MadFest 2012

Saturday 10th November saw me rise nice and early to load the car up with all my gaming stuff. After a quick breakfast I was on the road by 7.00am for the anticipated couple of hours drive to Minehead. The doors were to officially open at 10.00am, so I wanted to get there nice and early to have time to set up the table etc. As it turned out the traffic was very light, the weather pretty good and the scenery fantastic once across the M5 and into the Quantocks. As it happened I arrived with plenty of time to spare, so popped in to see Nik Harwood as we hadn't met since NikFest nearly 2 years previously. After a quick chat, being mobbed by his lovely dogs and saying hello to Isaac his son, I was back on the road for the last few miles to Minehead.

The venue was very easy to find being located on the harbour front in the Old Ship Aground pub. Fortunately I was able to park right outside, which made the job of un-loading all of my stuff very easy, especially as Keith, Paul and KD gave me a much appreciated helping hand. After a quick chat with the other players, I set about setting up the table which I completed by around 10.00am

I'd decided upon an A Very British Civil War scenario set in and around Dunster, given that it fitted in with our on-going Storm Clouds Gather campaign. It was very much a toys-on-the-table job as I wanted to have plenty of units so that anyone could join in and command a battalion. As it turned out this was a bit overkill a few players were unable to make it at the last minute, so Keith and KD played the game solo.

The scenario was a mix of an airborne assault in the early morning followed up by seaborne forces landing on the beach at Dunster. The attackers were Army of the Severn Valley and their objective was to take control of the railway station and the Dunster junction on the Minehead road. The defenders were the Loyal Army of the South and their objective was to deny the attackers the station and junction.

With Keith and KD both being experienced BKC players, I had only to answer the odd query on the briefing documents I had given them as well as the odd question here and there as the game progressed. As I spent most of the day wandering around chatting with fellow gamers, I didn't take detailed notes, but hopefully the pics below will give you a feel of the game.

The Luftlande troops make their approach over sleepy Dunster.

"Shake a leg boys there's something going on!"

The hedgehog defence of the station.

Armoured and infantry units at the road junction.

First blood to the AotSV.

The seaborne forces arrive.

The defenders fight back.

More air attacks materialise.

The station is proving a tough nut to crack.

Attacks to the front and flank have limited effect.

'Wagger' Thornton's Imperial Light Horse arrive.

Prince Albert's Somerset Light Infantry arrive on parade.

"Follow the yellow tape to the target".

Lured by the Smarties the BUF finally arrive.

The Italian Expeditionary Corps push towards the railway line.

More air attacks go in on the road junction.

The Experimental Mechanised Brigade troops arrive .

"There's thousands of them Sir!"

The station under severe pressure.

The BUF advance towards the marshy ground.

The Light Brigade.

The Heavy brigade.

Wave attacks going in.

The BUF and 'Wagger' Thornton's ILH lock horns.

The 'Hand of God'.

The armour in control of Dunster.

The light tanks and tankettes watch each other.

The PASLI and EMB line up along the hedgeline.

The fall of the station.

Stalemate on the flank.

The attackers pour into Dunster.

The defenders rush towards the road junction...

... But to late to prevent a minor win for the attackers.

Other Games.

There were a few other games on display, some of which I managed to take pics of. Apolgies for forgetting to take some of the Western Desert  and the FPW ones. Hopefully others will have done and will appear on Blogs etc in due course.

First up Michael of Angel Barracks superb scratch built sci-fi base in 6mm for use with FUBAR rules. Unfortunately my camera, or more likely me, are unable to do this justice. We were also able to see his new range of stunning 6mm figures that will hopefully be on release before Xmas. I and a few others succumbed to some starter packs that were nicely discounted for the show.

Nik Harwoods 3mm CWC forces. Again at this scale it's very hard to do them justice. It shows that you can have a great looking game in the smaller scale figures. Paul Case spent all day running this table and was constantly busy. IIRC it was NATO vs Warsaw Pact.

Last and by no means least was Keith Flint's superb SYW table with his 28mm figures and scenery. This attracted a lot of attention at the end of the day, and rightly so, with several players joing in using his own rules.

 

Conclusion.

In the end it was a great day out and well worth the trip down to Minehead. I spent an awful ot of the day just chatting and in the end didn't get to play a game! This didn't matter as the atmosphere was nice and convivial and the day flew by. Once again thanks to Nik Harwood and the Minehead wargames club for putting this show on and also to all the companies and people who donated prizes for the raffle and quiz. I will definitely be attending the next one.