The Wargamer

Day 2 and we in the organising team are all feeling the effects of being on site for four days solid. Because we fit in three games on Saturday, we have an early start with the first games at 8:15am – there are quite a few of our competitors for whom we suspect even the very concept of a time such as 8:15am is in the realms of the purely theoretical, so the reality on a damp Mancunian morning – and then having to be ready to play a game as well - often comes as quite a shock!

With three games to fit in the day sometimes feels like a bit of a rush, and the biggest challenge is to get through to the 3^rd game in the evening without forgetting to eat at least one meal during the day! Game three is also tough on the competitors and a quick glance across their faces often reveals an expression that is fairly clearly saying “In a normal competition this would be the last game - but I’ve got another two to go tomorrow – Oh NO!!”

Linda’s knitted terrain has been gathering even more interest throughout the day – at least one opponent was surprised by a unit of her Catalan Almughavars ambushing them out what they had originally thought was a pair of gloves and a small striped hat!

With four games gone, the competitions are really starting to shake out the leaders from the rest of the pack.

In Flames of War, the Germans are doing noticeably better than the Allies in the early periods, with artillery clearly the dominant arm in this particular campaign.

In Field of Glory some of the usual suspects have been doing well, with last year's champion Graham Evans already in the lead in the “early” period (Romans and before) with his Dominate Roman army comprised almost entirely of Auxiliaries that he has virtually trademarked, and Pete Dalby leading the later period with his highly mobile Ottomans.

The rest of the chasing pack includes a few surprises with both the Belgian Mr Willpute and Phil Powell's Ostrogothic army doing well in Field of Glory – every year one of our overseas gamers seems to emerge as a title. Bloodbowl has also seem some epic tussles between teams of Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves, with plenty of crunching tackles and a good number of touchdowns flying in as well.

Finally, all the traders are now in, with a host of early morning arrivals first thing today. So far trading volumes seem pretty good, and the Worldmaker rubber terrain we mentioned earlier has been the talk of the show – and the source of far too many “What do you think of it – I think it's “rubbery”” poor quality jokes as well.

Alessio Cavatore, author of Games Workshops Lord of The Rings, Warhammer 7^th and Warhammer 40k 5^th editions, promoting his new game

We’re just packing up for the evening now, and have a brief respite before the Pub Quiz starts at 10pm in the bar – we’ll apologize in advance if our report tomorrow turns out to be both a little late and a bit thin as a result !!