Britcon interlude...

Yesterday, I went to Britcon in its third year at Nottingham University after moving from Manchester.

As the only wargames show actually in Nottingham (as oppose to outside Newark) it's very easy for me to get to, a 45 minute bus ride, free entry I tend to try and support it. Unfortunately, it has always been a "competition" show with other games and trade secondary to that.

The trade stands seemed sparser than previous years, with several local absences - no Foundry, no Caliver and some new additions TAG and various odd stands selling 3d prints, jewellery, dice  - lots of the others seem to have brought boxes or packaged deals, presumably easy to transport, but with resellers, very samey. Since the pandemic we have seen some companies disappear altogether or simply stop attending shows. It seemed reasonably well attended, but certainly not crowded outside the competition areas...

What the show really needs is to think about signage; I literally stumbled across a room full of games while looking for the bring and buy. I'd also question the use of space; there are several dank gloomy areas which may be fine for competition games, but a new range of paints had set up in one of the gloomiest areas and were offering people the opportunity to paint.....I declined their offer, if only as I need at least some natural light! I never did find the Lard zone - that's three years in a row! There was also supposed to be a Megagame somewhere - no idea where it was though.

Games - for reasons best known to themselves, the most photogenic games were pushed away in a room, while the ones in the main atrium and area which led off that were....OK. Most had no signage to advertise what it was they were doing.....

In the Atrium - Franco- Prussian (which I thought was Napoleonics until I saw the shell bursts), a pirate game and what I think is Bello Ludi - Arnhem / Oesterbeek?

In the gloomy area off the Atrium were some tables that I had no idea what they were as well as this one with confusingly three games set up on the same (small) table.

Well off the beaten track was a room that turned out to be the Wargames Illustrated room....

Inside were three huge tables:

SE Scotland - a what if Waterloo

Next to them, the Perry twins with Rick Priestly, Jervis Johnstone and several hangers on were engaged in a French in Egypt game on sculpted desert...

Final game in the room were the ever present Boondock Sayntes(?) with an Indian Mutiny game where building outnumbered figures! Full of dioramic effects including a flickering tea light on the burning ship....

I think the organisers rely on the competition entry fees and presumably trade stands to cover the event; I'd suggest if they want to cater to the non-competition players and general public they probably need a better trade presence and re-jig where the games are - I doubt many saw the above games- not to mention improving the signs and directions! Nottingham is centrally placed and the venue easy to reach on the tram from either the station or park and rides. If they charged an entry fee I think they would need to up their game, but that doesn't seem to be the focus of the show at present....

My purchases were limited; some earthworks and gabions and three Revo flag sets - all for Renaissance and some modern entrenchments for Arab-Israeli - who says I cannot maintain focus! The entrenchments etc were from Ironclad Miniatures - could make my own but they are nice, reasonable in price and save time. Flags from the Square - wish I'd bought more from him but didn't see anything that grabbed me.

Finished off the day with a very enjoyable session of the VWC.

As a bonus, my friend Pete Foggin sent me some photos of the game the Tyneside club put on at claymore in Edinburgh - the Schlieffen Plan - a grand tactical game covering all of the German offensive into France in 1914 - figures are 10mm and by Pete. I include some photos of his 10mm he has been working on which he plans to release commercially at some stage in the future...