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Tuesday 6 February 2018

Vapnartak 2018

The annual Falkirk club bus left 5 am sharp for the 5 hour trip to York


For once we arrived before the doors opened but after a short wait we were in


I made a beeline for the Harrogate club's Italian Wars Sharp Practice game which had a bit of pre show publicity that had grabbed my attention.  Sharp Practice is a favourite at the club but in 28mm Napoleonics which for some reason don't really ppeal.


So I was straight into a game leading the forces of Venice against the dastardly French.  Sometimes the luck goes with me and sometimes against.  This was one of those games where I could do no wrong.  My right flank powered forward against the Swiss mercenaries and, with the help of a fortuitous double move and lots of excellent dice rolls, swept the Venetians to victory in no time at all.







I then met up with Tim and had a quick look around the other games.  My eye was then taken by the Warploque Miniatures stand.  They have the ArcWorlde fantasy range of figures and rules.   North star miniatures had a sale just before Christmas where I had picked up the rules and a couple of warbands.  One of these was Elves and they can use an undead unicorn as an upgrade.  It is a really nice model and I decided to get it.


There was then a temporary evacuation for a security alert.  When I went back in and wandered around again I realised that there was an ArcWorlde participation game that I was able to join in.  My warband consisted of a Dark Warlord, 4 hobgoblins and 3 unusual creatures.  these had the ability to blow themselves up but then be very quickly reincarnated by the Warlord.  my opposition was another Warlord and a number of undead types.  This game was much closer but after many self inflicted explosions I scraped a victory.






I then had a wander through the fleamarket but there was not much on offer and I thought that much of it was overpriced.  Another look around for a game was unsuccessful so I headed off to the bar with Tim and Kenny for a pint and a burger.  One pint turned into 3 and we were also joined by Doug and then Peter.  At about 2:30 I realised that the bus was leaving at 3 so dashed round for a couple of minor purchases and then it was back to the bus getting home about 8ish.


My thoughts on the show?
Trade - first class but not what I go for
Games - the 2 I played were excellent but there definitely seemed to be fewer of them than previous years
Fleamarket - too little space allocated and very little of interest on display
Venue - pretty good although the catering could be better (but that is true of almost every show)
What makes it a great event for me is travelling down with a load of mates


So another great day out


Games 8
Rules played 8 New 6
Places played 3 New 0


4 comments:

  1. Hi, glad the annual Falkirk trip went well. The table top sale is a bit of an issue for us. It's an important service to the attendees but we have no extra space to put it on unless we take over the other half of the 2nd floor. The economics for the club don't add up. This year we changed the layout so the wires were not brushing past trade stands. We might need to look at how we can improve cried control for sale shoppers. Hope to see you guys next year.

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    1. I am sure we will be back it is a great show

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    2. As a 'veteran' of wargame conventions going back to the 1970s (and a sometime organiser of one of the biggest in Germany back in the day) you will never get everything right; but congratulations on a very well organised day - including TWO! 2 building evacuations. The tabletop sale was a bit rushed and chaotic (also I couldn't see anywhere that I could put the few small items I wanted to sell but that could be me missing it in the speed run/push through). However well done on a big and well-run event.

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  2. Looks nice, the last picture is so atmospheric!

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