Tag: royal armouries

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wargame shows

Fiasco 2025

This year the dates fell such that no sooner was The Other Partizan only just fading in my memory than I was heading to Fiasco and Leeds in the morning sun.

I grabbed a coffee in a nearby cafe as I had turned up early. Obviously as everyone got the lay in bonus with British summertime ending, I thought it would be a big queue on opening at ten.

Centre shows the exhibition area entrance – the queue just after ten was not what I expected.

The reality is that the musuem while being a giant venue itself offered perhaps the floor space only half of that if the normal dock hall venue.

That said the dock hall venue had some of the most generous circulation areas of any major show. And that was a big plus I always thought. And of course it had a very high ceiling which simply added to a cavernous feel.

Today we got a compact, cosy yet brighter venue.

The victims for space were the big demo games – those that characterise the partizan shows. And some bigger retailers were missing.

However the traders present offered a nice selection and choice. In fact having gone intending to only maybe do some gaming I ended up buying quite a few things

Bow and blades stand yielded some Vallejo varnish
I can never refuse a bargain and love these pre coloured card models – at colour party paints
Bases from pendraken
Some nice ship kits at stonewall figures

I was very happy with my purchases.

Actual size miniatures have a great table of products – I had to resist because I am still painting last year’s acquisitions
Some nice printed ships and planes at three decks dockyard

The games were mainly small table affairs with plenty of participants joining in.

Two tables of battletech on show
Big games were in evidence but in smaller scale such as bouvines in 6mm
Plenty of naval action over on the right!
Bolt action action!
Some great Greek style Fantasy
With Some nice scenery
Vertical gaming – a neat, small but intriguing game by Django Ensoe and Stafford Collie
The display included some useful material
Simple figure requirements
Purpose written ruleset
Leeds the organisers have a big club
The facility was fully occupied and cosy with a great cafe in the museum just a few feet away if you chose to ignore the dedicated bar. The facility was better than the farm shed at Newark
The organisers-2025 flyer shows last years black cavern
Maybe next up- I want to go but other priorities may prevent me
I nipped into the armouries looking for a present for someone in their bookstore but came away with a surprise for me instead.

So a good day out as it happened.

Postscript

Thought I would share some extra bits

The books I bought at the armouries include some period illustrations. All helping to get into that feel for the times – a few telephones, telegrams for those who could afford it and snail mail ruled the day – or probably word of mouth!

I dug out 2024 because I did a long post on the armouries – no photos this year.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2024/10/27/a-genteel-fiasco-part-two/

And here is last years show post.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/2024/10/29/a-genteel-fiasco-part-1/