Exeter Legionary Wargames Show 2026

 Saturday saw some of the collective meet up for a trip to the Legionary show in Exeter - DK and I arrived first and did a perusal of the bring and buy - DK picked up a number of bargains with Undaunted Stalingrad and some Batman Miniatures Game stuff, I picked up some British WW2 stuff in 15mm - might try and paint some (after the dragons and wolf riders and Orks and …).

Then we did a wander around the show.

Above a rather nice Rapid Fire game in 20mm and 2 shots of alternate end to WW2, with the Soviets vs the British. The organiser was quite effusive about the books it was based on … which I can’t remember now. But it looked good. 

Above shows a nice 1672 style game - I can’t recall the rules they were using, but looked nice. At alt 40k game using One Page Rules and I think miniatures - pretty epic. 

Talking of Epic - Jason and the argonauts, Talos, a fleece and a ship - lovely setup using Dragon Rampant. 

Then we have some Frostgrave and DBA.

The peeps at Brethren had a large Hastings game and a couple of small participation games which Snake-eyes, Tiger-King and myself had a go at. It was Celts (me) versus Romans (Tiger-King), in a close run thing … I was let down by some appalling dice rolling as my Celts surrounded the Romans - but failed kill. Curses … I pick up the quick start rules for a couple of quid. Could be good for a quick pick up game. An enjoyable show - good fun with chums. 

This weekend was the big event I have been out on the moor for. I was suffering with a little FOMO not being up there, but I got to go to the show and dismantled the decking - which was rotting in places. So a good use of my time. 

Obviously now I have to put the replacement slab etc in place … next weekend?

Morts

UK GamesExpo 2025

So the collective (Snake-eyes, Steedo, Tiger-King and my good self) had an expedition to UK Games Expo this weekend - my first visit since 2018 … I was planning to go last year, but was unwell on the day. 

The day started with a mighty Toby breakfast by the Gloucester cheese rolling hill - which was only last week. They’re onto the show - which seems busier than I remember it! Actually a lot busier to be honest - bloody people in the way. There was also more stalls selling peripheral items … t shirts, hats, mead … fudge etc. some of which was very nice … but I am too tight and also I don’t feel the need to advertise my nerdiness anymore than I do. 

I didn’t go with anything in mind this year - possibly the Hobgoblin rules, which I would have bought last year … but this year I just didn’t feel the need … possibly Midgard and DBF causing the pause and the fact that I haven’t played a fantasy game for quite awhile … over a year at least I reckon. I did pick up the free quick start rules for Hobgoblin and A billion Stars from the Planet Smasher stand. But got them damp in my bag …

On the way in I saw Alessio Cavatore (of Warhammer/Kings of War writing fame) on the Mantic/River Horse stand and was going to go over and speak to him about the Labyrinth/Dark Crystal games, when he called over and went to speak with Jevis Johnson (writer of Bloodbowl) … I thought I would try and catch  him again later, but there was so much to see and people in the way that by the time I passed by again … he was nowhere to be seen - so I missed out on a selfie. 

So we tried to be methodical going around to “streets”, but we kept losing people as we were wandering. I  saw the Wotan Games stand and recalled the War of the Nine Realms game I had wanted to play the last time I was at GamesExpo - so I gathered up the team and managed to get a demo game (pictures on the right above). We all like the game which had a lot of nuance and re-playability, although simple mechanics, I was tempted - but the card standies should really be miniatures and Snake-eyes though it a bit pricey at £40 (with miniatures this would have been fine but £20-£25 as it was packaged seemed a fairer price). 

We continued the wandering and I was the first to purchase an item - some tufts (partly because DK had predicted it, and because they would be useful). Snake-eyes picked a very nice Norse/Cthulhu based RPG - I was tempted by zone wars by the same maker … I saw some miniatures for the Escape from New York game, which I was tempted by because it a good film and sound track, but as Snake-eyes already has it … but he needed the miniatures so picked them up and I asked if he could have the President mini free … this ploy worked.

I had a good chat with the Battlesystems man about Maladum - which looked really good. A tempting dungeon crawler (Heroquest on steroids as Steedo described it), but as I have tried and failed with Dungeon Saga and and am still crawling through Blackstone Fortress … A visit to the Open Pages Rules stand had a good conversation (add in what you want) and a free min - I had definitely going to try out the rules soon, for use with the WH40k stuff. 

With an hour to go before closing we played a couple of rounds of Arkham Horror (picture on the left), this was a nice intuitive game of more Cthulhu madness, with elements which reminded us of pandemic and Raiders of the North Sea - so go in fact that Steedo headed off the Zatu to order a copy … 

I did fail on the purchase front only managing £5 of tufts - pitiful compared to Snake-eyes and Steedo spend … but I didn’t really go there with any plan of what to buy (I also have a mantic kickstarter to arrive that I haven’t told the better half about).

A cracking day out with some good banter in the car and a big thanks to Snake-eyes for driving us all there and back - top man. 

Morts

A trip to the local show.

This weekend was the big walk on the moor - because I had to collect Thing 2 from Heathrow after 3 months of travelling to Thailand, Australia and Indonesia (well Bali), I didn’t go down to the event, s I as free to visit the local Wargames show. 

DK and popped down for a few hours and have a look around. There were some nice games on show. 

TL - a Lion Rampant game. We had a good chat with the chap running the game, explaining his campaign system. TR - a large Trafalgar game, looked impressive. BL - a large game of racing Cornish gigs. BR - a Battletech game of an assault on a city. 

TL - a western desert Flames of War game. The models and set up were nice, but the wall to wall tanks just don’t look right to me. TR - a large scale gladiator game. BL - a Rebels & Redcoats engagement. BR -  Aliens! A very nice set up. 

A large 20mm Fantasy Samurai mash up - I forgot to check what rules system they were using. 

Here is my booty from the trip - 5 chaos space marines, that I don’t need - but thought they might be fun to paint up. I also pick up a copy of Warlords of Erehwon (off DK) and nearly picked up a Walking Dead starter set for £10 … but waited too long. 

A good trip out, chewing the cud with DK. 

Morts

Legionary 2023

DK very kindly picked me up for a trip down the local show in Exe. This is the first show I’ve been to for a couple of years and was I looking forward to it - I had actually compiled at list of things that I wanted. So on arrival we scouted out the Bring and Buy - which was very good. DK picked up quite a lot of “bargains” - including 8 oldish terrain boards. After the Bring and Buy, we went around the traders to see what might catch our eyes. 

Before we perused the games we headed the cafe for a quality breakfast.

The advantage of using a venue used by the farming community is the breakfast was good!

Some lovely ToonKrieg miniatures and game using NUTS rules - all 3d printed. 

A great “toy soldier“ set up for somewhere in Eastern Europe using NorthStar miniatures. 

Loved the ship. 

The Cornish were there with an impressive Blood and Plunder set up - if we had been earlier we might have had a go - but the 2 hour play time was too much. 

Two Star Wars games - one clone wars using Chain of Command rules, the other using the Legion rules.  

A nice mid 18th century battle where you had get the supply column off the board. 

A massive 30k game was being played - lots of vehicles and knights on the table. 

The tables from the Brethren set up, a Bolt Action game and Wings of Glory airship epic.

DK and I had a good day wandering around and chatting to other gamers - I didn’t pick up everything on my list, but my haul wasn’t bad.

Pleased with all I picked up - looking forward to having a go at the Blitzkrieg game (I had looked at this a year or so ago as a Christmas pressie).

Morts

Another year older .... Still no wiser!

So the weekend saw me get a little closer to my half-century, so I headed down to the Ocean city for the annual wargames show ..... With money but no idea of what I wanted and certainly no need for anything...... All I have managed this year making wise is gluing some Chainrasps together!

DK very kindly drove down - requiring a full English stop at Route 5 - nice.p

We arrived vied at the show bang on opening time and headed to the bring and buy (where DK had to register some items for sale) - but managed to pick up a copy of Star Wars: Imperial Assault (with expansions) for a snip! I saw a few things but am trying stop buying stuff I won't use .....

After a brief wander around looking at vendors (to see if I could spend some money) and demo games (for inspiration) - played a couple of round of Sharp Practice (a black power large skirmish game) - a nice set up and some interesting rules to deal with unforeseen events and the order of unit activations. 

The rules seemed easy to pick up and follow - had really good chat with the chap running the game (whose name escapes me, to my embarrassment), about gaming in general. It appeared to be a hybrid game in terms of scale with line troops in units rather than individuals. I could see some fun could be had from these rules, but it would be a new period, so very much on the back burner for now (probably for ever to be honest). I can see the appeal of 28mm for skirmish games, but for mass battle games 10mm or 15mm seems a better bet, so why doesn't anyone make 15mm Napoleonic (or early 18th century or pike & shot miniatures for that matter) in plastic?

Then another wander and DK and I played a demo game of Mantic's Deadzone - a skirmish game played on a grid - squares in 2D and cubes for 3D. This game featured some nice ideas - a minimum of 3 d8 thrown for attacks and saves - but 8s 'explode', meaning you get to role a extra die ....

DK started well with his Enforcers (humans) killing one of my Forgefathers (dwarfs), but this was the highlight of the game for him, as my squats slowly whittling his force down. 

The game ended with the final scores on the doors Morts 12 (or was it 14) and DK 4! It was a good fun game, which I think we could have invested in ...... had we not got into Kill Team.

After another wander I picked up a Steam Tank from Ironclad miniatures which I plan to convert to a Steel Behemoth for my Dwarfs .... Need some shields and dwarf iconography to stick to the front. 

Also planning to put a battering ram/spikes on the front (also replacing the 'metal' barrel on the back with 'wooden' ones). The turret gun will be a 15mm cannon. Hopefully it will look good. 

After this we then we headed back home with our booty (quite a lot for DK and not so much for me).