Hammerhead 2025

Yesterday I went to Hammerhead at the Newark Showground. Pictures will follow once I get them organised and catalogued to the games.

Impressions

I got there around 11.15 and left around 15:30. When I arrived, people appeared to be already leaving, although could just have been putting stuff in their cars.

There was a queue, unprecedented in my experience unless turning up before a show opens. I was therefore expecting it to be busy; it wasn't. I think the queue was down to the entry system, with one person taking entry fee, one putting on the bracelet and another handing a plan, which sort of created a delay in filtering people in. I have to say I saw lots of people bypassing the entry - some were carrying boxfiles so may have been part of the DBA competition. I'm sure if you had just walked in  confidently enough, especially if carrying something, I doubt you would have been challenged.

Big plus, a printed floor plan! I did note Bacchus seemed absent, although I may have just missed them / assumed the stand was part of Warlord.

The show remained busy throughout without becoming crowded. The traders seemed to be busy, except for a few "niche" stands. The "bring and buy" was a strange mix of three deep or empty spaces, depending on what was being offered for sale.

The games were a mix of bigger tables and very small 3'x3' or 4'x4' with a lot of sci-fi and fantasy mixed with historicals. Some of the bigger "traditional" games looked unplayed, with the odd punter maybe speaking to the person(s) putting it on. Other bigger tables with traditional wargames looked as if the players were the ones putting it on, as they didn't change throughout the day..... 

A few games have been at other shows, some were new. The terrain was mixed, from TSS tiles or green cloth to sculpted, ratty looking trees to dioramic masterpieces with everything in between. The DBA competition looked especially grim and could have been from the 1970s or 1980s......horses for courses I suppose.

I spent a lot of the day speaking to some old mates from the Tyneside Wargames club who were putting on Death on the Nile - scratchbuilt 10mm Egyptian v Sea  People naval battle created by Pete Foggin, who grabbed some coffee stirrers for more ships! I did see Martin Rapier as I was talking, but didn't manage to speak to him or bump into him afterwards.

I did have a chat with Simon Miller and Ian Notter who were there with a To the Strongest Glorantha / Runequest game featuring Ian's Praxian Nomads and Richard Crawley's Morocanth (I only worked out it was Richard after I had walked away) as well Simon's lovely troops including the Big Red Bat itself (display only). We chatted about adapting the rules for Glorantha and model Sables, Impala and Antelope......

A good day out, finished with a good VWC session, left me feeling as if I've recovered some of my wargaming mojo....