Diceni 2022

Sunday 1st May was Diceni 2022, organised by the Norwich Aftermath gaming club.  What better way to start the day than with a Unicorn Crumpet?  Chocolate spread mane optional for small children. (I went with blackcurrant jam for mine.)

Unicorn Crumpets - a fine way to start the day.

I had not expected to see squirrels there - very cute!

Squirrel!

On to the games. Thare was a small Napoleonic clash in progress, I believe this was the New Buckenham Historical Wargamers.

Some Napoleonic action.

These were a finely painted colection of figures.  When we saw them, the game was obviously only just getting started.

The French Commander.

I must try making some rivers sometime, it's one of the few things I lack in my terrain.

The river.  And some reeds.

 Number 1 son was particularly impressed by the reeds and would like to try and make some.  Time to sacrifice one of my old house painting brushes.

Close-up of the reeds.

There was also a WWII game underway, just a small skirmish.

WWII game.

Panther and an SdKfz251

Zombies were involved in the game on the next table - I didn't get a chance to find out exactly what was going on here.

Some zombies.

Many of the usual suspects were there, Warlord Games and The Assault Group had a great selectino of models but I was particularly pleased to see Mark from Kore.  I have admired his 15mm models for some time and it was nice to see them in person.

Number 1 son really liked the FAB 1 styled pink RR!

 There was a fine display of various different scale vehicles, including lots of the new 15mm tanks and mecha he recently acquired from White Dragon.

Lots of 15mm goodies.

HAWG transport.

Centurion MBT.

There were some nice previews of new releases too.

There were also new shanties in the range unveiled.

15mm shanties, APCs and Mecha.

Ont the next table and Badgers Games had a great range of stuff.

Badgers Games.

Moving to the end of the row, Critit had some absolutely stunning dice and dice boxes.

Dice boxes.

Cthulhu fhtagn! Ia! Ia! Etc.

Lots of lovely dice!

There were also amazing journals and some very fine goblets.

More dice and some fantastic journals.

Cthulhu goblet.

Back to the games and the Cowards Wargames Club were playing Dragon Rampant.  So far the Saracens had won 3 games and the Crusaders none.

Dragon Rampant.

Crusaders.

Saracens.

There was a race in progress when we arrived but I had a chance to take a few photographs after lunch.

Time for a race?

Formula D.

Formula D character card.

New game Bounty Hunters was in attendance - this looks a fun little game.  

Bounty Hunters.

 Apparently there are discussions underway over distribution by a larger company which sounds encouraging.

Hosts Aftermath had a game of Marvel Crisis Protocol running.

There were the usual cosplay characters...

My friend Graham was assisting with some demo games by local company Themeborne.  I've played Escape the Dark Castle before which is great, they also have a new WWII game Strike HQ coming to Kickstarter this month which was being demonstrated.  Unfortunately I missed getting a photograph of this one.

What did we come away with? Well, I've founds that having a 7 year old in tow seems to help with freebies, such as couple of nice in badges from the Bounty Hunters game (left) and Kore (right).

A stop in The Works on the way from the car park provided some extra scenery paints and some mini pegs - more on the pegs in a future post!

Number 1 son was also given a free bag of dice by the kindly crew from Badgers Games.

Lovely blue gem dice.

I got a nice selection of bits from Kore, Mark made me up a grab bag for £10 which was extremely generous of him.  I got a couple of shanty buildings miscasts.  The one on the right is slightly warped, the one on the left has partly collapsed but both can be made usable with a bit of work.

This retro sci-fi limo would be ideal for a Genestealer cult or the local crime boss.

A HAWG pickup with a minor miscast on the back and no wheels.  I'm sure I can print some suitable wheels and an artfully draped tarpaulin should hide the miscast part.

This Goliath Landtrain has a few bubbles in the wheels but some Milliput will take care of that.

Not pictured are a couple of miscast cars that Mark gave Number 1 son, the miscasting is only very minor (small bubble on one and a slight chip on another), they were hidden away before I had a chance to get a photograph!
 In all it was a pleasant day out, special thanks must go to my wife who kept the 3-year old number 2 son occupied while number 1 son and I had a browse.  Fortunately the library was also open (the Forum where the event takes place was a Millennium project and includes the city library, regional BBC TV studio and offices, tourist information centre and more) which helped keep the little one interested.  As it was, my time was limited ("No, don't touch that - no, put that down - no, we can't buy one of those don't break it!" etc) and I didn't get to try any participation games but maybe next year.

If you're ever in Norwich on the first Sunday of May between 10am & 4pm, come and have a look at Diceni!