Derby, University, 2-3 October

OLD GLORY WORLD WARGAMES

The Shows North year returns to the East Midlands for the first weekend in October every year, and the Old Glory World Wargames in the bright and airy spaces of Derby University's Kedleston Road complex.
(a busy weekend for the Society's Shows North team)

For the last few years, Graham D Evans has joined us for this one, usually reprising his project game from Campaign, earlier in the year (see our previous entries). So this year we offered visitors to the Derby show a choice of two games based on Ad Hoc's Annon Domino ... the Shows North regular, Greyhounds in the Slips, and Graham's The Elephant in the Room.

The Elephant in the Room is a multi-player participation game in which (usually) 3 players play up to 6 Velites whose aim is to kill or deter the card controlled elephant before it reaches the Roman battle lines. The 54mm elephant stands in the middle of a circular array, and the battlefield moves around it as it bears down on the Hastati - or not, of course, if harassment from the Velites manages to shoo it away.

(The Elephant in the Room - run by the designer for an enthusiastic crowd)

The Old Glory show is quite a bit bigger than you can see, of course - as well as the exhibition and trade show, the back halls are used to house a wargames tournament (the aforementioned 'world championships') ... perennially the host of Mansfield's random armies Armati event, and, this year, undergoing something of a resurgence of interest amongst the FoG/DBM crowd.
(Derby 2010 - scenes from a lively show)
The show itself has the usual mix of trade, societies, fantasy, participation games and colossal 'statics' - I guess it is the 'Old Glory' show, so that big 25mm Napoleonic game has to be expected. Nappies tend to outnumber ancients at this event.

A new feature for certain this year was live blogging from the Society of Ancients zone during the show. Despite the high turnover on TEITR, Graham managed to update his blog audience on his experience of the weekend and the progress of his game in several episodes over the course of the event. For Graham's weekend, and some more reflections on running the elephant game, Wargaming 4 Grown Ups is Graham's busy personal blog. Try the Derby label for this year's live updates ... (Graham uses a lull to blog another update)

Both games were busy throughout the weekend, and, just as at Colours, at times both games were running in tandem (and sometimes, I'm afraid - space an manpower being at a premium, it seems - browsers on the stand had to wait a few moments ...), though, it has to be said, over at Harfleur, Henry got himself killed in the breach a couple of times (usually the result of not leading from the front).

We got a good mix of established wargamers, intrigued visitors and plenty of youngsters - in fact, by the end of the weekend, I think we had put most of the organisers through the Anno Domino experience too. Indeed, I am pleased to be able to report that the Society of Ancients came a worthy third in the Participation Game awards - narrowly pipped by the painting class and a fantasy game .... so top historical contribution, then ... just where the Society of Ancients should be, of course.
(Henry leads the charge at Harfleur)
Over the weekend, we talked to lots of people, distributed numerous complimentary copies of Slingshot, and many visitors left with their own copies of Anno Domino and other Society publications. Late year subscriptions were thin on the ground, however - one can only hope that the 'feed through' is coming via Internet subscriptions, therefore. Everything you can possibly want is available through the website www.soa.org.uk.

Although packaged with Crosby group's Gladiator game from a few years back (rather than TEITR or GitS, the show games at Derby), basic Anno Domino is included as an appendix in 'Let The Dominoes Decide' (available from the games page of the website) ... or you can join the Society using paypal by clicking on the Join Now For 2010 banner (or following this link) ...

We didn't see much of the competition wargamers over the weekend - except the ever sociable Armati players, of course ... maybe next year the Foggies'll come visit ...