Triples - Please Stick a Fork in it!

I have a policy of NOT writing bad reviews, or at least not going out of my way to be negative. Many a time I have chosen not to write on a subject that I have negative views on. If my writing would possibly help protect readers from wasting money or time etc. then it's considered but when it's just not my cup of tea then it's best to keep quiet and move along.

So to lead with a title such as this shows just how much I think this event has lost it's way. Actually that's crap, no event loses it's way. Those that run it do. I understand the need to change venue from the University, I also understand the difficulty in finding a new venue that meets the needs but I also recognise when nothing is being done to correct failings.

First up I personally have no issue with the venue myself. It works for me, however IF the reason Triples is failing is the venue due to either price or location then it's an issue. Triples it seems charges the most for a trade stand outside Salute. It still claims to be the biggest Northern Show, York seems to have moved south I guess. When a Sheffield based trader makes a loss at a show in Sheffield something must be wrong. Hell they go to Antwerp and make a profit so what's the deal.

Not once but numerous times I over heard traders complaining they are set to make a loss this year. It was said they were down 17 regular traders on last year. They replaced some with new traders but not all, this would not have been so bad if the punter numbers had been up the traders who were there would have benefited. The sad fact is that today witnessed Sunday attendance, a bad Sunday at that.

Display and participation games were also down, indeed it was so bad that the halls seemed hollow making the lower visitor numbers seem even worse. The bring and buy of course continues to get worse as they continue to allow the organiser to use it as a flee market and I can't remember when I last saw much worth buying on it. 

Even the tournament side of it was almost empty, the reason they claim it needs to be a two day show is dead on it's feet. As I said, stick a fork in it if your not going to fix it.

On a brighter note I did go with plenty of spending planned, fortunately I had organised some up front purchases as follows.

I met up with my main supplier to collect enough figures for another four phalanx which will give me 14 blocks when all are painted up, watch this space.

Warbases like Baccus was not trading at the show so I had to pick up the bases for my new project from a third party and I replaced a couple of paints that are low, can't risk running out.

Magister fortunately where at the show and this saw me pick up the four figures I need to make up yet another Persian cavalry unit and I doubled my original plan of a Macedonian cavalry unit. I now need to get the two painted up before the next show they attend so I can buy more.

So sticking with 15mm I present my next new project. Seven Years War. The Boy was given free choice on what to do next in 15mm. I went through a bunch of websites showing him images of different periods. He narrowed it down to SYW, ECW, TYW and something Medieval. He finally choose SYW as he thought the mix of different troop types the most interesting. This pleased Lee no end as he really wanted to do this period for a long time. I was less up for it wanting the medieval choice. Lee grabbed Russian and then Austrian after The Boy choose French and I fell in with Prussian as they are the obvious choice, Oh good Prussian Blue, I have some of that LOL.

So Timecast got my pennies, Lancashire Games got The Boys and nearly every provider has a bunch of Lee's. If Lee dies of lead poisoning I will not at all be surprised.

The Boy is not all that well at the moment, struggling with a nasty cold and with the lack of suitable things to do was getting down so it was a great relief when we found a demo of this game to play. Indeed it was the highlight of the show so I parted with a bit more birthday money and we now have a new game to play and a few more miniatures to paint up. Lee already owns this and all the extra's from the Kickstarter so I knew some things about it. First game Sunday night so lets see what Cath and The Girl think of it.