As normal I parked at Nunnery Square park and ride and hopped onto a tram to complete the trip into the city centre. I went one stop further than in previous years and alighted at Castle Square (a huge 100 metres or so further!) but, and this is a huge but, the walk to the venue is much easier from that stop as it is a straight and level walk along Arundel Gate to Sheffield Hallam University.
This year the entry cost was £6 which I think is a whole pound up from last year. That still represents good value though. A couple of traders and games had cancelled and to my mind it was slightly less busy than last year. Both of which I suspect was due to the heat of the previous few days. Even so there was still a lot of 6mm goodness to see. Better yet the game teams and the vendors were more than happy to chat. Must have been the heat last year then.
I always start the same way at this show, which is to take a stroll around and see what the games look like. There was the usual range from Mech's firing missiles and lasers at each other in far future cityscapes through to Greeks having a bit of a barney at point of spear, and pretty much everything in-between. The standard of games was up to it's usual standard with some really nice terrain on display.
Having had a quick look around I turned my attention to the traders and actually bought some stuff, unlike last year. Heroics & Ross provided me with some World War Two tanks and AT guns which I will need for the Fistful of T34s campaign. True to form I bought some totally useless Soviet light tanks (well marginally better than the German stuff I already have, a couple of KV-1s who will masquerade as KV-1s flamethrower tanks, a couple of Pak75 AT guns and some artillery crew figures.
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| More pitiful tanks although the KVs are a bit moreof a beast |
I then wandered over to Brigade Models to pick up a Gettysburg Seminary and Cemetery Hill gateway. These will come into play later if I can arrange an Altar of Freedom game covering (yes you guessed it) the three days of Gettysburg.
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| If you have seen the movie Gettysburg you should recognise these buildings |
Lastly on the buying front, after a look at Commission Figurines display table, I bought some of their 6mm MDF Napoleonic figures. At £2 for 96 infantry its a gateway drug for the period! I spent a whole £10 and came away with 192 British Inf in stovepipe shakos. 192 French Infantry in Shakos and a pack of 36 French Cuirassiers/Dragoons. I have already painted a sample to see how my usual technique for 6mm has to be amended for MDF figures (spoiler - it changes a fair bit. but more on that in a later post).
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| Commission Figurines Display, Napoleonic's closest to the camera |
The MDF figures have a fair bit of detail laser engraved on them, more than I expected to be honest. Oh and as a warning if you buy any don't throw away the little MDF 'pips' that are in the bags of infantry, those are the drums for the command strips. Don't ask! Fortunately there are plenty of spares in each pack.
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| Sorry about the gratuitous thumb shot, but look at the engraved detail. |
It was back to the games next and I took a seat in the Cold War gone hot participation game put on by "Gaming at Si's House". This used the Battlegroup Northag rules and was fairly enjoyable, despite my complete inability to make a comms check to call in artillery on the Soviet hordes! This was almost certainly the most popular participation game at the show.
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| My view of the table, it got busy soon after this with Soviets galore entering at the far end |
Other games were there aplenty. Visually my favourites were The Strength and Honour demonstration game of Civitate 1053. Terrain was good and the extension to cover the Feudal period worked well. period. The players were happy to spend time explaining how everything worked and I gained a couple of clever ideas on how they set up the terrain.
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| Civitate - it's terrain like this that make games in smaller scale |
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| More Civitate action can you see the grid markers, I couldn't |
A lot of games had terrain that I would be proud to replicate. Here is another good looking table from the Loft of War who put on Langoot 1748. As with Civitate the ground colours aren't overly intrusive and aren't a single monotone green. Plus the game looked like it was being enjoyed, which is the whole point I suppose.
Games Ranged from Classical Greece through to a couple of Science Fiction games. The latter were popular with the younger attendees. In fact I saw a number of children at the show, and they didn't look like they were unhappy to be there either.
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| This was a different take on things, one concept over three periods |
Above is a set up which took me a minute to understand. It is urban warfare in three different periods including a future mech warfare set up at the far end.
I was very happy to see a participation game of Alter of Freedom underway. I like those rules as they put players into a different gaming space by focussing upon the Army commander level where they have to worry about the tempo and timings of the army and also have subordinates who may not be exactly as good as they might like. The scenario was Gaines Mill 1862 part of the Peninsula Campaign. Compared to the last AoF game I played this is a smaller board with more troops, so it is crowded. When I was watching Dave was explaining the priority point bidding system to a player who was coming up against the restrictions his subordinates were imposing on him by the abilities (or lack of them).
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| Gaines Mill 1862 using Altar of Freedom run by Dave Benton |
Overall there was a lot to see and do and plenty of things to spend money on. I always feel it's nice to see things in the flesh before spending and the option to do that for 6mm stuff is fairly limited. Players and vendors were relaxed and happy to chat which was a marked improvement on last year. My doubts have been quashed and I hope to be able to attend again next year.
Last but not least. As a taster here is a picture of the first Napoleonic's I have painted since my Airfix days. The pom-poms finishing but I need me to decide how I'm organising them as units before I paint them in the right colours. Undercoating is a must as MDF soaks up paint and dulls the colour and I can't decide on whether to prime them in black (as below) or in white.
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| Poor image these little devils are hard to focus on. My first attempt at Nap's in fifty years! |
