Fiasco 2018

Over the Pennines to my annual visit to Leeds Royal Armouries and Fiasco, my last show of the year. The venue is right on the docks on the River Aire and the Leeds & Liverpool canal, and my ambition is to attend this one year from our boat - though as the round trip from our base is 3-4 weeks that will probably have to wait until I retire.

I was aware before going that I would not be able to stock up on my main target, 6mm tanks, as neither Wargames Emporium nor Magister Militum would be in attendance. Baccus was there, but they have not released anything for WW2 since the Shermans, which I picked up at JoS. So I was going for bits and pieces, and for the atmosphere.

The show was pretty much as usual, a good middle-to-large one day show. The venue is a single large hall, OK but the upper walls and ceiling are decorated in black with small lights like stars - quite atmospheric but personally I would settle for more light.

As usual at a show, I first did a full circuit of all the trade stands, not looking to buy very much (though I picked up a couple of pots of paint) but making notes for later, and seeing if anything struck me out of the blue. At about noon I went off for lunch - with the best will in the world the food at the venue could be called "functional" so I walked over towards the city centre. As a bonus this took me past the docks and over the river, which I looked at in a new light now that we are seriously likely to be boating down here in a year or two.

I went to the same place as last year, a bar called Revolution - clearly a place which will be packed in the evenings but quiet on a Sunday lunchtime, and perfectly acceptable ribs and beer. Then back to the show.

The main thing I wanted to get was Leven buildings, because they are such fun to paint, so I picked up some that are suitable for the Eastern Front - Russian cottages, a Ukrainian church and so on. I pondered a few other things, but I didn't want to buy stuff just for the sake of it. In the end the only other significant item was a set of rules from Osprey called The Men Who Would Be King. These are for 19th Century Colonial battles, which is something that interests me a bit, but the other reason for buying them is the solo rules or AI within them. This is called "Playing Against Mr Babbage" and has been mentioned many times in the wargaming press, so I wanted to take a look.

Things wrapped up around three, and I set off for home. A good friendly way to end the year, and I will be back, by road or water.

A Spitfire outside the Royal Armoury

Leeds Waterways

The Booty

Joy of Six 2018

Having missed last year because of family illness (I have been to all the others since the start) I was keen to get there reasonably early, and despite the best efforts of some Cycling Fun Day I was able to navigate Sheffield's ring road and arrived in the venue about half ten.

There was a slight change of location this year - although it was in the same building we had moved out of the atrium (the "Heartspace") into a more conventional area, two long rooms connected by doors, with a canteen at the far end of one of them. Personally I htought this was an improvement - while the Heartspace looked spectacular, especially from three floors up, the layout was actually quite awkward, with games squeezed around the stairs, and some relegated to rather cut-off side rooms. Here everyone was in essentially one large space, and I don't think anyone will have felt they were out of the way.

The games were all good looking as usual - with the impression of large-scale battles given by this scale. For looks I would pick out the Manchester ECW board - it wasn't huge, but it was covered with buildings representing the city and the bridge to Salford during the siege. Most innovative I think was the Cold War Commanders (using the rules of the same name). They had a long table with three battles side by side. The terrain represented the same area on each (Wesel in Germany) but in different time periods - 1959, 1973 and 1989. They fought a Russian attack in each period simultaneously, using the appropriate troops and vehicles, but under the same CWC rules.

Purchasing was of course the most important aspect. I started off at H&R, just a chat really as I thought I had their latest stuff on my painting table already. But a casual question revealed that they had some brand new Fallschirmjager, not yet on the website, so I bought some of those. I went to the Baccus stand, but sadly the Panzer IV they had on display is not yet ready for sale - the gun barrel is true scale, which means it is too flimsy to be practical as a wargame model, so it will be out soon.

It wouldn't be JoS without a visit to the Leven stand, and despite not having a building project on the go at the moment, I had to pick up 4-5 assorted models. Down to the other end of the area to Wargames Emporium, where I got some of the new GHQ Lloyd Carriers (with and without 6lbdr guns) and some German Leichter Ladungstrager (essentially tracked quad bikes with trailers). I got a couple of Ospreys (Market Garden and the Valentine Tank) from Christopher Morris books, but my biggest purchase was a bunch of scenic items from GS Miniature Workshop. I got four of their "canopy woods" as well as an assortment of walls, hedges and palm trees.

All in all a very good day. I had lunch in the Head of Steam, though sadly they don't do rack of ribs any more. The trail to and fro over Snake Pass is tedious, especially with all the cyclists out int he sun, but worth it for a unique and very well run show.

Hastings

Hastings

Manchester/Salford - ECW siege

Gilly 1815

Austerlitz

Bag the Hun 

Normandy 1944 (Iron Cross rules)

Normandy 1944

Zeebrugge Raid 1918

Horka 1708

Weser Cubed - three battlees in one

Weser Cubed - 1989 foreground, 1973 middle, 1959 far end

Battle of Britain - Check Your Six.

These Guns For Hire

I went to Britcon last weekend, it's mostly a three-day tournament but there are a good number of traders there on the Sunday and it's a local show for me. It's also an excuse for a pint and a meal at Turtle Bay near St Peter's Square. Goat curry and Red Stripe - very nice. There wasn't a whole lot for me on the stalls, nothing in 6mm, but I did buy a pack of Pulp Gangsters, "These Guns For Hire". I bought the Osprey rules for Prohibition gangs, Mad Dogs with Guns, and these figures were fun to paint, as the Pulp Figures usually are.

FIASCO

Over the Pennines to Leeds, and the Fiasco show. Not a fiasco, but a bit of a disappointment - Wargames Emporium were there, but they only had a very small selection of GHQ. I am planning to move my WW2 back in time a little from Western Europe 1944 and do some Desert fighting - I had planned to get some of the earlier UK tanks - Matilda, Crusader, Valentine, that sort of thing, and something for them to fight. In the end all I got in that line was a pack of 2pdr Anti Tank guns and a pack of Panzer IIs. I did pick up a large felt cloth in sand colour and some suitable hills from S&A scenics. Other than that my visit was the usual struggle not to buy too much stuff for new periods - I got some new Wild West rules by Chris Peers (the Law of the Gun) but that's OK because I already have plenty of figures and a town to fight in. I did succumb to Crossed Lances jousting rules, mostly because I fancied some knights by Curteys. At least I managed to resist the new pirates rules from Osprey, with accompanying North Star figures, though I suspect that these will be in my future at some point. Every time I go to a show I wind up buying far more than I will have time to paint and use - I still have bags of figures I bought at shows in the eighties.

As for the show itself I'd say it was an OK middle-sized show, nothing special but a good opportunity to browse a large number of vendors and see what's new. No huge theme today - maybe more Bolt Action and less FoW in the WW2 space, and I saw little Saga, by contrast with other previous shows. The hall felt very dark, mainly because the roof and walls above head height were hung with black cloth - presumably for when the hall is used for shows. In fact the lighting was fine, but the overall impression was gloomy. Worth the trip, in my opinion - it isn't Salute, but then what is?