G's Spot: Chillcon

Hello again.

Last weekend saw the advent of the Chillcon show, held at the Woodlands School in Allestree, Derby. I was not meant to be going, as it was time for second daughter to head off to university and I was driving, but the car was going to be so full that there could be only one (to misquote the "Highlander"), so my wife took her instead, which left me with a free day.

Anyway, whilst visiting Nephew Nick a couple of days earlier to meet my new great nephew, Edward (aka "Little Ted" or "My young apprentice" - congratulations to Nephew Nick and his wife Claire on the arrival of said baby on 12th September at over 10lbs in weight!!!), Nick got a free pass for the day too so we decided to go.

The show was spread over three halls, had a number of traders and games as usual, but a lot of the games were small, participation games, which was a bit different, with things like Taiyo Dynasties, Rattlebones, Stormhaven and Odin's Pyre all new to me and others new (-ish) on the market such as Adeptus Titanicus, Gangs of Rome and Blood & Plunder. I loved the look of Taiyo Dynasties, a mythical Japanese/ Far Eastern set up on a 2x1 foot board of cherry blossom and classic Nippon architecture. The green gorilla with double hammers and the Kung Fu Panda lookalike with the pole weapon were awesome! I have already decided that the gorilla needs to become my avatar, especially as my son calls me "Gorilla Dog" and my PlayStation name is GorillaDog67!

Anyway, a small show by some standards, but I went with a "to buy" list and stuck with it!

There were a couple of things I found very interesting about this show. I know some are done elsewhere, but one at least is unique to me.

1) As simple paying customers, we got a carrier bag of leaflets and a free Viking shield maiden figure. Also in the bag was a voucher for a discount at Sarissa Precision, which was most useful.
2) In addition to the standard carrier bag, you could pre-order a goody bag. I believe there were three sorts on offer for increasing amounts, but with figures and the like inside. The bigger offer you bought, the more you got!
3) The GAMER CARD. My carrier bag had a card in it. I had to collect two orange and four blue stickers on my card to gain entry to a prize draw. Orange stickers were issued by traders with whom you spent £10 or more, blue ones by game organisers whose game you played. Prizes were varied, but three £20 vouchers was not to be sniffed at.

So, a few pics and purchases to end on and I can get on with walking the dog and painting some more figures.

Finally, a big thank you and recommendation. All our long suffering, hard working traders deserve all the best for enabling us to enjoy our hobby via their often wonderful and innovative products - we simply could not be gamers without figures and the accoutrements of gaming - but I wish to give a very special mention to the guy at Laser Cut Architect (henceforth LCA), from whom I bought my sci-fi/ Necromunda terrain. Having bought a few pieces from him and wandered off to browse some more, I got a tap on the shoulder. The fellow had only come to find me around the show to give me a freebie of something I had not bought! If I had spent a fortune with him I might not have been surprised, but I only spent £57! A wonderful gesture form the man (whose name I did not get...) and well deserving of a massive THANK YOU for excellent customer service and for supplying a niche product I recommend to all who game this sort of area of interest. Check out LCA on Facebook or the web.

G

I think this was the "Stormhaven" game.

And I think this was "Rattlebones"...

One of the big attractions for me, having seen some posts on Facebook beforehand, was the planned "Burrows & Badgers" demo game, a shot of which you can see here. Some very nice buildings.

The game also featured an out of town area, the town walls in shot at the left edge of the picture.

I like windmills! And I have also just painted the Otter Ranger figure standing next to the windmill, though mine is in rather more subdued colours!

Wildcat and Starling rogues hiding somewhere in town. The Bill Sykes lookalike wildcat rogue is one of the more enigmatic figures in the Oathsworn range. I love the figure, but am not quite sure how I would use it, but Nephew Nick is not a fan.

Those pesky zombies are bothering the good citizens of Mid-west USA again.

Purchase time! Oathsworn tapped me for another wad of cash!!! I needed some small stuff...

The £5 off vouchers in my goody bag mean this set of buildings for Burrows & Badgers (and other rules sets) came in a t just £30, over £10 off the list price of buying each individually. The £35 price tag itself was a reduction in the individual price, so double discount!!! Had to be done!