Broadside 2021 Trip Report

Words and photos by John Treadaway

It’s been, of course, two years since I was last at Broadside and – lockdowns and so forth aside – the organising club has spent that period looking for a new venue. This was always planned as the previous one had some notable disadvantages (parking being tricky and its sharing of space with a swimming bath and all of the humidity issues that entails) but Milton Hundred Wargames Club did their homework and certainly picked a better spot.

VENUE

December 2021 found me at the Medway Park Sports Hall. It is – as the name implies – a large open 'sports centre’ style room and, as a wargames show venue, it worked rather well. Parking was easy and the hall itself – despite the reintroduction of more face coverings for some other locales (like shops) – was friendly and inviting with good lighting.

TRADE

Presence was quite good. Less than for the previous outing in 2019, perhaps (down by a dozen to around twenty four this year, I think) but all seemed to be doing good business. I’m not sure why that reduction occurred: it could have been any combination of panic to show fatigue but I have speculated on all of that in my recent show reviews for other events, so I’ll not cover it again here. It’s safe to say that I don’t think it had too much to do with Brexit...

DEMONSTRATION GAMES 

There were around fourteen display games, plus several other party games, along with a painting competition and a board game area.

Notable outings included a rather nice Warmachine game by the Friday Night Fight Club. This was a strange mix of steampunk, the canals of Venice and historically Korean barges but it worked! Chris Swan and Skirmish Wargames were running a fun looking, 40mm Viking game; the Shepway Club had a superb looking 28mm WWI game called You will be home before the leaves fall. Fire when Ready (confusingly also known as Emotionally14 – which is it chaps?) ran a nice pair of Star Wars games including a large Star Wars Legion and a huge X-Wing game; and Gravesend put on a tidy looking 15mm Cold War Gone Hot game using Team Yankee. There were a fine pair of 28mm Napoleonic games by both SEEMS and Posties Rejects (the latter with a bespoke rule set) and Deal ran a 28mm Vietnam game that looked very pretty. As an aside, the Maidstone team were there with their Biggles Labyrinth game, as seen in the last issue of this magazine which proved very poplar
to play.

CONCLUSIONS

This show is now ten years old and it’s a testament to the organising club. Not only is it a fun show it raised over £1000 for Macmillan Cancer Support. I’m very glad the venue has changed and it will be good to see what the Milton Hundred folks can achieve next year (the next show is scheduled for June 4th at the same venue) when – we all surely hope – we can all go about our business and enjoy wargames shows again without the constant back tracking and indecisiveness that has disrupted our hobby (and lives) over the last two years. So – as ever – I have ‘everything crossed’ and I’m looking forward to 2022! 

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