About Me

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London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
A mythical beast - a female wargamer! I got back into wargaming in the summer of 2011 after a very, very long break and haven't looked back since. I must admit that I seem to be more of a painter/collector than a gamer, but do hope to correct that at some point in the near future. My gaming interests span the ages, from the "Biblical" era all the way through to the far future. I enjoy games of all sizes, from a handful of figures up to major battles (see my megalomaniacally sized Choson Korean and Russian Seven Years War armies).

Sunday 10 June 2012

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




18 comments:

  1. The Rejects' game looks grea!

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  2. Sounds like a great day out and a lovely picture of the boys looking almost well behaved!

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  3. Nice one Tamsin, it was a great day out, I'm very pleased with the joint 2nd place, which was very unexpected. Fran believe it or not behaved himself, I do remember him smiling once? Mind you that was when Reject Dave got the ham rolls out!

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  4. @ Phyllion - even better in the flesh

    @ Michael - I spent more time traveling than I did at the show, but it was good to get out and see the boys. They were (almost) well behaved, probably because Postie had laid down the law.

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  5. sounds interesting I must go see these guys up in auckland... games go on there reguarly apparently.

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  6. Good to see you again Tamsin, I was well behaved, well most of the time!

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  7. Sounds like a great day out!

    The plastic Dark Ages figs by both Wargames Factory and GB are excellent. I made up about 56 boxes of them combined for our Dark Ages armies and love them. I have fleshed them out with some Foundry and GB metals for our heroic characters.

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  8. that's 6 boxes: I'm not quite that insane!

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  9. Sounds like an excellent day, and some great pics. I've managed to resist saga so far, though it is a good game.

    And I can fully agree about your comment on demo games at shows. When our club won best participation game, we were told it was partly down to being approachable.

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  10. Looks like a good day was had by all, glad you had such a good time

    Ian

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  11. Good write up. Glad you liked our little game. We were very happy with our Joint 2nd place, especially as it was our first demo game.

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    1. Great job, Tam. Looks like a really fun show.

      Phil

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  12. looking forward to seeing these Vikings painted up Tamsin. No pressure like! I really liked the GB fig's but not so much the WF ones. Nice photos of the boy's game too.

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  13. HI Tamsin would have like to have met you on the day, maybe another time. The reason behind free entry for ladies is that we all have been to so many shows where we had to pay to get wives/girlfriends in for an outing that they do tend to find tedious. Which just seems wrong to us.

    Anyway thanks for the review of the show. I agree about the Fleamarket entirely. I don't think it was a sucess for this show, but as a club we just don't have enough to crew a traditional Bing and buy and run a show. So we tried something different and maybe it didn't work.

    The Hall is already booked for next year so hope to see you there. All the Best Clint

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  14. thanks guys - wish I could have taken more photos for you, but that's life.

    @ Paul - I was about to say. 56 boxes of Saxons and Vikings? Even so, 6 boxes is still a lot of figures

    @ Rodger - given that the weather is going to be crap for the next few days, I won't be able to finish the cuirassiers or do the next step on my secret project, so I might well make a start on my Viking warband to give myself a break from 30YW figures.

    @ Clint - you're welcome. I didn't actually venture down to the grotto, so I've got no idea what it was like. I can understand you doing it the way you did with so few crew.
    As for getting in free, that was an unexpected bonus and I do appreciate the reasons for it although I would have happily paid the £3 to get in. SELWG operate the same policy I think, although that might be for if they arrive with their male partner. It does lead me to wonder what would happen if I wasn't single and turned up with my girlfriend? ;)

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    1. hello Tamsin, I am really glad you enjoyed Broadside and thanks you for your positive comments. Your getting in for free story made me laugh out loud...despite being the organiser! I have already instituted a new failsafe for just such situations....We will have a volunteer on stand-by with a box of newly painted ancient, acw and sci-fi figures...they are to leap out and flash the box in front of every woman or group of women and if the target(s) looks even remotely interested rather than concerned or bored we mug them for the money :) No idea why I chose those three particular periods...Please come and say hi next year...or at our open day in september...I need you to talk to my wife.

      Oh, and the actual wording on the ads and flyers regarding entry is 'non wargaming partners'...but we will stick with the box of goodies plan just for laughs lol

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  15. Envy envy envy...and envy!
    So many wargame show for you...and only two for us here...:-(

    But in August there will be our MiliSaona so our club will finally play with our little soldiers...;-)

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  16. Best of luck painting up your Vikings or Jomsvikings.

    I'm just four figures away from finishing my SAGA viking warband. Then it's on to Anglo-Saxons or Welsh. Looking forward to playing.

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