Cotswold Wargames Day - Part 2

Numbers were down slightly for this years show, as for a variety of reasons, a few of the regular attendees coudn't make it. Even so it was another great day out. Around lunchtime and during a much needed beak from my game, I had a wander round and took photos of the other games on show.

A BKCII game set in the Western Desert 1941? The outskirts of Tobruk can be seen top right.

This makes me want to consider this as another theatre to game, especially as we played this lots as kids. All figures and AFV's from Pendraken (I think).

The sand on the bases apparently comes from Libya or Tunisia!

28mm Napoleonics by Cirencester Wargames Club.

Loads of wonderully painted figures to marvel at.

Cuba circa 1715, inpsired by a Stuart Insch article I believe. 

Lots of lovely scratch built terrain on show.

Simple but very effective. They looked great when filled with troops.

Always a pleasure to see Spencer Smith's figures in action.

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Afghanistan, 1925. Our brave chaps leading a raid against Afghan forces who have been kidnapping locals.

Again, lots of nice scratch built terrain on show.

Mighty armoured cars to quell the wily Afghan.

These troops (Empress Miniatures) can be used for WWI too.

Normandy 1944, using Keith Flint's 'Startline' rules.

The P-47 Thunderbolts have made short work of the Panthers.

Wonderful figures and terrain from the collections of Keith Flint and Roy boss.

A truly portable wargame by Jon Billington, using his own rules.

Everything fits in this box, bar the board. Very neat!

Eastern Front, WWII, using H&R 6mm figures and Battlegroup rules.

A very nicely presented game.

The Stuart Asquith Trophy

Each year a game is awarded a trophy in honour and memory of the late, great, Stuart Asquith. This year Willz Harley won it for his wonderful Cuba 1715 game.

Willz receiving his trophy from Keith Flint, flanked by Derek and Andy from Big Battles.

Post Show Thoughts

Another fun day out at the CWD and always good to meet up with fellow gamers and have a chat about all things wargames related. A few topics that came up during the day as well as my thoughts:

• For most of us, gaming on a 6' x 4' table is a luxury in the UK. Yes, we can do it, but it invariably means taking over the dining room and all the disruption that that causes. So being to play on a larger table and with plenty of space to move around, was great.
• It was nice to see a mix of scales and periods, with 6mm and 10mm making a good showing. Not something you tend to see at the bigger shows.
• Storage issues came up again and again throughout the day, whether that be for figures, terrain or even books. Once again as we reach a certain age, we are all seriously looking at downsizing our collections to focus on those core periods and rules that we really enjoy.
• Related to the above, trying out new periods as we get older with related eyesight issues etc gets harder, as where do we store the stuff or find the time and energy to actually paint it all? The Commission Figurine miniatures I used garnered a lot of interest as a simple and very cost effective way to get a new army painted with minimal effort compared to say a 15mm or 28mm figure.
• I think we all appreciated the look that smaller figures bring to the table, as you do get the feel or a bigger battle compared to say those using 28mm miniatures. This was certainly commented upon with my game and both the Western Desert and Eastern Front ones using 10mm and 6mm figures respectively.
• We celebrated the fact that our hobby can be enjoyed on many levels, whether it being painting 28mm figures to a very high level, reading, scenario planning and or course playing the game. Each to their own but that rich diversity is to be celebrated.
• One chap was selling off loads of books, as he wanted to do this now, rather than leave it for his family to do when he is no longer around. Again a topic that is coming to the fore as we all enter our 60's or 70's. We pointed out that some of his books we very valuable and collectible and that he should really sell them on ebay. I was tempted to buy some, but I'm trying to be good as although nice to haves, they would have just sat on the shelf. Maybe I'll come to regret this!
• Rules! Two themes emerged, one that as we get older we want to stick with rules we know so that we can focus on the game, rather than flicking through a rulebook. The second is trying to sell old rules, or not even ones that old, is pretty hard, especially if a new and supposedly better version has just come out. Also the sheer proliferation of rules means that finding someone who might be interested is getting ever harder. So I can see many books that I haven't been able to shift going to recycling.
• I jokingly said to Keith's wife that it will be hard to spot someone who is not and old, white, grey haired man at the show! Then she raised the valid point of where are all the younger gamers? In line with much of the above, space, time, storage etc all come to the fore, especially for the ex-GW crowd who are often happy to play with a few figures (think Kill Team) and minimal terrain. Our local store runs GW games on a 4' x 4' table or smaller with just a few very basic mdf runis with a psray can paint job and that's it. So if they're happy with that, it would be hard to get them into something historical, even if you go down the Bolt Action route. Then add in the ease of computer or online games where it is just plug and play. I'm not sure the answer but it made me think.
• Selling terrain is even harder than selling books!
• Last, but by no means least, it was great once again meeting up with fellow gamers in a nice and relaxed atmosphere, where you have plenty of time to chat, see the games and just enjoy our wonderful hobby in all its aspects. What's not to like?

What Next?

To be honest I'm not sure, but I fancy getting back to my WWII campaigns, and painting the figures required for this, having spent plenty of time on Napoleonics. I'll just have to wait and see.

Thanks for reading and comment always appreciated!

TTFN.