No sign of Ian Gillan at the Derby World Championships

As the wargaming ambassador to Cyprus I arranged my visit back to the UK to coincide with the Wargames World Championships at Derby.   Since I am the only member of the MPGC visiting the Midlands at the moment I felt that it was my responsibility to have a look into the convention and see what was what.

Firstly it's not actually at Derby.  The venue is the exhibition hall at Castle Donnington race track, right beside the East Midlands airport.  This is not the first time I have ventured into this particular racing track.  In 1982, as a young and be-haired student I went to Monsters of Rock, and I have only the most vague memories of seeing some of my heroes, Gillan and Hawkwind.

I spent the entire weekend intoxicated on Kestrel 3% lager… quite an achievement in itself.

The day of the wargames show was typical Midlands weather, bleedin’ miserable rain.  Having returned from Cyprus yesterday I felt the freezing cold and heavy drizzle acutely.  The exhibition hall is much bigger than the shows I usually attend.  For me Gateshead is large, but this one was significantly larger with a much greater number of traders.  I spent a couple of hours touring the tables, curious as to which rules were being used, and openly checking out the figures being used.   Lots of 15mm games, and Essex were well represented. As for the rules: WRG 6th, WRG 7th, DBMNMNMMN, SAGA, Armati, Impetus. By far the most games were Ancients, but there were some moderns too.

I loved the Napoleonic divisional size display game, first one I saw on going in, and voted for it in the “vote for your favourite game.”  

I had a clear idea of what I wanted in terms of purchases too.  I wanted to add a Sea Peoples chariot and some skirmishers for my Bronze Age project.  What I got was old Nestor in his Mycenaean chariot, and a gang of streakers to back him up.   As well as these I found a couple of the Pendraken 10mm Normandy buildings.

The Toofatlardies were there demo-ing a game, great stuff.  I'm not in any sense a tournament gamer, but I really enjoyed watching some of the games progressing.

Some criticisms: The venue was so big that I lost the Pendraken stall, having seen it on the way in, and it took me an hour to find it again.  My fault I suppose.  I was also disappointed in the stock that Foundry were carrying.  I would have spent more but there were very few Bronze Age packs available.  The sheer quantity of utterly brilliant toys on display left me astonished, and I'm maintaining my resolve to keep my wargaming within the range of the projects I have going.

Rock God Ian Gillan.

All in all an interesting experience.  I'm not sure if I will go again next year, and to be honest I’ll probably be in Cyprus.  Still I really enjoyed it. 

No Ian Gillan there though!