12th September Newbury Racecourse

COLOURS 2015

So, after a year off, Colours returned ... still at fabulous Newbury Racecourse (loads of light, loads of space, loads of free parking ... ) ... but now a more 'trader friendly' one day format.

And I thought it was very good ... good big crowds, plenty of good games, most of the usual traders ...

(contemplating victory or defeat with the Society of Ancients at Zama )

... rather light perhaps on the fashionably sprawling 28mm games (maybe more to play rather than to ogle and that's no bad thing in my book ... ) ..

The Society of Ancients was on the same floor as the Bring & Buy but less affected by the long barrier queues that have hit us in the past.  Indeed it was a good experience throughout and our Lost Battle, Zama, was a winner.

This is the Society's 50th year and it was a great pleasure to be visited by one of the early activists, Neville Dickinson (he of Minifgs) ... Not everyone agreed about strategies and directions in those days ...

(Neville Dickinson chats with Eric on the Society stand at Colours)

Elsewhere the ancient/medieval enthusiast had plenty to enjoy especially he excellent Agincourt game from the Staines design stable which we enjoyed playing at Campaign earlier in the year ...

(Staines Agincourt game)

also around the show my eye was caught by some nice participations games and splendid larger scale ECW ...

... and I really like the way the biplane enthusiasts had tried to do their clouds ... I have tried my hand a rule devising for this period and 'terrain' and visibility is important up there (but not always well managed) - thumbs up to them: my own solution is still under wraps for now ...

... and I can't resist including a couple of vehicle shots from the desert in glorious 15mm ...

So, a great show (as I hope the pictures suggest) with lots to see and do - much of the regular trade fair and a good 'traditional' Bring & Buy with (I thought) a range of stuff for sale and bargains to be had.

It also seemed to me that people pretty much stayed for a full value afternoon (no 3pm pack up) - I presume down to the combination of just being one day, the Bring & Buy and the number of things to do ...

I hope that means Colours is back on the regular schedule and, yes, the one day format seemed to have worked.

For us the highlight was probably meeting Neville Dickinson (he founded the company that made my first metal figures, of course ...) ...

See you all at Derby where we will be combining with the Northampton Battlefields Society and doing Yarmuk ...

6th September Kelham Hall

The Autumn shows season kicked off on the first Sunday of September at 'The Other Partizan' - and as far as I'm aware this was the last of the long-running Partizan shows to be hosted at the beautiful if problematic Kelham Hall.

The Society of Ancients joined regular collaborators, the Lance & Longbow Society and the Northampton Battlefields Society and put on a participation game of Bouvines using, for the first time, DBA V3 ...

Regular readers will be familiar with the look of this game - I was asked to have a look at this battle for the forthcoming Great Battles of History scenarios volume being prepared by the DBA test group so as a starting point recycled a lot of my Basic Impetus project.

It was very successful.  One of the features of the battle is the forced march of Ferdinand Count of Flanders up a short cut to Bouvines via Cysoing.  The forced marchers ran into the French rearguard under the Duke of Burgundy in what became the opening phase of the battle.  DBA deals with this deployment from a road particularly well.

(photo by Chris)

We ran the battle through twice, in the morning amongst the usual suspects, in the afternoon as a full 6 command 6 player participation game.  The French narrowly won both games, but as in the historical battle, the outcome was far from certain for some time.

(Emperor Otto IV and his CWg battle standard)

Some elements were somewhat improvised, of course ... the German army standard/Command Waggon was just an appropriate blank with Otto's figure and his banner cart on it ...

(Philip II king of France) 

Elsewhere personality figures were placed behind the elements that represented those specific generals ...

(the Count of Flanders column passes Cysoing)

... and there were plenty of captions to give an indication of which prominent figures were in which contingents ...

(the French left wing under the count of Dreux)

Although the deployments followed what we know of the historical battle (so were  mandatory) the scenario clearly allowed quite a lot of flexibility as the two games developed along differing lines - the second game, producing a generalised melee right across the battlefield probably taking a more historical shape.

(Bouvines 1214: the heat of the action)

The second battle ended spectacularly on the destruction of Otto's 'general's' element  (and therefore, as in 1214, his Imperial Eagle battle standard) ...

I probably do need to look more closely at some of the troop type translations but, by and large, DBA V3 applied out of the box to historical deployments gives a pretty convincing game of the battle.

Some of the other games ...

Simon Chick and associates presented a splendid big medieval wargame, Berne Baby, Berne, featuring massive Swiss pike formations ... 

Wargame Developments entertained numerous volunteers with their Coastal Command participation game ..

(Jerry puts another set of players through their paces ... ) 

And even more sprawling, Simon M hosted a larger than large Dark Age 'To The Strongest' fight

Being The Other Partizan, there was much more still, but commitments on the stand meant I barely got pictures of all the ancient and medieval stuff ... (well mostly medieval it seems) ... 

Wonderful show as always and many thanks to the Newark Irregulars who've been making this show work at Kelham for years and years - we can only hope they enjoy the same success in their new venue next year and enjoy similar, possibly even better, support from exhibitors and enthusiasts - goog luck Partizan!!