Sheffield Triples

Well yesterday I attended Sheffield Triples with Windy, the first thing I remembered when we arrived was that I'd forgotten me camera so no pictures- I hate forgetting my camera, especially when I've charged the battery and put it on the worktop ready for the morning- old timers setting in early I think.
So here goes, a picture less description if anybody's interested. Firstly the parking charge, £5.00 a car, seems steep but after parking at Salute, not so bad. Another £5.00 each to get in, (£3.00 if you're an OAP-  not me yet but Windy had a giggle) and what do you get- well this year quite a lot. After the move from the Octagon a few years back this show went down in my estimation, no atmosphere, poor games and a sort of ' we're only doing it for the money' feeling. So much so that last year I didn't go. This year however, from the first smile at the door, I felt good being there and there was a genuine enthusiasm around the games

James Roach was in attendance with his Zorndorf game. I've met James on numerous occasions and have always been impressed by his knowledge about the subject and his painting style. His blog details his painting regime and the output is astounding, I would have thought the output of painted figures would mean they were 'average' at best- nope, not this bloke- detailed, shaded, well based and presented, top class.

Like a Stone wall put on a huge Seven Years war battle, excellent figures and terrain as always. To be fair there were quite a few good games on show, by good I mean well presented, nice terrain and decently painted, based and 'flagged' figures. There were a couple of basic games where the club terrain and 'three colour painting' figures were being used, presumably these games were floor fillers.
John Grant put on a Musket and Tomahawks game that I'd have loved to play in.

The trade was well presented with the big hitters in attendance, Dave Thomas, Foundry, Old Glory and Curteys, Dave Lanchester had a few quid off me as usual. Warbases were a there with an ever growing range of decent gear.

One noticeable thing was the abundance of well painted 40k very cheap stuff in the bring and Buy, it wasn't selling, probably because of Games Workshops' policy of rehashing their rules every couple of years, and at 50 quid a shot it gets expensive to keep up.

All in all a decent day out, some nice games and some 'required' purchases, I say required but as we all know if we don't support the traders they won't be there anymore. Was it worth the parking charge and admittance? probably, the people I spoke to presenting the games were all very chatty which I like, the trade was good, the premises is bland- can't be helped I suppose- was I enthused to go home and paint/game,- yes, due directly to the friendly attitude of the lads putting on the games. The final thing I always consider is - would I go again next year?- probably, but there are better shows around- York, Partizan, Fiasco & Derby to name four that are local to me.

PS after writing this I've seen James Roachs' Olicanaladsgames blog and I don't think I'll be attending Triples again. It was going to be either Triples or Partizan this year but we decided to do both, next year it'll just be Partizan. Please see James' blog for details.