I usually pop in to my local Toy Master once a week to pick
up the latest White Dwarf magazine. A couple of weeks ago they had a stack of
fliers on their counter for a wargames convention called ‘Fisticuffs’. ‘Fisticuffs’
was to be held on Saturday 30th May 2015 at Weymouth Pavilion.
Weymouth isn’t too far from where I live so I decided to book the day off of
work and attend.
I was a bit worried that it was going to cater only to older
tabletop wargamers and focus entirely on historical wargames to the exception
of all else. I didn’t think that there would be any representation of
Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Infinity, Malifaux, Star Wars X-Wing/Armada, or any
of the “big brand” wargames that I collect or am interested in.
I expected to drop in, take a quick look around, and wander
off, possibly to go and see a movie instead. Boy was I pleasantly surprised!
I ended up spending two hours walking around the convention
hall, taking photos, chatting to cool people and buying models and terrain. I
spent ages talking to the awesome guys from ‘7th Heaven Games’ about
Malifaux and the new Batman Miniatures Game.
They had brought along a good selection of Malifaux and Infinity
kits and it was good to see some of the brands and game systems I was
interested in. I picked up a Malifaux set from them.
In my old age I am finding myself more curious about collecting
and painting non-Games Workshop models and games, especially small-scale
skirmish games. Apparently they’re going to start supplying ‘Raging Heroes’
models too, which is great because I’ve got my eye on a ‘Cruz – Heavy Gunner’.
There was a sizeable bring and buy table too. Which was
where the only Games Workshop models were to be found. I would have loved to
have seen a table running Warhammer and Warhammer 40K participation or demonstration
games (perhaps next year!). I briefly considered a well assembled Stormraven
Gunship for £20, but I remembered how long it took me to paint my last one
(pictures on my Flickr account), and it’s always harder to paint/repaint a
model that’s already assembled.
I ended up getting an absolute bargain on a box of Games
Workshop ruined buildings terrain. I got a ‘Sanctum Imperialis’ and most of a ‘Shrine
of the Aquila’ for £12. You can never have enough cool terrain!
I was talking to one of the guys running the ‘bring and buy’
table about not having anyone to play tabletop wargames with locally. He
pointed me to the ‘Weymouth Warlords War-Game Club’ who were running a World
War Two game. I think it was ‘Bolt Action’. I started talking to one of the
guys and he told me about their club, they meet on Sundays in Weymouth and play
between 11am and 5pm. They don’t play 40K regularly but they do have a couple
of sporadic players.
I started asking about the game he was playing, it looked
pretty cool and it had tanks in it, and I love tanks. It was a World War Two historical
game and it was 28mm scale, the same as 40K. I’ve always pictured historical
wargames as all being tiny scales like 15mm. At that size I’d rather disregard
infantry altogether and just play with tanks.
He took me over to Entoyment’s trader stall to show me some
of the model range. I’ve heard of Entoyment in Poole because their store is
where the Poole Gaming Society has their games night and I’m a member of their
Facebook group. I don’t get to Poole very often, but the next time I do I’ll
try and drop in and check out Entoyment.
The guys on the Entoyment stall were great and they showed
me a lot of the World War Two historical ranges, and I probably would have
bought a starter set too if my backlog of unpainted models wasn’t already so
large. We spent a while talking about painting too and how I could get quicker
at it.
I thought that I was just going to drop in to ‘Fisticuffs’,
find nothing of interest and wander off. Instead I spent two hours there and
enjoyed myself immensely. I’ll definitely be going again next year if I can
book the day off of work. Fingers crossed I’ll see more Games Workshop
representation there next year.
All of the pictures I took at ‘Fisticuffs 2015’ can be seen
on my Flickr account:
Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 248 models.
Currently Reading: ‘The Guns of Tanith’ by Dan Abnett.
