Warhammer Fest 2016

Good evening all, sorry, it feels like an age since I last posted anything! I've been mooching through some of my recent pictures and I've got so much to update you all with I'm going to break what would be one humongous post post into 3 or 4 posts over the next week or so. 

Basically so I don't bore you all to death. 

Or wear my fingers out typing forever.

Win win really :)

Anyway, first up shall be a (very) brief review of Warhammer Fest 2016 which I atttended with my good friend Ian last month. 

Neither of use were massively enthused to attend this year following a somewhat lack lustre effort on GW's behalf the year prior, but seeing as we were both free on the date and my friend was passing the venue on his way back from a family visit we decided to go along and see what had changed.

We didn't regret the decision at all.

In what appears to be massive change of direction from the GW of old, the entire event seemed to be packed with exactly what was missing from the year before. There were game boards to play on (should you have brought an army..), silver tower trial games being ran, fun 'create a base' timed challenges, many many third party video games being displayed and shown off along with games workshop key staff show casing everything about the hobby and more than happy to spend the time to talk to you about what have been doing or what interested them etc. We must have spent a good 20 minutes chatting with one of the team members responsible for creating all the AWESOME dioramas in the exhibition hall, thoroughly enjoyable talk and a really nice guy who seemed passionate about his job. (Although it must be easy to be passionate about making awesome set ups when the hardest thing you have to do is try and reason to your boss exactly why you want to smash a drop pod into a war lord Titans head....)

Due to some poor information from one of the door staff we missed where exactly we were meant to sign up for the seminars so missed out on the forge world event BUT having opted to view the black library's effort think we actually came away better off for it....great seeing and hearing some of the writers who's works I've been buried in over the last few years and hearing what they are planning next!

Anyway - on a whim I decided to take along 2 minis of mine to try my luck in the golden demon painting competition. I decided to enter Garro, hand of the sigilite (as I though he was probably one of my best) but he was placed in the cabinet alongside a simply much much better Garro haha so that was a bit of a pointless venture and (almost as an after thought) I decided to try my Onagar Dune Walker out as it attracted some nice attention on Facebook. 

Yup....not sure how exactly, but when I went to collect Garro and the Walker the guy handed me Garro but said 

" Sorry buddy, I can't let you have the other model just yet - you've made the finals, congratulations" 

Wow, TOTALY stunned that I managed to come away with a Golden Demon finalists pin.....rather a happy boy with that result! Especially to even be considered along side some of the other finalists was an honour, as ever the standard was incredibly high. 

Anyway, Warhammer Fest was a triumphant return to form and I'll be 100% in attendance next year (all things wiling ofc) and on that note I'll bid you good night for now - next time I'll get some pics down of my latest little board game purchase 'Kingdom Death' that some of us from the Code managed to sit down and play a few rounds of. 

Thanks for reading :) until next time. 

Tom

Warhammer Fest

Hey guys and girls, Mike has kindly asked me to contribute to this blog so I thought I'd offer up a few words on what's been going on in my hobby world lately!

Firstly, let me introduce myself, my name is Tom Baker (no, not that one...) and I'm the guy behind the Battered Bristles Facebook page - although hopefully some of you know me better from the fabulous Worcester War tournaments I've attended the over the last couple of years. If I've had the fortune to play any of you in a game then that's excellent, if not, then hopefully I'll be able to throw some dice down with you at another tournament soon!

Anyway - what I want to say a few words about is Games Workshops newly repackaged Gamesday - now called Warhammer Fest - held this year at the Ricoh Arean in Coventry. (On a side note, I wonder if the event renaming has anything todo with the trialed renaming of 3 Games Workshop stores across the UK now being simply called Warhammer?) 

I confess it was with some trepidation I booked for this event as whilst I enjoyed last years, I was not blind to some of the (quite fairly) abuse levelled at it. I've not been back into the hobby for that long and the 2013 event was the first my friend and I had attended in a long long time and as such, it was with wide eyes and almost childlike awe we spent the first few hours walking around looking at all the pretty things! But then it dawned on us there wasn't actually much to do or see and with over half of the main floor given over to sales, the event quickly began to feel more like a giant sales pitch. 

Allow me to just intercede here for one moment to clarify a quick point - I love GW. I love the models they make and the game systems they create to push thier product. I'm also acutely aware that they are first and foremost a business and their prime directive is to sell products to stay profitable and remain in business feeding me lots of shiny toys. 

Anyhow. Fast forward to 2014 and wow. It almost appears that GW have been guilty of that Cardinal sin - they appear to have listened to their customers! Warhammer Fest sort of appeared out of the warp with very little fuss, quietly appearing as if from nowhere with everybody asking "what is this Warhammer Fest of wich you speak?". The event was completely unrecognisable to that of the previous year! Firstly - it's was calm, ther was space to move, sit and take a moment. With the event split over 3 floors, the first floor allowed you to enter the area, be gifted a program and ticket badge before heading to grab a coffe and a (nicely cooked, fairly priced) burger and grab a seat after driving for over an hour as my friend had done. Then - if you wished - you could enter the 'sales' part of the event. Behind doors, out of immediate sight, with no pressure to enter unless you wished there was a huge room dedicated to GW / the Black Library and Forge World. I snagged myself a nice limited print of Vulkan for my hobby room and even a (supposedly sold out) pack of limited edition data cards for the Dark Eldar for a friend. Hell, there were even about 5 or 6 gaming tablesset up, free for people to use if they so wished! 

The middle floor was given over to the guys and girls behind White Dwarf, showing fantastic artwork from upcoming books and magazines whilst also having many of the writers on hand with their armies more than happy to have a chat and talk through pretty much anything you cared to level at them. Again, no queuing per say, just people moving freely around taking their own time. Great. 

The top floor was however all about Forgeworld and boy did these guys steal the show. Fantastic dioramas showing the battle of Calth and a ship battle showing the Iron Hands batteling off Imperial Fist boarders really got the imagination running! There where staff on hand again all over the floor to talk about the new releases being previewed in the cabinets or holding demenstration pods to sit and explain how to do such things as 'weathering vehicles' or 'painting an army quickly'. Very quick, easy to watch videos with the actual forge world artists talking you through the steps in person. Beautifully done. 

Then there was the Golden Demon event itself. The standard this year was just phenomenal - I can only assume with no other Golden Demon events running in any other country (Warhammer Fest was a UK only show) that the best of the best from around the world must have all come together on the one day because the level of entries was just outstanding. I entered a couple of models myself but against the completion I came away completely empty handed - but with a burning fire inside to create something special for next year! 

All told a fantastic day and I'm very much excited by next years prospects!

But that's enough from me for now, if you've managed to read this far then I thank you for reading my first post in its entirety - I shall endeavour to brush up on my writing skills and post again in the near future with a sneak peek at something special I'm working on at the moment! 

Thanks again - until next time. 

Tom