HANS VII – Return of the traveling tabletop box

It is that time of the year again! Hans! Returns once more to my door step. And it is the 7th time, that is on its journey.

I've written about HANS! in the last years, so you can see what came around in 2019 with one of the first HANS that I participated, in 2020 with HANS V! and last years 2021 and sixth tour prior to leaving TTW.

The journey began in february this time and it was once more organised by NickRyder / BamH_Tv. But he moved it from the german wargaming community TabletopWelt towards his discord server, for several reasons he covered in one of the videos prior to starting the new edition.

How does HANS! work? Well, Nick packs a box of items, he would like to trade, and a number of people from the community sign in to participate. He then randomly assigns an order of the names and ships it of to the first person on that list. That person receives the box, checks for items he or she could use and puts in items from his or her collection, of similar or higher value, that they don't longer need.

There are multiple boxes of this kind on their journey, with different themes and rules. For example things like "No books" is common (as outdated rulebooks have a low value, but add quickly towards the weight of the box), no painted miniatures (at least nothing that can not be easily striped) and so on. There were boxes that were Osprey Games only, or strictly 28mm. Most important is that you clarify that everybody uses a reliable shipping agency and chooses insured + tracked shipping. We had some bozos cheaping out on that, using Hermes and guess what, they managed to loose the package... Yeah, so don't be a twat and use a proper company.

I guess some of that hassle was among the reasons to move the box from the board towards the discord, as there was some incredibly stupid feedback. People participating, wishing items to be put in by the people ahead of them, but then not taking out as they were lacking items for trade themself (why do you even participate then in the first place?) or others argueing that it was to expensive, or nothing of interest in there for them. About that, if I travel to a show with a bring & buy, and am driving like an hour each trip, and have a ticket of 3-5 EUR, I have already spent more money than insured shipping of the box cost me - and with the current situation being the current situation, I am more than happy to have the chance and time for some browsing, treasure hunting etc. wargaming related.

The arrival of such a massive box - that my dear wife cleverly commented with "oh, that? yeah, those are daddy's toys" created some interest with my kids, as that they now were very interested to see what kind of toys that would be.

I am honest, I'm always struggling between looking on the posts of the people before me, to see what they traded or if I want to be completely surprised about the content. And this time I went for the later approach, as I was among the last for the box to drop by along with not really having a wish list, so no real need to ask for something particular. Once opened up, the box showed a tight packed content, beginning with the huge Overkill box and the beloved log book, that is with HANS for some time now.

Content was pretty broad. Lots of sprues, bags with metal and resin miniatures. Themes went from historical to fiction, so Space Marines, Saxons, Zombies, a bit of everything in there. Really nice to give it a browse.

And I found some items I really fancied, so I took out the following:

I took out three conquest Death Guard heroes, some Chaos Warrior bits from the late 90s plastic box (mostly because of the banner icons, because I can use those with my Chaos Space Marines), chaos decals for the same project, an Eldar Dreadnought, a single ratling (I'm not sure if that's the one I put in there two years ago), a few printed strips of Warmaster miniatures (those will be included in the upcoming coverage), and as I have a sweet tooth for special / event miniatures, the Tactica 2019 miniature and Black Powder Rebellion miniature, along with EPIC ACW casualty markers and my personal highlight Tyrion - without a broken sword and even including the horses head.

For the exchange, I gave these to HANS:

Hail Caesar Germanic Cavalry, a Deathkorp of Krieg Thudd Gun, Avatars of War Warriors of Pestilence command, 5x Space Marine Decals (Infantry + Vehicles), a High Elf Mage mounted + on foot, a Horus Heresy Praetor in Mk IV Armour, a Marauder Champion, an Eldar Weapon Team, a Chaos Space Marine Sorceror, 2x Blood Bowl Norse Players, 2x Blood Bowl Star Player, 5 Space Marine Scouts, 2x Tyranid Gargoyles, a Steam Forge Miniatures Wasteland Soldier, Foundry Breton Musketeers, Lucid Eye Cro Magnon Boss and Captain Cassius of the Ultramarines.

So now it is time for me to write something in the log book and send HANS! off again to the last person on that list, before it returns home to Nick.

Thanks again to Nick for hosting and organizing. It was once again a blast, and participating means a lot to me, as I rarely had the chance to really browse. Most wargaming stores have the well known brands and not a lot of hidden gems or something where you can dive in, so I really, really enjoy having the chance to "treasure hunt" via this concept. Save journey Hans! until next time.