PAW 2011 - Plymouth Wargames Show

The fantastic participation game presented by Cross Swords gaming club.

As you may have guessed from my incoherent ramblings on this blog, I’m not the best Warhammer player in the world.  However, I do enjoy the game so I decided to enter the local tournament which ran last weekend; the Plymouth Association of Wargamers annual show, (also known as PAW 2011).

After writing and submitting my 1000pt Army list a few weeks ago, I tried it out against Lawrence's Skaven and proceeded to lose at every opportunity, I wasn't filled with confidence.  We decided to take a trip to the Cross Swords gaming club to meet a few other gamers from the area and so that I'd recognise a few faces at the tournament.  Everyone at the club was friendly and we had a great night, we'll definately be going back for some more.

Goblin on Goblin action (mine are the ones being flanked)

Feeling a bit more positive about the whole thing, I went along to the tournament.  To cut a long story, slightly less long, I played all six of the scenarios from the rulebook over the weekend, reporting the result of each game in my twitter feed. 

Shortly before the army was eaten by a dragon.

Of all those games, I only won one; by crushing my opponents Chaos Sorcerer General in the first turn of the game with my Rocklobber (it was the Blood and Glory Scenario, so I instantly won!).  I’d had the first turn so my opponent didn’t even get a turn.  He didn’t look mightly impressed, but I got him a cup of tea, and we chalked it up to experience.  We wrote up our scores and then carried on the game as if it was a normal pitched battle.  Which he proceeded to win.

Goblins about to get eaten, again.

Alongside the gaming, there were a large number of traders present, as well as the bring and buy stall.  Obviously I did my best not to spend too much money, though a couple of small purchases were made, which I'll tell you about in future posts.  By far the most impressive sight of the day was the participation game put on by Cross Swords, which involved a huge castle being assaulted.  The photos don't do justice to the scale of the model and I'll direct you all to some better photographs as they become available.

This castle was huge!  Constructed from Hirst Arts blocks, it must have taken months to complete.

Overall it was a great weekend, I saw some great armies and met some great gamers.  From a Frugal perspective, it was also a success.  For £15 I had two days of gaming against a range of opponents as well as the opportunity to talk about the hobby and discuss painting and strategies with the others who were there.

Oh, just in case you were wondering, I came came 23rd out of 24 players.  Better than I expected.

Happy Gaming.