Real PP Wargaming at the Wartime Experience

What a busy wargaming weekend.  Saturday Carronade.  Saturday night a boardgame with Brian.  Sunday down to the National Museum of Flight to take part in their Wartime Experience event.

Following on from the successful wargames participation at the Viking exhibition in Edinburgh we, along with SESWC, were invited to take part in another Museum event.  The only problem was that we did not get much notice and it was the day after Carronade.  Not wanting to miss out we managed to field 7 members and Brian from Washington also came along to help out.

We got there in good time to enjoy a buttie from the burger van, which promised such delicacies as ostrich and springbok burgers for later in the day.

The wargamers were in the ‘Concorde’ hanger along with ‘civilian’ reenactors – we were treated to the vocal talents of the Blitz Sisters and the Flyright Dancers showcased the dances of the period and encouraged public participation.

Outside there were a number of military reenactors of varying nationalities.  Once gain the weather was not great and I was still in recovery mode so I didn’t actually see that much, but enough to want to go back and have a proper look around some of the permanent exhibits.

The Falkirk club put on a Wings of War table and a WW1 naval encounter, South East Scotland a WW2 Bolt Action game.  All were popular with the public, but Wings of War (or should that be Glory) went down particularly well primarily but not exclusively with sons and fathers.   I am sure that online retailers of the system will have seen a sudden burst of activity on Sunday night from addresses in Scotland.

I did my best to help prospective pilots but John, Doug and Brian had much more patience with the youngsters than I could muster.  You know it is often said that computer wargaming is a real threat to the miniatures hobby, but after this experience I disagree.  All the kids are used to playing a variety of different games within defined sets of rules and I was amazed how quickly they picked up the basics of WoW.   I think there is a ready made set of potential wargamers out there if only we can tap into them.  

It was busy almost all day and once again the museum staff seemed very pleased with the contribution both clubs had made to their event.  We are hoping to get further invitations to future exhibitions to continue to spread interest in the hobby and also frankly to have a fun time playing wargames in new and interesting venues.

 

This is a bit dark but you should be able to see the three games with Concorde there in the background towering over us all.

 

SESWC Falise Gap game.  The WW2 equipment on display also drew a lot of interest.

 

Wings of War being explained by Doug, John and Brian (hidden again).

 

A Camel v a Tripe.  We bought the Wings of Glory mats to help bring the game to life and they are certainly very good, although they could really do with one  showing trenches and no mans land.