Alumwell that was interesting

Off to Wolverhampton on a wet Sunday morning to the WMMS at Alumwell. We were taking our Edgcote game, in its first public iteration. Alas due to time constraints we weren't as far advanced as we might have liked, as Phil had intended to finish basing the figures, but ran out to time. Still, we had two painted armies and in lieu of a finished purpose built terrain board my dressing up box had to suffice.


All in all it looked okay, although I didn't notice that my cloth wasn't on straight. And I should have lined up the terrain to the map on the new Edgcote banner for ease of explanation


Here's Pembroke's fine fellows. The stamina tracks behind the units will have the middles of the slots drilled out so you can see the table through them eventually.


Redesdale's rebels with their archers out front, setting off to provoke the men on the other hill. You'll note that I've put a hedge down the side of the stream. Although there's no mention in the sources streams and rivers that form field boundaries often have a hedge line too, and it adds a bit more interest to an otherwise open field.


The Earl of Pembroke preparing to leave the Inn at Banbury. Why the "Damousel" has turned her back on him I can't say.


Then the family Fordham turned up. Graham F (in the blue coat) did the standards and banners for the armies and helped identify the men involved. On the right is Tamara, his daughter, who is a talented junior DBA player and usually does pretty well against the grown ups too. They helped with the play through, Dad taking the Earl of Pembroke's men.


Tamara moved the Rebels up to the river line and sent forward her archers.


Pembroke's men made a tentative start, with not everyone advancing.


However the left wing didn't hold back, and stormed across the river line, breaking their rascally opponents.


Just in time for Clapham to arrive, this time with a mounted contingent. They fell upon the flank of Pembroke's left hand division and broke them.


Elsewhere the Rebels were taking a bit of a pounding, their left wing having broken. Looks like Pembroke might just have got away with it.


Elsewhere the WW2 re-enactors were there is force, with two jeeps, a truck and a motorbike. Big shout out to the dick head with the motorbike who started it up and then rode it off through a convention centre full of people, filling the room with petrol and carbon fumes from a presumably vintage engine which seems to have no baffles in the exhaust. Thanks mate. You could have just wheeled it out.


The toy soldier displays were mostly of the 28mm big table type, so lots of big toys to look at. I was unable to spend any time with any of them as there were only two of us on the stand so I don't know if there was anything going on that was ground breaking in actual game design.


Nice looking Japanese v Dutch in Java game.


And then there was Martin Goddard, Mr Peter Pig, one of the hobby's good guys. Produces great figures and imaginative rule sets which he explains clearly and with a lot of patience. I would have loved to have found time to chew the fat with him.


His 1/450 Pirate ships are top notch.


Nice looking Star Wars game, but why has that walker got a black base?


Next along was a Peninsula War game.


They had a lot of figures going at it in the middle of the table.


The Border Wargames fellows were doing a 1745 Jacobite Rebellion game. I couldn't work out if it was a historical scenario or an excuse to get out a nice boat model and use some big cliff models.


The jury is still out for me in respect of using teddy bear fur for a table covering.


Nice looking Great Northern War game, but not quite as interesting as looking at your mobile phone.


Hordes of 28mm Mahdists surge towards beleagured Egyptian defenders. Wargaming chum "Rumblestrip" in attendance.


Nice 10mm (I think) game of Blenheim, not marred AT ALL by the presence of two soft drinks cans on the opposite sides of the table. Come on guys, get a grip.


The 18th Century Warfare re-enactors were putting on a game with Peter Dennis' paper soldiers.


It took me a couple of walk pasts to realise that this was what they were, so there's something right going on there.


The traffic on the stand was steady but not overwhelming. This young fellow knows way more about jousting helmets and armour than anyone honestly needs to know. Otherwise it was a pleasure to meet up with someone who had bought the 1460 board game, but not from us at a show. He'd picked it up at UK Games Expo last year so we had a good chat, where he told me how much he liked it, which is always good. It also turned out he was a blog follower, having come here for my tips on painting plastic figures. So, hi there, - leave a comment and say hello.

And then it was time to pack away and head back down the Motorway to Northamptonshire. Next event for us will be Milton Keynes Campaign, on the 11th/12th May. By then Phil should have finished basing the figures and building the wagons and produced the purpose built terrain.

BTW Tickets for our all day conference on Edgcote on 27th July are now on sale to members of the Northamptonshire Battlefields Society & the Battlefields Trust. Priced at £30, the ticket includes not just 5 great speaker sessions but also tea & coffee, a full buffet lunch and car parking. Tickets for non-members go on sale on the 15th, and are priced at £35. You can get them on this link:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/abington-park-museum-14041773148.


Comments

  1. Both the Peninsular War game and Blenheim look superb despite the soft drinks in the latter.

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    1. I think the Peninsula game was a case of quantity having a quality all of its own. The Blenheim game did look brilliant and was refreshing in terms of the figure size. That's why the drink cans are so annoying. That's something that is so easy to avoid.

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