Reading between the lines

I've said it before, so I'll say it again "Wargames shows show you the best and the worst of the hobby, all in the same room!".

Having said that I've always enjoyed a show, better or worse, for any number of reasons and today's trot out to Warfare with Mr C was no different.

There was some nice stuff, see below, amongst what was something of a sea of mediocrity (nothing personal!). On the way round we did make a number of observations that I shall now inflict upon you :)

During the drive we'd got a bit misty eyed about 40K and various campaign and tourney weekends of yore. Then we watched one guy use True Line Of Sight to shoot down a Raider through a dense wood by shooting UNDER the branches whilst another chap had deployed a Razorback on top of a Bastion. Never mind!

The Flames of War tourney had close to 40 players and plenty of really nice tables to play across. 40K and Fantasy had maybe 20 players combined and whatever was left in the bottom of the scenery boxes. Interesting!!


Going back to the quality of demo / participation games, there were a lot of nice, tidy 4x4 tables about. Think high-end club game. Nothing wrong with that in itself, we as the club have done the same, and I found many of these tables giving more for my attention to be caught by but is this some form of erosion?

Just a question as to be honest, by rule of thumb, the larger the table was the less of an impresion it made. Is GRAND gaming making way for the more PRACTICAL? It has been for me for some time! Along with Zombies, I've been noticing a rise in 15mm Sci-Fi and one game I stood and watched play through, as well as the Mantic rules, was GruntZ. Impressed!!

Shaun has made some purchases in that direction and I can feel the draw strengthening. A bit of lunch-time e-browsing is in order!
As for my own purchases I picked up some bits from Second City to go towards the potential revival of the Star Wars RPG, sometime in the new year, in the way of some shoot-out cover and someone to have a shoot-out with.

I also had a good chat with some old GW mates, now with Warlord, whilst making a (purchasing)start on Zombie Village. The garden was out of stock, possibly til the next year, but after listening quizically for a while Dave dug me out a little gem...... a blister of dead livestock.Just what every Zombie Village needs :)

RUGBY WARNING / RUGBY WARNING / RUGBY WARNING

Both England and Wasps won. Hoorah. I've inflicted enough :)