YORK show 4th Feb

[martin goddard]

Got back from York show Sunday night.
600 mile round trip. Weather for travel was pretty good. New parts of the motorway were very nice too, However the hard shoulder has been replaced by intermittent emergency lay-bys.  I can see cars "missing" these in an emergency, as the lay-bys are quite short.
Had flat tyre too.

The show
1. Very well organised  by chief Joe and the team. The tables were well laid out. Lots of help in unloading. That was all great.
As  is often the case, several   traders were a bit "grabby" and selfish. They tend to be unpleasant types with no hobby interest but financial only.   Thought i would give some examples here for interest only. Does not affect us greatly, it just causes us to take that into account when considering shows.     
Our game table by the Wargames foundry stand had been moved to 3feet away to our trade stand front (that was the gap allowed for customers and gamers to fit in between players sat at the table and customers shopping at the stand )in order to clear larger space in front of the foundry stand.Thus our stand was obstructed, but more space was available to the foundry stand. don't know who would have done that?
Traders were then asked not to come to the loading doors until told to do so, You guessed it, 4 traders came around a half hour previous. Parked their vans in the spaces and left them there.
SELWG  are very good with traders. they have a "loadmaster" who allows vans down when their respective stands are packed up and ready to load. Traders often push in and are sent back until their stands are packed down. this is how it should be done, but of course it needs people to police it.
Last year at York a trader near us got the doors open early (3.30) and left them open (made it nice and easy for him to load) so that the cold direct wind flow made us stop the game we were playing. This allowed them to pack up nice and early.

2. Anyway, enough of the down side.
The show had a base floor where customers came in . There were three floors above. Nice open and airy. The lighting was really nice due to the racecourse having lots of glass. Excellent. The very tope floor was given over to a table market instead fa  bring and buy. seemed to work OK but I was no really OK,  Games hire the table and man it for an hour selling their own goods. Probably better than lots of boxes that buyers cannot discuss r haggle over. Might be  a problem if you are not perusing the goods in that exact hour? This is a bit like the American flea market model.
There was a competition(s) on the upper floor too. When i got there at 9.30 they were already in full flow and having a good time of it.  the advantage of the new 28mm skirmish games is that they can get more games in!  there were of course non 28mm skirmish games too.  I should have spent more time looking at the competitions but i wanted to spend soem time on other things, like our own game.
There were plenty of games at the show. the games all had good access and good presentation too. A small high light was John of York's SCW tank rsh game. It was clean , neat and easy to access (mentally and physically). An asset to any show, where gamers can get some gaming in without giving over more than an hour. Overseas membrs do note that UK shows only last about 6 hours.
There were a few  super sized games. These looked good and seemed to involve a lot of layers, assumedly they were club projects. One game had the players wearing British sun helmets. very atmospheric.
Also air wargames were in evidence by the wings of war group. Very nice. sorry if i have not mentioned other gams but the range of games on offer was most reassuring.
Plenty of traders. i think the massive dice stand was missing. A shame, because gamers often enjoy buying new dice, unusual dice or even specialist dice.

3.The PP game. bWe put on SCW. Had 5 games in the day and all seemed well understood by the participants Don't know if it inspired or enthused them but I enjoyed their company. Shows that war gaming has some "currency" of linking us together in common language. The game was set up as a full game but players only got to use one third (flank) in order to limit the game to 40 minutes or so. Players seemed happy to get on with  frontal assaults and getting to grips. That was great to see. Think i could have sold a lot of the SCW buildings, they were popular!

4. Re-enactors
As usual there ere the Roman re-enactors with their equipment and costume. This is great. they had a bolt thrower (scorpion?) with them.  Makes the show more complete. I would like to see more re-enactors groups at shows. They are great for weapon and inform information. they seem to have disappeared from many shows. A real shame. Alumwell usually has a great US WW2 group there.



In summary  YORK was a well balanced show. Obviously a big undertaking, but well done the York club for doing the "show business" for little or no thanks.  THANK YOU YORK CLUB.

[John in York]

Thanks for the chat Martin and the praise about the participation game. It was played through about 7 times and no one seemed to struggle with the rules. Lots of smiling faces. Glad you enjoyed the show but sorry that you had some issues. I'm playing Joe next Monday and will be sure to mention them. Regards

[martin goddard]

Thanks John

[Radar]

My first trip to Vatnarpak, nice show.

Agree about reenactors - my very first show was Northern Militaire at Swinton Town Hall many moons ago. The reenactors were much more visible, doing 'stuff' outside. Probably helped bring visitors in.

So, yes, many thanks to the organisers.

With hindsight should have placed a pre order, but wasn't  100% certain  I was going.

[Leman (Andy)]

Maybe, like wargamers, re-enactors are getting older and more knackered. I was about 35 the last time I went to Northern Militaire, and I'm now 65.