Meeting the public

 Another year has flown by and once again the club are putting on their annual show. This Saturday the 6th we will once again be running the Colours Wargame show at Newbury Racecourse. There is little left for me to say about the show that I have not said over the last couple of years on my blog. It is a great day out and I really enjoy myself working on the Bring and Buy stall, meeting the punters and catching up with regular and new traders later on in the day. This year we are going to be jam packed with no spare trader or demo game space, filling all three floors of the racecourse pavilion. 

A couple of our club had a bit of a practise chatting to the public a couple of weeks ago now at the Corn Exchange in Newbury. This is the second year they have put on a geeky gaming day, kind of like a mini show with a couple of traders, D&D sessions and model painting. We were invited to come down again and put on a large Warhammer demo game and without blowing our own trumpets, I think we had a great looking table. 

Here is a photo dump of some shots from the day.

The battle was the siege of an Empire town by a large force of Orcs and Goblins. The Greenskins outnumbered the Empire, but still struggled to breach the walls. We were happy to chat to punters and let them join in with some dice rolling, so the game was not running at any particular speed. It was a fun day though and we happily offered advice to peeps on how to get into wargaming (or advised parents on how to save money when their children were already super enthusiastic!)

I think hobbyists are at their happiest when sharing knowledge, even better when the recipients are actually after that knowledge. I really enjoy seeing the smiles on peoples faces when they explore a hobby, whether it is wargaming, at a Wool show or collecting football stickers. It comes as no surprise to me that people say having a hobby is good for your mental health and I think the world is a better place if people go to these events and share their enthusiasm. True the enthusiasm does mean some of us get a little too excited and we got hot and bothered, but if we all put on plenty of deodorant and make sure not to swing our backpacks into other peoples faces I am sure we can all have a great time at shows, cons and events.

Hope to see you there, if you do come, pop upstairs and say hello!