Bovington 2009

 

There’s an old saying that is: respect your elders, and being the youngest warchief heading off to bovy I kept this at the forefront of my mind right next to the unrelenting hatred of the highway traffic officers arsing about on the M5. However the latter thought was pushed to the back of my mind and the former put to the test somewhat when I arrived at bovy only to find that in the 2 hours he’d been there, one of my ‘elders’ (no names here) had already managed to near-enough break his finger in a sword fight of all things. They weren’t even real swords either but at least the tents were up so that was one job out the way. Within an unsurprisingly short period of time the chairs were out, the beers were open and the cigarettes were lit - Bovington 2009 had begun!

 

Friday night held no surprises for us - playing catch with the Nerf ball in the setting sun - drinking in the setting sun - drinking in the dark - all standard Friday night activities. I unveiled the new game I had remembered to bring with me, which seemed to go down well with all involved; “We didn’t play-test this at all!” www.asmardigames.com for all those interested.

 

Saturday morning dawned dewy and nippy but after one of Graham’s fantastic cup of teas and a bacon and egg bap, it quickly warmed up and by the time we headed off to begin our day of toys the sun was well and truly risen. As we made our way through tables lined with our peers all busy in setting-up mode, memories came flooding back to me of a community gathered together by the passion for their hobby and I mean this time last year not the Nazis at Auswitch.

 

My first sight of our table was impressive to say the least, Jerry had worked wonders with the polystyrene and paint to create a massive display of rock cliffs, stone bridges, towering ancient wooden doors and papier-mâché lava. Before long the forces were out and in position, a fantastic game beckoned between the orc forces of Barad-Dur and the invading elven force led by Lord Elrond, High King Gilgalad, Queen Galadriel and Prince Legolas, all hell bent on one thing - the complete and utter destruction of the evil, terrifying and fierce Balrog which had been put in charge of the elven and human prisoners taken during the battle of the last Alliance, no matter the cost, the Balrog must be destroyed. I’m not going to say any more on this battle’s detail as the game master (sedge) deserves that pleasure. However I will say that the ensuing battle raged on for 5+ hours (aka the whole bloody day O_o) and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

 

Alongside the hu-hu-huge War of the Ring game - we had a series of small fantasy games taking place, 1000 pt doubles games with two 500pt armies facing another two 500pt armies, with no magic or rare choices it was an interesting alternative to the old dog and a welcome one as it’s not being played that much at the club and a little something to revive it, if only for the weekend, was needed. Something that Bovi is also very popular for is the ‘bring ‘n’ buy’ - Mike wasted no time at all in getting down to the bring n buy and parting with lots of money for Confrontation models, a fantastic bargain as it was worth 4 times what he paid for it so well done to Mike. Scotty, Toby and Jerry also headed quickly for the Bring n buy except they were selling and Scott managed the record of: ‘first sell of the weekend’ - with a confirmed sale of 5 secs after entering the hall so well done Scott. The usual pick’n’mix of traders had been enlarged this year to over 40 with a large selection of everything from space marines beating up aliens on the planet Zog to Hitler’s staff taking a field trip to the beach to deliver chocolate drops to the happy and smiling children of non-existent land. Sorry lost my train of thought there. As usual there was several good deals up on the bring and buy, I, for example, picked up a LOTR box containing over 210 models (metal and plastic mix) for £50 including 5 Aragorn’s and a couple of rarer models so good deal there. But overall the bring ‘n’ buy was a lot quieter than usual and not much was selling - pricing could be blamed for this as some of the lots were seriously overpriced e.g. 10 space marines for £25. A slight disappointment as bring ‘n’ buy’s are generally a beacon of excellence is the piss stained swamps of the model pricing market.

 

The event wasn’t the only part of the weekend expanding, the museum itself had recently unveiled its shiny new extension detailing the origins of the tank and how it’s progressed over its life. It also included a new, very smart outdoors section and a war memorial to all those who have perished fighting for queen and country inside big metal boxes since 1915. A very nice touch and definitely gave the museum a little something extra. The actual tank-evolvement experience was informative and genuinely interesting but also had that feel of something crying out to be finished - the sparkle was not quite there but it was definitely a good effort by the tank museum and I personally was happy to take a walk a through it and as that’s what it’s supposed to do then I suppose you have to say it’s succeeded even if not fully.

 

The clock chimed just after half past 4 and everyone began traipsing out and back towards the campsite, toys were over for the day and the talk turned to that of: ‘Where’s the beer?’, ‘Does anyone have a working lighter?’ and ‘Scott go put the kettle on!’ a long night of fun, frolics and drinking lay in wait for us and who are we to deprive ourselves of that pleasure. So a good couple of hours passed with us playing nerf ball, drinking and generally arsing about. We then all wended our way up to the pub tent for food, more beers and a quiz that was very much a pipe and slippers quiz with questions about where and when certain ancient battles took place and what colour socks the general was wearing at the time. Not content with the quiz the Warchiefs turned to Sedge for the announcement of the club tournament winners and losers much to the rest of the events attendee’s disgust - unsurprisingly Sedge won all the awards for the tournament but then Scott stood up to announce the winners of the other trophies, namely best painter award, pipe and slippers award, best newcomer award and most played award. Congrats then to Toby and Sedge for the Golden brush award - Jerry for being the biggest pipe and slippers member of the club - Will for being the best GW graduate and to myself and Pete Wrench for playing the most games so well done me. After all it’s not the winning it’s the taking part. (ED- only using this excuse for his ineptitude)

 

After that it was back to the tents for the continuation of the drinking. Now I have to make a special mention here for the facilities provided this year. Last year the only facilities we had were 6 port-a-loos for the entire campsite and they were out of toilet paper by Saturday morning thus meaning taking a dump required taking a dump whilst sitting/standing in other peoples excrement and whilst that may be perfectly acceptable to the French, we civilized people expect higher standards. However, and it’s a big, fully rounded however, the facilities this year were, in comparison, from a different stratosphere, we even had a shower block! The toilets had marble sink units and in the immortal words of sedge: “It was a pleasure to take a shit in them.” They really were excellent, although at half 11 there is little to substitute a piss round the back of the tent.

 

Sunday morning dawned bright and - well by the time I got up it was already sunny so I can’t talk about the dawn. After everyone was up the packing up of the tents arrived and if I’ve learnt anything this weekend it’s this: if you’re going to pull out all the pegs and poles on Scott’s tent when he’s still inside it then make sure Rach isn’t around when you do it. It’s surprising how well organized we gamers can be when we get whipped into shape! With the tents tidied up and the beer cans put in the bin liners then it was full speed to the burger van for a bacon and egg bap - I have to admit that burger van gets better every year. Rarely have I enjoyed breakfast so much.

The event on a Sunday is usually a lot quieter due to hangovers and a lack of energy to roll dice. Yet Jerry surprised us all with his British ingenuity and put together a fantastic game of War of the Ring for Dawn, myself and a few others - where the rules were what Jerry spoke and an attack was a ‘handful of dice’. A hilarious game culminating in a unit of Uruk-Hai killing the Balrog with a deadly volley of crossbow bolts, succeeding where Glorfindel had failed. After this there was just enough time to grab a bite to eat. Word to the wise - if you ever go to eat at bovi then DON’T have the fish and chips - after being told that the pricing wasn’t bad I didn’t consult the price list too closely and wished I had, £7.50 - yes you read that right £7 fucking 50 for fish and fucking chips!!! That’s daylight robbery at its worst have anything else just not the fish and chips.

 

The highlight of the Sunday is of course the raffle - where winning is EVERYTHING! This year was an especially good haul with well over 20 winnings between Scott(mostly), Doug, Toby and myself, including a treeman that I dare say will be making an appearance at the club at some point and Scott’s Saxon Ceorls that he wanted so very very much since the Saturday morning. With the raffle over it was time for the covert pack up and when others had started packing up to - the Warchiefs gunned it and had the main WOTR table away and our area spotless before you could spell antidisestablishmentarianism. A Final farewell in the car park and it was back home to examine our new toys and in Sedges case repair his liver after Saturday nights over exuberance with the alcohol.

 

A brilliant weekend and I am definitely looking forward to next year’s excursion with high hopes and great anticipation.

 

James B