1st - 2nd October Castle Donnington

The Society of Ancients, Battlefields Trust and Northampton Battlefields Society

Another of our successful collaborations ... at Derby we had a couple of new things to share along with the popular weapons and equipment ...

The Battlefields Trust have just launched a new book of poetry following Clare Mulley's year in residency as the trust did its circuit of reenactment and historical shows ....

And Northampton Battlefields Society had the definitive Northampton 1460 game as trialed at The Other Partizan ...

Northampton 1460 is a quick playable 'historical narrative' game giving the players control of the options available to the commanders on July 10th 1460 ... It was up and running within the first half an hour and ran more-or-less continuously throughout the show.

There were few ancient games (Dark Age and Medieval being the preference within the Society's remit) but an excellent Hastings game by Like a Stonewall was an eye-catching neighbour to us.

(Like A Stonewall's Hastings 1066 game)

... a vast panorama of a wargame, I particularly liked the clever use of velcro boards and the whimsical inclusion of a group of needlecrafters recording the events in their now time-honoured medium.  Great effort.

The rules used were a less well-known set called Lionheart - again a refreshing choice.

There was also a very nice Viking skirmish game ... so here's a vignette ...

I found fewer stand out games in the rest of the show this year but liked the Rorkes Drift presentation ... 

... and I thought this 30 Years War display was splendid ...

A popular and well-supported show with a good mix of trade and games ... then down the other end of the hall, a big selection of tournaments (where many of the ancient and medieval games and players were to be found)

Nice to see Armati still ploughing its furrow ... Nice to see old friends splitting divisions with each other ... 

So a big thank you to the organisers and all of you who stopped by for a chat or played the game, flipped through the poetry.

A really enkoyable weekend.

See you next time.