Misc., Wargames Show, Falkirk

This was the weekend of Carronade, the wargame show run by the Falkirk Wargames Club. Although new, the show has been an instant hit, and unlike Claymore – the other major Scottish Scottish show – it comes at the start of the wargamers’ summer calendar. Despite or possibly because of a downpour outside, the show was well attended, and as always it was a good opportunity to catch up with wargaming buddies old and new. Here are a few pictures of games which caught my eye.The Kirriemuir club staged a nice-looking Mexican-American War game, with the finest-looking handouts I’ve ever seen at a show. Steve Shaw from the club tried to persuade me the period wasn’t necessarily a turkey-shoot, but I wasn’t convinced.My own Edinburgh club staged a French Wars of Religion game, which looked pretty, despite the “off the shelf” terrain. The same tiles were also used by the Border Reivers club, but in both cases the figures were the centrepiece, not the battlefield. The Reivers staged a Great Northern War game, set around the storming of a defensive position.Then there was the Mummy’s tomb, built by Kevin Calder of the Iron Brigade, to decorate a corner of his Sudan Campaign table. It even had a mummy, emerging from the crypt!For me though, the highlight of the show was a beautiful mid 18th century game, staged by Phil Olley. For a start, he had his signature turning windmill, and some of the nicest buildings I’ve seen for a while. While the battlefield was very attractive, what really set the game off was the lead – and there was an awful lot of it. His units were 54 figures strong – the size advocated by Charles Grant Senior in The Wargame.Phil’s game certainly had an old school feel to it, but his figures were all state of the art Front Rank ones, with some lovely hand-painted flags. My favourite unit was his fictitious Battenberg Infantry Regiment, whose flag and uniform was based on the colour and pattern of Battenberg cakes!After seeing some of these splendid games – particularly the “Napoleonic” and mid 18th century ones – I was enthused enough to think about revisiting some of my own armies. After all, that’s what demo games are all about – they’re designed to be inspirational. These ones certainly were. As for lead-buying,  I escaped relatively lightly. Apart from buying six feet of river at the Bring n’ Buy, my only big purchase was a horde of 28mm Landsknechts, for an Italian Wars project which might never see the light of day… until I’m inspired by another spectacular game at another show…