Merry Christmas 2025

 To everyone for however you celebrate this time of year. 

Guards of Traitors Toll - The first game.

After what feels like an inordinate amount of time, I have finally managed to get a game of Traitors Toll to the table. In reality its probably the first proper game I have had at my wargames club since June due to real life factors.

Setting up the table with the fantastic Battle Systems Fantasy village terrain, with various 3D printed elements and Mantic terrain crate bits made it feel really immersive for an area of town. 

If people are not aware, this game is not your typical wargame but a mash of skirmish/RPG elements in that the game runs with an NPC/card/event deck controlling many civilian/criminal models that are scattered around the town and rival guard patrols (controlled by players) compete to solve/arrest/complete criminals, tasks or situations.

So with my friend Nic and I taking a Guard patrol each, civilian models were placed throughout the town. Plot deck was generated, this would give us the tasks to play through as well and adding a major plot (unknown until drawn) 

We started drawing action tokens for guards, plots and suspects as and when they arrived and during the game ended up dealing with a drunken goblin, muggings, stabbings, lost visitors, a dangerous killers as well as evil whispers which echoed around the streets.

The major plot saw a Wizard Duel conducted on the conveniently placed Wizards Tower (this was completely coincidental as I placed the terrain before the major plot cards was chosen blind and added to the deck.

At the end of the game, we had failed to arrest a couple of suspects, managed to arrest both Wizards and gain a few gold coins as well as have some of our guards learn new skills. As Nic had the most gold coins he won.

A brilliant game, great concept and the way it plays with the interactive NPC elements keeps it fresh as nothing is ever the same.

Guards of Traitors Toll - Lord Kalinan’s Patrol

I have recently finished my second Guard Patrol for Guards of Traitors Toll. Again I have added a few extra element to the normal Wargames Atlantic Guard miniatures. This time I have included a Wargames Atlantic Halfling Militia miniature and a Wargames Atlantic Mounted Sergeant, from their Barons War range (converted with a few guards bits)

So to introduce Lord Kalinan's Rowse Street Guardhouse, North Watch.

Members

Guard Captain Marmaduke Hartstein (nicknamed Count Marmalade)

Guard Sergeant Krieg Breitsamer

Watch Constable Kuhne Graftschaber

Watch Constable Ludmila Maintal

Watch Constable Spey Aachener

Watch Constable Sabine Plaiff

Watch Constable Oskar Kartoffel (affectionally know as Toffee Apple)

Watch Constable Frederick Eisner (Elder of the Eisner twins)

Watch Constable George Eisner (Younger by 5 minutes of the Eisner twins)

Watch Constable Alberich Schutze (Mounted Patrol)

The Rowse Street Regulators

UK Games Expo 2025

Another year and another UK Games Expo. This year blew previous years out the water! This year was truly manic with 4 halls full to the brim with exhibitors and traders. Clearly a massive uplift on previous years and the number of attendees hit a record seventy odd thousand!!

Yet again I was fortunate to be working for Ares Games, who really are superb to work and demo games for and also returning were a few of my friends from the Wings of Glory Aerodrome group, who do a brilliant job at wargames shows demoing and hosting the Wings of War Aerial combat game. Huge shout out again to Roberto and Christoph from Ares. Those guys are wonderful and its thanks to them calling the same people back every year that makes our group excellent.

So with Hall 1 which is usually where the Ares stand is now designated for ticket collection and the bring and buy, all the main action was in Hall's 2, 3, 3A and 4. The avenues seemed slightly wider and not as crowded. A lot of people have stated they preferred the set up this year as the bottleneck on the stairs between Halls 1 and 2 was removed. I still found the original layout more to my liking.As stated before on my posts about the Expo, I absolutely love being at this show, no one gives two hoots if your different or what your into, wargames/boardgames/RPGS/Cosplay - or the way you live your life and identify. Anything and Everything goes and people just have so much fun. Shame real life cant be like the Expo!!

We ran a number of games on the Ares Stand, a large scale version of the new 2 player WW2 Quartermaster General set - Southern Front, set around North Africa and the Mediterranean. Balconia, Where two players build an apartment complex, block by block, by filling a 5х5 grid, Builders of Sylvan Dale, a simple game of building tree house's in forest districts with more strategy then thought. Altay Dawn of Civilisation and Aeterna, where you take the role of Roman family, trying to increase its prestige through 3 eras.

On the Sunday as usual we hosted the Battle of Birmingham - a massive WW1 Aerial dogfight with over 30 participants this year. Spot prizes were included for the planes shot down and the most times shot down as well as a larger prize for the highest scoring Aces of the day. No one walked away empty handed though as everyone involved received a beautiful participation certificate. 

This year I also managed to see Knightmare Live on the friday night as well as John Robertson Darkroom Till Ya Die on the Saturday night, this ran for 4 hours and finished around 2am !! 

Below are the photos from the show and again I didn't get to see a lot of it with working but its mainly about the people and I am blessed to know so many good friends and colleagues in this weird and wonderful hobby.

Crowds

Friends

Around the show

Battle of Birmingham IV - WW1 Dogfight

Ares Crew and this years haul

Thats the UK Games Expo 2025, thank you and here's to 2026