I have attended Joy of Six every year since 2011 and have presented a game on the show since 2012 with the Wyre Foresters spearheaded by Nick Dorrell (except in 2016 when Neil Shuck and I was running two tables of Saga in 6mm) presenting various battles from the Great Northern War.  We have done Fraustadt 1706, Klissow 1702, Kalisz 1706, Gadebusch 1712, Lesnaya 1708 and this year Horka 1708 (I wrote about that one in the last blog update here).  Next year will be a very special game for us as we will do Poltava 1709.  The Welsh Wizard called me Lord of 6mm the other day on Twitter, if that is so, then the Joy of Six should really be referred to as the House of 6mm Lords.

The show has grown over the years and so has the quality and range of games on offer. I know it is a typical thing to say, but I truly think the latest show was the best to date. I was scared about the move to the new location at the University but if felt like it was coming together nicely and I believe there is room to expand.  The food arrangements were brilliant.  I did not have/took the time to get involved in any of the other games but I took a few pictures that I will share (however contrary to my earlier post about shows – link here – I did not really do what I preached, but to my defence is the fact that I did put on a game). At the end of this short post are a few links to some very useful blog posts to get a better overall impression of proceedings – I suggest you have a look at these.

Shout Outs

First a big shout out to a few of the people I met up with including Commodore Rob, Pete, Dan, the Wyre Foresters, Derek & Son, The Wargames Calculators, Vlad, Mike (Welsh Wizard), Neil Schuck, “6mm Sceptic” Dave, Dave Luff, Trevor Crook and the Other Mad Gamers and Simon. Some of these I had only known through the blog or twitter and it is really nice to put a face to a name.  It honestly makes my day every time.  I have inevitably forgotten a few, and I am sorry for this as my mind was somewhat spinning during the day. It is after all a little bit emotional to put your baby up for public display, especially as I had not done it before.

The Baccus/Wargames Emporium crew (i.e. people involved in the event, spearheaded by Peter Berry but with strong support) are always nice to see and they do a hell of a job. Also to the Little One who hanged around the table most of the day and joined in managing the Russian Elite Infantry (Golitzins Brigade/Command). Also to my daughter who has helped at Joy of Six for the last few years and the Better One of Course.

I thought the bring and buy was handled well and I managed to sell a few GHQ stuff, some board games I never play and even a few Flames of War StuGs. There were a mixture of scales on offer and some books, etc.

As for traders I think it is nice to have such a good number of specialised vendors in one place allowing you to see what the scale has to offer, traders attending were (with a link to their webpage):

• Baccus
• Wargames Emporium
• Commission Figurines
• Brigade Models
• GM Boardgames
• Heroics & Ros
• Rapier Miniatures
• Leven Miniatures
• Christopher Morris
• GS Miniature Workshop

Special mention to our new friends who came all the way from Poland, GM Boardgames, as promised here are some of the Polish Forces, including Winged Hussars, Pancerni and the Polish Camp we used for the Klissow and Kalisz battles.

Dr Mike’s painting clinic could not make it due to some logistical issues which is a shame because apart from showing you how to paint 6mm miniatures, Mike has the warmest smile on the wargames circuit and was sorely missed by me and I think many others – hope to see you next year Mike.

Seminar(s)

The first seminar was about Baccus itself and what the plans are moving forward.  I did not go to this one but an overview is provided in one of the links below.

The second Seminar was a panel moderated by Peter Berry, with three brilliant panelists being Neil Shuck and Mike Hobbs from the Meeples and Miniatures Podcast (link to them here) and John Treadaway who is the editor of Miniature Wargames (here).  The initial question was whether 6mm had a bad reputation, but I think the general conclusion was that it did not have a bad reputation but a low profile. Both the 6mm manufacturers, wargames press, and most importantly the hobbyists themselves have a shared responsibility.  What I took away personally from it, with my afterthoughts added to it, was:

• Spread the Joy of Six – blog about it, write articles and send them to the wargames press.  John Treadaway left his card for anyone interested to contact him at miniaturewargames@warnersgroup.co.uk , and I suppose you could try the others too, you know who they are.  Nick and I decided to do a write-up on the Horka table and see how it goes.  With this blog I have tried to highlight some different approaches and uses for the scale – mostly mass battle but also space efficient and easy to set-up skirmish gaming.  As Neil Shuck says be passionate about it! It will shine through and people will get it.
• Show others what we can do – take your stuff to other events – I have put up two 6mm tables at Salute.  It was a different experience than Joy of Six and the average interest is somewhat different but there is enough interest for you to have a good day and if it looked good at Joy of Six it will look good on another show.  We will make sure Horka get some other outings.
• Enhance the signal by supporting each other – there is a 6mm community out there and I think we could encourage each other more and trying to do links in blogs, mentions on Facebook, retweets on twitter etc to make sure that we enhance the signal of the smaller scale stuff.  This hobby is far from a competition, it is a co-operative game – if you like 6mm it is in your own interest to promote the hobby on a wider scale – more interest, more sales, more ranges, more Joy of Six (these things of course applies to other scales and aspects of the hobby).

In addition the issue of taking photos of 6mm games were raised and I agree that it is difficult. However, what are we taking pictures off? – men or battles?.  Remember the painting from the last blog (here) – it provoked a life-long interest for at least one little boy I know very well.

Just a few Games (Sorry)

Finally a few games that I took pictures off.

For a lot more pictures, click on this link to the Beast of War Webpage with excellent pictures and some commentary by CommodoreRob – https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1227711/

The cold war commanders put on an interesting battle fought in different eras – more here on the land of counterpane blog  http://thelandofcounterpane.blogspot.com/2018/07/joy-of-six-2018.html

Last but not least a very nice show report by the Heretical wargamers – I really like this format http://hereticalgaming.blogspot.com/2018/07/joy-of-six-2018-show-report.html

Hope that was of some interest,

/ Looking forward to the next one.