A good start to 2009

Winter/Spring shows 2009

2009 kicked off with the usual string of busy days out for the Society - Vapnartak in York, Alumwell, Cavalier (helping the southern shows team out in Tonbridge), and Triples where we again sponsored the DBA Northern Cup on the Saturday and ran through Welcome to Jerusalem on the Sunday. We also visited some tournaments ... including the ever popular Godendag weekend in Usk.

(FoG at Usk - Patrick's infantry push up as some Latin mercenaries appear on the enemy flank)
We were pressed for space at Vapnartak, so made a popular return to the Society of Ancients stand-by, Gladiolus (the big figures version). This always seems to please the visitors and we played some entertaining games, and recruited some new members to the fold.

Cavalier is another worthwhile 'early' show, this time at Tonbridge. Actually it has become quite a big event with plenty of traders and a good choice of games. It was also a good chance to catch up with people or renew old acquaintanceships - Neil Thomas, Bob Cordery, Martin from PP ... even Gareth Simon of Pallas Armata (and former editor of Slingshot ) ...




Philip Sabin ran the scaled up display version of Roma Invicta ..


At Cavalier, Gareth passed me this old copy of Miniature Wargames with a collage of pictures from the Devizes show, way back. Full of Society of Ancients personalities. Hmm. I wonder if you can name them?

(MW back cover - who can you spot)
Yes indeed. Plenty of other stuff to look at, too.

(Some other attractions from Cavalier)

Alumwell saw us back on the road with the Jerusalem (FoG) siege game ..


(WMMS 2009)


Welcome to Jerusalem at Alumwell

This time, in order to give a broader taste of the basic Field of Glory mechanisms, we opted to include a 'what if' sally by the defenders from the side gate in the Kidron Valley ...


(Sally party - a BG of Turkish cavalry)
This worked very well, and allowed the Crusader nobles to get on their horses for a fight. FoG does Knights vs heavy horse archers very well, I think, and the scenario provided a good tour through the game's charge, evade, impact, shooting and melee mechanics ...

At Triples this year, we offered the usual mix, sponsoring the Society of Ancients DBA Northern Cup on the Saturday, and taking our regular show game on the Sunday. This year's DBA event was won by former SoA Treasurer, Graham Fordham (he's not from Sheffield, but I suspect that still counts as a 'home win') ....