Ruckus at Crack Con

 

Crack Con 5 “There and Crack again”

pic: The Throng! Boards and Swords is a great venue to hold a gaming event

Sometimes it takes a global crisis to reset your mojo! Lockdown was a tough time for most people, but in many ways a golden time for hobbyists, stuck at home with little else to do many of us who had not played games or painted figures for years dug out their old lead piles and got reacquainted with our inner selves. I know I did and I have not looked back.

Lockdown was responsible for a lot more than the Barnard Castle incident and Partygate, it was also the origin of Crack Con, a delightful day of wargaming at Boards and Swords Hobbies in Derby as Martin Brook of 7^th Son and Ragged Staff Minis explained

“So, the Plastic Crack Podcast started in 2020 during Lockdown. Initially as just a couple of the guys (Ken and Dom) having a chat, then after a few episodes they invited Ste and Myself on and we never left! The four of us just got on well and the audience seemed to enjoy our chemistry so we stuck at it and it just grew naturally”

“The first Crack Con was in October 21, the whole thing started as a joke on the stream. We were saying that when everything opened up again, we should all meet for a game, this kept coming up, then people in the audience started asking if they could come, then we actually thought... I wonder if we could do this. So, we booked out Boards and Swords for 30 of us and I told Hayley, my wife, she laughed and said "what are you going to call it, crack con?” And I said “we are now!””

Crack Con is a healthy mixture of big participation games with places at the table booked in advance, and small participation games to come and play on the day, that fill the venue and take up both floors at BASH, and at CCV there were six big games and five smaller participation games one of which was Ruckus run by Ben Mallet with me assisting

There were two huge games downstairs. One of these, the Hail Caesar game, the battle of Gergovia, was run by Martin Brook and played by Caesar himself. This was a magnificent looking game played on an eighteen-foot table with two splendidly painted armies.

Caesar looks on…

The magnificent terrain made especially for the day by Robin Ovens  really brought this game to life…

…as did the beautifully painted figures…

  …on both sides. The Romans won this game even though Caesar himself died in the battle! 

 Martin even wrote a professional looking hand book to go with the game which was put together by James Cutts …class!

The other huge game downstairs was a Black Powder Napoleonic affair run by Dominic Cook, another Plastic Cracker

 

   Pic -Dom inspects the troops at set up

This too was a splendid affair, the kind of game that you dream of playing and only see on the pages of Wargames Illustrated or at big shows, its remarkable that with games of this quality this event is staged purely by hobbyists.

   My only regret was that because I was assissting in running a game, I could not partake in any of the others or keep track of how they went…

What’s eighteen-foot long and blue and grey?  Its an ACW Black Powder game run by Nick Dawson

This steamer featured in what looked to be a fascinating game

More beautifully painted figures, the standard of all the games was of the highest order

This Chain of Command game, the Falaise Gap, was run by Mark Richards

I was delighted to see Soldiers of Napoleon, a recent acquisition for me and an excellent game, and meet it’s author Warwick Kinrade, a very affable man, who was quite happy to discuss various aspects of his game and I felt we could probably have talked all day, but Ben is a tough task master and I had to assist at the Ruckus table…ah well, next time maybe

One of the several games I didn’t have enough time with was General d'Armee run by Gary Clarke

Upstairs! Flames of War by Benjamin Christensen on the near table 

A Pickett's Charge game run by Stefan Tanfield and Aled Roberts 

MESBG was a “come’n’play” game presented by Tony Hinton West

 ...as was this beautiful Dead Man’s Hand game run by Martin Stuart on a gorgeous table created by Carl Burks

 Are you man enough to drink at Rogan’s Bar?

   This guy is gonna clean up this town!

Blood Red Skies, hosted by Matt Wright, was another come ‘n’play and a popular choice

And of course there was Ruckus ably run by Ben Mallet…

…occasionally assisted by this old guy, here I am moving the sheep

yes that's Ste from PCP plsaying his first ever game of Ruckus...

Martin Brook “I think the main thing is that we run it as a day for people to join in with games they may not normally play, meet other like-minded people, and also show off the games they love. We love it when people come and demo systems and get stuck into the day This time there were 11 games in total, 72 people, 64 raffle prizes from a mixture of community members and companies and we raised £1300 which is going to Haven House Children's Hospice and SENSE.”

There was also a painting competition and I am delighted to say I got Gold for my unit “The Grail Knights” Ruckus Retinue

Crack Con was an excellent event, a friendly, sociable occasion, the hum of happy gamers filled the air and everybody cheered when Caesar died. The night before we had all met in ye Tudor (Splitters) Bar of the Old Bell, a lovely old-fashioned hostelry with a big log fire and superb beer and that was very cheerful evening indeed.

I had a great time and will definitely attend the next one and I will raise my next glass with the toast “Up the Crack!”

Plastic Crack Podcast is broadcast live on Monday nights on You Tube and features Martin from 7^th Son, Dom from Boots on the Table, Ken from miniature wargaming warriors and Ste from on point hq.