26th February, Tonbridge

 

The day after Alton I was down at Cavalier helping the shows team with the stand in support of a Lost Battles demo of Cannae ...

 (The Society of Ancients - the lost battle of Cannae BC 216 - Tonbridge 2017)

The game was ably run by the author Prof Philip Sabin of King's College (and a long standing SoA Committee member), together with regulars Eric, Alan and Mark ...

A vibrant game ...

 

and an excellent collection of figures ...

 

Hannibal's greatest victory.

Elsewhere the show was well attended and featured an attractive mix of games ... WW2/Modern and Naval seemed to be the trends ... Perhaps something we will see during 2017?

(Cavalier 2017: other stuff)

Look out for Hammerhead and WMMS in March and Salute in April.

9th October, Crystal Palace

SELWG 2016 at The Crystal Palace National Sports Centre 

Back to Crystal Palace for SELWG's annual October show ... plenty of trade, friendly faces and lots of great games to look at ...

We did a Lost Battle treatment of Ephesos ... not one in the book due to the lack of documentation but a worthy experiement and a good looking game.

(scenes from the Ephesos game ... click the images for a larger version)

Elsewhere there were the usual mix of games although Simon's grand manner Raphia (To The Strongest) was the outstanding ancients game ...

There were a lot of pikemen

There were also some Viking/Saxon games and Hastings of course ...

Some nice 10mm scale Italian Wars stuff ...

and more modern periods

Autumn is here.

11th Oct, Crystal Palace

 

Just catching a post up on my lovely late summer trip down to Crystal Palace a couple of weeks ago helping out on the society stand and picking up some trophies for the English Open DBA ...

 

David did the stand for this one and Phil, Eric and Alan put on a Lost Battles Successors game on the big table to  entertain visitors.

 

Other ancients games on show included Simon Miller's To the Strongest ...

 

... and the Staines group's Agincourt participation game ...

 

It was a fairly brief visit but as ever an excellent show with plenty to look at - lots to see and lots to buy ..

12th September Newbury Racecourse

COLOURS 2015

So, after a year off, Colours returned ... still at fabulous Newbury Racecourse (loads of light, loads of space, loads of free parking ... ) ... but now a more 'trader friendly' one day format.

And I thought it was very good ... good big crowds, plenty of good games, most of the usual traders ...

(contemplating victory or defeat with the Society of Ancients at Zama )

... rather light perhaps on the fashionably sprawling 28mm games (maybe more to play rather than to ogle and that's no bad thing in my book ... ) ..

The Society of Ancients was on the same floor as the Bring & Buy but less affected by the long barrier queues that have hit us in the past.  Indeed it was a good experience throughout and our Lost Battle, Zama, was a winner.

This is the Society's 50th year and it was a great pleasure to be visited by one of the early activists, Neville Dickinson (he of Minifgs) ... Not everyone agreed about strategies and directions in those days ...

(Neville Dickinson chats with Eric on the Society stand at Colours)

Elsewhere the ancient/medieval enthusiast had plenty to enjoy especially he excellent Agincourt game from the Staines design stable which we enjoyed playing at Campaign earlier in the year ...

(Staines Agincourt game)

also around the show my eye was caught by some nice participations games and splendid larger scale ECW ...

... and I really like the way the biplane enthusiasts had tried to do their clouds ... I have tried my hand a rule devising for this period and 'terrain' and visibility is important up there (but not always well managed) - thumbs up to them: my own solution is still under wraps for now ...

... and I can't resist including a couple of vehicle shots from the desert in glorious 15mm ...

So, a great show (as I hope the pictures suggest) with lots to see and do - much of the regular trade fair and a good 'traditional' Bring & Buy with (I thought) a range of stuff for sale and bargains to be had.

It also seemed to me that people pretty much stayed for a full value afternoon (no 3pm pack up) - I presume down to the combination of just being one day, the Bring & Buy and the number of things to do ...

I hope that means Colours is back on the regular schedule and, yes, the one day format seemed to have worked.

For us the highlight was probably meeting Neville Dickinson (he founded the company that made my first metal figures, of course ...) ...

See you all at Derby where we will be combining with the Northampton Battlefields Society and doing Yarmuk ...

13th October, Crystal Palace National Sports Centre

SELWG 2014

So, in all the years I've been going to SELWG*, I've never said anything about the Crystal Palace, after which the park in which the SELWG venue stands, takes its name.

The Crystal Palace, of course, was the poetic name given to the truly vast glass and metal pavilion built in Hyde Park to hold the Great Exhibition of 1851.   At the time it was the biggest glass building ever erected and was a wonder of the industrial world.    Just look at the size of it.

After the exhibition, it was disassembled and moved 8 miles away, south of the river, to a specially terraced hilltop in leafy Sydenham.   Piece by piece.  What a triumph.  

And there it stood from 1854 until it was completely destroyed by fire in 1936.   Completely destroyed.   I found this photo:

Click on it.  Astonishing.   Today all that remains is the stonework of the terracing - epic, like the ruined centre of an ancient city - and the name, a permanent fact of London's geography.

It is a fantastic venue for a wargames show and has free parking.  There was even a funfair on the old exhibition site but I did need to get home after the show.

I was down to help out on the Society of Ancients stand, and to collect trophies to take along to the next weekend's national DBA event (just gone, by the time you will read this).

(the Lost Battle of 2nd Mantinea with the Society of Ancients)

After the distinctly medieval feel of ancients at recent shows, SELWG had a more ancient ancients feel ... up on the balcony, SoA (Phil Sabin/Eric C and Alan W) were putting on a participation version of the 2nd Battle of Mantinea (that's the famous victory of Epaminondas one) ...

(scenes from the Mantinea game)

Downstairs, there were permanent clusters around the chariot race and Simon Miller's (To the Strongest) Romans in Britain game.

(the Crawley club's AD SPATIUM ACCEDIS)

(To the Strongest, this time featuring British resistance to the might of Rome)

But what I noticed in particular was a naval theme ...

(SEEMS presented Hotham's First action, March 1795)

(Tonbridge Wargames Club's refight of the Battle of Cape St Vincent - 1797) 

Also I was pleased to see ...

(Peter Pig's latest version of PBI ... PBI Company Commander ... available soon)

(a simple but attractive SYW display from the Essex Warriors - if 28mm always looked like this it might even catch on!!  Give or take the casualty rings)

The biggest plane award probably went to the B52 over Vietnam ... hmmm

(Deal Wargames Society's Mayhem on the Mekong - nice brown river too ...)

But I think easiest on the eye must have been the sprawling 15mm Marlburian game ...

And the splendidly stylistic First Battle of Ypres 20th October 1914 ....

Another good show - thanks to all those contributors whose work is featured above and to everyone who supported the show.    By and large an entirely different selection of games and themes to Derby - so certainly worth the trip.

Thanks to SELWG for inviting us and whoever organised the weather so it didn't rain all day.

And an engaging variety of visitors chatting to us on the Society stand - thanks for stopping by.  

Also apologies to anyone we failed to notice or who we thought was happy browsing but actually wanted to talk to us.   I know this does happen despite our best efforts to pay attention.    It isn't intentional so do feel invited to give us a nudge.  

*which actually dates back to Catford, but that's another story ...