Hotlead 2023 -The Very Big and Very Small, Fun Was Had By All

Hot Lead is done for another year, but what a show it was! There were about 400 people particpating in various ways with 74 particpation miniature games, 3 tournaments and 7 Role Playing Games.

Small Wargamer with a Big Smile having Big fun in the Battle of Hlobane

The Convention Team  were all quite pleased to note more youngsters coming to play, ensuring the next generation takes the dice from us. There were more ladies this year too, and not just in the Role Playing Games, but commanding battalions and ordering assaults in the table top battles. I also noted more new Game Masters, which took the pressure off some of my legacy GMs who could relax and have fun. I spotted three of them each playing in a game which they usually ran. They found being a player a novel and thoroughly enjoyable experience. 

Bring & Buy, always crowded, always busy. $21000 in sales over 8 hours, generating $2100 for the Soldier On charity.

Head Minion Steve keeping all the wheels on the wagon

Games ranged from the VERY big:

Dick Wood and Mike Manning with 54mm Bedouins vs Foreign Legion

To the VERY tiny:

Chris Nokes debuts Strength & Honour with his homemade 2mm armies

And from the very silly:

What is Saturday night without at least one silly hat Pulp game? Dan brought his immensely popular "Mongols with Mausers" Back of Beyond game again.

Is that young Flashman?

Sunday morning sillies with the annual "Madness in Manchester" game

Yes, that is a canoe tank supporting the Mounties

To the very serious with THREE different tournaments running Saturday.

DBA Tournament had 12 participants (that wooden gladius is the trophy they are competing for)

A 15mm ADLG Tournament had 12 participants

And a Bolt Action Tournament with 8 participants:

The Bolt Action tables were very pretty. The Mad Padre got better shots of them in his video.

And the very whimsical:

Sunday morning saw a game of Mausritter; a Fantasy RPG with the players as anthropomorphic forest animals having adventures like the Redwall novels. Daughter number 2 made the PC figures and set pieces for encounters from toys, sculpy, buttons, random craft supplies and paint for her friend, GM Sandra, who is taking the game to Gryphcon next month. 

Mausritter player characters

"Oh frog of the pond, what is your wisdom?"

The participation games ran the full gamut; land, sea, air and outer space. 2mm to 54mm. Ancient chariots to the far  future. Chariot races. Ork buggy races! Cartoon superheroes! Teddy bears! I definitely do not have pictures of every game. Some games were already being put away by the time I got around to the table! There was a very pretty Wars of the Roses game using Never Mind the Billhooks and a very pretty English Civil War game that I missed entirely.

Blackpowder Epic ACW

American Civil War

Barnaby with his trademark point in a Triumph of the Will game

Team members Joe and Paul put on a Colonial game

Joe also pointing

Big Epic 40K game

Zulu War

ADLG participation game

Canadian Wargamer Podcast host, and best friend the Mad Padre, about to be destroyed in a chariot era game of ADLG.

Lovecraftian horror game

Kings of War

ACW ironclads

WW2 air

A very cool true scale 6mm AWI game. 1 figure is 1 man and 6mm equals 2 yards.

Ork buggy races. I'm in the red one, about to comically blow up.

Cynocephalae. Big battle DBM

Teddy bears secure their marmalade supplies

Siege of Louisbourg

Back to Teddy bears

better view of Louisbourg, where they are also wearing tricornes, but do not have marmalade

Medieval

Sharp Practice in the Penninsula

Sharp Practice in the Penninsula

Roger Chrysler's War of 1812 using Sharp Practice

WW2 naval with Nimitz

Flames of War Great War

The Chariot races returned and were very popular

1/72 scale Kahlkin Gol with Rapid Fire!

Brian revisited Strongpoint Hillman but this time using O Group. I played this scenario last year, AAR here.

More WW2 Air combat

1/72 scale WW1 Air combat

Keith put on a 6mm game of Leipzig using Blucher rules

I wonder if Hot Lead was in fact the Canadian debuts of Never Mind the Billhooks, Nimitz and Strength & Honour?

The personal:

In the week prior, Mrs. Rabbitman was down with pneumonia. She rallied enough to do the pre-show admin and game registrations, but she reluctantly decided that she'd better stay home. This saddened her, because she does like seeing everyone and catching up. She's also much better at putting faces to names than I am. But Chris and Don jumped into the breach and between the three of us, we managed to hold down the sign-in desk, without creating too much of a disaster. Even with this, and despite worrying about passing on Mrs. R's pneumonia, I managed to have a lot of fun this year.

I got to play a round of Speed Freaks!, driving the red Ork buggy and getting blown up in turn 2. Peter and Huw put a lot of imagination into this fun little game, which was popular with players young and old.

Then I got to revisit Matthew Sullivan's Dead Man's Hand game set in the dangerous town of Cremation Nevada, playing against 4 friends; Don Perrin, Chris McCoy, Mitch McCoy and Beca Brayton.

Much hilarity was had, and I managed to come in second place with 12 VPs. But my gang boss absconding with Sherrif Dapper Dan's pomade gave me bragging rights far greater than the 2 VPs the feat earned. 

The level of detail is amazing. Playing this game inspired Pottersville.

Lifiting the pomade from the dry goods store

Me (left) shoots rival boss Diego Vargas (on balcony)

This is what it's all about, isn't it? 

Didn't do too much shopping. I maintained universal balance by selling $202 (plus $23 to the charity)  worth of stuff in the Bring and Buy and purchasing $200.

used Ospreys, 3 for $10

resin castle pieces from Mike for $100

Some Pulp Figures 1066 figures.

Minion Steve brought us a dozen fresh eggs, so I had to have some Monday morning for brunch after I went to the bank and paid the hotel.

The Mad Padre did a 15 minute video report of the show which you can see here:

Lack of Foresight Gaming posted a video review here:

There are more, and better, pictures on the Hotlead Facebook group, or hopefully you've encountered some from your other Social Media connections.

The dates are already set for next year: 22, 23 and 24 March 2024.