Back From Broadside 2012; Saga; Cuirassiers update

I'll do this in reverse order and start with the update on the cuirassiers. They've had their Klear/ink coat, been glued to bases, basing gunk added and dry-brushed. The trouble is that it is raining outside, so I can't open my windows to ventilate the flat while I do the matt varnish spray. Hopefully tomorrow it will have stopped raining allowing me to do that, then I can do the flocking/tufting and declare them "finished".

Saga

Some bright spark at Central London Wargames Club decided the other day to gauge interest in starting a Saga campaign and it looks as though there will be a lot of people joining in. I was hoping to avoid being infected by this, but apparently it is highly contagious and I have succumbed. I'm going for Vikings or Jomsvikings.

This meant I had a shopping list of things people were after to make up their (and my) warbands - mostly plastic Viking and Saxon figures, rules, dice, etc

Broadside 2012

I had planned to head down so that I'd get there by 11am, but was feeling grotty when my alarm went off so I went back to sleep for a while. I eventually got there just after 1.30pm.

It was a nice little show and I'm glad I went. I also didn't have to fork out the £3 entrance fee as apparently that's only for the menfolk!

I had taken my camera, but unfortunately I hadn't spotted that the battery was low, so I couldn't take many pictures. There were some excellent display and participation games going on and a range of traders. The venue was pretty good, although the increased participation meant that everything was split over 3 rooms - the main sports hall, a smaller hall and a subterranean grotto (aka the "bring & buy").

After a brief look around the traders in the small hall, I headed towards the Rejects' game - the Battle of Amiens, a WW1 tank and infantry fest. This was the first time they'd done a demo game at the show and they were awarded joint-second in the prize giving. After a quick chat with Ray and Fran I wandered off to take a look around the main hall.

The main hall was much busier which wasn't too surprising as that was where most of the games and traders were situated. There were a few "big names" trading there - TSS, Warlord Games, Ainsty Castings, Crooked Dice, Mongoose and Armourfast spring to mind.

As I said earlier, there were some stunning games - the Maidstone club had a 6mm Pegasus bridge game (with 3D-printed bridges) which won first prize; Realistic Modeling Services had a Franco-Prussian War game and Shepway had a Romans in Germania game that all looked fantastic.

Having had a look around the games it was shopping time. Unfortunately, one of the packs I was after (Wargames Factory's Saxon Fyrd) had sold out earlier in the day. However, I was able to pick up 1 box each of the following:

Warlord/Gripping Beast - Saxon Thegns, Viking Hirdmen
Wargames Factory - Saxon Thegns, Viking Huscarls, Viking Bondi

Looking at the contents when I got home, I found that the Wargames Factory packs are quite handily designed with bodies & arms sprues (Armoured Warrior = Thegn or Huscarl; Warrior = Fyrd or Bondi) and separate heads/weapons/equipment sprues (Saxon or Viking)

I also bought 2 copies of the Saga rules (1 for me, 1 for a club member), the Northern Fury supplement (for me), Vking/Jomsviking dice (for me), Anglo-Danish/Anglo-Saxon dice (for a club member) and a pack of the Godwin brothers (Harold, Leofwine and Gyrth - for another club member). Oh, and some Mini Natur "tufts with leaves" for myself.

While I was doing the rounds, I bumped into Henry Hyde at the perfect moment - he was just about to show a couple of people a preview of his long awaited "Wargames Compendium". It looks like it is going to be a great book to get. We had a good chat and it turned out that he was judging the games. While i was with him he stopped at one table and was completely ignored. Cue Henry making the following note on his sheet "They ignored me, so I'll ignore them". It wasn't as if they were actually doing anything that would be disrupted by pausing to chat with someone showing an interest.

Note to anyone running a game at a show - the reason for doing a game is to interest people in it. This means that if someone stops to take a look you should at the very least say "Hi!" or even better "Hi, this is xxxxx. Would you like me to talk through what we're doing?". Don't just sit there like a sour lemon and hope that everybody will leave you alone.

Anyway, here are a few of the few pics I took (warning - quite big files):

Franco-Prussian War game

The Rejects - Battle of Amiens

In black t-shirts, L to R: Ray, Fran, Postie, Big Lee