I have been to Campaign before, but previously it has been as a participant in the team tournaments. I wasn't in a team this year, so I just went up for today as a punter.
Campaign is a small show (a handful of traders about 20 demo and participation games. Plus the team tournaments of course. The venue is a little bit unusual - in one of the halls in the middle of Milton Keynes shopping centre. It's free to enter and for the public to wander through (and join in the participation games if they wish - quite a few do).
The team tournaments this year (that i saw) were Art de la Guerre (ADLG - ancients & medievals), DBMM (also ancients & medievals), Field of Glory (FoG - another ancients & medievals), FoGR (renaissance; individuals rather than teams), Mortem et Gloriam (yet another ancients & medievals), and Sharpe Practice (Peninsular War). There was meant to be a Bolt Action tournament as well, but it seems they didn't get enough entrants.
I got there about 10.30am and had a wander round, taking pics of the participation and demo games before doing a spot of shopping and popping over the the ADLG tables to see how our club's teams were getting on. Our club made up three of the six teams, so I found that two of them were at that point in the club's second civil war of the weekend (later on there was a third club civil war).
The demo and participation games:
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| I forgot to take a pic of their table? |
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| The tournaments (well, some of them) |
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| DBMM in 6mm |
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| I thing this was Saga of Sharpe Practice in the Congo as well |
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| CLWC Second Civil War |
With pic-taking, shopping and nattering done, I headed back over to the Gaslands table to watch a demo game which was close to finishing. When that was over, I went for another mooch around and natter, then wound my way back just in time to jump in on a Gaslands demo. Some pics from the game:
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| My buggy doesn't even reach the first gate! |
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| Wiped out and facing the wrong way; carnage among the other buggies |
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| Sneaky reverse and slide to face the right way |
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| Not as classy as my reverse and slide |
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| Beaten through gate 2, but my MG does the biz |
Having shot the leader out of the game and with my other opponent so far behind I was judged the winner. It was good fun and there was much carnage.
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| CLWC Third Civil War |
The Loot:
Two foam trays for 28mm figures; two original pattern gates for Gaslands and a 3-pack (I think) of the new pattern gates; A bottle of Khaki Grey and one of Strong Tone wash.
Since getting home (and having resized all the pics) I didn't fancy starting to highlight the Aussies, so I opted for cutting out and beveling the edges of some scatter bases for the rusted cars to go on:
the next step will be sanding the edges. With the longer longer ones I'll also need to add something to help prevent them warping when I add basing texture, probably lengths of BBQ skewer.
cool, must go some time
ReplyDeleteNice overview, glad you made the other players fear women drivers! - especially when MG armed!
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed all the pictures - thanks. Catch the Pigeon looks a hoot!
ReplyDeleteExcellent show report and photos. LOVE the table signs!!! Too many clubs run demo games at shows that lack any labels explaining what the game is and who is running it (Major bugbear of mine). Nice to see one event enforcing some common sense!
ReplyDeleteLooks to be a pretty good venue (Milton Keynes, who'd of guessed) nice a bright. Thnx for the review
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great show, nice and light too.
ReplyDeleteOoooh, Catch The Pidgeon, I LOVED that cartoon
ReplyDeleteNot been to this one. Thanks for the report. I'll give it go, perhaps next year.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tom about the 'Catch The Pigeon' game - that's a class act.
Nice coverage of a good show. The Gaslands stuff looks petty entertaining.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great show - very jealous!
ReplyDelete@ Martin - to be honest, unless you have something else to do in the area that weekend or you want to spend a day playing various participation games I wouldn't recommend it as it's so small :)
ReplyDelete@ Herkybird - lol! :)
@ Norm - cheers! :)
@ Lee - thanks! The tables signs are deliberately good as the show is completely open to the public and it helps give them an idea of what the games are about :)
@ Hendrid - it is very light and airy and with plenty of eateries on the periphery of the hall - what more could gamers want? :)
@ Michael A - it's a nice, small show. The hall is very light - the roof of the hall is glazed which can make it a bit warm if it is very sunny. Luckily it is also very airy, which helps to dissipate any "gamer funk" :)
@ Tom - didn't we all? :)
@ James - it's not very well advertised in gaming circles. I'm not sure if that's deliberate to allow more space for passers by to look around the games :)
@ Swelter - cheers! Gaslands is definitely fun :)
@ Miles - it's quite small, but with a good range of games :)
Hi! I went to Campaign this year with my youngest son, he's 17. It is my local show and the only one I've been attending for a few years.
ReplyDeleteWe played Tanks and, bad dad that I am, I won with the Germans.
He played the Dambusters game, succeeding but with only two engines left.
The event was sparse compared to previous years. Usually there are more demo's and traders.
This is because the club were only informed in January they could hold it in its usual venue. They have had problems with the Centre management in recent years. But they have tried to accommodate the managements concerns. Especially the table clutter, on the table and under in the competition games. I think 'builders bum' might be mentioned this time!
Still, I bought a few things for my Ronin game and look forward to next year.
I like your work. You are so prolific!