20th June, St Helens

Phalanx 2015

Many thanks to the Spartans club for another great event at Sutton Leisure Centre.  Many thanks also to Steve and the Gentlemen Pensioners, my hosts for the weekend.

As is now a trusted formula, I was up with the Society's membership stand in support of Martin Charlesworth's popular DBA challenge table.

(Martin's 'Dirty DBA' ... let battle commence)

(Early Imperial Roman vs Picts)

(Achaemenid Persian vs Classical Indian)

We got around 8 games in during the day, but nobody won the challenge (although I took over playing the home army while Martin went shopping so the pendulum did swing towards the visitors for a while) ...

It is nice to see people playing the game.

Elsewhere, the Lance & longbow Society were running the Battle of Liverpool scenario with the Lion Rampant rules.

(The Battle of Liverpool with the Lance & Longbow Society)

(Battle of Liverpool: the armies close ...)

Also of an ancients style, I was very impressed with the large semi-historical naval game ... played on Kallistra hexes with home adapted rules ...

We don't really see enough trireme games on Ancients on the Move so I'm sure you'll enjoy so more details ...

Also seen on the ancient and medieval beat ...

Phalanx is an excellent show with a good mix of traders, demos and participation games: plenty of things to do and be inspired by for a one-day show ... here's a flavour of the rest of the periods ...

(Great terrain in this Liverpool WWII game)

... and an excellent Prusso-Austrian game from the Cobridge lads ...

Of course that's just scratching the surface - I was on the stand most of the day so these are just some of the things that caught my eye.  You really should visit this show if you are at all in the region.

There is also an excellent traditional Bring & Buy ... I picked up a bundle of stuff (I'm not a big bargain hunter so you know if I am shopping that there's good things to be had) ...

Then on to more important things ...

In the evening we filled a gap before dinner with a couple of games of Yarmuk.  Different again and well received by the players.

(enough said)

The Sunday was given over to a big multiplayer ECW game, more pictures of which can be found on my ECWBattles blog.

(Sunday: Pike & Shotte)

Excellent: my thanks to all involved.  A great end to the Spring and early Summer season.

Next up for me ... The Battle of Northampton in a local heritage show at Delapre Abbey ...

And COW 2015 where, amongst many good things, I will be reprising Bouvines and Yarmuk.