The big event for our friends at Western Suburbs Wargames Association (WSWA) each year is their open day. Well worth a trip to the other side of Melbourne. Lots of displays from within the club, from visiting clubs (including NWA) plus the great variety of trade stands including Eureka Miniatures (Nic Robson), Military Simulations (Colin Turnbull), Quality Wargames Supplies (Wayne Eaton) and Hall of Ancient Warriors (Brian Hall). Well done Brian Hall, Wayne Eaton and the gang who organised the event. Sorry to those whose displays I did not get to photograph as I was pretty busy all day running the Mines of Moria for NWA.
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John Shaw with help from Glenn Harvey showed off the 14 foot long Mines of Moria display on behalf of NWA. Using the Lord of the Rings rules and a series of scenarios, members of the public were able to fight the Fellowship from one end of Moria to the other.
Consisting of 6 modules, each module has a scenario. Starting with the Watcher in the Water at the entrance to Moria, players can fight their way through Balin’s Tomb, over the Bridge of Khazad-dûm and out the other side. A couple of the scenarios were modified ones from Games Workshop. The rest were designed by John to take advantage of special features of the scenery. This included the escape down the staircase which was based on the dramatic scene in the film.
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All the scenarios were played by different members of the public. Some of the scenarios were played a few times. The Watcher in the Water scenario is a popular one as is the defence of Balin’s tomb. This is probably due to the memorable scenes from the movie which the players are trying to re-create.
Although the majority of the Fellowship escaped, including Gandalf, poor Legolas and some of the Hobbits did not.
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Here are photos of some of the other displays. This included a Moria display from the local Games Workshop which had only been opened recently.
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