Display games at shows.

[tim.w]

I'm looking forward to Fiasco at Leeds at the end of the month as its the first show I will have gotten to since Vappa in Feb and I'll have a few spends too. They've just released a huge list of display games, most of which get rolled out at several shows a year, doing a circuit almost and it saddened me a little. I've little interest in seeing several large 'line em ups' played out between gamers who may well be completely disinterested in all but their own moves. The Waterloo Anniversary day at Leeds Armouries was the worst excess of this and I cringe to this day. It's become a bit of a legend since and not a good one.

One of the best shows I've been to was one which proclaimed "Down with this sorta thing!" and only had participation games. Even some of the stalls involved games, the cake game was brilliant! That show sadly didnt get off the ground and only lasted once but I got to play a whole load of games throughout the day, made a tidy sum on the bring and buy and bought a few nice bits.

I wondered if those of you lucky enough to have been to more shows than I have recently have noticed a trend either way? There has been calls in the wargaming press to champion the participation and ditch the display.

[battleeditor]

Hammerhead has *only* participation games. It’s brilliant.

[Jeremy]

I’m hoping to make Fiasco. Are we having a meetup?

[valleyboy]

I'd give anything to see a wargames show with any sort of games, there's a dearth here in NZ and most seem to be competition based
My next show will be Partizan in 2018 sniff

[Jeremy]

VB, I felt the same in SA. Now I feel like all my Christmases have come at once. 27 years of wargaming before I attended my first one. Not a single one over there

[Penda]

Never understood Participation Games' attraction for folk. Why would I want to play a game with strangers? Why would I waste shopping and chatting time that way? Why would I want to miss the brilliant spectacle of the Display Game and the inspiration they bring to my own meagre efforts? Just my two penneth you understand.

[Tim Hall]

Personally fellas, your'e not missing anything. But perhaps an absence of them can make the heart grow fonder. They always look far better in the after show magazine reports than they actually were. And as for that Waterloo Day at Leeds Armoury, I am still traumatised by the mad bloke on his own with the Battle Of Waterloo depicted as a riot between football hooligans. I never did get hold of whatever it was that he had been drinking or ingesting.

[BaronVonWreckedoften]

I've always enjoyed the Too Fat Lardies games, and (further back in time) the Asterix games that one club used to put on (a tavern brawl sticks in the mind, but there were others).

[tim.w]

Hammerhead has *only* participation games. It’s brilliant.

Too poor to make it this year but I'll be there in 2018.

[Buff Orpington]

I think that both games are useful if they are well run. I've joined in games run by the Lance & Longbow guys and picked up ideas for using some of their tweaks in LR. Display games only have a value if the team are prepared to communicate with interested spectators.