Last Saturday (1st October) saw me visiting my first proper wargame show in the UK. Ok I’ve been to Games Day before but I’m not counting that because whilst it’s a big event it’s only one company. Al had arranged to go down to Derby for the Derby World Wargames show at Castle Donington and I tagged along with him. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but having had a look at the vendor list before setting off there were a couple of things that had already perked my interest.
First things first I’d like to say a big thank you to Dan for driving which from my point of view made for a lazy day. Al and Dan also introduced me to an event rule that says you can’t buy anything until you’ve done one full circuit of the event. But once we got through the doors this rule was amended, when they both made purchases before we had gone more than a hundred feet, to be newbies can’t buy anything until they’ve done a full circuit.
Now my initial plan was to get loads of pictures to share with you but I was all excited and eager and forget to bring my phone so couldn’t get any pictures. But it did make for nice peaceful day. One thing that became very obvious after only a couple of minutes of walking around was just how varied the different vendors were both in layout and quality. Some looked really well thought out whilst other just looked thrown together. The quality of what they had on offer also varied greatly from the really good to what I will politely refer to as the not so good.
For the first circuit I followed the rules and didn’t actually buy anything but I was tempted on more than one occasion. The main things I was looking for were those extra bits you can add to base or game tables to bring them to life like bits of scatter terrain or something quirky to add to a base. There were loads of things to choose from at a whole range of prices from the sensible to the ridiculous. Looking at all these options it didn’t take me long to build up a long list of things I wanted to go back and have a second look at.
We had a break for lunch before heading back to start spending money and the first booth we went to was Tor Gaming for a look at Relics. Both Al and Tom already have armies so they were looking to add to what they already had whilst I was looking to dip my toe in the water. I’ve really liked the look of the Nuem for some time now and had decided that if they had the starter set here then I would give it a go and they did have it so I gave it a go. We had a really good chat with the guys there who were explaining some of the rule changes that will be coming out early next year, one of which is the introduction of mercenaries. Essentially this is just taking certain characters from each of the existing factions and making them mercenaries so they can be used by other factions. Which I thing is a really nice touch. It also worked out well for me because between the three of us were picked up quite a lot of stuff I got a free ‘St Nic’ who is now mercenary so I feel I did really well out of my trip.
Next up was trip to see the ‘Dice Bag Lady’ and again I was spending money. This time it was some little accessories for bases such as lanterns and books. I’ll not go through all of my spending one by one but I did end up with bag full of little and often odd bits to add to a whole range of different models. One thing I do think is worth a mention though was trip to the Foundry painting booth. Dan has told me about their three paint system some time ago but I’ve never given it a try. Until now. I picked up there ‘dusky skin’ set with the idea of using it on Ms Ironside from my Troubleshooters crew. I’m planning on doing a separate article on it so keep an eye out for that in the not too distant future.
By the end of the day I had a bag full of bits and pieces and between us all we had a boot full of stuff to keep us busy. Overall I had a really good day and I would certainly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t been before. I can see this become a regular event for me, mainly because it’s a chance to actually pick things up and have a proper look as opposed to just seeing a picture on the internet. It has also given me wealth of things to be working on which will make their into future articles.
