Broadside 2013

This was the first time I'd been to the Broadside show, despite it being less than an hour away in Sittingbourne. The leisure centre was pretty easy to find, given that I've never been to the area before, and my trusty iPad ensured I got there without incident.

I was met by some very friendly folk on the front desk requesting an entrance fee of only £3 – bargain, even on top of the pay and display parking. There were two main halls that had both traders and demo/display games going on. I spent the next hour wandering round, but with nothing on my shopping list I saw little that made me want to part with cash… and even less that I could justify (having just bought a wacom tablet for my iMac).

Despite the low key atmosphere it was great to browse and see what was going on. I did see demo games of Saga and X-Wing and a single trader with some Warmachine boxes but the majority of the show was historical gaming in some form or other. No ancient history games that I could see so I kept wandering.

I had a good chat to Ian from Fenris Games. You may remember he helped out with donations for the Tale of 3 Painters charity project I ran last year, and it was good to finally thank him face to face. He talked at length about the current Kickstarter project that he's involved with – Cthulhu Wars – and his plans for the coming year. All very exciting and I must go and see him at his base of operations in Chatham Dockyard soon.

The visit was rounded off with a long chat with Postie's Rejects, specifically Fran and Ray. Fran had a very kind donation of coins for my 5p collection. He busking efforts have contributed greatly to the project. It was great catching up with them and made the trip worthwhile.

Fran told me that I need to paint more so, now that I have had two weeks off to lay some patio in the garden, I should be back to the painting later this week.