Author: Mike

Tabletop sale!

Slots are available for the tabletop sale now: see the sidebar for details.

We’ve revamped things for this year slightly. First off, there are now five, rather than four, one hour slots, starting at 10am rather than 10:30am. If you’re booked in for the 10am slot you’ll be able to get in a little bit ahead of time to set up. Secondly, we’ve changed the prices slightly – the average cost of a table is still the same, but they now range from £7 down to £3 as you get later in the day. As before, this doesn’t include admission.

We would ask, as a courtesy to other traders (and we’re aware our store won’t let us restrict this in software) potential traders could restrict themselves to a maximum of three slots initially.

SAGA Tournament

This year, we’re going to be running a SAGA Melée again at Hereward: this time, Andy from Ainsty Castings has very generously agreed to be the ‘man in charge’ for the event.

You can sign up here – entry is £10 including show admission. The rules pack will be updated shortly, just as soon as Andy gets it to us.

Gaslands Tournament!

We are beyond delighted to announce that this year, we have invited Mike Hutchinson, author of the hit post-apocalyptic driving/combat game Gaslands, to come and run a tournament at the show.

If you haven’t come across the game yet, we strongly recommend it – it’s a massive hit at our club, and winner of the UK Games Expo award for Best Miniatures Rules (both judges’ award and public vote).

If you’re interested, you can sign up via the link above or on the right: entry is £10 including show admission, and we will be using the Gaslands Organised Play rules that Mike has drafted.

Footsore Miniatures

We’re delighted to announce that our headline sponsors for this year’s show are the fabulous Footsore Miniatures.

As well as producing (from the hands of sculptor Bill Thornhill) several ranges of fantastic Dark Ages figures, they also produce the brilliant Gangs of Rome game and its supporting  cast of miniatures.

They have promised us what sounds like the perfect giveaway figure for this year’s show, and as soon as we have a sculpt to show you, it’ll be up on the site.

First tickets on sale!

Only a week and change to Salute, which is traditionally about the time thinks start rolling here at Hereward Towers.

If you check to the right, you’ll see that we’ve put the first few tickets on sale – advance admission, and our first two tournaments, the Magic and X-Wing events. Both of the latter are being put on by our regular tournament sponsors, the guys at local game store The Rift.

More to follow over the weekend, just as soon as we’ve sorted out the details.

Thank you, for another year

So, that’s it. Another day of games, traders and the like in the well-lit confines of the Cresset.

Huge thank-yous to all our traders, and everyone who put on games, to our sponsors, to Karen, David, Grant and their team at the venue, and to all our volunteers from the club who helped on the day, be it with load-in/out, setup and teardown, or generally keeping the show running. But chiefly, thanks to you all for coming, and hopefully enjoying yourself playing games and buying things.

Congratulations to our trophy winners:

The Steve Frisby Memorial Trophy: this one we’ve come to categorise as ‘the game we most wish we’d put on’. This went to Lenton Gamers, for the fabulous Oppy Wood 1817 game.

The Nick Hawkins Memorial Trophy: I’ve explained this as ‘best build’, in that its intended to be for the best game in terms of modelling/scenic skill/ingenuity that catches our eye. This was awarded to Stand To Games beautifully scratchbuilt piece of Spain for their Forager Game.

Once again, thank you all, and we’ll see you next year on Sunday September 2nd 2018.

X-Wing Tournament Update

A note for all X-Wing tournament entrants – by dint of some subtle furniture arranging on the ground (the venue let us in to check setup this afternoon), we’ve made enough space to fit the X-Wing tournament in next to the Rift’s stand (T13), so there will be step-free access for entrants AND you won’t have to trapse up and downstairs for food and to spend your money (our traders like it when you spend money!).

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow. Remember the tournament starts at 9am!

Show Awards

As for the past two years, we will be awarding the Steve Frisby Memorial Trophy for the best game in the show, as voted for by our members. (OK, to be fair, ‘voted for’ usually translates to the chairman running round the show at 2:30 and canvassing the opinions of any members who haven’t passed out from exhaustion, but you get the general idea!). our criteria tend to be that the winner is a game we think Steve would have enjoyed, and that we as a club wish we’d have come up with!

Past winners have been:

    • 2015 – Huntingdon Wargames Club – Catch The Pigeon
    • 2016 – Forest Of Dean Gamers – Martian Practice

In addition, this year, we’re beginning a new award, the Nick Hawkins Memorial Trophy. This is a little bit different, in that it is entirely 3D printed with the exception of the plaque: the base and stand are printed in a wood effect filament, and the plane itself is one of Nick’s own 3D design files of a Hawker Hotspur. We’ve chosen to award it to the game we consider the best build, be it the best scenery or the cleverest bit of engineering – we think Nick would have liked it that way.