Last Sunday - 5th Feb saw the York club show Vapnartak come around for 2017
Now I can't say a massive amount about the show as I was too busy to see much of it. For me at least it was at least as busy as last year and very probably somewhat busier. Buckets of assorted Blue Moon 15mm seemed to flow over the counter backed up by True North WW2 and Command decision. A fair few 28mm in various period also moved across the table in exchange for the odd portrait of Her Maj. Spent a useful few minutes chatting to John Treadaway Editor of MW about lead in times for reviews and other info..
A very brief look at the games on the ground floor- I never made it upstairs this year- frankly did not inspire. There were a few good lookers but I'd seen them before and no-one seemed willing to talk- not that I tried that hard since I seemed to have spent most of the day chatting to customers and wearing out my vocal chords
One thing I saw jarred rather badly. It appeared to be a demonstration of the new Airfix based game from Modiphius - back to introverts R us I thought, paper map laid out on the bare table a few bits of plastic scattered about on it . Introverts mumbling away behind their hand of cards. Just the thing for a club night for the average social misfit.
Now if Modiphius were behind that display(I do not think they were) they need to get a new display team. If it was a club trying to get you interested in the game and in them.... they need to get a new display team. This kind of thing is the very antithesis of everything I love about the hobby- also somebody around that table needed to stand closer to the soap. Why would any interested party actually bother with that shambles? Or indeed with any of those display games that do not bother to have a talking head or two to engage with their potential punters. I really sometimes think that the only reason some clubs do demos is so they can get into the show for free.
Now I do know that there are plenty of clubs who are NOT like that at all and give a chance will talk your ears off- which of course is exactly as it should be.Mor Power to Their Elbows!!
Dropped a few quid at the ever helpful Coritani Miniatures stand on some paint and brushes and picked up a history of the Royal Welch Fusiliers in the Napoleonic Wars from Dave Lanchester. The long quotes from contemporary sources are really useful. There is no substitute for reading the words of the blokes that were there.
Nevertheless I enjoyed the event as I always do there are still plenty of "proper" wargamers out there of all ages by no means all of them are memebrs of Introverts Anonymous
Oh and a sort of PS-The prices for some non- historical stuff are getting even more ludicrous than formerly 10 quid a single figure- often in resin - is no longer unusual and 4-5 quid each quite common Mind you if you WILL play kids games with 3 men a side .....
Andy, could not agree more about the games. Still a good show though.
ReplyDeleteif you take a look at the reallifesabugger blog, he raises the soap issue, and I must say I encountered it as well, was it the same bloke doing the rounds........
ReplyDeleteColin- It is always a pretty good show but some of the games are now 2 or 3 years old and however pretty they are it does get a bit samey.
ReplyDeleteRoger Have read and commented. I have covered the lack of sartorial address in previous posts and will doubtless mention it again .Some of these silly tossers really need to grow up.
Andy, we attend Vapnartak religiously every year and one of our group said as we walked through the door "I bet I can guess what the main games are on the ground floor".... of course he was correct...and of course no one wanted to talk to us when we stood at the table(s). When we do Demo games no one is allowed to stand at the table without one of us engaging them in conversation, as long or as short as they want it to be. It must be said, the smaller games upstairs were better at this. Having said all this I still think that Vapnartak is a great show (or rather a Trade Fair) where we can peruse and purchase from a broad range of manufacturers. The catering is very good too....
ReplyDeleteThe price of some figures, as you say, is getting silly. I quite like the premise of 7TV and they do have some nice figures, but the price alone is enough to put me off. That and the question of what to use the figures for after a specific scenario has been gamed a couple of times.
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