Warfare 2022

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Just back from Warfare 2022: a show I have been to many times before but whose home, this year, was the Farnborough Exhibition Centre.

So what did I think?

Well, it was £10 to get in: hardly a bank-breaker, but more expensive than any other show I have attended this year.

A ‘Nam game that looked like a recreation of the famous scene from Apocalypse Now

The venue itself was half exhibition centre and half aircraft hanger. I found it a bit dark in the hanger: but I imagine it’s set up that way because they anticipate that participants in whatever’s on show will bring their own lighting. Catering was okay (bring back Ascot as a venue!): the queues looked much, much worse than they actually were; and prices were fine.

German engineers make their way to Luxembourg

There were a decent number of traders, but not as many as I would have expected to see, and they were all crammed into two areas with very narrow aisles between stands. It was quite claustrophobic even though we were effectively in an aircraft hanger! It left little room for browsing, so it was really a question of only going for what you needed.

Vive la France!

Besides the bring and buy, which was the usual sweaty melee, there did seem to be much more painted figures, presumably second hand, for sale. Apparently this has been the topic of some discussion on various fora recently: how the first of the gamers who enjoy the “golden age of wargaming” are dying off, leaving behind them hundreds or even thousands of beautifully painted figures available at comparatively bargain prices. I may have come away with a complete, lovely, fully-painted Burgundian Ordnance army for To The Strongest for considerably less than it would have cost me to buy the lead and get my figure painter to paint it but, if my better half is reading this, that would definitely be a scurrilous rumour with no basis in fact. Honest.

Some kind of attack on an Italian aerodrome!

There were a lot of exhibition games, and of an incredibly high quality. I have dotted this post with examples: they were very inspirational and, as usual, surrounded by people happy to talk about the battle, the game, the rules, the figures etc.

A bit blurry, but another spectacular WW2 game

The largest part of the show, however, were the competition games…and there seemed more than ever of them. It was good to walk around, weaving your way through the labyrinth of tables, looking at all the beautiful figures on display. It was amusing to see the difference between the look of the tables and the different rule sets used…but I will refrain from any bad-mouthing of rules other than those that I play.

So all in all, worth going to, but I won’t go again tomorrow: it’s an hour’s journey for me either way and it wasn’t that good. I will go next year, provided it is on and not too far away: the exhibition games alone, if they repeat this year’s quality, would be worth it.