Border Revier show

So today I managed to get down to the 2nd Border Reiver show of the year. This time I wasn't part of the organising, Thom and Neil G were displaying their Guards of Traitors Toll, These mean streets. The game did look spectacular and I did help moving around figures and accidentally setting fire to a building. Most of the buildings and town wall were 3d printed by Thom, most of the figures and a few of the buildings were from Neil G's collection.

Plenty of visitors to the table and lots of chatting going on. The other benefit of the show is I got to catch up with a couple of old wargaming colleagues, John, just returning to the hobby and Mick who even invited me up for a game to renew hostilities. We just need to organise a game. We last played against each other before the outbreak of Covid. Mick was there with his Middle earth game, the battle of Azanulbizar, pitching the Dwarves against Orcs. Lots of lovely old Nick Lund figures on display.

With only being able to spend a couple of hours at the show, my spending was curtailed, much to the relief of my wallet. I did pick up 3 15mm adobe buildings, should see use as a bit of table decoration for our Zama game. There were also a few grass tufts and a book of army list for future ideas.

I did pick up a couple of 3d printed dark Age huts from Thom. They were free as he had printed more than he needed. No photo as I have already started to paint them.

The Lord, The Lady, The Lover and The Rogue

 

Just back from the Border Reiver show. The game seemed well received with plenty of visitors and lots of conversations being had. We were all set up for the show starting at 10am, we managed to get through nearly 2 games, though I only took photos of the first.

The Lady and her escort

Thom's magnificent Keep

The Lord emerges with part of his retinue

The Lover arrives

The Rogue emerges from the woods

Foot and mounted serjeants clash in the village

More outlaws start to engage the escort

The Lord's retinue rushing slowly to his Lady

Outlaws see off the mounted serjeants

The Lover's retinue move through the village

Outlaws ransack a building

And another one goes up in flames

More burning buildings

The escort meets up with troops from the Lord's retinue

The Lord and Lady united

The end

The smoke markers from Thom were superb for highlighting the burning buildings, those and his 3d printed keep were popular talking points.

I did mange to get around the show to pick up a small amount of loot.

Some second hand peasant spearman to expand the retinue. A Blacksmith and a dwarf warrior from Reaper Bones, some Franco Prussian War Landwher, enough for two small regiments. I also pick up some brushes for Mitch. Overall a good day

Border Reiver 2025

On Sunday the club put on a Chain of Command game for the Border Reiver show. Sean did a superb job and managed to get through 2 games on the day, with the Americans and Germans taking a victory each.

Sean's new Chateau was a superb centre piece to the game. The game did seem well received with plenty of visitors. I though, took the opportunity to have a mooch around the show and pick up some loot, mainly around my latest project of the Barons War.

I picked up a 3d printed cart and trade goods from Iron gate scenery, walls from Last Valley, bases from Pendraken as well as some grass tufts, dice tray, paints and weathering powders. I also picked up a box of Fireforge serjeants as I obviously needed more of them.

Back at the club I ran another learning game of Barons War. Same terrain, different scenario and the battle fought in a different area of the table. It was also the first use of mounted troops on both sides, they didn't last long.

Now I await some dry weather to get some figures painted.

Show loot, more hedges and bitten off more than I can chew

So on Saturday I did manage to pop into my local wargames show - Border Reiver in Gateshead. It was good to catch up with a number of local gamers who I missed last year as I couldn't attend when my wife had covid. Unfortunately I couldn't stay for more than a couple of hours as duty called on a visit to the in-laws. There were a few empty tables, impacted by the Rail strike, but the games that were there all looked rather nice. I somehow forgot to take any photos as I was too busy chatting. As for show loot, not much was purchased, just some of the essentials required.

The only figures of note were some sheep from Pendraken, to help build up the flock for future 15mm games. I did pick up a couple of packs of dismounted US cavalry troopers from Galloping Major to add to my collection. They do look very nice and I even got a nice free figure. Other than that some coarse flock, a couple of paints and some brushes.

As I was waiting for some of my extra ECW stuff to arrive I decided to put together a few more pieces of hedge. I went for a little variety on this batch with the addition of a few different colours to break up all that green as well as adding some fencing I already had (some old metal pieces I've had for years). I also put a little camp piece together.

While I have been working on the ECW collection, I did have the goal in mind of re-fighting Marston Moor next year at Border Reiver. However a little reality check has set in and the timeline will need revising. One of the issues is Warlord does not yet produce any epic scale Covenanters, not much of an issue for the horse as we can use other manufacturers, the musketeers we can 3d print. It's the pike, they are too brittle for printing, so we would need to use alternative ranges which increases cost and painting time. (Strips of figures paint up a lot quicker than 10 individual figures). Another issue is no-one at the club has committed yet for Ruperts' horse, I do not mind doing them but need to finish Newcastles' 16 regiments and 15 for Fairfax. I also don't particularly want to be left with nearly 30 regiments of Royalist horse that I'll probably never use unless fighting Marston Moor.

So a revised goal is to work towards Adwalton Moor for Border Revier as we don't need the Covenanters, also both sides also fought at Marston Moor, so in effect we are only delaying Marston Moor by a year, hopefully gives Warlord time to produce the Scottish infantry,

Vapnartak

Well I finally made it to my first wargame show since the Covid pandemic hit these shores. It was fittining it was York, as York was the last show I went to in February 2020.

Despite some anxiety mixing with so many people, it was nice to feel normal again, well aprt from wearing a mask. The show was much more spread out. The large games normally on the ground floor were moved upstairs. I even forgot to take pictures...doh!

Purchase wise I was very restrained, keeping to my wanted list, though I did pick up a small bargain.

So some well needed paints, bases. I even picked up some brushes from ABC to try out as well as a few from my normal supplier Coritani. 

I picked up a resin well for my Colonial games, some Carlist LMG teams for the SCW and a pack of war mammoths for my 10mm Chaos army. Lastly was the bargain I came upon by chance, picking up 5 packs of Peter Pig Pony Wars range for £10. Nice little additions to the small collection that I really need to think about starting.

So happy to be back at show, look forward to the next one.

Vapnartak 2020

I made it down to York today for my first show of the year. This is the big one for me as the show scene is rather sparse in the North.

The layout this year seemed much better, giving plenty of room to actually move around. They thankfully moved the Bring and Buy to an upper floor. First year I've actually been able to see anything, even picking up a few bargains, a Panzer III, German MG42 team in winter clothing and a couple of game mats.

I didn't really study any of the games  on display, though there were a few eye catching ones. I just spent my time shopping and picking up about 80% of the items on my shopping list.

So some Oathmark Elves to complete my LOTR project, Some WW2 Germans in winter clothing, dice tray, bases and paints. I even had some change.  So very happy. Now back to the painting table.