Sheffield Triples 2011

I managed to hook up a lift to the Sheffield show on Sunday, and have a good old look around.  With a blog to fill with pictures I always go with a first intention to see the display games, with the hope of seeing a few impressive showpieces. 

This show didn't disappoint with several corkers, but the 'TooMuchLead - Best in Show' award, without any bias goes to my old pals, the Grimsby Wargames Society with their War of the Spanish succession game:

Some 3,000 28mm models laid out on a 20 foot by 6 foot table.  With an actual game being played to boot!

Featured terrain included a beautiful rendition of part of a Vauban fort.  Whilst at the other end of the battlefield was an enormous clash of horse.

What seemed to amaze visitors was that this was not an unusually large game for the Grimsby club; sure a bit larger than normal but in no way unprecedented.  I know from my years with them that sticking a couple of thousand models on the table of an evening is the way they like to do things. 

I was nevertheless impressed, and so too were the show judges, who gave the Grimsby lads the award for best display game.

Elsewhere there was plenty to see, kicking off with a lovely Viking raid game:

The standard terrain was really nice, but the beautiful water was particularly eye catching.  The ships were striking too.  With all that front of house, it was easy to lose track of the models...

Next stop in no particular order was the Mantic stand, with a chance to have a good close look at their latest releases.  The Chaos Dwarves looked better in the flesh than I expected, but I was more interested in the Orcs:

These were the Greatax Orcs.  Now, if I was starting an Orc army new, then no question I would use these models they are rather nice, but, they are a lot smaller than the GW equivalents (though based on 25mm bases and standing larger than their previous models) and the faces are a bit old-school 'cheesy grin'.  A less green paint scheme may help you know.

Still the metal characters are really nice.

Other interesting items to look at were the various Ancients rules, notable that nowhere had copies of Warhammer Ancients 2.0; but everywhere there were copies of Clash of Empires and Hail Caesar; I ended up buying the latter, as I love how Black Powder - it's companion piece - dealt with horse and musket period warfare; but if the former takes off for points based gaming I could see myself being tempted.

Next up was the Hammers Slammers game, I'm thinking it was the South London Warlords, well who else might it be?

Grimsby may have brought the most 28mm models, but the award for most figures went to the 6mm Battle of Towton game, with around 12-15,000 figures I guess.

Not sure they moved anything though.

More visually appealing was the Ilkley Lads Lake Trasimene game.  Lots of fine ancient Romans and Celts.

Along from that was a 6/10mm Napoleonics game, that claimed to be the battle of Barossa.  Having gamed this myself last year I was curious about this, not least their interpretation of the terrain.  I felt they shuffled the position of some key features, and over stressed the village at the expense of the open forests around Barossa hill that were pivotal to the historical accounts of the battle.

But it looked nice.  As did Legendary Wargames Battle of Lutzen.

The second room was smaller but did contain a couple of interesting bits.  The game below, seemed to be one of those 'A Very British Civil War' games, and featured an ambitious model railway and dockyard on the sort of terrain that suggested the builder did favour train sets.

I always like a nice model boat:

Back in the main room, there was this rather chaotic looking Desert War battle in 20mm.  Lots going on, but as a result, too confusing on the eye.  A bit of a mess.

Another new release was on the Plastic Soldier Company's stand; one that nearly tempted me.  PSC had their Russian 45mm anti tank guns on display.  The set actually allows you to make three different guns, and comes with lots of crew and accessories. 

Three complete guns for £12 or so, seems good to me.

It was pleasing to see an attractive English Civil War game in my favoured scale for it, 15mm.  Also using a set of rules (how closely adhering to the structure of them, I don't know) 'Regiment of Foote' that I rate greatly.

Lastly another scenic work of art, in 6mm again, with an alternate treatment of Gettysburg.

So overall I found it to be a good show, plenty of nice games, an opportunity to catch up or bump into lots of old mates (especially Neil, Paul, Tim, Jason and Mark) and lots of traders who don't usually come up my way.  Not that I bought much; aside from Hail Caesar I bought a box of Immortal Spartans and a pair of undead models, and nothing else.  The venue was light and airy, and had plenty of room.  If there is a criticism, it would be the lack of hot food on site (that I could see).

Nevertheless, a fine day out.