I had a mixed day at Warfare last Saturday: the show was great, but I didn’t do very well in the To The Strongest competition I had entered and, as icing on the cherry on my cake, I got home to find that I had left my jacket on the back of the chair I’d been using for my last game!

But this post isn’t about that, nor about the competition games: they will follow individually in due course, once the Vis Lardica Ministry of Truth has had time to put a positive spin on an execrable performance! No, this post is about Warfare, the show.

And what a good show it is!

Now at the Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre, Warfare is only about an hour for me, and is a trip well worth making.

The venue has grown on me since my first visit last year. Free parking right next to the hall helps, and it didn’t seem as dark and gloomy as before.

I, as I said, was there for a competition, along with 420 other people, which immediately gave the show an extremely busy and bustling feel. It was also great to walk about amongst the other games’ tables and see what was what. Some impressive armies and terrain on show, and there was plenty of room as well: some other competitions I have been to are too cramped to make spectating even possible let alone enjoyable.

There were also plenty of traders and a significant Bring & Buy. I didn’t actually purchase anything, having spent all my money on a new “real life” Roman baggage train (see post later in the week) but could have done so had an imminent tax bill from last year not been weighing on my mind, but there were plenty of products to put on the list for the future.

I won’t be buying either of these (well, not soon!) but thought they were rather fun:

Finally, there were a large number of excellent demonstration games that I made sure to find time to look at during the competition lunch break. I didn’t really have time to note down who had done what, but here’s a quick gallery of some of the one’s that I saw:

So Warfare is recommended for a visit next year, even if you aren’t competing.

Oh, and if you do go, and you see my jacket, pick it up for me will you…