WMMS Alumwell - 8th March 2020

Off to Wolverhampton for our first public show of the year.

Alumwell was where we debuted Edgcote last year.  Then we had quite a few painted figures, and some idea of how the game would work, but we were using a green cloth and foam rubber hills.. As you can see below we've moved on from there.

We just about got there in time. We had to pack and unpack the cars before we headed off so we could fit everything in plus our bonus helper for this year (thanks Graham!) and we did get there 5 minutes before the opening. Luckily other stalwarts of the Northamptonshire wargaming scene were also attending, so a quick text as we got close to the venue saying "meet us at the entrance!" produced another 3 volunteers for carrying the car contents to the stand, so thanks to Chris A, another Graham and Steph.

Yes, we have made a lot of progress from last year.

Phil & Graham got to play the game in the afternoon. Funnily enough we've been taking this game round for over a year now and I hardly ever play it. Too busy stopping small children getting their fingers caught in the visors of the helmets we have on display.

We had good space for our stand. We got a bit squeezed last year, IIRC, but we were better placed this time round.

Good amount of passing traffic kept me busy on the armour and sales stand. Met a couple of people who wanted to say hello to Trebian as well. (I arranged with Leon at Pendraken for him to have IGABC on his stand. No one bought any, but then he didn't sell any rules all day, so I'm not in the least put ou.). One person who stopped by to say hello had played TUIH with cardboard counters and liked them. He'd picked up his copy from Bring & Buy last November. It struck me that's really quick from buying to dumping the rules, given the launch date was mid October.

I had a couple of quick walks round the hall and picked up some odds and ends (see below). The re-enactor types were there in force. The WW2 types have now got a small artillery piece.

Here we have a cross period exchange.

Then a chance to look at a few games. This was a 54mm reverse Rorke's Drift called "Lawk's Drift"

There were many Zulus.

This was a mega game of Sharpe Practice set in the French Indian Wars, I think.

It looked impressive. Must have taken the whole day to play.

Following on from last Tuesday, here's a Blitzkrieg Command beach landing.

Right next to us was a lively Jacobite Rebellion game. Top headgear, guys.

Then across the way was a Home Guard invasion game that everyone was enjoying.

Whilst on my stroll round I spotted one of these in 15mm. Brilliant. I wanted one for my 1879 games as they're a feature of the nitrate mines on the Altiplano. The model railway types have them but they're a wee bit expensive. This was £3. I went back for a second and bought the last one.

A chat on the stand with someone asking when I was going to release my SCW rules drew to my attention that Martin Goddard had released a pack of mortars with crew in Isabolina Caps. Now Martin told me when I asked many years ago that there was no demand for them, so I'm pleased he's got round to them (ideally we need some in berets and adrian helmets who aren't in uniforms from other periods, but these will do for starters). Of course when I got there despite there being no demand they had sold out...except Nigel found me a packet just lying around on the stand.

I was also able to pick up two more boxes of these, after finding one by chance in my local model shop. On reflection I should have gone with the Firing Line figures originally, and these were a £1 more expensive than my first box and I have no idea when I 'll get round to painting them but they are rather nice.

So, a rather good day out for us and me, before driving home to watch the England/Wales game on catch up TV from Saturday which rounded off a near perfect weekend.