Colours 2015

So before I post on the results of the game [clicky] just a little post on our trip to Colours which, as ever, was a splendid day out - notable this year for the first time attendance at the show of my grandson - only 2, but you have to start them somewhere *...  so yes, if I ran over your toes with an infeasibly large pram, that was me, and I do apologise..  😁

Good to be back at Colours again after last years absence, I thought the show was good overall, 7 maybe 8 out of 10? Downsides...??

• Reducing it from one to two days meant it was very busy in the morning.. even without a pram, the preponderance of backpacks and people in narrow aisles would have made it a bit of a task (and with the aforesaid pram it was errrrmmm...  "difficult", in places - pales into insignificance compared to the wheelchair experience though I guess...). 
• The Colours show always used to be a competition weekend as well, so reducing it to one day meant that there were fewer games going on..  not a big issue in and of itself as I have little interest in competition games, but the lack of those gamers meant it was a little quiet on the first and second floors... couldn't help thinking a few of the traders on the cramped ground floor could have been found some nice space upstairs...  
• Purely personally I would have preferred a Sunday..  I'm guessing most Dad's will tell you Saturdays are busier than Sundays for them...  so Sundays are my preferred show day, or I have to put people out by disappearing for the day...

Nothing major then, and I still enjoyed it greatly, and it was much quieter after lunch so I just retraced my steps to see the bits I missed..  the club should feel well chuffed at what they put on...  superb airy venue, and lots of organisation come to fruition...

So, spends??  An impulse buy but I spotted this on the Paul Meakins stand and had to have it - no idea why, sometimes the urge just grabs you..

I have long fancied branching my War of the Spanish Succession project out of north east Europe, so this is just the ticket..  I shall advise further once I've read it, but at £5 off it was a bit of a bargain at £15 certainly too good to be missed...  and it was the last one so clearly I wasn't alone!

Shopping and lunch done it was time to take the young master round the games, but he was flat on his back and snoring so I propped him against a wall and go on with it... so in time honoured fashion, and in descending order, he are my games of the show....  I have to say, it wasn't a stand out year (in my ever so humble opinion), but the following caught my eye enough to get the camera out....

So first off (and no I'm not going to say "last" - far too negative)  - the Skirmish Wargames Society were there with a big game based on the Battle of Newbury (naturally) in the English Civil War..   all 54mm figures and terrain, but I can't help thinking that this has seriously missed the point of being a skirmish based club?????

Spot the guy in the tree..

Next - a WWII North African game, that buy all rights should have been higher on my list, but which for me lost it on two counts..  the terrain was a little errr...  lacklustre, and it just didn't look "right" - the table is too crammed, the models are too close together....

Any self respecting Stuka pilot would think all of his Christmases had come at once...

Having said that the models were lovely, and superbly painted....

Next - another game that should have featured higher on my list (scale - tick - period - tick) but which lost it for me a bit on look and feel - figures were quite dark, and not many of them, but a pleasing looking table..  this was Penarth Wargames Club - one of two offerings they put on - this was their American Civil War game

 

Next - third place - the second of the two Penarth offerings - this time American war of Independence in 40mm - nice looking game but for me, the figures (by Redoubt, I think) are a little too big, and the terrain is a little too pretty....  sigh...  picky, picky, picky....

 

 

So.. in second place, and just to show that I don't always mark games down because I have no interest in the scale or period, is this quite astonishing effort...

6mm figures (I think) - Franco Prussian war...

The table looked like a 3D ordnance survey map.. I also believe that the game was hosted by the rules writer..  I think he is the same chap (Bruce Weigle) who put the game on at the last Colours I saw [clicky] - he seems to specialise in the type of terrain we see here

Makes you shiver just looking at it!

 

...and in first place this independent offering (I had a chat with the guys putting it on and they are of no particular club - they just fancied putting the game on...)  Napoleon in Egypt, in 25mm

If I were ever to return to Napoleonics (and it was the first period I was ever really interested in as a young wargamer) this would be the theatre that would drag me in...

Brightly coloured and unusual uniforms for the French (lots of purple as I remember!) but also a unique and different opponent in the Turks...

So nothing outstanding in the scenery - it supports the game - but lots and lots of figures, an interesting period, and I kept coming back to have a look at it.... (they played it twice and on both occasions the Turks had been wiped)

Nice!!

To finish off a few shots of the crowds...

Looking towards the Bring and Buy - Napoleon in Egypt game just the left..  Skirmish Wargames Club just beyond..

Looking the other way - more participation and a few Bolt Action competition games..

 

Great day out - looking forward to Warfare now..

* He was particularly taken with the participation game featuring chariot racing with Playmobil chariots.. big, bright primary colours, what's not to like for a 2 year old?? 😀