one infantry unit  on the road through the village, guns in the centre and the other infantry unit  out on his right ( East ) flank.  The 'Flank March' force arrival time  was diced for - they would appear on Turn 3, and on the  East table  edge. The more open flank would allow freedom to the cavalry, and hopefully allow the hill objective to be assaulted promptly.  The Piedmontese may have made a mistake in assuming the woods on their left might be infiltrated..   

Here's an 'aerial view', taken perhaps by an intrepid passing balloonist 

 The scene is set, the forces are about to engage. At the time of writing, the game has not yet been played through, so we will have to wait for the next post here to see the outcome. Let's hope it's an interesting one!  Until then, keep well everyone.

Partizan Show - the gang was all there

As planned, I attended the Partizan show at Newark on Sunday just gone. Now I have to admit some hesitation about putting up my account of it and my pictures, as it seems that nearly every other blogger I follow has already done so themselves, not sure I have anything to add! In particular see Steve J's rather nice photos,  Big Lee's video/photo compilation, and I see  the usual fanatastic selection of pics by Ray 'Don't Throw a One'  has dropped as I have been editing this.  Looking at all these blogs it's interesting, seems that quite a large number of the bloggers I follow were there in the same room at the same time. Reading a social media page  regularly makes you feel you know the author  ( I think it's called a 'parasocial relationship' ), but crucually one tends not to know what they look like - I probably brushed past several people who it would have been really nice to have a chat with. Would it be naff to wear a name badge in future, and hope people spot it?  Or what about a 'blogger meet-up' as tends to happen at Salute?   I was very pleased to be tapped on the shoulder by Neil P  aka aufklarungsabteilung,we had a good chat and he kindly  lent me a book ( albeit one he didn't like!) - good to see you, Neil!    

But everyone sees their own version of a show, don't they? (c.f. Wellington's comment about the history of a battle - or a ball ) So at the risk of boring you, I'll show a few pictures of my version of  Partizan.. I arrived about 11:30 ( late, should have got up earlier!) for  rendezvous with Old gaming buddy Dave 'St Cyr' (come on Dave, reactivate that blog..), and we get stuck in to looking at the games.  The Waldorf and Stadtler of  wargames shows? Admittedly not as funny, though...  

It's a big show, it was was crowded and sometimes hard to move around, there were just loads of games ( 70+ according to the program, I think), and without thinking about it  we concentrated on the 'Demo Zone' where the big spectactulars were. We pretty much ran out of time before we could get to the 'Participation Zone' at the other end, which was a shame - maybe start at the other end next time! 

So here we go, pretty much in the order we same them - I'll try to keep it brief and let the pictures do the talking.  I didn't get decent photos of every game, so I won't inflict them all on you! 

First up, the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers'  Wake Island 192?  - an imaginary Japanese attack on Wake Island,  a kind of 'Pearl Harbour 15 years before'. I suppose. I think the rules were Setting the East Ablaze, the 'Back of Beyond'  post-Russian Revolution set. 

 Wake was an American  base for early flying boat operations by Pan American, hence the rather lovely model in this picture:

 Loads going on across a rather glorious large table, but also loads of people crowded round, so hard to get good pictures! 

Wagram 1809 by Steve Jones ( 'Steve's Painting Shed' ) - nice to see a big battle in 6mm, as 28mm setups do tend to dominate.  

 The figures looked pretty good close-up, too. I was going to say that with 6mm you don't need to worry about detailed painting, but Steve clearly doesn't agree with me!

 

Back to the 28mms for Yarkshire Gamer's Germantown 1777 :

 

The British are Coming..

That's Ray Rousell (red 'Postie's Rejects' shirt)  in the first picture chatting with Ken, did they have anything left to say after their marathon (and well worth a listen) chat on Ken's Podcast the other week?  Also interesting that I must have unkowingly  been stood quite close to Steve J , as his pic of the same game looks pretty similar and clearly taken at about the same time!   ( my pal Dave also appears, to the right of Ray ). 

Next,  Westbury Wargames  28mm Spanish Reconquista   Battle of Sagrajas 1086 : 

Lovely figures (and look at the Islamic banners)  and a simple but effective terrain setup ( looks like a battle mat?). Another possible use for your 'Norman' army if you have one, and I think lots of scope for shifting alliances, not simply Muslim versus Christian forces?  

 Derby Wargames Society had  Eastern Front 1941 in 28mm, again nice but not over-complex terrain. Lots of 'early war' armour and you can't beat a Stuka over the table.. 

 Always slightly quirky but usually interesting,  1/72nd Wargamers Russo-Japanese War  Nihon shugi: Assault on 203 Metre hill ..

I didn't get to speak to John Kersey, who was presenting it, but that huge hill was something quite different!  I think the figures are probably Jacklex, nice to see some 20mms rather than the all-pervasive 28s ( I really liked the look of Jacklex but couldn't find an excuse to buy any, wrong periods! I understand they have recently gone out of business).  Rules were  Bloody Picnic  by Dillon Brown

Next, Lincoln Miniature Warfare Society showed Not A Holiday in the Sun 44,  Pacific War in 15mm using Memoir 44,  which looked great. I think the Command and Colours / Memoir 44 stable of games just cry out to be played using figures, this was a good example.

Possibly the most beautifully presented table of the day was by Bill Gaskin,  28mm Seven Years War. I'd call it more of a giant diorama than a game, but it did look splendid!  A nice big castle to start with:

 and then the fantastic figures, very much in individual poses

 and 'vignettes' like this baggage wagon

Even a battalion in line was made up of varied poses - which has sparked some interesting discussions online, do you like 'all the same pose' or a variety? 

 

Simon Miller and chums brought their War of Spanish Succession game - they are playtesting an upcoming set of rules from the 'To The Strongest' family. The figures were gifted after a fellow wagamer  passed away, and this seems a nice tribute. 

 

 1st Corps brought one of their ACW spectaculars, wildly impressive as ever :

 

 

this was my first 'spot' of the ubiqituous 'teddy bear throw' from Dunelm home furnishings store, which is clearly very handy for 28mm terrain on a large scale

  

More smart use of homewares for terrain was one feature of   Glasgow Tradestone Wargames Club's  Rocroi 1643 game, with smart use of (very portable) carpet tiles 

 Again it was nice to see a scale other than 28mm - in this case 15mm, which I use for  my own 30YW armies. So, quite inspring for me. I thought the scale and the terrain as a whole worked quite well in echoing the contemporary battle paintings of the period, and also keeping simple and 'achievable' rather than spectacularly out of my league!

From  Barely Legal Wargamers (hmm...)  an ACW game entitled Battle of Honey Hill 1864, using 18mm Peter Dennis Paperboys figures and scenery

 

I really like the look of these, and the 'Barely Legal' guys were happy to give us a bravura demonstration of how to cut out the paper figures, which made it look really quite easy ( I have the Paperboys book on the War of the Spanish Succession, maybe time to actually try making up the armies?).  Even if you don't feel confident with the figures, the trees look great to me and would provide a quick, cheap  and easy source of woods and forests for any game. 

 

It's not a show without a Zulu War game, it seems: true to form, Burton and District ('BaD') Wargamers brought their Skirmish at Intombe 1879, using The Men Who Would Be Kings rules 

 

The Iron Brigade group showed Bonnie Blue Flag, 28mm ACW : I thought this was another nice example of a  'normal' game,  not trying to hard to be spectacular,  but very good to look at. Nice figures, scenery and terrain mat. 

In a similar category perhaps, Chesterfield Old Boys  28mm WW2 Russia, Case Blue - the Georgian Highway

But there was always another spectacle around the corner : the League of Augsburg's 28mm Dutch Raid on Hispaniola circa  1675 :  

 Presumably fictitious, a Dutch force lands on a French-controlled Caribbean island. 

Dutch assault force..

 

'French' defenders

What was also interesting was the makeup of the defending 'French' forces - a motley militia of plantation workers ( presumably slaves ), very few white men in evidence, which may well be accurate. Their colonial masters were mainly holed up in the fort, keeping control of the cannon..

  and best of all,  local Voodoo-practising warriors in a zombie warband - complete with hell-hounds!

The Perrys put on their  Peninsular War game using their Valour and Fortitude rules, showing off their Spanish army range 

The Bodkins 28mm Wars of the Roses Battle of Boar's Hill, April 1471 was another big game, a 'what if' scenario with rather beautiful armies 

 

 And another big game - Bramley Barn Wargames Group  Somewhere in Syria c.295CE, a fictional encounter between  28mm Late Romans and Sassanids.  Another really colourful game with varied forces - Cataphract Cavalry,  Elephants,  even Camelry. Hail Ceasar rules being used, figures from A&A, Aventine, Gripping Beast and Footsore,   battle mat ( or mats?) by Deepcut. 

A friendly group, who pointed out that the late Romans give lots of options for gaming, against Sassanids,  Goths and Vandals, Saxons etc etc - and maybe a Roman Civil War?
Their leaflet  said  The aim of this demo game is to show how any wargamer with painted figures can put on an attractive game using their everyday terrain etc.   Well, I can dream! 

                                                

Ardammer group had ventured down from Newcastle with their 28mm French Dutch War 1672-1678    The Battle of the Windmill,  which I had seen previously at Warfare last year, but it was worth a second look :  there's Ray again, lapping it all up, as I think it's his favourite period! 

At the other extreme, Anschluss Publications showed their very small game A Small Town in Italy 1945, a sort of adventure/heist game slightly reminiscent of the movie Kellys Heroes . It seems to  prove that their War on the Ground rules can be used for a smaller setup.. 

and one final spectacular :  The Boondock Sayntes  28mm Anglo-Sikh Wars  Battle of Aliwal 1846. 

 That huge and colourful table is a good point to finish - we didn't have time for much else!  

We made it to the 'Societies' zone and stopped briefly at the Northamptonshire Battlefields Society, sadly failed to speak to Graham 'Trebian' Evans but did take a turn at their Monte Cassino in Ten Minutes game using  Not Quite Mechanised rules and run my their author Chris Kemp - I am quite tempted to have a go at those and try some 'Operational' level WW2 gaming.  Also interesting was the Society for Army Historical Research,  whose stand was manned by  Andrew Bamford (formerly of Helion books )  who kindly gave us each a back issue of the society journal  

- this one is from 2017 and has half-a-dozen articles including an account of a British officer's experience in the Caribbean in the 1740s and extracts from the memoir The Old Halbardier,  a Welsh soldier's experience in the Peninsular and the War of 1812. All interesting stuff, quite tempting to subscribe..

And that was that, apart from a very quick bit of shopping - I picked up some more MDF road and river pieces from Pendraken for my 1859 Italy project, and a copy of the Osprey campaign book no. 207 Solferino, by Richard Brooks - should be very useful.  The show closed at 4pm and we were there to the bitter end, as games and traders packed up around us.   

It was (of course) a good day, even though we didn't see everything we could have done! Being a bit earlier might have helped, but probably it's too big to really do it all in the one day. Many great games, indeed perhaps too many to spend much time on each, but there we are. If you've got this far, I hope you've enjoyed my impressions of the day.  I'll certainly be going to the next one!    

Lots to be inspired by, and lots to think about - I think a future 'thinkpiece' post might be in order, covering a few areas raised by attending this show and Salute last month.   Meanwhile, apart from being pretty tired by the end of the day (and also at the end of writing this!), it has boosted my enthusiasm for my hobby and given me some good ideas for future gaming.  Which is the whole idea, really! Many thanks to Dave, too for being such good company on the day ( and for putting me up at his place that night, thus reducing my driving time considerably!).

I hope you've enjoyed this, and keep well, everyone.