28th March, Bletchley, MK

The Society of Ancients BattleDay 2015 ... The Hydaspes

Apologies for the delays in updating Ancients on the Move ... I have had a large number of pictures to organise and edit following the last weekend in March which saw the Society's BattleDay on the Saturday and Towton's annual Palm Sunday event on the Sunday.

This year was the best supported BattleDay so far ... answering that rhetorical question about what happens when the battle pits Alexander the Great against an elephant army ...

The day started with an introduction by Professor Philip Sabin and a Q&A with Sabin and Duncan Head ... 

(Richard Lockwood introduces Professor Sabin to a packed room)

Phil made some points about the wide range of interpretations of the battle then produced a graph which amply demonstrated that there is plausible interpretation window which can help us filter out some of the less likely accounts.

Phil also argued that the wargame model better tested these theories because it introduced 'time' to the reconstruction in a way that text and diagrams did not (thus, some reconstructions look good on paper but quickly become implausible as soon as you start moving things around against the battle's internal clock) ...

Time, says Sabin, is an important parameter in ancient battle as, allowing some exceptions, whatever has to happen in the battle has to be achieved within the hours of daylight (ancient commanders have limited time within which to win a battle) ...

Anyway, here are some of the games ...

I can't begin to give you a fair flavour of them all ... I played in the AMW game and had good 'nuts and bolts' discussions over the Armati game and Vincent's WiP project ...

The range was from an old classic from 30 years ago (WRG 5th) to the very recent DBA V3 or Sword and Spaer and a project so new it has yet to be published.   And this year I saw from 10mm to 28mm.

Although the presentation was from minimal to elaborate, in all case the finish and attention to detail was admirable.

Here are some close-ups ...

The packed day finished with the usual light-hearted honourable mentions ... from the splendid Hail Caesar terrain to the seamless improvisation of War & Conquest ... 

For a full account of all these games ... Hydaspes background and game-focussed orbats, keep an eye on forthcoming issues of Slingshot

I will update and/or correct this page as I can enhance the information ...