​On behalf of the BHGS we'd like to thank everyone who played, TO'ed, exhibited, visited and generally just took part in Britcon 2023 this past weekend.

The feedback from our visitors, traders (and the bar team!) is that we assembled a great bunch of gamers at the venue with this weekend, not only in terms of how much was spent with the trade stands (but, yes, that did help!!) but more importantly in terms of how everyone taking part contributed to creating a really friendly, relaxed and welcoming atmosphere across the whole event all weekend.

That in turn certainly made our job as organisers much easier, and also was greatly appreciated by all of our hard-working TO's, who really are the ones doing the heavy lifting over the weekend in terms of planning and managing and (hopefully infrequently!) chipping in with the occasional bit of umpiring across all of the various tournaments taking place at Britcon each year.

We've already uploaded all of the results from our events to the Britcon 2023 results page on our website, as well as adding a whole gallery of photos taken over the weekend - see if you can spot yourself (or your army!) 

For 2024 we’re already planning on returning in the same "2nd weekend in August" slot next year, with a post-show washup meeting with the venue already in the diary to sort out the handful of niggling annoyances that were reported to us this year - most of which seems to boil down to "more shampoo, more lighting, more sausages ...and more beer!" - which if we can fix with the help of the venue will no doubt ensure a bigger and better Britcon next year

The full list of traders and demos at the Britcon Trade Show is also still online on our website, so if there's anyone you missed, anyone you saw but have forgotten their name, anyone who'd already sold out of the stuff you wanted by the time you got to their stand please make sure to visit our online exhibitor listing and use it to get in touch with our traders after the show.


The BHGS Britcon Team

PS - We also made a donation of £51 to SSAFA, the UK Armed Forces Charity this year - or more accurately, those of you who forgot to take your pint glasses back to the bar on Friday night to claim your £1 deposits did, as the venue security team hoovered them all up after you'd all gone home and then made the excellent suggestion to us that we should hand them in the next day and donate all of the resulting the refunds to charity - which we did!  

Our record turnout of over 30 traders this year at the Britcon Trade Show includes a whole gaggle of exciting new exhibitors for you , partly as the tireless and diligent BHGS Britcon team have been putting in the hard yards pounding the aisles of the UK's wargames shows this year selling more stands, but mainly because word has gotten around the traders on the show circuit just how much you all managed to spend last year at Britcon!  

As all of these new traders are, well, "new", we thought it might be useful to throw a bit of a spotlight on them, helping you know ho to head straight for when you arrive at Britcon (and what to budget for before you even set off!). 

7th City Collectables
(https://7thcitycollectables.com/) are a Nottingham-local gaming store based a little way up the road from us in Sandiacre

At Britcon this year they will be offering a very diverse range of games and gaming supplies for sale including the Games Workshop ranges, Magic the Gathering, Pokemon TCG & loads of Board Games too

7th City's trade stand boss-man Will is also making an appearance in the Bolt Action tournament too this weekend - so if you are looking over the BA tables and find that one of the players you are watching is a chap called Will, be nice to him and he may even do you a deal later in the weekend! ​

 This year Gary and Matt will be at Britcon all weekend with a trade stand, as well as running the Bring & Buy (with its' state of the art facilities allowing you to pay, and be paid out on anything you sell via credit card instead of the more traditional "cash only" option), and on Saturday they will also be hosting a free-play Board & Role Play room too, featuring a selection of games from the Lead Belt Games Arena games library. ​

​Ramshackle Games  ( https://ramshacklegames.co.uk/) have been supplying hobbyists with great models since 2006, with their key ranges being Post Apocalyptic models in two scales, which you can preview on their website.  Owner Curtis Fell will be onsite all weekend to chat to you about how he sculpts, moulds, casts, packs & sends almost all of the models out himself (so the show will be a welcome break for him no doubt!). If you’d like to have Curtis design and cast some models for you, please ask him about the services he offers.

Rubicon Models (https://www.rubiconmodels.com) are now pretty much one of the "Big Beasts" of the hobby with their hard plastic model kits which are both detailed enough for the Military Modelling market while still being easy to assemble and sufficiently robust also to work as Wargaming pieces for the tabletop. Their main range covers World War II vehicles and tanks in 1/56 (28mm) scale, with every kit having extras to allow you to build multiple variants, with choices of main gun, road wheels, gun turrets, detachable protective armour or even complete hulls! 

Steve and the Rubicon team will also be demoing their new Vietnam skirmish game, "Oscar Mike", a Platoon level tactical tabletop game with light resource management, hidden orders, supporting fire and Command elements among others. The demo sees a Squad of Marines who have been chased into a nearby village trying to call in and Evac via Huey before they get overwhelmed by VC units.

Sarissa Precision  (https://sarissa-precision.com/). Dave at Sarissa is more a "returnee" to Britcon than a strictly new exhibitor, but we're almost as delighted that he's back (this time representing Sarissa and Footsore) as is the manager at our onsite student-priced bar this weekend!  Sarissa are well known for their wide range of laser cut buildings and accessories for wargamers and model makers including Buildings, Ships & Vehicles, Movement Trays, Bases, Templates, Tokens and many more...

Dave will be on hand to help with your tabletop gaming fix, with a host of different products available for everyone, from Dark Ops products to a fantastic selection of Sarissa's partners great games, rules, minis and accessories (some of which cannot be found on the road anywhere else) including Wargames Atlantic, Footsore Miniatures, Grey for Now, and North Star.

​The Square have a vast range of resin cast models, flag sheets & 10mm whitemetal figures for wargaming. They mostly only trade at shows, and Nigel and his team are renown on the circuit for their "we have something for every one" extensive range of scenic items and printed flags. We are delighted to welcome them to Britcon for the first time this year

Britcon also has a well stocked Bring & Buy - Britcon is great for a Bring and Buy, as almost all of our players arrive by car and are definitely there to the end of the weekend giving them maximum time to sell their stuff (or see your stuff and buy it!).

If you want to sell stuff on our Bring & Buy you can save time by filling out your Bring & Buy entry form in advance - download it here and see if you can cover the costs of buying all of the figures, terrain, books and models you simply have to have over the weekend by clearing out some of the figures, models, books and terrain you've never gotten around to using! 

All in all this year we have nearly 40 traders, demo and participation games and another 20-or-so eye-candy-tastic games going on at Lard Workshop on Saturday as well, so basically there's loads going on at the show to see, do and buy - you might even manage to pick up a whole new army, or even a whole new gaming system if you have enough free time!
There is more info about all of our traders (not just those listed here) and links to all of their websites on the BHGS website Britcon Trade Show Page

The bar will also be open from mid afternoon (if that is in any way relevant to you...) selling our special Britcon Beer for the first time this weekend too - but be quick, it's a low-volume production cask ale so quantities are strictly limited !

We look forward to seeing you very soon in Nottingham.

The BHGS Britcon team  

​ (PS - don't forget to remind your gaming buddies in the Nottingham area about the show. There are loads of graphics and banners on the BHGS website that we'd love you to use on your own social media accounts to let people know you'll be there too.) 

​

After a lengthy and sophisticated programme of research the BHGS have identified the possibility that many wargamers at #Britcon do quite like a pint. 

So this year we've made one ourselves!

OK, our friends at Nottingham's own Castle Rock Brewerery have done the complicated stuff, but even so we are delighted to bring you Britcon Ale, an easy-drinking full flavoured best red bitter, well-rounded with some residual sweetness (like many of our players TBH..) and balanced with resinous hop character.

​Brewed using 5 malts and two hops for a great balance, this 4.4% Britcon Ale is available only until the barrel runs dry! 

Britcon Ale: only available onsite at #Britcon on Saturday 12th August (while stocks last!)