Games Day UK 2011 Part 1

This morning me and my friend set off at 7:30 for the journey to Birmingham from Cardiff for my first games day since 1996. I was so excited and the anticipation was huge. Unfortunately it was another type of anti, an anti-climax.

The display cases were half empty, the majority of models on show were from this year such as Ogre Kingdoms with a smattering of Tomb Kings. Hardly any 40k except for a bloke dressed as a Grey Knight and way too much space given to Dreadfleet. The ships look too small, the cardstock is too flimsy and it just doesn't engage me at all. Sorry GW.

As we walked into the hall the first thing we saw were a lot of PCs and consoles spread out for space marine, blood bowl and the warhammer thing. This took up a huge amount of space and you couldn't get a t-shirt unless you bought a game which meant there was no luck there.

Next was a dash to the retail area, however we soon found the massive queue which we didn't want to waste time in so instead had a look around the display boards. Some of them had come straight from Warhammer World and others I'd not seen before. The buzz in this area was great with lots of gaming and stuff to see.

The Black Library corner was also in this part with author signings (which I didn't go to because I didn't take any books) and I got a free badge!

The construction tables were for building the Garden of Morr and the arcane fulcrums. Technically you weren't meant to just take the sprues but oh well, I ended up with 2 complete gardens, 2 complete fulcrums and 2 halfs of the other fulcums. An absolutely awesome haul which I'm very proud of!

I had a quick chat with Jervis Johnson before heading into the White Dwarf seminar. It was hosted by the PR/communictaions manager but just felt like a load of spin and bull. But there was a Q&A session at the end and I asked Andrew Kenrick (WD editor) if he was happy with the content of his magazine or if he'd like to put in more personal content which related to gamers and hobbyists. This threw him a bit and started rambling that I should like the brand new releases and that should be enough.

The armies on parade displays were really hit and miss. There were some very stunning and thoughtful entries but there was also a lot of awful rubbish. Didn't see who was the winner and didn't really pay any attention to the golden daemons, the cabinets were constantly crowded.



Overall the lack of surprises and announcements was a real let down, only rectified by loads of 'free' stuff and the always impressive and friendly Forge World guys.

The question now is, shall I go next year?......Yeah probably, boys got to hope!