FIASCO 2026 Wargames Show

Yesterday was FIASCO in Leeds, my local wargaming clubs own yearly #wargames show. Held in the Royal Armouries Museum in the Dock are of Leeds, a show that is now 46 years old.

I put on the Franco Prussian War battle which we did at T'Other Partizan helped by Jon Severs and Shaun from the NE (Jon supplied half the French from his lovely collection. Steve Swift brought his Bavarians and Ian Rudd was busy with actually running the show so Steve Ball took on the role of Commanding the Prussians. Steve S had painted a load more Bavarians so we changed the scenario to have the "Germans" attacking.

It was a day when the dice were definitely on the side of the French and German casualties where high, a Mitrallilleuse actually worked for once and caused 13 casualties (from a 24 fig unit) in one turn, we had to check that the dice weren't number 6 to 10 twice ! It didn't last long as the Prussian Artillery saw off the French gun next turn.

In the end the French saw off the "German" attack with a particularly amusing event I will relay in another post. The To Strike His Neighbour rules we are using have produced another good game. I must get round to reading the final version, but I will probably regret it because if its changed we might not like it 😆

This year we were located in a separate area from the main hall, on the first floor of the museum. Also in the room was Ben Pearcys lovely Triple Alliance game and Charles Rowntree with his Beersheba WW1 set up. The edge of the room was filled with a tabletop sale.

No idea how the main hall was but it was very busy up in our room for the majority of the morning with the tabletop sales generating a bit of interest and the few people I spoke to who had been sellers had done very well. This was the first year of the sale and take up was lower than expected but those who did it seemed very happy and much richer ! Hopefully next year the news that we have a tabletop sale will add to the numbers.

That just leaves 2 shows left for the rest of the year, we will be at Battleground in Middlesbrough at the end of November and Recon in that there Pudsey the week after. It will be AWI at Battleground and then TBD at Recon but probably Italian Wars.

FIASCO is one of those regional shows that were the backbone of the hobby, sadly too many similar shows have fallen by the wayside. We are too far north and too small for any national wargames press interest but there definitely seemed a bit more of a buzz this year at the show, long may it continue.

We did have a number of people who only discovered our room following a visit to the Gents, I think next year we need better signage/advertising. "Yarkshire Gamer so good we are next to the toilets 🚻 just follow your nose 😆"

Thanks to the lads helping on the table, all the people who came up for a chat and all the kind words about the game and the Podcast. It's quite humbling when people come up and tell me how much they enjoy Yarkshire Gamers Reet Big Wargames Podcast hopefully it will make me get my finger out and get some more episodes together.

Regards Ken

Yarkshire Gamer 

#wargames #wargaming #hobby #history