Broadside 2015

Sunday started for Posties Rejects very very early. I was up around 5:30 and by seven we had all gathered at Reject HQ and started to load up the cars for our trip to the Broadside Wargames show in Sittingbourne. We arrived and started setting up quickly and were largely finished by 9am so we had time for a quick look around before getting our Border Reivers game started a little early. By the time the show had official started we were already into the second turn of our game and had spoken to several visitors. By the end of the day we had talked to hundreds of visitors and seen plenty of old friends. 

As usual I shot a load of photo's although this time most were, understandably, of our own demo game. I also treated myself to a few purchases including yet another game mat, this time a 3x3 printed desert mat from Tiny Wargames. Despite these purchases I ended the day with more money than I started having sold some more of my 15mm figures via Lesleys Bits Box. 

Posties Rejects - Border Reivers Game

Postie setting up

Pre Game chat

Our game was a fictitious game set in the year 1590, somewhere in the Scottish Middle March. Helen the young teenage daughter of Steven (Mad Dog) Stapleton has sneaked away from the family home in England and crossed the border into Scotland, to be with her lover Robert (The Fearless), son of Walter (Wally) Armstrong. Since both families hate each other, Robert has pleaded with his Mother and Father to let Helen stay in the family home, this they reluctantly agreed to as they know it’s only a matter of time before the Stapleton’s arrive to claim their daughter back! 

The Armstrong's defend their Bastille House

Meanwhile the Stephen (Mad Dog) Stapleton has come to get his Daughter back!   

The game gets underway

Mark and Surjit play the English and move quickly to reach the farmstead

The actions develops quickly and Ray and I - playing the Scottish Armstrong's - are caught off guard and wrong footed.

Armstrong defenders start to be wiped out before they can retreat to the safety of the house.

Gunshots are exchanged as the action heats up.

Posties Rejects at Broadside

Some of Posties excellent casualty figure begin to litter the table.

Fighting swirls around the Bastille House

English attackers quickly reach the walls of the house and very quickly the defenders are trapped. With all reinforcements also neutralised we decided to call this a British win and restart another game.

For the second game we only had a couple of hours remaining so we put more Scottish units on the table at the start and closed the gap between both side so move the action along quicker.

Ray and I now played the English...but our luck didn't change much. My troops swept over the hill to attack but were wiped out by some uncannily good dice rolling from Mark. 

Meanwhile Surjit managed to shoot Lord Stapleton out of his saddle with some dubious marksmanship (none of us - including the umpire I hasten to add - actually heard him nominate our leader as the target or saw the dice roll... draw your own conclusions!!)

Marks Scottish cavalry sweeping towards mine.

Once again we called this second game a win for Surjit and Mark. 

Other Games at Broadside

Of course there were plenty of other games at Broadside and we all took a break half way through the day for a quick look around the other tables. Here's a quick selection of my favourite games.

Shepway Wargamers Heart of Darkness game was truly spectacular and a very worthy winner of Best in Show

Crush the Kaiser

Southend Wargames club

Southend Wargames Club

Skirmish Wargames - Paddle Wheels, Ponchos & Palm Trees

East Street Games - Bullets and Brains

Rainham Wargames Club

Imperial Skies

Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan

Batmobile!

Gotham Screamland

Society of Ancients

A mega game of X-Wing

Medway Wargames

The standard of games varied a lot this year, with some simple (but entertaining) games through to the deserved winner of Best in Show, Shepway Wargamers Heart of Darkness table. Their game looked spectacular and being situated next to ours were were watching the action on their table almost as were were on our own. I enjoyed the demo games on display and its always great to meet up with friends from other groups.