Well yesterday was Smoggycon, and I think it went pretty well from a wargamers point of view.
There seemed to be plenty of people through the doors, and the show didn't empty till after the witching hour of 2.30pm.
One thing that did strike me after I had set up our game, which was the first time that my entire Borgia army was on show. It was the fact that I had painted so much stuff!
When you knuckle down and start painting a new project, ie 28mm renaissance, I was enjoying myself so much painting the figures that I forgot to see just how many units I had.
I will now have to carry on of course, and paint up a similar amount of opponents, probably French. But then I think some Spanish would be nice. Its amazing how one can justify anything.
As for the actual game, well Pike and Shotte can be a bugger to play when you are throwing bollocks dice. The dice gods were certainly playing games with me, the first time I went to fire my battery of guns I threw double one. Now John tried to convince me that it meant the battery was out of action for the entire game, I was having none of it though. He likes to play games with an opponents mind. John kindly let it go stating that they were out of range anyway.
Of course when he moved into range on move two, and I again throw double one then you start to believe that things are against you. Especially after I read the rule about battery firing, and of course John was right. So bang went my guns. [ See above]
Move three witnessed me throwing a blunder which allowed my infantry to wander around like lost sheep.Moves four and five saw me fail the command orders. By this time what had been a mature wargamer was beginning to behave like a child, and a naughty one at that.
So I called a time out, to allow me to speak to various people who needed urgently to talk to me, well actually I was a bit like the looney on the bus, as I tried to engage in conversation with anyone who stared towards where I was stood.
It was nice though to meet and actually talk to people about wargaming. I finally met Andy Callan, of hair roller fame which was very pleasant. I also bumped into Phil Robinson and was able to hand to Charlie Wesencraft a copy of Achtung Schweinhund which I hope he enjoys as much as I did.
I finally got to meet JorD ie Dennis who only lives in Redcar. [Dont forget to e mail]
Anyway after a time out, things began to swing my way. Colin who had the left flank command was slicing through the enemy like hot butter, whilst John managed to blunder the Black Bande back across the table. After that my dice throwing improved, certainly enough to claim a victory if I was that way inclined. I had hoped to show some decent photographs, but my camera is playing up.
I did learn I need more command bases. I will certainly need to construct some movement trays, and I will have to cut the sub units down to three bases.
Apart from that I think people who stopped to look will have enjoyed the game.
As a show Pendraken are to be congratulated, the advertising appeared to pay off, the food was cheap and pretty good and the traders who I talked to appeared to be happy.
I didnt really get to view many games, but Ian Callan, brother of Andy was next to us, with The Battle of Gettysberg in 6mm. I was really taken with the way the game used tiles for hidden movement.I have used this idea at the Wargames Holiday Centre, but not in our 6mm games. It looked good and worked well.
