Monday 30 October 2017

Armies on Parade 2017 - Double Up/Down [delete as preferred]

Originally I wrote this when I was under the impression this year's Armies on Parade was two weeks of parade. Obviously I've since discovered that's not exactly the case. To save re-writing the post take that into account when reading and perhaps you will understand why it has come as such a disappointment to me to discover for most stores it's still just a one day event...


Armies on Parade 40k week begins this week and I'm taking the Genestealer Cult and Deathwatch to my local Southport GW. It may not be quite as impressive a parade as previous years but I'm just pleased to share something new.


As I've said before winning isn't my priority, it's nice but taking part is what this event is about for me. I've no allusions to winning, the same as any painting competition - people vote for whatever they want, I can't control that so I'm just in it for the expereince.


With that in mind I had an epiphany the other week. My local train company had a strike and I was forced to go to a different station in Manchester and walk across the city, through the Arndale to get to work. In that moment I realised the revised format for AoP gave me the chance to do more than just enter in Southport...


With a week to display your army I could easily transport my Dark Angels to Manchester and join their event in store. Then at the end of the week I can go back and collect it. A one day event would have been quite the hassle but this was definitely worth the effort.


And now you can see why it's disappointing. To display in Manchester required me to negotiate with the store to deliver the army on the Friday, for them to set it up on the Saturday and then pack it away and for me to collect on the Monday. It may seem odd that I'm fine with my army on parade for a week and yet I'm touchy about them unpacking, displaying and repacking for one day, but I'm peculiar that way. They rightly pointed out that it'll be fine, looking after figures is their business, so I couldn't argue with that logic, but it still feels like a big ask.

I had hoped this new format was evidence that the event was to be more organised but so far it feels the opposite. Considering how much I enjoy AoP and keen to support it, I'm becoming less and less inclined to take part, which I find really sad. At least I've a week longer to make my decision though.

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