Vapnartak 2015

The good lady encouraged us to drop in on this show whilst visiting York.  Which is a nice thing to offer to do; especially as for many a woman, wargaming is something to be tolerated at best.  Anyhoo, it's not a show I attend regularly, being that bit too far from home to justify normally.  But, not having been for five or so years I felt it was worth a try.

Something Romano-British with a pretty table

The organisers are very generous in recognising that partners are not always there of their own volition, and so my lady got in for free.  This may be commonplace, but at the few shows I go to I've not noticed it before, generally as I don't take a partner (they suffer enough!).  This and the airy venue at York racecourse are two positives about the show.

Hull wargames Malburian game was a decent display, in the right place to look its' best too...

Nevertheless, once through the door it was the usually sweaty rugby scrum of too many people and traders squashed in to too little space.  Personally I felt that more so than some other shows the games were rather lost in all this, easily overlooked or too crammed out to appreciate.  We did arrive at the peak time granted, but it felt like many of the display games were trapped in main thoroughfares or tucked away in dingy corners.  For me the traders could have been spread out better, but I'm sure the organisers did what they could.  Only on the second floor by the track-viewing windows did space and lighting for the games seem fine.

Kings of (slightly out of focus) War

That in mind I found some of the displays very familiar, indeed from reading other accounts it appears at least one of them appears every year in much the same guise - like a model railway set.  Some of the displays were of no interest, small or hey-ho humdrum.  Also I only took my mobile phone so my photos are only a sample of the day.

Brains...

Knowing the day before I was to visit I had only a brief time to think if I needed to buy anything, in the end I spent half the £100 budget I gave myself - some plastic Napoleonics and a Metal Renaissance cannon being the entirety of it.  I had hoped to find some books; but I managed to miss the book sellers in the melee.  Given I was there for less than 2 hours, with company to entertain too, it's no surprise.

Part of the 'train set';  a nice naval action, though everyone seems to have had their sails shot off...

So I had an OK time, I'm glad I don't turn up for this one religiously, given the faff involved, but it is a perfectly acceptable show.  We rounded off the day with a walk round the walls of York castle, the Shambles and a nice Italian meal.