11th - 12th August, Manchester

Britcon 2012

At one point Steve reassured me that we were the best Participation Game in town.   Indeed, that we were the only Participation Game in town.

(Greyhounds in the Slips by the Society of Ancients)

Actually we got a number of games of Greyhounds in the Slips played on Saturday, the players all enjoyed themselves and the Society of Ancients sold a bundle of games.  Indeed it went very well.

(Steve and Will look on as another pair of punters take on the GitS challenge)

Two days earlier we still hadn't heard whether we were invited (whether they had space and tables for societies and show games), and, as it was, we only had a proper pitch for the Saturday ...

Well, the further atrophying of the show side apart, there was some chink of light shining through at Britcon.

Gone, thankfully, was the corporate overload of the Slitherine empire.  Although there was no show to see, gone was the public-blocking Slitherine hoarding and intrusive computer gaming 'play and sell' station.

 (the Saturday stand with snapshots from the games)

The event had been slimmed (just the ground floor) and the Bring & Buy (which seemed well-enough organised) was down in what had previously been the cafeteria - giving a more nucleated feel.   The upstairs food outlet was now the only one open other than the bar - and so there was much less of the food clutter and debris spoiling the look of the main areas.

(the BHGS competitions: Armati)

Many of the usual BHGS boys have retired, and Nobby's babes seem to have taken over.    They seemed to cope OK and were nicely turned out in the new polo shirts.  All good, then ...

(the BHGS competions: Field of Glory)

(the BHGS competitons: Flames of War in a cold climate)

All the important games seemed to be there (FoG, DBMM, Armati, WAB etc.) plus, outside our period, FoW and FoG-R.   It is a pity they never figured out how to get DBA included in the programme.  It needs two one-day-only items on the list, with DBA swapping for something else for a day.

 (the BHGS cometitions: FoG-R)

(FoG-R highlights ... Lurkio's Bavarians)

I was freed from playing the infernal 6 competition games this year so had an enjoyable weekend presenting games of Gits and Bosworth, and generally publicising SoA, L&L and the Battlefields Trust.

 (Flames of War highlights: an iconic Messerschmitt lone wolf)

So ... on Saturday we ran a joint SoA/L&L stand and played half a dozen games of Greyhounds in the Slips with visitors.  Actually, the first game was between Will and Steve, who hadn't had the chance to play it at previous shows (they had been presenting games for L&L): they picked up the key points in the game and were running it themselves an hour or so later!   

They trained up very well!   We had a couple of disasters for Harry, and a couple of near run things.  We also did a couple of play test runs through the 15mm 'test' version of the forthcoming Bosworth game.

(all change: the Society of Ancients goes solo on Sunday)

On Sunday, although the joint stand was one-day only, I was able to take the offer of a spare table to give me base and ran through a few more games of Bosworth.  It still proves a tough ask for Richard though his army seems the stronger.   

 (play test Bosworth: the figures are standing in for their English counterparts - who will appear in the 54mm version)

The play seems to vindicate Mike Ingram's theories on the battlefield and deployment..

(the Bosworth playtests: a game in stages)

One of us, however, managed to get Henry V killed at Harfleur, and continued by dying as Henry Tudor at Bosworth.  In the latter case by frontally charging DBA bowmen in the open and not rolling 'up'.   I don't think it compromises the scenario, of course (I'm fairly confident that Henry would scarcely have done this in the real battle) ...

 (the Bosworth playtests: Henry's maverick death ride)

I didn't stay for the prize-giving - so can't give you my usual podium photos and event top lists.  I did see, however, that Scrivs got the Persian Helmet award.  A good winner, I think.  Best of luck.

OK - I enjoyed Britcon - it happened and, a little less flabby, seemed to be full of happy wargamers.  

It needs good communications, good publicity (any/more publicity) and a show worthy of inviting the public to (i.e. a few club demo and participation games and some non-commercial content other than ourselves and Lance & Longbow).   That said, count me in, BHGS, if you want to keep this going as a show to visit as well as a competition.

(some of the 54mm Bosworth figures: Lord Strange bides his time in Richard's camp - axeman at the ready! ... figures and cart by Irregular Miniatures)

My thanks to the Lance & Longbow Society for putting this combined enterprise together, and to will McNally and Steve Ayers in particular for their help and encouragement with the game.

The Other Partizan is on September 2nd.

14th July, Kelmarsh Hall, Northamptonshire

Festival of History cancelled ..

Due to overnight rain washing out the campsite and rendering the public arenas unuseable.

Unfortunately I had to go in anyway.  I was putting on some wargame displays for the Battlefields Trust and had set up the afternoon before ... so had to splatter my way in to recover the kit.

(main show concourse)

In truth, things were looking dubious all week, but a dry night, and a sunny warm morning (which were possible given the weather forecast) would probably have made this one of those successful events that had isolated car park issues ...

As it was, the site was completely unusable by daw - the above picture shows what it was like by 10am without admitting thousands of visitors!

It has been a dry, bright (ish) weekend in Northamptonshire - so had the ground permitted use, it probably would have been better weather than last year.

My sympathies go to everyone who travelled miles to get to the event only to be turned away, or to those already on site who lost personal items and had equipment ruined in the mess.

6th - 8th July, Knuston Hall Northamptonshire

COW 2012

Wargame Developments' Conference of Wargamers is a highlight of any year - the only opportunity this side of Historicon to sample such a wide variety of wargames - and at COW they have a more European flavour and pace.   And many of them are innovative or at least exploratory in their format.

 (Martin Rapier's presentation of Phil Sabin's Fire and Movement game from Simulating War)

This year, for me it was a little like pulling one of those 1960 wargame compendia type books (a Featherstone or a Grant) and doing it for real. 

 (moving the tables up as the Felissima Armada progresses)

Jim Wallman entertained me with a Spanish Armada game with Airfix plastic ships (and some scratchbuilds) as well as an outdoor game (indoors) played with 54mm Britains plastics (what I was using in the 1960s) and toy canons ...  I solved my unresolved terrain conundrum for Plataea by building a sand table - a first for COW perhaps ... and two of my games used flats ...

 (Images from the gods part of the ancient history talk)

In addition to hosting a joint session with John Bassett on Gods and Generals (a follow up to the short 'Bloodletting at Plataea' contribution I made at the BattleDay), and the Plenary Game (the whole Conference were fireteams in Vietnam holding a base perimeter ...) ... I played or hosted 9 or 10 more games over the weekend.  I sat in on a number more ..

(Call it Qids at COW 2012)

Graham Evans presented his Society of Ancients Kadesh game (get your copy here ...) ...

 (Ramesses II towering over the Amun division encamped outside Kadesh - wjat could possibly go wrong)

... and I hosted a number of ancient warfare session or games ...

 (Lords of the Nile - V3 DBA in the Late Bronze Age)

The V3 DBA tryout was popular with players who had sampled my treatment of the current game last year in the Zama reconstruction. 

The Plataea project remains 'work in progress', I'm afraid - so COW had part 3 of the ongoing experiment adapting Neil Thomas's ancient rules (AMW, basically, though I am spinning adaptations off the earlier version in Wargaming - an introduction ...) ...

The refurbishment of the flats is not complete yet, and the summer has been so bad I've not been out in the garden building battlefields - hence the sand table ..

 (step by step sand table)

Sand table?  Yes - I got a couple of bags of sharp sand from the builders' merchants (one was actually enough), spread a plastic sheet out over my table and them moulded and painted  the landscape I wanted.  It worked sufficiently to last the session, and packed away very quickly once the game was done.

It probably took a couple of hours to set up (so needed to be a late night prep for a morning game session) but cost less than £5 in materials - and all bar the paint will recycle for a new project (or a better version of the Greek and Persian battle).

Sorted.   Different, anyway.

 (Byzantine Arab Skirmish)

Fred Cartwright enhanced the ancients options with a splendid looking experimental game which he put on in 28mm, using Arabs and Byzantines for some 'small wars' ... (De Bellis Parvis ... ?) ..

 (some of Fred's splendid 28mm Byzantine/Arab small wars warriors)

If 28mm isn't big enough for small wars, 54mm is the business for Little Wars.  In this case Little Garden Wars ... Jim Wallman's take on the H.G.Wells classic.  

Although I confess it isn't the sort of thing I do every week, I quite enjoyed this carpet game (it was intended to play outdoors but the weather gods were not accommodating!) ... the casualty system (firing matchsticks) made an interesting change to rolling dice or turning cards.

 (indoor Little Garden Game - Freedonia vs Corduguay)

I'm obliged to note that Jim also inveigled me into a Samurai game that involved fighting already dead bandit people (yes, the dreaded 'Z' word): I embrace the possibility of some mythic value in hacking through legendary creatures in what turned out to be an entertaining little game - and then I will move on ...

 (Jim Wallman's Samurai myth game)

In the last pass of the last turn of the last game, my skyhook team successfully scooped Trebian's Cold War mission leader off a hostile ice flow - but that's another COW story.

More modern stuff on my 20th century blog soon.

You can join WD and/or book next year's COW at Wargame Developments.

The Festival of History is next week.

 (a scene from Tim Price's S.W.A.B. Napoleonic naval game)

(more of those flats)

6th July, St Albans

Conference Weekend Battlefield Visit

It has become customary for at least some of the travelling fraternity to gather for lunch on the Friday of COW at a site of miltary historical interest - and this year Mike Elliott showed us around medieval St Albans.

 (rainy explorers finding the ditch defence of medieval St Albans)

The so-called Wars of the Roses (discuss ...) began here in 1455 when the Duke of York and Neville Earls of Warwick and Salisbury pressed their claim in the face of Henry's Royal Standard - outright rebellion.

Henry raised his standard in St Peter's Street in the centre of the town, and the Yorkists chose not to defer but attacked the defences from the East, broke through the houses and yards and made their way to the town centre.

(the Battle of St Albans from the Maltings Car Park)

We got our best impression of all this from the roof of the Maltings multi-storey car park.

In the picture above, Henry and his household were stationed in the centre of the town, then, as now, running from St Peter's Church (just off to the right) and the precinct of St Albans Abbey where the king had appartments ...

Amidst the confusion of battle (and the general confusion that surrounded Henry VI customarily), it is almost certain that they were taken by surprise when Warwick's men broke throught the timber and daub walls of the medieval shops and burst into Chequer Street.

(all this in the sight of an Eleanor Cross - just as would happen at Northampton, 5 years later ...)...

Mike has identified the point where Warwick broke through, the buildings of which lasted pretty much until the first War ... so have their traces in early photographs. 

Although the 'battle' took only about half an hour, the melee in the town centre saw the Lancastrian champion, Edmund Beaufort (Duke of Somerset) killed along with Northumberland and Clifford ... and as was to become a feature of the period, Henry, himself, captured.   The anti-Yorkist faction was decapitated and the Nevilles were in the ascendance.

We finished our tour at the abbey ...

(Romanesque details in the historic abbey)

... and reconvened at COW for a weekend's wargaming and symposia ...

30th June 2012, London

The London Toy Soldier Show 

There were no wargames shows (within my remit ...) at the weekend - so, needing a complete break, I went to the London Toy Soldier Show.

By sheer coincidence, the SoA had a Committee meeting that day and I was able to drop some items off with them and enjoy a couple of drinks ...

Then off to Bloomsbury.

The Toy Soldier Show is a bit like a trade and bring & buy combined, with no games or societies.   But it is full of 54mm figures, from the brand new (and very expensive) to boxes of used plastics which could be rummaged at 25p/figure.

(this display was clearly inspired by the Ad Hoc '19:42 from Benghazi' participation game)

I was there to find 54mm plastics to support the Irregular Miniatures figures for my Bosworth game.

(a useful handful of medieval figures)

And I also found some of these old Britains (HK made) plastics in the cheapies section ...

I also enjoyed a few hours of tourism - I was fascinated to see those hugte rings on Tower Bridge (so like half of London, it seemed, I went down for a look) ...

It was a very popular sunny afternoon with lots of entertainment and general promenading - looks like there's a big festival of sport coming to town!

Anyway, enough pics there to make it seem like I was taking the weekend off!

The Toy Soldier Show was a very different experience.  Useful and interesting and I picked up some bargains.   I did miss the games and bonusses you get at wargames events, however (just trade is no substitution!) ...

COW next - then the Festival of History.  Bosworth should be done by then.  Watch this space.

24th June, Bosworth Field

This was my first visit to Bosworth since Glenn Foard's surveying work sponsored by The Battlefields Trust.

I am working on a new DBA scenario for the battle and Mike Ingram, whose new book is just out, was guiding a study day/visit.  'Bosworth 1485', in the Battle Story series is a project built on the new work done at the battlefield, and deserves to be the new orthodoxy (at least until we get a planned publication from Glenn Foard and Anne Curry next year ...)...

Bosworth 1485 by Mike Ingram (in a handy hardback for less than £10 ...)

The Battlefields Trust - defending heritage organising guided walks on British battlefields throughout the year.  See the events section.

There is still quite a lot to enjoy in the Visitor Centre exhibition, and most of the battle narrative is still valid (just it happened somewhere else) ... plus there is a new section on battlefield archaeology and on locating the field.

(a detailed explanation of modern surveying techniques)

Analysis of historic place names (especially along Fenn Lane) combined with soil samples to identify a probably battle site that matched well with contemporary accounts like that of Polydore Vergil.  Surveying and digging brought up significant and plentiful finds to confirm this location.  In particular, large amounts of shot were found, possibly validating the presence of large amounts of artillery on the field.

 (up on Ambion Hill - the party surveys the traditional site)

Richard's baggage was probably camped at White Moors and it is very likely men from the large force were encamped across the area including on the high ground at Ambion Hill (the traditional, though never convincing, site).    Richard was forced to deploy on the flat low ground around the Roman Road as the earl of Richmond, Henry Tudor, closed upon his position.

(Richard's Army deployed in these fields in 1485)

Much of the area across from Fenn Lane was marsh in the 15th Century, and Henry deliberately chose this avenue of attack to take advantage of the marsh - which would likely nullify Richard's potential advantage in cavalry and his large array of ordnance.

(in front of the contemporary marsh, historian Mike Ingram interprets that battle)

As many of the party were heard to comment, the site certainly looks and feels like a battlefield, and it is easier to reconcile with the reports of the eyewitnesses.

 (the rising ground towards the horizon in front of Stoke Golding is where the Stanleys drew up, unresponsive to Richard's command)

As many readers will know, gaps appeared in Richmond's line as his hard pressed troops clustered around their standards.  Richard saw his chance to settle the issue and charged forth seeking a decisive action with the rebellious earl.   Decisive it proved, though not as Richard would have scripted it.  The Stanleys responded, but joining Richmond and engulfing Richard's band.   Tradition has it that he was driven into the marsh and met his defiant but ignominious end.

(here, Richard met his fate, and 331 years of Plantagenet rule in England came to an end)

A very worthy and informative visit.  I understand the battle and the landscape more surely than I did before - and, as currently interpreted, the narrative is certainly coherent and convincing.  Recommended.

The marsh will play a very important part in my reconstruction, and it hard to see how this could be a battle fought from a free deployment - if Mike's narrative is followed, the lack of time to prepare a position meant that the artillery, always in the rearward would naturally fall into the line on the left, opposite the marsh, just as Henry intended.  

My thanks to all involved for their help - see Bosworth on the BFT stand at the Festival of History ...

(Mike signing copies of his new book at White Moors car park where, appropriately, our baggage was drawn up for the battlefield walk)

In 2005, the Battlefields Trust was commissioned by Leicestershire County Council, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to investigate the probable location of the battlefield.  Professor Anne Curry and Dr Janet Dickinson reviewed the documentary evidence;  Dr Mark Page, Tracey Partida and David Hall worked on reconstructing the historic landscape;  Professor Barrie Cox worked on the early names.  Rodney Burton worked on soil mapping;  Birmingham and Bradford Universities analysed the peat deposits to establish when areas of marsh disappeared;   Glenn Foard, Richard Mackinder and a volunteer team conducted a metal detector survey, Glenn, Richard Knox  and Rob Jabaway analysing the finds; and assistance was received in the final stages from Leeds, Cranfield and the Royal Armouries.