Battleground 2018 Show

It’s nearing the end of November so it must be the Battleground Show in Stockton, ably organised by Leon and the chaps at Pendraken. Up early and a good run down the A19 saw me arrive with ten minutes to spare. It’s a good venue. Plenty of parking, easy to get to, and good lighting. And the event is free entry. What’s not to like. Only slight downside this year was that the student cafe was closed so there was a pie and sandwich van outside and drinks and little snacks in reception. They did at least have nice coffee and being vegan, I was glad I brought my own scran. The van apparently did very well and sold out and it seems that that will be the arrangement next year. 

As ever, some good games on display. There’s a gallery at the bottom of the page but the highlights for me were:

The Battle of Piercebridge by the Battlefield Trust. A very nicely done 2mm battlefield.

An excellent 10mm Battle of Blenheim by Stafford and District Wargames

And some lovely little figures in the Brompton Bankers Battle of the Standard

And mention must be made of the Lesser Spotted Peeler who with the Yorkshire Coast Gamers finally managed to turn up on the correct day and out in their DBN Waterloo game.

To be fair, all the other games were decent and above so no offence should be taken at not getting a special mention. See the gallery for more pics. It was great to chat with Tim W, Peeler, Goat Major, Bob, Norm, Dave J and many others. Thanks to Simon (Goat Major) for the loan of some AWI related rules things and to Peeler for delivering some Spencer Smith FPW Bavarians from Essex Boy. More to add to the Shinification.

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The Haul

So what did I buy, considering I was not desperate for anything. Theme of the day was Dark Age… I’d considered buying some civilian type figures from Newline as they have their sale in. But they didn’t have them. So they are coming in the post. I did buy some Viking Archers though. And then I popped to see Graham at Crann Tara. He was selling off a load of Early Saxon figures and some Crusader and other Normans. So a few packs of Normans were acquired and a few odd ‘character’ figures. The rummage boxes on Colonel Bill’s also saw a few cheap Norman types. 

And Crann Tara had a lovely new ADC on galloping horse that just had to be bought. And on the Tablestop sale I got five AWI Ammo wagons. Just need some horses with them. 

I tried not to buy some paint. Yet again I failed to check my stock so I’m sure at least a couple of these are unneeded. And I restricted myself to one pot of blue…

And Stuart H from the Tyneside Club had acquired some 15mm Samurai and amongst them were some FIW/AWI figures which he kindly passed to me. Not sure what make they are but they will fit in some where.

And finally, in the white envelope at the back in the top picture is another MDF paint rack from Warbases. I now need to sort my desk put to make room for it!

So, all in all a good day. There were some well attended talks upstairs during the day but I failed to make them. Hopefully they will repeat similar next time. So, thanks again to Leon and Co. for all the hard work for yet another excellent show.

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