Warfare 2015.

A decent into madness ! , the above photo sums a lot of the weekend up - we didn't eat all 12 donuts ourselves - only 10 of them ! . We had a better journey down to Reading this year arriving at just gone 9 o'clock - not the 7 hours it took last year ! and once settled into our room we set up our gaming board up on the table ( 2' x 4' ) on which to play our games over the weekend.

One of the first games was a 6mm Flames of War game provided by 'A' it worked well and I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with my attacking American force versus the Afrika Korps in Tunisia . I'm afraid I can't warm to 6mm miniatures , they have their place but not for me .

The following day we went round to the show which was only a few hundred yards from our hotel . I'm afraid I didn't want much this year and found the show rather mediocre , but there were several games of note in the competition hall that were of interest. 

This was a large ECW game with some stunning terrain made from 'teddy bear' fur .

It had as well some very nicely painted figures , not sure how they got the 'teddy bear' fur to look like that - a beard trimmer ? .

The Skirmish Association once again put on a stunning display using 54mm plastic figures , this time it was a Plains wars game - the battle of Beecher Island I think .

With hordes of Red Indians !!! 

On the Saturday afternoon we set up a 10mm AWI game using 'Black Powder' rules , we then adjourned for a excellent curry and a few drinks.

I took on the role of the American commander and did well initially , staling several of 'A's attacks even though badly outnumbered .

The view from the British lines - counters are for the command initiatives of the Generals.

The stalwart American militia , who were very poor but did rather better than expected . 'A' won the game after some very confused fighting and the Americans were driven off but had fought well. 

In the morning 'A' set up a 'Lion Rampant' game using 15mm Italian Wars figures with some stats he had been working on .

I did rather well in this game whittling down his forces and gaining victory - it worked very well as a period and had a different 'feel' to it from our usual medieval games.

As time was ticking on (we had to be out of the room by 12 noon) we had a quick game of 'Songs of Blades and Hero's' , both sides trying to capture the magical statue in the centre of the table . Now getting 'A' to play any sort of Fantasy game is an achievement in itself (very conservative in his gaming) - but he actually won and even enjoyed himself ! - wonders will never cease ! . We visited the show again then headed North again , once more a good journey and so ended a successful weekend .