14th and 15th November, Reading

WARFARE 2015

For Warfare this year I booked in with John Curry to do a History of Wargaming Project recreation of  a Tony Bath wargame from the 1960s ... it is the 50th anniversary of his founding of the Society of Ancients, so it seemed appropriate ...

However I appreciate that Phil Sabin usually does a lost battle on the Saturday of this show and that visitors like it (so I booked my game in as an extra on its own merit)

As it happened, the Society was unable to get a team out for the Sunday so we were asked to rejig ourselves as part of the Society of Ancients pitch for the Sunday.  Plus ca change, you might wryly observe.

(so here we are on the Saturday doing our own thing)

(meanwhile here is the Society of Ancients lost battle)

... and here are some pictures of our 50th anniversary game ...

(John Curry engagingly explains the origins of the ancient wargame to a happy crowd)

We were fully occupied all morning explaining the game, the flat figures, the history of wargaming etc. so it wasn't until the afternoon that we got to play properly ...

(the Tony Bath wargame ... figures by Phil Barker and Tony Bath, boards and staging by Phil Steele)

(the original ancients game with the original figures: the battle lines close, John redeploys his cavalry)

(a Roman battle line: figures by Phil Barker)

(wargaming with flats: Roman commanders)

Meanwhile, back at the Society stand, Cunaxa was refought 3 times ...

(the lost battle of Cunaxa ... Phil Sabin notes down the scores)

(Cunaxa: local light horse cover the Greek flank)

Courtesy of subbing in the Society zone, we had a little more space for our flats display on Sunday ...

(Saturday's display)

(Sunday's display)

But lets have a look round the rest of the show ...

There were a number of eye-catching ancient and medieval games:

(Staines were there with there excellent Agincourt participation game)

(and this Dark Age gridded wargame was busy all day) 

(Wars of the Roses from the Lance & Longbow Society)

... and in other periods and genres ...

(excellent and eccentric participation game from the RAF club about making the Sharp TV series)

(splendid Fornovo game by Malvern using Advanced Armati Renaissance rules)

(Fornovo: worth a closer look)

Plus something more modern and something not too serious ..

All in all a very good mix ...

Elsewhere there was plenty of trade and lots of competitions.  Something for everyone at warfare 2015 ...

I will make some observations on the Tony Bath wargame and our miniature battle with flats in a subsequent blog.