Claymore 2024

 Yesterday was the Claymore show in Edinburgh, one of two big shows held in Scotland. The venue is the Granton Campus of Edinburgh College, which, while a bit away from the city centre, offers ample space with good car parking.

This year's show was overshadowed by the death of one of the main organisers, Derek Hodge, the day before. Derek was a stalwart of the hobby, and I always followed his projects with interest. His death was very sudden, and I had only exchanged emails with him about our display game the week before. Our thoughts go out to his family; his son attended the show yesterday. The Wargaming in Scotland Facebook page will have details of the funeral arrangements when known.

The club rallied around, and the show was as well organised as ever, if a little quieter and with fewer traders than usual. Standard purchasing service resumed for me after recent shows. Claymore Castings has a new range of 28mm Seven Years War Russians, one-piece castings (hurrah!) that look lovely with excellent character figures. They will be an addition to my Potemkin figures, as both types were used in the Russo-Turkish War. I also succumbed to Perry Miniatures Nizam-i-cedid figures as I don't have these in 28mm. I bought another box of Mig Alley for Blood Red Skies with the vague aim of any early Cold War scenario on the Thrace front. The Flea market was a bit quieter than usual, but I also picked up some nicely painted space types for my Xenos Rampant force.

Rab and Mark organised the GDWS display game based on Juno Beach 1944 in 15mm. I have only played Battlegroup rules a couple of times, so I fear I was not a lot of help. However, there was a lot of interest in a lovely table, and the Canadians did get off the beach this time.

 As I was only filling in on the display game, I had more time than usual to look at the other games. The very best was, without doubt, this 28mm British Seven Years War raid on the French coast. The two ships, fort, and village were magnificent.

The Falkirk club also used Battlegroup for their Normandy game. I don't know about the hex basing but it does contouring well.

The Jutland game used the diminutive 1/4800 scale ships and Dreadnought rules, which looked very playable.

The Tradeston guys brought their Breitenfeld 1631 in 15mm. Using their own ‘Through the Square Window’ rules. Carpet tiles may be old school, but they are still effective for a big battle like this.

This game was a bit of nostalgia for me. The classic Fulda Gap Cold War scenario brings back memories of the board game of the same name we played in the 1980s. Desperate NATO rear guard actions as masses of Soviets came after you.

From the other side of Glasgow, this Dark Ages battle from Phoenix was a classic, come-and-get-us-off-the-hill scenario using Midgard rules. The mat was very effective.

The Durham lads brought the Carlist War with an excellent display board to explain this less well-known conflict.

WWI air combat has always been a popular participation game, this time by the Kirrimuir club.

The ever-engaging SPIT team did a popular WW2 Far East game next to us.

If you like strategic games, this is the early stages of WWI, fought over a mat painted to represent the whole of northern France.

As ever, and particularly this year, a big thanks to the Edinburgh club for organising the show.