Battlegroup North (Yorkshire Air Museum)

We were away visiting York for the last week and once of our scheduled visits was to the Yorkshire Air Museum. This coincided with the Battlegroup North exhibition which features a whole load of military vehicles, living history people, demonstrations and so forth. On of the features of the day is a mini wargames show, which I was very keen to have a nose at.

Here are some piccies:

The view across the hanger

Tank battle. Not sure what rules were used.

View along the table of a Pegasus Bridge game. Using Bolt Action.

There were lots of military replicas on display as well as the games.

All the games (as far as I could tell) were participation, which was great.

A game of Rapid Fire

Some decent ruined town terrain

Attack on an airfield. Great blimps supported by wire poles which gave them a 'bobbing' effect!

Close up of the ruins mentioned previously

Alas, I don't recall much about this game. Looked good though.

The replica bomber.

So, what you had was several good looking WW2 participation  games. The exception was a WW1 skirmish dealing with Rommel's exploits in 1914. I'll have to read up on that! I wouldn't really call it a wargame show as we know it, but if you had a child who could participate in some of these games I think a lot of fun would have been had. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and the people putting on the games seemed to approach the whole thing with a smile and sense of fun.

There were no real traders to speak of, but the one standout was partially captured in my last picture. MTFG Hobbies appear to have a very large range of unopened GW blisters and boxed games from the 90s! I searched the web for them when I got home, but they do not have a website and the only email address I found in an online directory didn't work. If anyone knows anything about them I would love to find out more!

All in all it wasn't worth making a specific trip for (especially as entry to the whole day was £10 per adult), but if you had happened to be there it was worth a look.

EDIT: 'Fozman' was the chap running the 'airfield' game. He posted the description on TMP and I am duplicating it here:

"The Battle of Britain ran during the Summer & Autumn of 1940 and that is the setting for our game…

At a remote airfield somewhere in Southern England new airplanes for the RAF are being tested & evaluated as are captured German ones. In addition, some light bombers are being converted into fighters to help in the night war against the Luftwaffe, and, to help in the evaluation of early radar, there's even a new advanced radar installation on site… the German High command is aware of this and has decided to launch an airborne assault to not only put the base and installations out of commission, but also set back the development of new fighters for the RAF.

You, the public will be playing the dastardly German Fallschirmjäger, whilst we will be taking the part of the plucky Brits. 

Can a motley assortment of Dad's Army, the Scouts, a local army detachment recently returned from Dunkirk and Doris the NAFFI lady beat off the best that the Luftwaffe can bring to bear?
Only time, lucky dice roles & us cheating unashamedly will tell!"

I didn't explain at the start that my wife actually took these pictures. I didn't intend to blog about this, but she expected I would so took photos! That's why I didn't make note of who the games belonged to or details of what they all were about. If anyone else wants a description added to any of these photos, please let me know!