Today I visited the Phalanx Wargames Show, in St. Helens (northwest UK). The show has been running for years at the Sutton Leisure Centre, a venue that has a large central room (like a sports hall) and one of the ante-rooms is used for the bring ‘n buy, which is a successful element of the show.
The show is hosted by St. Helens Wargaming Society, who are a very friendly crew and run a slick operation. I was there early and saw them helping traders unload.
It is Father’s Day here tomorrow in the UK and I am guessing that there are more than a few dads who attend this show with some extra cash in their back pockets to pick up something on behalf of the kids.
We have seen (in the UK) a very good post-Covid recovery of our show scene, the bigger shows have been runaway successes and last year, Phalanx had it’s best attendance figures, but I note this year that a few traders are missing from this show, that have still been attending the bigger shows. Might that be early signs of a trend?
According to the website on the morning of the show, there were 25 traders expected and 24 games being put on.
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Here are few table shots. As always, I fail for the most part to properly identify who did what, but thank you to everyone who put on a game.
Above - the two shots are from a VERY BRITISH CIVIL WAR game. The gents at the table were very friendly and happy to give some of the interesting back story - especially to do with the design of the lead armoured vehicle, which is a 3D print.
Above - two shots of the same table. The second shot is looking over at the far right corner of the first shot - very nice!
Above - I thought this was a straight Samurai style game …. Until I noticed a few monsters, the bottom shot has a giant blue spider with a human torso. Is than an Osprey ‘Rampant’ book I spy on the table?
Above - A splendid recreation of Actium 31 BC
Above - A 15mm napoleonic game. I only had a fixed 27mm lens attached to the camera, so could not zoom out enough for this rather grand table.
Above - What a lovely looking game. In this shot the rowing boats are just setting off to land the men ashore against earthwork defences.
Above - There were some lovely buildings on this table, but it was this assault against the excellent redoubt that caught my eye.
Above - Very eye catching and with a lot of work going into this Star Wars table creation. I don’t know the location being represented, but no doubt others will. Look at the landed space-craft for an appreciation of the scale. Top marks for the number of hours it must have taken to get this ‘show ready’ - thank you.
Above - I believe a Pike and Shot era battle. I think it may well be a 30 Years War scenario of Swedes Vs Imperialists, put on by the Mailed Fist - who always support this show.
Above - I was so pleased to see this Hastings game returning to this show, after several years absence. The nearby Liverpool Wargames Association had a couple of tables, this being one. The figures are based on 100mm stands and the rules are a DBA derivative. For my money, this is a great example of a show game inspiring gamers to start a project that they can bring to their own kitchen tables, while enjoying the larger scale.
Above - Fellow blogger ‘Wargame Amateur’ put on a ‘Lion Rampant on Crusade’ game. The gentlemen are very friendly to the public and stalwarts of providing a participation table at this region’s game shows.
Above - This is using the Kallistra hex system with their blue tiles. Nice to see a touch of fun at the tabletop …. Looks like our very own Nessie!
Overall, I had a very enjoyable visit, there was a wide range of traders, covering all of the popular scales and carrying good levels of stock.
I noticed that S&A Scenics have introduced a couple of new size of tree into their range, so I picked a few up from their deluxe range. I am also considering commissioning a long ridge (Hastings!), that would match other hills that I have bought from Simon.
Coritani sell a range of resin products. New to me are tank traps and hay stacks (pre-painted as well as raw resin), so I got a couple of each, plus a set of wire spears for the Wars of the Roses figures. I am thinking of using some shavings of coir matting to sprinkle onto the haystacks for ‘real’ texture.
Iron Gate Scenery had a small resin stone enclosure (sheep pen) on display, with some rather nicely sculpted resin sheep inside, so I thought that looked eye catching and compact enough to get the kit and while there, I got a small bag of grave headstones, intending to make a small feature to add next to church buildings - at some point … honest! :-)
Warbases - well, I bought for current projects and projects that are still being imagined! Now I have no excuse!
Eagle Figures - This was my first time at his stand. He is very friendly and his stuff is gorgeous. I thought it about time that I had a couple of napoleonic gun limbers (yes, for guns that still haven’t been built and painted!). I picked up two, but decided to really keep the footprint small by just having two horses per limber, as I just want these for a bit of eye candy and to use as markers. Mrs. wargamer has just donated to me a silver (type) fine neck chain, so that I can have the horses chained up to the limber.
As usual, Suzie’s food van was in the courtyard and towards noon the queue was very healthy, though I think they needed more seating in this area.
I did get the impression that the show was quieter this year than last, even the bring and buy wasn’t the usual ‘three deep’ scrum that it usually is, but some of that may be due to the hot weather we have been having.
A couple of traders did tell me that they were cutting down on shows, for reasons of cost effectiveness and so, the question for the moment as to how the mid sized show will fare over the next few years compared to the emerging giants of Partizan and Hammerhead, nags at the back of my mind.
In the end, for this show, I suppose it will be the traders view on how much the cash flowed today that will ultimately determine everything. Our show scene is fantastic and we must do as much as we can to make sure that it does not slip through our fingers!
To close, I would just like to say thanks to everyone who made this show work and especially for those making long journeys, so that I and others had nice things to look at :-)
Being Father’s Day tomorrow, later this afternoon, after leaving the show, my daughter and her family took Mrs. Wargamer and myself out to tea, so all-in-all, a splendid day!
I suppose with all of this good weather, I should start priming some of this stuff and get going.
Resource Section.
My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’ is being re-configured to showcase various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link.
