Tuesday, April 1, 2014

29th March, Bletchley, MK

The Society of Ancients BattleDay 2014 - overview ...


This was the 11th annual BattleDay.   This year the subject was Montaperti, the 1260 battle between Guelphs and Ghibellines in Tuscany near Siena.   

Seven groups participated in the UK side-by-side refight of the battle, together with satellite games in Italy and the US ... The selected rules used were Armati, DBMM, Basic Impetus, Warlord, Strongbow, Saga, DBA (UK, Italy and US) and Warrior (US) ...

The day began with a presentation by each group on their take on the battle ...

(Mark Fry talks us through the essentials of the Armati game)

I presented the Impetus game, but made sure to get a picture of the other games as I usually try to.

You will find plenty on the games in coming issues of Slingshot and discussion on the SoA forum ..

Gallery:








At the end there was the usual debrief and thanks, plus a lighthearted awards ceremony announcing winners of the much coveted Best Terrain prize, the Best Game prize, plus a series of specially painted figures were handed out to mark notable acts of derring-do ...

(This year's BattleDay Souvenir figures)

Best Terrain went to the splendid DBMM landscape, Best Game to the Impetus table.


A superb day out and great contributions from all the presenters - well done, Society of Ancients! - and well put together, Richard.

I will follow this general/gallery post with my own experiences presenting the Impetus game.

2 comments:

Caliban said...

Thanks for the report, Phil. The Armati terrain looks good in the photos too.

Paul

SoA Shows North said...

Mine, too, Paul ... surely? :)

Yes, being serious, the Armati terrain was the latest version of Mark C's foam 'wargames cloth' hugged over using magnetic pads.

Brilliant - and about to made available to the public, I'm told.

Fewer games than some other periods attract but lots of great input nevertheless ...

I'm looking forward to next year already!

Phil