Colours 2019 Show Report

It was 50/50 as to whether I would attend Colours this year, due to arriving back late from driving down from Edinburgh the night before. This is my favourite large show as the venue if nice, it's easy to get to and there is normally a good mix of traders and games on show, so I am loathed to miss it. SWMBO kindly did the weekly shop which gave me time get some energy together for what seemed like a short stop along the M4. So in the end I arrived at the show just after 11.00 am. 

People were already leaving with their goodies and it seemed a bit quieter than previous years, but maybe this was because I had missed that initial rush. I had nothing really in mind to see at the show, other than my usual chat with Leon of Pendraken and to see Bruce Weigle's game. I also hoped to see Walt of Commission Figurines and his 6mm MDF figures for a planned project. He is a top bloke and one of Dave's oldest gaming chums; in fact I think they started off gaming together at the tender age of 16.

So I spent the first hour or so just having a good wander to get and idea of what was on offer, peruse the book sellers and have a look at the games on show. I made a few purchases (more of which later) and then took some 'photos of the games that interested me. Apologies if I get any of the captions wrong, but hopefully they will be mostly correct.

A lovely looking ACW game, the Battle of Sharpsburg I believe.

Bespoke terrain that worked really well.

Simon Millar's 'To the Strongest' table was besieged with gamers, so hard to get a better show. Lovely to see the game being played though.

A Society of Ancients game.

A Sword & Spear game. As it was lucntime a lot of the games were on a break by the look of it.

A wonderful Napoleonic game.

Simple terrain on a mat, which worked really, really well.

The buildings were lovely.

A Samurai game using FogR rules?

I loved the log redoubt.

The scratch built castle was nice.

You can't deny that Samurai games look colourful with all of those back banners.

Bruce Weigle's game looking fantastic as always.

I managed to grab a quck chat, but he was busy all day.

Simple but very effective terrain en masse.

A modern game set in Afghanistan?

40mm ACW?

Not my thing but it looked great.

St Mere Eglise and Rapid Fire.

Wonderful buildings.

Another Ancients game.

A great looking Sci-Fi game, with a very Space 1999 feel.

The space station was a lovely piece of modelmaking.

Thoughts on the Show

• Despite being tired, I'm glad I went. I enjoyed myself, even though I wandered around in a bit of a daze so didn't get to take in the games as much as I would have liked.
• The show did feel quieter than previous years. I'm not sure of this was due to it being a week earlier and coinciding with students returning to Uni. The benefit of this was that generally it was easier to walk around than previous years.
• For once I didn't buy any books. I didn't see anything that interest me, which was a shame, as I always like to get at least one.
• I did take longer to look at the traders this year. Deep Cut Studios seemed to be doing a brisk trade as they had a queue at their stand. As in previous years MDF terrain in general was to be seen all over the show.
• Looking at the traders led be to buying some stuff from Pendraken as well as Commission Figurines. Seeing the stuff in the flesh really helps, so I must take time to do this more in the future.
• I liked the mix of games this year and wished I'd had more time to talk to those involved. 
• Of all the major shows, Colours is my favourite. I would like to attend some others, but frankly most are too far away to justify my attending them.