Warlord Games Day 2013
I was invited to attend the Warlord games day held at the Lenton Business Centre in Nottingham. The day was HOT and proved to be a scorcher! What had started out as a crazy idea by Andrew Chesney of Warlord, had now come to fruition.
Parking on site was good with plenty of space, although this filled up very quickly. As I’d promised our Facebook fans I’d turn up as a historical character, I went as a Viking, complete with axe and shield! Wearing woollen tartan leggings would prove to be most uncomfortable later that day. The weather defied the typical British summer expectation and was sunny throughout.
The event itself was divided up into several parts. There was a large hall in the Howitt building which the Warlord guys had hired out. Here there was a selection of several traders and games. I was very pleased to see that the games were a good mixture with Warlord’s own games only taking up approximately half of the ones present. This was clearly no restrictive ‘GW Games Day’. In addition there were half-hour tours of the Warlord Factory and talks given downstairs in the Howitt building. Sadly I missed out on the factory tour as there was far too much to do elsewhere and when I wasn’t attending the talks, I was chatting with various people about the hobby (yes, hobby, not Hobby). Maybe next year!
There were four speakers at the talks. First up was Rick Priestley, who spoke for 45 minutes about his games, his hobby and his thoughts on rules – enough material for a dozen WSS opinion pieces! Next were the Perry twins, where we learnt about their sculpting techniques and their trips to New Zeeland to a certain Mr. P. Jackson and his collection of WW1 aircraft. Paul Sawyer was next and spoke frankly about the future plans of Warlord and the company’s cooperative ventures with Mongoose and Osprey. Phil Smith of Osprey Wargaming and Matt of Mongoose were on hand as well to answer questions. Finally was Alessio Cavatore and his thoughts on Bolt Action and where the game was going next – I was very interested to learn that they are planning theatre books and a tank war supplement. All the speakers were open and honest – I cannot think of another company who would be willing to ‘bare all’ in this fashion.
The games in the main hall were mainly participation games. Most were busy all day. There was a good selection of traders in addition. Warlord was there, ‘naturally’, as were North Star, Caliver Books, 4ground, Arcane Scenery, Osprey and Mongoose to name but a few. For drinks, there was a bar in the hall and a good takeaway which serves the business centre. No surprise that proved popular and there was quite a queue.
Overall, the Games Day impressed me. People said it was like the old Citadel open days of old. I left very sweaty (TMI?) but very happy. It was a unique combination of good gaming, the chance to purchase some nice toys, interesting talks, and friendly banter. Good work guys, you have a winning combination there. I’ll look forward to future editions of this event!
