With the day of the show upon us I drove to North London for the venue opening at 7 to help with getting traders in and setup (they basically pay for the venue). After hauling trolleys of stuff back and forth (as well as using one to unload my boxes) I then got to set up.
Shot of the venue. It’s not mine so it might have been from last years show
Luke was still getting over jet lag so arrived a couple of hours later and the 3rd member of the team had unfortunately had food poisoning the night before so was in no state to attend. This meant it was just the 2 of us to run the game which would definitely leave us light handed!
Short video of the deployment
Dwarf Deployment
Left to right: Quarrellers, Great Weapon warriors, Organ Gun (proxy), 2nd rank: Miners, 2 * Rangers (not yet scouted)1st rank: Irondrakes, flame cannon, organ gun. 2nd rank: Longbeards, Gyrocoptors, Anvil of Doom1st rank: Bolt thrower, Hammerers. 2nd rank: grudge thrower1st rank: slayers, organ gun, thunderers. 2nd rank: Ironbreakers, Gyrocoptors. The cannon is hidden in the castle.
Bretonnian deployment
My Brets were on the right of the table (as the shots were taken), Luke’s on the left.
1sr rank: Mounted Yeomen, Knight of the Realm, Archers. 2nd rank: Knights of the realm, 2 Trebuchets1st rank: Grail knights, Knights Errant, Knights of the Realm, Grail Knights: 2nd rank: Trebuchet, King Louen, Questing Knights, Pegasus knights1st rank: Knights Errant, Men at Arms, Knights of the Realm, Archers, 2 * Unicorns. 2nd Rank: Bombard1st rank: grail knights, archers, Pegasus knights, archers. 2nd rank: trebuchet, dragon, archers, archers, lord on Peg. The Green knight is loitering out front (though not deployed there)
Early turns
With the Fay Enchantress on the field, the Brets didn’t have to pray to get the blessing and Luke found himself with something he’d never had when using them before, the first turn!
The early turns were about the Brets advancing and both sides artillery trying to soften up the opponents. The later was pretty ineffective. 3 of the Trebs misfired in tue first turn. The dwarves in return, just rolled really poorly and the number of shots were limited.
The one bright spot for the Brets was a direct hit on an organ gun, destroying it and panicking both the engineer and the nearby Ironbreakers!
Mid to late Game
The slayers advance and the Ironbreakers rally. Not so the Engineer who spent the rest of the game running (I rolled 10+ on 2 dice 3 turns in a row for him!).The hammerers had routed the Pegasus knights after they killed the bolt thrower Gratuitous shot of Luke’s latest unit.2 units of knights charged the slayers. A Paladin struck down Ungrim before he could strike!3 knight buses hit the hammerers (Grail, Errant and Realm). Despite inflicting horrendous casualties, the stubborn dwarves refused to be moved.The slayers wipe out one unit but are seriously depleted. The Thunderers flank a unit of Grails to prevent them getting a flank charge themselves.The 3 units of knights all flee in the face of the stoic dwarves and the fury of the high king!The Irondrakes and flame cannon had whittled down the units opposite them so they presented a much reduced threat.The lord on Peg had tried to heroic killing blow the thane in the warriors, who had made 4 5++ ward saves! (Much to my delight and Luke’s disgust 😂), before dying to the unit. The dragon and Grails had minced through the unit but the quarreller then joined the fray.The Gyro had been playing a game of roast the peasants and hunt the prophetessMy smug self posing for a promotional shot.
Closing thoughts
As per last year, it was a truly enjoyable game and day. We managed around 4 turns in the day. This was partly due to not finishing setting up the game until after the doors opened at 10 (as we were helping set up the show/traders) and partly as there were only 2 of us managing the game!
I have to say I love playing these size games. The 8th ruleset really scales up well and hordes, whilst not universally loved by warhammer fans (probably an understatement) look really good at this size game.
The question is whether we will do this again next year? Of course I’m always up for doing so but the club numbers at the show, weren’t great this year so if necessary, I’ll assist in other ways.
Fantastic looking game, and some interesting twists as the game played out. I’ve heard a lot of shows say their numbers are down, and put a lot of this down to the post pandemic.
I think the footfall wasn’t actually too bad. It was the number of club members helping at the show which seemed down. Possibly one of the reasons is the distance. Previously the show was at Crystal Palace in south London (near to where most of the club live). The move to north London makes it not as convenient (though the journey isn’t onerous in the least if you have a car).
Thanks LCL. Some of the biggest repeat attention came from the guys running a demo game of AOS on the next table. At least one of them kept heading over. We were also quite pleased as a number of the younger attendees wanted to see the game, so we spent a fair bit of time chatting to parents about it.
Great to see the battle in progress! Poor ungrim, being killed before being able to do anything. But alas, that’s the fate of someone who doesn’t actually want to wear protective garments!
Pity the game was not finished, though! Just a question, would you consider the Kings of War ruleset for next year?, because I ran a game likewise in size (5k points a side in Kings of War, roughly equal in model size) and it lasted about 4ish hours? A game day like this, we could maybe squeeze 2 battles in.
I played 2nd edition KOW a fair bit and quite enjoyed it, especially the speed of games but it didn’t capture my attention nearly as much as warhammer. There is a question of whether we’ll run a game next year as the club helper numbers were definitely on the low side this year, so they may need all hands on the bring and buy stall next year.
backtothehammer 
Fantastic looking game, and some interesting twists as the game played out. I’ve heard a lot of shows say their numbers are down, and put a lot of this down to the post pandemic.
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I think the footfall wasn’t actually too bad. It was the number of club members helping at the show which seemed down. Possibly one of the reasons is the distance. Previously the show was at Crystal Palace in south London (near to where most of the club live). The move to north London makes it not as convenient (though the journey isn’t onerous in the least if you have a car).
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Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 A really nice looking game with loadsa troops!
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Thanks John. The effort was fully worth it!
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Brilliant! It looks beautiful, I hope that you had plenty of interest from the crowds.
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That looks like an amazing game, I hope it got a lot of attention at the show!
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Thanks LCL. Some of the biggest repeat attention came from the guys running a demo game of AOS on the next table. At least one of them kept heading over. We were also quite pleased as a number of the younger attendees wanted to see the game, so we spent a fair bit of time chatting to parents about it.
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Glad to hear there is still interest in proper Warhamer!
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Looks like great fun. Lovely table and armies. Love the giant games. Thanks for the write-up!
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Great to see the battle in progress! Poor ungrim, being killed before being able to do anything. But alas, that’s the fate of someone who doesn’t actually want to wear protective garments!
Pity the game was not finished, though! Just a question, would you consider the Kings of War ruleset for next year?, because I ran a game likewise in size (5k points a side in Kings of War, roughly equal in model size) and it lasted about 4ish hours? A game day like this, we could maybe squeeze 2 battles in.
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I played 2nd edition KOW a fair bit and quite enjoyed it, especially the speed of games but it didn’t capture my attention nearly as much as warhammer. There is a question of whether we’ll run a game next year as the club helper numbers were definitely on the low side this year, so they may need all hands on the bring and buy stall next year.
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