Sunday, January 28, 2018

Looking Back at 2017

Welcome to another 'end of term report' and Happy New Year to all my fellow enthusiasts and visitors.

(for a header I have chosen a DBA army ... in this case some late medieval Germans)

2017 started what seems a long time ago and although I know I have slimmed my commitments down significantly, still seems remarkably full of activity.  Late in the year I suffered a close family bereavement which swung my attention away from wargaming ... and equally I guess I am more active as a military historian who wargames than as a wargamer that does some history.

Things change.  We used to do around 2 events per month as Shows North, as a team of, say four ... these days it's maybe half that - and seldom are there more than a couple of us.   Diversification has undoubtedly benefited historical wargaming (but does mean people are always doing different things in different places.)

That said, the continued success of DBA v3 and the popularity of the UK League I brokered with the Society of Ancients means I still get to play quite a lot.

Ancient and Medieval, we did 9 tournaments or events (1 ADLG, 8 DBA) ... 7 shows in addition to 2 that I attended principally to play in a tournament (so 9 shows really) ... and 8 other events (conferences, battlefield anniversay events etc.)*

24 outings altogether** ...

My game tally for the year seems to be around 76 (3 a fortnight, if you like) ...

Tournaments (click on the pictures to go to the report)

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/12th-february-keresley-library-coventry.html 
Mercia DBA (Coventry) 

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/4th-march-newark-showground.html 
 Hammerhead and the Northern Cup

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/25th-february-alton.html 
 Alton Pairs DBA

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/10th-june-bakwell.html

Bakewell DBA

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/12th-august-manchester-university.html 
Britcon DBA 
http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/7th-october-bruntingthorpe.html
  'Derby' ADLG

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/14th-october-bakewell.html 
Octoberfest DBA (Bakewell)

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/29th-october-portsmouth.html 
DBA English Open

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/29th-october-portsmouth.html 
SoA UK DBA League (finals at the English Open)

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/11th-november-tarrington.html 
Tarrington scramble

Shows
http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/26th-february-tonbridge.html 

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/12th-march-wolverhampton.html

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/22nd-april-london-excel.html 

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/6th-and-7th-may-central-milton-keynes.html 

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/21st-may-newark-showground.html 

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/20th-august-newark.html 

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/4th-september-peterborough.html 

and related events
http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/1st-april-blectchley.html 
The 'Arsuf' SoA BattleDay

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/the-summer-of-2017-middle-england.html 
Stoke Field and the Battlefields Trust AGM

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/the-summer-of-2017-middle-england.html 
Northampton 1460

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/the-summer-of-2017-middle-england.html 
Anniversary walk

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/the-summer-of-2017-middle-england.html 
The Conference of Wargamers at Knuston Hall

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/the-summer-of-2017-middle-england.html 
Edgcote anniversary walk

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/the-summer-of-2017-middle-england.html 
Bosworth

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/15th-october-warwick.html 
SOAC 2017

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Tony%20Bath 

The vast majority of those 76 games were ancient or medieval and quite a few were DBA.   We also played some AMW, some ADLG and some home grown ... plus the odd game of Saga, Lion Rampant and Dux Bellorum.  At SOAC I ran the 1960s Tont Bath wargame.

*I'm excluding events that are exclusively later history - so ecw etc. - which do fill in some of the rest of my calendar ...
**compared with 22 last year