After last year's experimental one-day event, this year we had the whole weekend, which made it more worthwhile for those travelling up from Surrey or down from the frozen wastes of the North. Unfortunately much of the Midlands was in the grip of a rather nasty cold bug which especially decimated the role-players; the usual throng on the stage was absent but we used the space instead for the second Yu-Gi-Oh tournament, which strangely had more people than in the earlier Sneak Peek event. The Magic players had a day off from cards and played board games instead.
Board games were very much the heart of the event as usual, Kingsburg, Torres and Carcassonne popular from the games library, and Citadels (OK, technically it's a card game) coming out on top. Many people had brought their own with Essen releases being eagerly tried out. The miniatures side of the event had a distinctly naval air, with two tables of Dystopian Wars and a WWII engagement on the Saturday, but there was a Napoleonic land battle too. On Sunday there was a Napoleonic naval battle; I missed which land action was being fought as I was distracted by the rare opportunity to join a Game of Thrones.
On the Saturday, numbers were well up on last year but well down on May, which was to be expected. Sunday was a disappointment, though, especially for the bar operator, the even higher prices having a clear effect. A pity really, because with the beer racked off the day before and then delivered straight from the Old Cottage brewery it was absolutely spot on. But while there may have been an air of We Happy Few, the emphasis was on Happy, which is what it is all about.
On the basis that a picture speaks a thousand words, here is a link to lots of them
https://plus.google.com/photos/107181235392958093201/albums/5808006757172829697
