Broadside 2013 - Rejects on Display!

On Sunday Posties Rejects (and plenty of other wargamers as well) gathered in Sittingbourne for the Broadside Wargames Show. This is an event that seems to have grown bigger and better every year and I'm sure its destined for big things in the future. This was the second year that the Rejects have been in attendance and put on a Demo game. Last year it was the WWII Battle of Amiens so this year we went for something completely different. The Battle of the Boyne, 1690. 

Posties Rejects with our Battle of the Boyne display game at Broadside 2013

Despite taking an active part in either playing the game or talking to visitors we all had a chance to spend a little time looking around the two halls of the show. As usual I went camera in hand, although this time I had to bring my much heavier and bulky (but better quality) SLR instead of my normal Compact. The Olympus I normally use is ideal for shows but there appears to be some dirt on the sensor which is showing up on all my pictures. I'm going to send it off to be repaired but in the meantime I'll just have to fall back on my trusty Canon 500D (its a hard life...). 

Setting up the Terrain

Ray consults his maps for placement of terrain

The table is ready for the public to see with just ten minutes to spare

Williams Infantry wait for the order to advance

James II's Jacobite's wait for the inevitable assault 

Williamite Cavalry stands impotent, unable to cross the flooding river until much later in the game

Williams forces begin to cross the Boyne and reform on the enemy bank

The crossing goes well and Williams forces are ready to assault the village, their main objective.

A visit by Henry Hyde (of Battlegames and now Miniature Wargames Fame) lifts our spirits

Ray receives a 'special' award from Tamsin

Behold, Lord Ray, surveying all his achievements! 

Back to the game... Williams Army has taken the village and established itself on the Jacobite side of the Boyne

Williams Cavalry are finally able to cross the river and with flank exposed the Jacobite's decide to retreat.

Although we were situated in the smaller Wyvern Hall we were near the entrance so we were the first game most people saw when they entered. While five players concentrated on running the game itself the remaining four including myself focused on talking to visitors. This worked out really well because several visitors came back during the day to see how the game was progressing and we were pretty much consistently busy talking to people for the first three or four hours. I personally spoke to several non gamers who had popped in out of curiosity as well as some hardened Grognard's who were interested in the display we were putting on.

Things calmed down in the afternoon and by 14:00 the number of visitors had dropped off and most of us were able to get away from the table for short periods. One possible problem with this venue is that the car park associated with the hall has a 4 hour maximum stay, even on a Sunday. I think the participation games suffered as a result because when visitors had finished looking around and had made their purchases there was little time left to play the games on offer. This is a great pity because I saw some excellent participation games being put on by friendly and enthusiastic clubs and they deserved more attention than they got.

The range of traders was better this year but I didn't really have time to chat to them and see how business was at the show. I personally didn't buy a lot (three books for my North Africa project) but I did see some visitors laden down with large bags of show loot, so hopefully the traders did well enough to justify coming back again next year.

All in all I had a very good day. I was utterly exhausted by the end, hence why it has taken two days to even think about uploading any pictures and writing about the day! I have a load of other pictures from the day, of the other games at the show, and I'll upload a few of those by the end of the week. We had a great time and I'd like to thank the organisers for putting on the show and asking us to take part. I'd also like to thank everyone that stopped by to look at our game and have a chat. That's what this day was really all about and it made all the effort worthwhile.