Merry Xmas 2024

Wishing you all a very Merry Xmas and hopefully a better New Year. Or however you define this time of year.

Bloodbowl League Winner

Last night I was fortunate to get to play in the Final of my local Wargames Club (Huntingdon Wargames Society) Bloodbowl league with my Chaos Team - Slanneshi Slavers. It has been a long league with 15 teams split over two divisions. 

Each division played either 7 or 6 games depending on being in either North or South division and after the divisions games were played the top 4 in each division played against each other in the Quarter Finals.

This was drawn as 1st in North Div played 4th in South Div and so on. 

The winner of these games moved into the Semi Finals and the to the Final.

My road to the Final.

South Division Games

Slanneshi Slavers vs Tortuga Buccaneers (Undead) 

Draw 1-1

Slanneshi Slavers vs The Slough Moss-Sniffers (Gnome)

Lost 1-2

Slanneshi Slavers vs Skull Krushers (Khorne)

Draw 1-1

Slanneshi Slavers vs The Bakers Dozen (Halfling)

Won 2-0

Slanneshi Slavers vs Qui’ttax Pirahas (Lizardmen)

Won 2-1

Slanneshi Slavers vs Guffalot Gitz (Goblin)

Won 2-0

I finished the Division in Second Place having to play my friend Alex who finished 3rd in North Division.

Quarter Final

Slanneshi Slavers vs Temper Bay Marauders (Orc)

Won 1-0

Semi Final 

Slanneshi Slavers vs Ded Zeppelin (Necromantic)

Won 2-0

So onto the Final and I was playing my friend Mark who I had played in the very first game of the league.

Final

Slanneshi Slavers vs Tortuga Buccaneers (Undead)

Won 1-0

CHAOS win!!

 

Back after a few busy months

Well a few of you might have noticed I have not been around for a few months since the UK Games Expo.

Normal life has been quite hectic recently. My youngest son graduated from University with a First BA Honours in Law and has now gone back for his Masters Degree.

My wife and I spent a wonderful evening with Michael Palin in Cambridge and then spent a week in Scotland with my eldest son who is a Royal Navy Submariner.

It was rather special watching a boat sail out of the Scottish Loch and even got to see the Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer USS McFaul - DDG 74 moored alongside also.

Then on a personal note I will be starting my new job with promotion in Nottingham, so visits to Warhammer World are must.

UK Games Expo 2024

Another year and another UK Games Expo. What a bloody Expo!! this year it was manic but amazing. The halls were absolutely jam packed with exhibitors and traders - noticeably Games Workshop were not here this year, but their slot was amply filled much to my delight by Catalyst Games and the fantastic amount of Battletech merchandise.

Again I was working for Ares Games, a great company to work and demo games for and for the second year running we also had a few of my friends from the Wings of Glory Aerodrome group, who do a brilliant job at wargames shows demoing and hosting the Wings of War Aerial combat game. Huge shout out again to Roberto and Christoph from Ares. Those guys are wonderful and its thanks to them calling the same people back every year that makes our group excellent.

So last year I posted that the numbers were the highest recorded. Well this year the numbers were blown out of the water. Over 65000 people in total attended the Expo and Saturday was the most busy I have ever seen the show.

As stated before on my posts, I absolutely love being at this show, no one gives two hoots if your different or what your into, wargames/boardgames/RPGS/Cosplay - or the way you live your life and identify. Anything and Everything goes and people just have so much fun. Shame real life cant be like the Expo!!

We ran a number of games on the Ares Stand, a large scale version of the new 2 player WW2 Quartermaster General set - East Front, portraying Operation Barbarossa. Cangaceiros, where you are a Brazilian gang leader, Pyramidice, a wonderful dice and card game where you collect Egyptian gods and build pyramids with dice. The Rich and the Good, a new English edition of the German Hab & Gut, a Victorian commodities trading game as well as the Dungeon Crawler, Swords & Sorcery.

On the Sunday as usual we hosted the Battle of Birmingham - a massive WW1 Aerial dogfight with over 40 participants this year. Spot prizes were included for the planes shot down and the most times shot down as well as a larger prize for the highest scoring Aces of the day. No one walked away empty handed though as everyone involved received a beautiful participation certificate. 

This year I also managed to snag a ticket to see John Robertson on the Friday night. I met John and had a good natter last year but missed his Dark Room show. If you haven't seen it, do, its absolutely hilarious (Check out Youtube)

Below are the photos from the show and again I didn't get to see a lot of it with working but its mainly about the people and Im blessed to know so many good friends and colleagues in this weird and wonderful hobby.

The Crowds

Friends

Around the Show

The Dark Room with John Robertson

No Rolls Barred 

Battle of Birmingham WW1 Dogfight

Ares Crew and my Haul

Thank you UK Games Expo and heres to 2025!!