the true heart of the miniature hobby

Nottingham, right? We already knew that… but not for the reasons you think.

For whilst the monolith of Games Workshop casts one thick coat of shadow over the Shire of Nottingham, quietly others forge a light. From the crackling flame of passion and the spark of creativity, there lie the Indies. With their weird little guys and funny shaped dice, this weekend they converged in Nottingham to celebrate all that is different.

On this weekend, of September late… a con was christened on its maiden voyage, and they called that con… SPRUECON!

It got weird… many times, but this was one of the weirder times.

It was clear before I’d even booked my ticket, that Spru was going to be different. It was going to be weird… but the hope above all hopes, was that it was also going to be special.

A convention that celebrates the indies, the cottage industry that I believe is the true heart of what we love as miniatures enthusiasts… that was something I always wanted to get behind. Something I always believed could, and should be special. I don’t think I could have ever been truly prepared for just how special it was.

When we visit say… UKGE for example. That’s a convention I love. It’s a convention that pounds your senses with absolute affirmation that the miniatures, boardgames and RPG hobbies are thriving, growing and full of new ideas. It’s a wonderful experience… but due to the very nature of what it is and how it operates, it’s also really hard sometimes, to find those tiny cottage businesses who are bravely making the weird and wonderful things that really get my heart moving.

UKGE is expensive for vendors… many creatives are barely scraping by right now (something I’m all too familiar with at the moment, sadly)… Spru was not. It was in fact free for vendors. The vendor list was curated by the organisers. Hand picked to showcase the creativity and spirit of independent miniatures businesses and present them to you in an environment of pure, unadulterated, unfiltered coolness. Admittedly that did mean the ticket price was high… and that’s something I hope they address… but the event itself? Well… read on.

This one lil’ shroom bro

If you can imagine it… there’s a pretty decent chance you could find a miniature of it at Spru. Hell… there’s a non-zero chance you could find a whole game built around it. Tonks, Turnips and Triffids all turned up aplenty, amongst the incredible creations on display.

Faces you’ll have definitely heard of such as Louise and her Rascal Town minis, or Annie from Bad Squiddo Games were there. Pete from Fourscore was there, which meant by extension that TMS brushes were there. But there were also a ton of businesses there who don’t always make it on to everyone’s radar, and that’s a damn shame.

WIRD Design, the genius mind behind Kill Sample Process and Forbidden Psalm.

Buff This 2141 (a game I’m going to talk more on shortly).

DoomSong.

Turnip28.

Some of these might well be words you’ve never heard before… but they’re words you’re going to want to pay attention to, because in one way or another, they’re all bringing things to the table that we don’t just want right now… We need them.

These are names, faces, models and games that are truly trying, despite the mega corporate and hyper polished face that GW lends to our hobby, to push things forward. To make progress, whilst embracing nostalgia. To create, to innovate and to lead the charge for miniatures and wargames to be truly for everyone.

At Spru I found incredible hand sculpting and kitbashing, the likes of which is beyond my wildest imagination. I found an absolutely CRAMMED hall of demo games on BOTH floors of the convention. I found all the oddities and weirdness that make my heart absolutely sing…and despite my admitting recently that I’m probably not a wargamer any more, I even found a couple of games that I’m definitely interested in collecting for… but might even love enough that I want to play them.

Some games

First among these is Turnip28… it’s a weirdly grimdark, historical nodding, sci-fi horror bundle of craziness, that defies any accurate explanation, despite my need to provide one for this article.

Armies are small (appealling), games are short (appealing) and the miniatures are weird as fuck (very appealling). Everything has these creepy, pointy snouts and roots and vines abound the visual design… yet the game also carries this distinct Napoleonic aesthetic which is absolutely infectious.

There’s a fair whack of printable and buyable official minis now, but like all Indies these days, it begs you to kitbash, to sculpt, to do whatever the merry fuck you please. It’s outrageously Indie whilst being grippingly cool. It’s entirely unapologetic in its strangeness, yet almost jarringly familiar and comfortable at the same time.

I was drawn to the miniatures that were there from Haychdee.com and quickly picked a couple up, so be sure to keep an eye on the Insta if you want to see some painted Turnip in the near future. If you want a completely fresh, yet utterly addictive take on grimdark, be sure to check it out.

The other that really got under my skin was Buff This 2141.

This is a 1v1 game… not only 1 player per side… but 1 MODEL per side. A true duel in the same sense as the upcoming John Blanche’s EnGarde, which you may have heard of. It plays fast and brutal, offers FANTASTIC excuses to just go ham on painting and converting but the real surprise for me was in how attractive the actual GAME is because of it’s mechanics.

I’ve probably mentioned before that IMO the most perfect Wargame ever made was the original 90’s Necromunda. I loved the interactivity of the game, the RPG elements, the focus on verticality in terrain building and the gritty, grimy setting. BT2141 has all of that… and with the single model entry point, it might actually shake out to be even more perfect for me than Necro90 ever was.

Games last…and I quote “between 15 and 30 minutes” …meaning you can play a SHITLOAD of games in a single session. The board is 12×24 inches… meaning you could literally play on a train if you wanted to (but more likely a coffee table, obvs). You gain buffs over time, you create your character like its an RPG, you can slam, throw and push opponents, and the setting feels equal parts Judge Dredd and Necromunda. Its all VERY good news for someone like myself, who longs to capture that late 90’s/early 2Ks vibe.

It’s going to be VERY hard for me to not fall headlong into this game and never come up for air again. I can’t WAIT to own the rules, the minis and make a board for it. That’s something I haven’t felt in a very long time.

This person was trading faces for miniatures… I have never been more sad to have nothing to trade.

Embracing the weirdness in all it’s pride and glory is a truly beautiful thing… but it’s really only the surface of what indie games designers are bringing to the table. Yes… most of what they’re doing is strange and different and has an aesthetic tang to it that won’t sit comfortably on your palate, if you’re overly adjusted to GW’s product.

But it’s what you find underneath that oddball veneer that will burrow its tendrils into you and keep you coming back. In a world where a single monolith owns such a gargantuan share of the market, the Indie scene has learned very quickly, what it needs to do to earn your loyalty… hell just to earn your attention.

Most of these games had either totally free rules, or a free version of them. They almost always invite you to bring whatever minis you like, whilst offering you official ones you might enjoy but aren’t tied to. They generally encourage you to kitbash, sculpt and get creative. They keep the footprint small, the time investment lean… they aim to fit around your life and your budget and slot in to your hobby with as little pressure as possible.

Right now, whether we want to face it or not, all but the wealthiest of us are struggling day to day. We live in a world where we have no time, no money and very little threshold for stress… but also a world where we’re desperate for an escape. That is a world where the Indies are not there to ask for more. Not there to demand the time and finances to put a large, expensive army on the table. They’re there to say this is cool, relaxing and fun, and we’d like you to try it.

It isn’t partisan. It’s not “you can only support GW or the indies”. The message is instead a simple one.

“Here’s our heart and soul, our passion and creativity, all wrapped up into this fun little project… give it a go?”

The reason I love the indies above all else is simple… they don’t want to take from my life, they want to add to it. They want to earn their living around my needs as a customer, not in spite of them. It’s a very similar philosophy to that which spawned Tesseract. Solving problems, helping people, making the hobby less of a drain and more of a joy.

It’s not something I could ever NOT endorse and Spru was a truly wonderful presentation of all of it, in all it’s betentacled and moss-covered glory.

Thank you Indies.

Thank you Spru.

The organisers are already talking about running it back and tickets sold out ENTIRELY (not even on the door tix available), so I think it’s safe to say that Spru was a roaring success. It was packed, it was frantic, it was FAR too hot in there… yet still, I came away with hope and with a sense of wonder, at just how fucking cool everyone is.

The future is VERY bright, if this is the shape of the miniatures hobby and I’m proud… no, I’m honoured to be a part of it.

Thanks for reading folks. Support your local Indie… we need you!