Britcom 2003.

This first outing for the club was a real eye opener for me, and I totally enjoyed the show. Myself, Brian and Karl stayed at a campsite at Castle Donnington with our families, the site was very nice, all the facilities needed , showers, Toilets electric hookups ect...
The site was quiet even though the East Midlands airport was not too far away as was the race track, (Has the missus stopped terrorising the driving instructor now Karl?). And best of all a place to play games, (Yatzee, and don't try to kid me that you can't throw decent dice Brian because I've seen you do it!), have a laugh and get drunk of an evening.

MAD wargamers Russians

The site was a few miles from the venue, (about 8 miles roughly), but we didn't mind the short hop to the show. The only problem we had was on the first day when we drove straight past the main entrance, (how about a sign to direct people to the entrance), a little blue language and a quick about turn took us into the main grounds. I must say that parking was not a problem once on the site, ample springs to mind, pity Triples doesn't have as much. The second day we took a detour on our way back to the campsite via Derby, (didn't we Brian!), but we all make mistakes!!!.

More of the huge Mossborough 1813 game

Inside the main hall most of the space was taken up by the competition games, Traders around the outside, and at the entrance way between the trade and competition games were the demo's, including ourselves. The B.H.G.S. organisers were helpful and friendly and gave the show a nice "welcome to the show feel", although no free coffee or tea tickets were given to traders and demo'ers,  (We do get treated to this at Partizan!!!). One thing I must mention though and this happend often throughout the shows entirety, and much to the credit of the organisers, the control announcments were clear and also they let everyone know what was happening and where it was happening as well as the times.
Now to the nitty gritty...

Trade stands.

Although I'm more used to larger shows, Britcom although some what smaller than others was excellent as far as diversity and content of the traders that appeared, some of the traders such as Battle Honours, Andy Dumelow and Lancashire games to name but a few of the traders I recognised, but also quite a few that were new to me.

Border Warlords

All were pretty cheerful although a few did leave early on Sunday, unfortunately one of which I was going to get some 25mm vehicles for WWII from and another who was selling some rules me and some of the club lads were possibly going to try for the same period.
The only thing I didn't like and this was no fault of the organisers was that it was extremely hot in the hall due to the nice weather we had.


The bring and buy was quite delightful and well run and it was nice to look at the items on offer without the usual rugby scrum/ rucksack in the face type at other shows.

The Five Armies

Demo Games 

Well what can I say yet again more diversity again with historical games and fantasy, including our own historical game, (which was Fantasy as it was a club 1813 Napoleonic game from our club campaign, and yes the french won!). Playing our own demo and doing the usual job of public relations didn't give me much time to look at the other games although a couple I did note were as follows...

A nice little WWII at 25mm, with some nice terrain and beautifully painted vehicles the camo on the German armour was particularly impressive. The one thing I feel let the game down and this is just nit picking, was the buildings, don't get me wrong they were nice but could have done with a bit more detail and work, to match the impressiveness of the vehicles. Overall though a good game and a nice scene.

Another was the Battle of Five Armies fantasy game from Border Warlords, and incidentally the winner of the best demo game. The terrain was nicely sculptured and finish, depicting the mountain spur and the wall and gate that the Dwarves defended in the story, the figures were well painted and overall with the impressiveness of the game a deserved winner.

A Quick look at what I think was a French Indian wars skirmish type game was also worthy of note with some lovely figures nicely made terrain and a really nice fort.

Lastly was a very large Napoleonic game, using the "old type look" 35mm figures, apparently the collection was designed and moulds made by the chap's father back in the sixties, and now his son is continuing the job. To me they looked like the very old Britains type figure, (the type that fetches a lot of money at auctions), the painting was pretty much middle of the road but the game looked impressive and I did like the "grass", touches to the terrain that was really effective. The down side to the game though was not a lot seemed to move and most of the figures remained stationary, or seemingly, I couldn't say as I didn't get much chance to take in the action.

These are the games I noted mostly as those were the ones that were nearest so our own game, sorry if I've missed any but you know what it's like doing a demo and talking to the public very little time for anything else especially when you are trying to keep the game moving and looking interesting. The last thing that surprised me was a guy from the BBC who took pictures and interviewed gamers including us about wargames etc... and this can be seen on the BBC website. For more info and pics visit http://www.bhgs.co.uk/

Student accommodation	Cheap, but clean

In all it was a great show and I've a good feeling we will definitely be appearing again to this event if the lads at B.H.G.S will have us, If they do we'll see you all again next year!.

Steve Crofts

Please remember to mention Wargames Forum when contacting traders!

Return to Wargames Forum Return to Around the Shows  Return to What's New