And so it was, on the 26th July 2014 several hundred eager gamers experienced the second Warlord Games Day in sunny (blisteringly hot!) Nottingham.
The queue extended half way up the building before doors opened, as everyone wanted to get their hands on the PC Dogberry figure on entry and make sure they were the first in line for the seminars!
The first hall had a wonderful-looking Spanish Civil War game put on by Empress Miniatures that took hours to set up but was well worth the effort. A World War I game in 10mm run by the Friends of General Haig was on the opposite side – a huge thank you to them for being so entertaining throughout the day! A Bolt Action introduction game set in between them both took people through the different aspects of the game from first steps to full-on platoon vs platoon goodness.
These were surrounded by a plethora of artisans. Wojtek and Steve showing off the sculpting craft. Andres with his figure painting. Darek with his superb tank painting techniques and Paul with his master mould making knowledge. It was a real delight to also see Peter Dennis showing his beautiful drawing and painting skills of a different kind. He is truly part of the Warlord legacy with his iconic box and book art. As you can see Peter likes a man in uniform…
The Seminar room extended off this in a wood panelled board room. Head of Design Paul Sawyer kicked off proceedings with his product plans for the next year or two, and boy were there some surprises! This was followed up by Wargames Illustrated editor Danny Faulconbridge talking us through the history of toy soldiers in print. After lunch we had Alessio and Rick answer questions and talk about the future of our Bolt Action and Beyond the Gates of Antares games respectively.
In the main hall we had everything from traders to painting schools, huge Napoleonic games with the incomparable Perry twins and wonderful looking games by over 20 different groups. Some lucky gamer even walked away with a copy of the unreleased Tank War Bolt Action supplement after a particularly bloody game!
For those that wanted to stretch their legs they could follow the tour guide and see the metal and resin casting areas, where they were talked through the whole process. Three lucky attendees were even allowed to don all the safety gear themselves and have a go at casting their own figures to take home!
The day allowed us to talk to the entire Warlord company from designer through to despatcher. Even Warlord’s overseer John Stallard was on hand to soak it all in and shake the many hands. He was proud to present the prizes for the inaugural painting competition, the winners of which we’ll be showing off very soon…
A huge thank you has to go to Sean and all the re-enactors, their marvellous uniforms and excellent drill kept people entertained for hours. Great work guys and girls.
With all that and much, much more it will be interesting to see how we top that next year!
