Off to Germany I went via Warlord games and the show team, they needed a second driver for the trip and I was the lucky individual who was asked!
Selling stuff I thought it can't be that hard I thought!
so the Van was loaded over at Nottingham and off we went, the trip down to the coast was interesting as my phone died as we was using it as the sat nav and went a bit off the route but after some faffing about we found the place and eventually security escorted us to the booking in porta cabin as we were lost within the port, made it with about 10 mins to spare though!
So the crossing was a night crossing and after a full nights sleep we were back on the road.
the drive was fairly simple and the roads were superb to drive on. I did ponder whilst crossing across Belgium and Germany how on earth did the military do it whilst being shot at!
so finally go to Hamburg!
Nick trying to suss out how he wanted the trade stand I was comedy value and a hired monkey!
The queue starting to form on the Saturday morning and the stand was rammed for most of the day! Huge shout out to Seb & Kev for helping out without those guys myself & Nick would have been swamped!
so the game that was bolted onto the end of the warlord stand, these guys were a 2 man club and the table was spot on with the models looking really nice, and as a added bonus they fed us cake most of the weekend!
So I managed a quick wander around towards the end of the first day and I snapped away as usual, apologises with regards to the guys and girls who I didn't get a chance to note the systems down of the various tables though out the show.
A lovely freebooters fate board
Always nice to see dropzone commander, and the detail on the board was lovely!
some better pics of the game next to the stand
the actual venue, impressive looking building
great looking square formation set up
some dark ages style action
fast forward to black powder era,
A cracking African type board
some 20mm spec ops, I think using the spectre rules?
According to the guys from magabotato 20mm was a up and coming scale in Germany as its normally been 28mm
www.magabotato.de
this one was a hidden gem as the ship had internals that you can fight though, as I was wandering around after hours I didn't get the chance to have a look at the internals however if you have a look on the 7TV facebook page you'll find plenty of pics, genius idea executed superbly!
battle of the bulge 15mm FoW, reminds me of the band of brothers episode when the Americans attack the German positions, one of my favourite episodes along side the medic episode.
back into the realms of the unknown, Napoleonic type era
the African Congo type board really caught my eye and the attend to detail was spot on.
now this was a lovely board themed on Game of Thrones,
the ice effect as some of the best I've ever seen!
And as an added bonus they actually sell the models!
elladan-shop.de
Some saga action!
deadmans hand, the mountain had a mine that you could get into and fight though
A great looking Malifaux board
I stumbled across worlsung, the paint jobs on these were mind blowing!
Day 2 the masses start to arrive!
28mm desert action
a minon v's a hare, gotta be a good game!
infinity
Check your six according to the sign, with the forces yet to arrive!
Drop fleet commander
lovely painted fleets
I think this was frost grave? but the snow table looked wicked!
Aggro, the guys running this were superb to chat to and completely bonkers, my kinda people!
GF9 - Tanks,
I then wandered into the the history of wargaming room with various games set up from long OOP games that are no longer around,
Warhammer quest, loved this board
loads of old school items, would have loved to spend more time, however the clock was ticking!
even this one caught me by surprise....
Paper armies!
I wandered into a room that a group of commission painters had all the kit on display, the pictures really don't do these guys justice.....
As I was running around before the doors opened I had the run of the place to myself!
the display painting room
I think this was freebooters fate?
Now into the only game that I managed to roll some dice on, however after being told about this on the Saturday night, I made a bee-line for this on the Sunday,
Magabotato - Cavemen Verses Tanks!
The history behind this one was a discussion on the forum/facebook page with regards to some models being used along side others that are a fair few years apart, this then lead to the mental idea of cavemen fighting tanks!
these are home grown rules from the guys and they played really well, fast and simple exactly how they should be for a show. At the moment they are written in German funnily enough, however I was cheeky enough to ask for them to be translated into english so that I can get a few games in and look to see if I can run it at some shows as club type game!
you have rules for traps and the hunter became the hunted!
With the cavemen swarming all over the beast it was looking in the bag!
The boys!
a few pics of the actual punters of the show in one of the rooms, quite alot of people and everyone playing where they can I didn't see a single game without people giving it a crack!
40K space hulk action.
not sure, but a lovely looking table
now I was very impressed with this one!
multi level dungeon type game on a turn table!
a massive WW2 set up!
darklands models within a saga style game, again superb looking stuff!
One of the bigger scales, I think this was 32mm?
Battlestar galactica
variation of the height on the asteroids was clever, over all paint job was bang on!
28mm WW2
the river was a sheet of either wood varnished or perspex, really good effect and nice and simple.
the next generation being taught!
So that was Tactica, great show and well worth the visit, the quality of the tables was superb and as a collective one of the best I've seen for a while, I'd like to thank the boys from Magabotato for the beer and chill on Saturday night.
The nice thing for myself was seeing alot of the European companies that you don't get to see in the UK, lots of nice goodies to be bought and I did quite well with only picking up some mutant dudes for lead adventure company and 4 shipping crates from micro art studios.
