Sunday, 25 May 2014

Triples 2014: a bit late posting but......

I actually managed to get to Triples this year despite my decrepit physical condition. I had some Hilton points so Kathy drove us down the day before. On the Saturday while I was at the show, she was enjoying the facilities in the spa at the hotel, with my credit card!!!!!

I arrived about 9:30 and without even thinking of asking was offered the reduced entry fee for being 'disabled' and hobbling about on my trusty stick. Although my brain doesn't always remember to take account of this! I had the foresight to pre-order most of the stuff on my shoping list, so was able to take my time picking these items up as there was no danger of the traders in question selling out. By about 10:30 I'd done a complete circuit and run out of hands so Ian at Eagle figures very kindly let me dump my swag behind his trade stand. The nice people on the door also let Kathy in for free when she arrived freshly pampered from the spa ( no, not Morrisons Matt!) to round me up and help carry my modest ( honest dear, it's just the packaging that's heavy........) purchases to the car.

Even before the shopping my first point of call was the Zorndorf Seven Years War game put on by James and the Olicanalds. I'd been tracking the progress of the development of the game on his blog and I was very impressed with the whole layout and the figures were simply gorgeous and well beyond anything I can produce, in such numbers anyway.

While there were loads of games at the show, only a couple more caught my eye. First up was Bruce Weigles 1870 Franco Prussian War demo in 6mm. His rules for 1870 (and 1859 and 1866) are fabulous publications. I used to have thousands of Franco Prussian and Austro Prussian figures in 6mm ( both armies for Konigratz for example!) but they went the journey several years ago but never cared for his rules. The scenarios etc contained within the books were well worth the money though. I had quite a long chat with Bruce and he really is a nice guy! The Almaza 1707 game run by the Like a Stone Wall group was visually very impressive and I was pleased to be able to see Ebor Miniatures WSS figures en masse but in my experience they weren't very chatty. Not a big problem though. Some of the other games were nice, e.g. WW2 Italian airfield under attack by the LRDG, the Troy game and an ACW game but some of the others were not up to scratch IMHO.

Anyway, I now have limbers for almost all my 1866 and 1870 armies to counter John's friendly nagging that i didn't have any! Cheap enough from Irregular anyway.


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