My first visit to Punched Con 2025 in the UK.
I was very lucky that Uwe asked me if I wanted to come to Punched Con with him and show Assault Sicily and the sample of the Primosole Bridge expansion. The consideration was brief – although it was of course a pity that my youngest son was celebrating his 12th birthday that very weekend. But well, I just had to promise compensation.
So I set off fully motivated on Friday morning in the direction of Munich Airport and arrived at the Royal Court Hotel in Coventry around midday without any major delays.
Day 1:
Of course, once I was there I had to ask around to find the Sound of Drums exhibition corner. But our drummer in the logo can be seen from afar and Uwe’s distinctive features, a tall person and grey-white hair, are easy to spot in the room. There I am at our stand in the corner of the large BRITANNIA hall. A festively decorated and graceful room that quickly showed me that England was once an empire – and sometimes still is.
I immediately opened my suitcase – because I couldn’t check in until later – and took out the sample of the soon-to-be-released Primosole Bridge Expansion, which had never been presented to the public before, and set it up on the table in front of me. No sooner had I started building the bridge and picking out the unit counters than the first ‘unknown’ approached me. And for the first time in colour and live, I was able to shake Jim’s hand.
For all of you who have known us since the first Red Horizon 41 title, it’s a pleasure for me to go into a little more detail here. Because Jim has earned himself an eternal place in our credits since 2019. If you think that the Assault rulebook is a good rulebook, then Jim deserves a lot of credit for that. He was the one who burnt himself into my memory on a rules post on Facebook back then by positively criticising my sample excerpt of the rules at the time and giving me the tip. ‘You’d better find someone who speaks more English than you do!’…. And from then on, an intensive dialogue developed with Jim.
He wanted to help me edit the Assault rulebook. I think we sent several emails back and forth almost every day for almost a year. It was a tough school for me at times – but I learnt a lot from his thought processes and detailed questions. I also made progress in English thanks to his contributions. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you once again Jim! It was a great pleasure to meet you and a few of your wargame friends in person.
Now back to the Punched Con. As I said, it didn’t take long for the first visitors and interested parties to arrive at our stand. Among them were many owners of Sicily 43 – Gela Beachhead. I gladly accepted the very good feedback on our Assault project and used it as further motivation. Thank you for that.
As I was setting up a first scenario from the Primosole campaign book, Dan came by to take the opportunity to learn the rules with me as designer. It took a few moments and we started our first game. With a few interruptions from interested spectators, the time flew by – the dice rolled and each of us had a chance to be happy or angry with the dice god. We had fun having our troops fight over this 150 metre long bridge. A frontal attack by the Germans to recapture the bridge was beaten off by the Red Devils. Only the appearance of a German StuG IIIG improved the situation for Dan. All in all, an instructive and exciting game. At this point I am really grateful and proud to have got to know you, Dan. Thank you also for your time and generosity with the drinks and fruit.
Yes, so the first day ended without much time to roam the two halls to pay homage to all the other great gaming tables. But I took a little more time off the next day.
Day 2:
After a short night in my soft hotel bed, I realised that the English breakfast is actually very different from the usual Bavarian pretzels and bread. Well, I actually found something suitable in the selection… Although the coffee doesn’t get a good grade from me. Well, I can hear one or two people here…. In England they drink tea… but I’m not sure about that… a lot of guests would rather go for the coffee machine – lol.
Oh well – in the end it’s all about the Punched Con and the wargames shown and played there. I took to my heels and followed the calls of the dice and wargamers.
The selection of games I saw was immense… I’ve never seen an event like this in Germany. Of course there are also wargamers in Germany, but this variety of monster wargames set up and played…. No, I don’t know it like that. There are game plans as big as my office space at home and the hobby generals and troop leaders bend over them, discuss and then carry out any actions based on rules that are beyond the spectator’s knowledge. I have to admit that I was impressed. Whether it was the Battle of the Bulge, the hot Cold War or the American Civil War. Very nice to watch – but also impressive for me as a tactical games enthusiast.
That’s when I realised the real purpose of the Punched Con. The players usually know each other and arrange to meet up for these three days – for precisely these monster games. They lock themselves away in the hotel – get out of real life for a short time and have fun into the night. A great concept. The Punched Con is not a classic trade fair in the true sense of the word – exhibitors show what they have and then it’s time to sell. It’s a gaming convention, people know each other or arrange to meet up in advance to have fun together. Great! And by the way, the atmosphere among the participants is absolutely relaxed, friendly and open to questions that someone like me asks when they’ve never seen such big games live before. Very nice people create a very nice environment.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have much time to actively participate in such an intense game, as I was busy showing and explaining Assault. But that brings me straight to my personal conclusion. Great atmosphere, suitable surroundings and the opportunity to meet interesting like-minded people. The sale of games takes a back seat – of course there was the opportunity and as far as I could tell the local retailer was able to sell our Assault games to the crowd until Saturday – which of course makes us happy… but the focus is on the shared gaming experience. I think that’s great and if I can be there again next year I already have some ideas for a big Assault table with an epic game situation adapted to Punchedcon to get a few more players interested in our hobby.
With this in mind, thanks again to the organisers of Punched Con 2025, to Uwe for the great support and the organisation of the visit and to everyone who is patient with me – but above all to my family and friends.
Wolfgang.
