Carronade 2023, Falkirk

What a fabulous show this weekend in Falkirk!

We Westerhope “boys” made a weekend of it as usual, arriving on the Friday to set up the game and then retiring to a local for a few drams etc! Both John and Graham had to miss out on coming due to family health issues. And Brian reckons a show is too much for him, but it’s probably that he can’t keep up with our boozing (joking!). So it was Paul, Dave, Mike and me. 

Hard at work setting out the table.

All ready in no time as they’d rehearsed the layout at Dave’s house. (Not a single person asked what the flag was!)

Masses and masses of Celtic Britons! What a visual spectacle! The stage is set for our recreation of the Battle of Watling Street AD61.  After action report to follow in next post.

On the Saturday, the show was well attended with a keen 400 through the doors in the first hour! And there was a real buzz about the place. It felt busy almost up the end. When we suggested that we call it, Dave hadn’t realised it was already 20 to 4!

The painting competition, shown above, and the flea market (bring’n’buy) were well subscribed. Some lovely miniature works of art entered in the competition and folk walking away with armfuls of bargains from the flea market. I was very restrained. For a change.

A fella offered me a game for only £75. It was his idea of a bargain, not mine…! Then I asked for some figures from a manufacturer I don’t often see; they didn’t have what I wanted in stock. I only spent £5.50 which has to be a record low for me. I won’t let that happen again…

And there was a great swathe of super looking games. A selection of those that caught my attention follows.

A Japanese ship to ship battle that looked great and had participants throwing handfuls of dice.

A beautiful ECW game. Spot the ball?

A visually striking fantasy racing participation game.

Crazy golf! Participants raced Japanese tanks along a golf course in Singapore (in the best Hollywood tradition, it was loosely based on real events). Great to have a chat with fellow VBCW veteran Colin.

A stonking Pacific atoll landing. There was fire and smoke everywhere as the Americans took line after line of Japanese defences. 

A nicely executed Thirty Years War game. 10 or 15mm? It looked the business!

JUST WOW!

The Battle of Pynda, 168 BC showcased figures we can only dream of playing with. Top work Immortals!

There was a good selection of traders in attendance. One had travelled all the way from Cornwall! What the what? Dedication to the cause!

I’ll cover our game in my next post. 

My eldest is a complete ham. Can’t think where he gets it from…

Thanks for reading. I’ll follow up with our game AAR soon.

Cheers

Chris