Sunday 21st July 2013

10.00am to 4.00pm

£2.00 entry for adult

 

Building on the success of previous Baccus Gaming Days, we are pleased to announce the first of an annual feast of 6mm gaming and small scale excellence. The Joy of Six 2013 is sponsored by Baccus 6mm and Sheffield's Wargames Emporium with the aim to present the very best in 6mm to the wargaming public.

JOS 2013 will feature some superb demonstration games across all the ages showing just what can be done with small scale figures and showcasing 6mm gaming. One of the undoubted highlights of the show will be the return of Steve Thomas's ECW spectacular. Forthose of you who haven't followed that link, it is a massive ECW battle played at 1:1 scale. There will be over 22,000 figures on the table which itself will be over thirty feet in length.

Visitors to the show can also take part in a number of participation games including the revival of MAD gamers outstanding Isandhlwana spectacular and the Baccus 1812 Quick Step,

For those of you wishing to hone your painting skills, Dr Mike will be presenting his ever popular painting clinic and he wil be joined this year by a specialist in micro armour techniques. For those of a more competitive nature there will be an Impetus tournament. We will also be running seminars during the day covering various topics close to the heart of the 6mm gamer.

Although JOS 2013 is sponsored by Baccus there will be a range of your favorite 6mm traders. Confirmed to date are:

  • Baccus 6mm
  • Wargames Emporium (GHQ)
  • Heroics and Ros
  • Rapier
  • Timecast
  • Total Battle Miniatures

For the committed 6mm gamer, this show is a MUST. For the committed 'these things are far too small and I'll go blind looking at them!' gamer, this show is also a MUST. Just come along and see for yourself just what can be done in small scale and have a go at playing with and painting them. You'll be very pleasantly surprised!

The Joy of Six 2013 will be taking place at the Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield, South Yorkshire S1 2BX.


By public transport

The Workstation is five minutes walk from the train station and 10 minutes walk from the main bus interchange. Several bus services operate along Paternoster Row and Arundel Gate.

To plan your journey by bus call Traveline on 01709 515151 or visit www.travelsouthyorkshire.com.

For travel by train contact National Rail Enquiries on National Rail Enquiries: 08457 48 49 50 or visit www.nationalrail.co.uk

By foot

The Workstation is situated on the ‘Heart of the City’ pedestrian route which runs from the city centre, past the Winter Gardens and Millennium Galleries and down Howard Street to the train station.

By car

The Workstation is close to the M1 Parkway and Sheffield city-centre. There is limited on-road parking on Paternoster Row and Shoreham Street and several car parks in the vicinity.

 

Why not make a weekend of it? With the Baccus Open Day taking place on Saturday, it's your chance for a great 6mm packed two days!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture Report on 2012 show.

 

As the day broke on Sheffield, we set off for the Workstation trying to get our eyes used to the unfamiliar Sunshine radiating from the Heavens. It was as if the weather had decided to join in with all of us working to make the Baccus Gaming Day 2012 a big success.

We arrived at the venue at 8.00am and by an hour later had the Baccus stand set up and running and so could have the luxury of seeing the arrival of the others who were aiming to entertain the Great British Wargaming Public. Pretty soon, both the main room and the Reception where we were based were veritable hives of honest toil as a series of cars turned up and disgorged their contents. Walking round with Nick Johnson, (the organiser of the Sheffield Irregular's side of things), we were both gratified to see the range and the quality of the displays that were slowly being assembled in front of our eyes. As it happened, the day turned out very well indeed, and here is a totally unbiased and very objective view of the whole affair..

I suppose that I ought to start with the venue. The Workstation is a great place to hold an event like ours. It is a recently refurbished building in Sheffield's Cultural Quarter. It is a light and airy building with a good range of nearby on-street parking. In terms of public transport it could be be better, being very close to the Railway and Bus stations. Food and drink was available at the associated cafe just down the road, and you could even order food from the reception desk to be delivered directly to your table. I can heartily recommend the Lamb burger - a huge leap in quality over some of the rubbish you get at other shows.

 

However, enough on my ramblings. Here's some pretty pics of the great games on show...

And we'll start at the very beginning. Visitors to the show were greeted by the magnificent sight of the Very Large Towton Project

It was the last outing for this magnificent spectacle with Ruarigh and Steve doing a valiant job of marshalling and moving some 17,000 figures...

Here's a view along the lines.

So having had a spectacular start, the main room held some real 6mm gems, and we'll start with Chris Grice's Speyerbach game, which he was using to demonstrate his Polemos WSS 2nd edtion rules.

The close neighbour to this was Mike Salwey's epic Trebbia presentation. All troops were wonderfully painted and presented as one would expect and the whole thing enhanced by a deceptively simple but very effective game board.

Next to this was a stunningly handsome looking game in the form of the Bert Fegg Group's Vimiero. A wonderful demonstration of terrain building, well thought out scenics and beautifully painted and presented armies. One of the best games you will see in any scale.

 

 

And in complete contrast to this verdant scenery, next door Peter Riley was demonstrating the forthcoming Polemos Colonial Rules by putting on a scenario based on the battle of Abu Klea.

And with yet further contrast the final game on display was the outstanding if very wintery Fraustadt presented by Per Broden and which was used by himself and Nick Dorrel to play through using Polemos GNW rules.

All in all an outstanding set of games which showcased the flexibility of small scale figures and lots of different approaches to presenting and playing through games.

One of the main concepts of the day was to give people more to do than just look at eye candy. Fraustadt, Abu Klea, Speyerbach and Towton were all open for people to join and take a command - as the first three were run by the writers of the rules being used this offered a great opportunity for players to get to know the people behind the names on the covers.

This hands-on approach was also applied to the non-gaming highlight of the day in the form of Dr Mike's Painting Clinic. Basically, Mike Salwey and Ian Porter set up four painting workstations, fully equipped with lighting, paints, brushes, basing materials and primed figures.

They then opened for business, offering advice, tips, hints and help to all who fancied having a go. There were lots of people trying to paint 6mm for the first time and getting a very pleasant surprise to see just how easy it was. There were also experienced painters just looking for help in improving their techniques. It is no exaggeration to say that this was the busiest area in the whole show, and Mike and Ian the hardest working of all the participants!

In between all of this two seminars were run during the day. The first was on the process of designing and manufacturing the metal miniatures and toy soldiers that are so dear to all of our hearts. The second was more a case of Christians thrown to the Lions as four Polemos rules authors met their public to answer questions about games design, points systems and why Polemos rules will never be seen in a competitive tournament.

With so many things to do and see, the show maintained its buzz well into the later afternoon, thus bucking the trend seen in many of the larger shows nowadays. By the time we were finally winding down and packing away, reflections were being made on what had been a cracking day and plans were already being made for making next year's event bigger and better. Watch this space...