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| LoA North American Chapter - Clarence did ALL the work for this one at Historicon 2016 |
Being a Team of two, you have to make decisions which are inevitably a compromise. I have captained some productive groups since starting on the Event Trail around 1992. Sometimes we were two, occasionally three, many times and for several years, I flew solo.
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| Don't be 'leg-ist' please! |
I don't envy larger groups but they do offer a division (rarely equal) of labour and the opportunity to game-explain-shop-rest-travel in a proportion, permitting all the bases to be covered and preventing burn out.
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| Epics of this nature are hard yards for a two man team. Great to see but very challenging from a logistics perspective. |
This is often forgotten when comments such as 'well nothing seems to move on that table', 'it's just a static display', 'why didn't they engage with the public?' etc are bandied. Not a complaint I hasten to add and of no matter to the punter, but significant as an influencing factor nonetheless. You can't do it all especially with only two bods.
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| Donnybrook can be very attractive - DOB's Moors face... DOB's Kirke's Lambs! |
LoA 2018 is a happy ship. Toggy and I with occasional and very welcome support from DOB, get on extremely well and have a right old laugh however, we take what we do very seriously. We get a lot done but are still recidivists when it comes to spreading the jam a bit thin on the bread. Not content with just running a game we often operate a trade stand too! Playing, explaining and selling is also a big ask. Recently I have dropped most trading commitments in favour of the demo/participation game experience. In the US, Clarence and I have managed two very successful outings as LoA USA (with the vast majority of the work done by CH not BH).
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| We have invested very heavily in this range in 2018. Now we need to attract customers! |
Releasing new products in which you have invested heavily and in which you also have a gaming interest pushes the decision making to the extremes. Paint and base for the shop pictures or, paint and base for the game? Build terrain or paint models? Write scenarios for the book(s) or paint more models? Do photos or play games? This maddening cycle is intensified by us both having very demanding jobs. Toggy works shifts like you wouldn't believe and I spend on average 160 days per year not at home, so it's the last week in September, we've invested about £20k in figure development and production this year and CRISIS (not A crisis!) is looming.. what do we do?
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| Those wishing to see Warfare Miniatures on a grand scale at CRISIS need look no further than Jon S's table. This, last year! |
To compound the challenge, we have been threatening to move away from terrain tiles for a few years now. I bought the dead teddy bears but for years couldn't bring myself to skin 'em! Lugging lots of bulky gear across the North Sea and unloading at Wagnatee is a bit of a chore too. So, the perfect storm faced us:
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| Impressive - yes! but.. its a bugger to hump around Europe! |
Option A:
Trade Stand with the full Warfare range + large table with 500> figures + 12 terrain boards and buildings etc + European launch of the Ottoman range + WTK game with lots of explaining + new Swedish Cavalry OR,
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| Same war - new terrain - we'll roll it up like a carpet in 2018! (With around 300 models it will still be pretty) |
Option B:
Modest trade stand with new products + PRE ORDER offer for show customers + dead Teds table + nice to look at game with easy on the brain action.
We choose Option B and so the plan for CRISIS was born.
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| I'll elucidate about WSS and Ottomans in Donnybrook in this series |
We've decided to run a game of Donnybrook. Set circa 1713 in south eastern Europe, The Austrian Empire v The Ottoman Empire. Well painted and manageable table top forces played with against a static backdrop of BLB III units from the same armies who will look on in motionless admiration.
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| There will be some breathing space on the Tedmat as our Imperialists and Ottomans fight out the scenario |
The table will feature the new 6 x 5 fold away Tedmat I made about six weeks ago, Toggy's latest beautiful piece of Austrian architecture, very nice painted examples of our new Danes, Prussians and Ottomans and a fun scenario with Donnybrook.
This series of blog posts will explain all ingredients of the Augsburg cake including The forces, the painting, the scenario, the terrain and buildings, the show offer to customers and the products we'll be carrying on the day.
Having explained the thought process the next part will begin to feature the CRISIS 2018 scenario.