1st-2nd October, Derby

WORLD WARGAMES, DERBY 2011

Phew what a scorcher.

A beautiful weekend and the atrium of Derby University's Kedlestone campus lets you enjoy all that sunshine.

I really like these bright, open venues - though I understand some areas got a bit warm. The Bring & Buy was not pleasant during the quiet time when I popped up, and I have heard from more than one source of people just leaving it because the fragrance got eye-watering.

It's a bit sad when you consider that the people who clear up the facilities probably associate all of us with the hygiene problems of a determined minority.

(The Elephant In The Room: a lively bunch of youngsters take on the elephant)

The Society of Ancients stand was an oasis of freshness of course - even if we were reprising our successful The Elephant in the Room. New this year we had the deluxe (if that encompasses cutting up the cards yourself) published version of the game for people who liked it to take away. And many did.

Although the show seemed fairly quiet at times, the Participation game was busily played, off and on, throughout the weekend - and was still active by mid afternoon on Sunday (at a time when many a northern show is breaking up).

(TEITR: scenes from a Society Participation game)

Many thanks to Graham for steadfastly manning the game all weekend and entertaining so many participants young and old. I'm sure there were some seeds of inspiration sown amongst some of the younger participants.

There were quite a few other ancients games out at Derby.

(Yorkshire, Palm Sunday 1461: The Rather Large Towton Project)

I was pleased to get a good look at the tiny but massive Towton game. I understand some infilling has raised the figure count to 18,000 now. 18,000? Is that possible? They are very small.

(like someone said .... the faasands of 'em ...)

It is a great project - and they play it too (Poleaxed II) ...
(The Rather Large Towton blog)

I'll also include a couple of shots of the 6mm Trebbia game. (The Battle of the Trebbia, 218 BC, Northern Italy)

(the game was being played using 'Impetus')

I thought this was a great example of what small scale wargames can do: visually much more manageable than many a sprawling 28mm monster. I think this ticks a lot of boxes.

Our level was (excepting our 54mm game) a mix of 6, 10 and 28mm (perhaps some of it due to the proximity of Pendraken and Baccus ...?), all of them good. Again, I like the way smaller scales can capture the whole battlefield ...
(10mm Operation Brevity)

A pity that that section of road was knocked out of line ...

(6mm Gettysburg participation game: no monuments, but you can still make out Cemetery Ridge)

And I know some of you wouldn't want me to miss the big Warlord Games/Hail Caesar Romans bash (so here's a picture) ...


The Sedgemoor game I featured in the The Other Partizan was on show again. I got to chat to the presenters about the battle, which is nicely presented and about as good as sprawling 28 gets. They were happy to explain things, so thumbs up for that, too.
(Vienna 1683)

Back to the small but spectacular, I thought this 6mm Vienna 1683 game again came out a winner. I love that painted background: I really must think in terms of getting round three sides allows some extra visual options on side 4 (I used a mirror behind the City in Welcome to Jerusalem all those years ago - but I can imagine doing it differently now ....) ...

(close look at some of the Ottoman forces)

It is a truly remarkable scale, these days ... just in the photos, I can clearly see the Turkish cavalry, the characteristic Janissary caps etc.

Of course, a lot of this is down to Derby's atrium letting all that sunlight in. I think some of these smaller sale games would suffer badly in the more muted light of, say, Kelham Hall's Dome (where the Sedgemoor game was a real eye catcher).

(another look at some of the soldiers at Sedgemoor)

The Society had a reasonable weekend, including recruiting that magic new member whose decision means - as Shows North - we have recruited more members this year than in the whole of 2010 (so a big thank you to all the Shows volunteers: not only have you made a great contribution to keeping ancient and medieval warfare alive in people's minds, you have also helped the Society of Ancients keep head up in this age of the Internet).

Add to that some very nice shopping and an evening out at a Jazz event to see a long-standing friend's daughter play trumpet and you are getting close to a perfect weekend.

That said, nobody gave us a prize for winning anything this week ... so I guess it's situation normal really.

Very good show, Derby. Lots of good traders. Plenty of new products and lots of deals on offer. Lots of games to join in or inspire (a great collection in my camera - and they were just the ones I liked ...) ...

Thanks. I'm now looking forward to SELWG and then the DBA English Open.

Join the Society of Ancients (here)
Get a copy of A Domino Double Header (here)
Look forward to SELWG (here)
Get details on the DBA English Open (here)

Plenty of scope to get involved there ...

Fancy helping out at Fiasco? Recon? Wargamer? Drop me a line ...

Northamptonshire, 8th - 10th July

2011 Conference of Wargamers

This year's Conference of Wargamers started with a visit to the battlefield of Naseby hosted by myself and Graham D Evans (and, later, a staging of my miniature version of the battle on the Sunday morning - see my ECW Battles blog for more on these events) ...

It ended with a meeting of the Paul Morris Memorial Prize panel to start the process of selecting the 2011 winner. The prize is sponsored by John Curry's history of wargaming (and, in addition to other benefits, the winner will be entitled to choose a book from John's increasing stable of classic titles). At present, the panel consists of myself, John and John Bassett O.B.E. (the 2010 winner). We are happy to add other enthusiasts to the team, and are keen to look at nominees for the award.

The Paul Morris Prize is awarded to the most innovative non-commercial wargame within the Society's remit. In practice, the game needs to have been presented in a public forum (at a show or event, published in the Internet or similar), but not sold in a fully commercial package.

(COW 2011: a wide variety of games and presentations)

The panel is able to consider reports on games that correspondents have seen in play or played, it is not able to consider games submitted by authors in the expectation that we set them up and evaluate them ourselves (though when we have a short list we will endeavour to see the games in action where we can ...)..

Please contact any of the panel if you wish to join us or if you have a game you wish to nominate.

Over the course of the COW weekend ...
John Bassett's Caesar's Heirs was a fast paced multi format romp through the civil war following Caesar's assassination. I took the role of Mark Antony and immediately set about consolidating my support and hoping to see the decline of my two great rivals ... Octavian (my rival on my own side) and Brutus (the murderous republican) .. as luck would have it both were killed in a great battle which the Triumvirate won, leaving me the greater power in the land.

(Caesar's Heirs: discussion over the theatre map)

It was delightful to see the Republican players gobbling up the power and offices we were able to scatter on the table as the fruits of victory ... Rome indeed is a great she-wolf at her best nursing her little ones.

At game end, only Cimber was left ... isolated but powerful, still holding true to his old-fashioned values, and with a significant force at his disposal. However, the grain was now flowing, and Cimber's army though vast comprised more allies and auxiliaries, less the veteran legions that would dominate a coming battle. He would surely be hunted down.

After dinner both evenings saw the Society's Domino Double Header games out and offering lively entertainment. In one of the hard actions at Harfleur, Henry got himself surrounded. Having bloodied the Captain of the Guard almost to the point of defeat, he confronted a critical decision: one high-powered domino available amongst a handful of low numbers - should this go to the attack and finish the action? Or should he, more sensibly, make sure his defence was adequate as victory looked assured whatever?

(GitS: this time a victory for the English King)

He went for the attack, the Captain just survived and so was able to make the counter. The random counter attack domino was deadly and Henry went down in the breach. There would be no Agincourt - the campaign would end in failure on the muddy coast of France.

You can get a copy of Domino Double Header from the website ... or from us at a show (next outing ... Claymore, of course) ... You will need access to 2 to 4 sets of dominoes.

(The Elephant in the Room: nearing the Roman lines)

Elsewhere, over the weekend, I was engaged by a very varied selection of games and talks, from Mike Elliott's interesting look at the battle (and battlefield) of Quebec to John Curry's sprawling Fletcher Pratt naval game. I very much enjoyed sitting in on the Drury and Brooks Froeschwiller Franco-Prussian tussle, and had a couple of ripping yarns with the WD Display Team North ('Better Red than Dead' - a board game of Red Army careers in which I remained too lowly to get purged - and 'Rollbahn Ost' - Operation Barbarossa in 20 minutes (!), in which my rivals in Army Group Centre took Moscow in less than 10 minutes) ...

For more on the twentieth century COW content, have a look at my P.B.Eye-Candy blog ..

(John Curry's presentation of the Fletcher Pratt Naval Game)

(Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame)

(The battle of Froeschwiller teetering in the balance)

As I've mentioned in the past, COW is also often my only opportunity of the year to sit down with the Society's Life Vice President Phil Barker and chat about relevant topics. We had a good look at some of the burning topics (DBA v3 and such like), and some valuable reminiscences about the early days of ancients gaming. Re DBA 3, I can only pass on Phil's general advice (don't judge it in advance, on the basis of rumours about some isolated changes ... judge the whole game that has resulted extensive input and testing).

COW forms part of a very intensive early July. Campaign took place on the same weekend (so I await reports ... ), meanwhile, I am writing this a week later - already after English Heritage's Festival of History at Kelmarsh Hall.

Some perspective on that event will have to wait for another session (and another batch of photos).

Kelham Hall, Newark, 29th May

PARTIZAN 2011

Well, I wasn't very impressed with Salute this year, I was so busy at Triples that I scarcely got time to complete urgent business ... but I enjoyed some camera time at Partizan.
The show seemed a little less busy this year (and down the odd trader and a games table or two*) - perhaps, I understand, due to the proximity to Triples, the week before. That, combined with Graham running The Elephant in the Room as our show game, meant I had time for a longer break in the afternoon and got to see the show.

(Graham running The Elephant in the Room)
We are giving an extra bit of exposure to Shows North participation games TEITR and Greyhounds in the Slips this year to support the Society publishing cut out versions in A Domino Double Header as the 2011 incentive project - if you missed the early resubscription you can get a copy from the web store (Society of Ancients games) or from the stand at shows ... and at some of the Northern Shows, we will be running it (so you can get a quick start, too).

(what you get in the game pack)
In the pack, you get a double sided A2 play board (one game either side), rules booklet plus all the cards, and fold up playing pieces for those who don't have figures that they would prefer to use instead.

You need to provide 2 to 4 sets of dominoes (preferably in a shuffling bag), and for GitS, a couple of dice. Let the Dominoes Decide - also available - has the basic game plus lots of additional resources for using the Anno Domino combat system in the Roman Arena.

At Partizan Graham played the elephant game through 7 or 8 times, including some thrilling finishes (though the velites eventually prevailed in all cases) ...
(Pachyderm down - shots from the game)
I trust you will indulge some pictures of the game where (one-time psales volunteer) Sarge made a long awaited return to ancients and characteristically tried to do too much too soon (yep that's both his velites lying on their sides). In the end the other two players went on to dispatch the elephant just before it reached the Roman lines.

Partizan also offered an opportunity to try (or in my case chat to the authors about ...) some of the new crop of ancients games.

(click on the pictures for a bigger version)
(Plataea - War & Conquest)
Rob Broom was there with War and Conquest (and a version of the Battle of Plataea), Great Escape Games had a try out table for Clash of Empires ... and if that wasn't enough 'new' ancients, Phil Hendry and Richard Clarke were there with a development version of Augustus to Aurelian (watch the news pages ...!).

(Clash of Empires)
(Augustus to Aurelian)
The DBA campaign in a day participation game was also running - in this case in Medieval Italy. Loads of good stuff in this game, and very well presented. The core, of course, was a day long sequence of DBA participation games.
(DBA - The Italian Job)

And that was just a quick tour of the more fascinating ancient and medieval offerings: there was much, much, more ... some good ideas, and some nice presentations.

There is more of that splendid ECW 'Worcester' game on ECW Battles in Miniature ...

Now I know (despite all the help I have offered) that a lot of browsers on this blog are taken with the 28mm eye candy, so here's a couple more shots of Phil Hendry's stuff ...


Watch out for the Shows North stand at Phalanx, where we will be running a DBA participation table all day (your chance to beat the team!) ...

*that said, a number of people complained that there was nowhere to sit down and eat the lunch they had bought from the cafeteria - something the hosts are going to have to sort out: Hammerhead, in the same venue, had a room given over ... Partizan can be almost as bad as Britcon for this.

Derby, University, 2-3 October

OLD GLORY WORLD WARGAMES

The Shows North year returns to the East Midlands for the first weekend in October every year, and the Old Glory World Wargames in the bright and airy spaces of Derby University's Kedleston Road complex.
(a busy weekend for the Society's Shows North team)

For the last few years, Graham D Evans has joined us for this one, usually reprising his project game from Campaign, earlier in the year (see our previous entries). So this year we offered visitors to the Derby show a choice of two games based on Ad Hoc's Annon Domino ... the Shows North regular, Greyhounds in the Slips, and Graham's The Elephant in the Room.

The Elephant in the Room is a multi-player participation game in which (usually) 3 players play up to 6 Velites whose aim is to kill or deter the card controlled elephant before it reaches the Roman battle lines. The 54mm elephant stands in the middle of a circular array, and the battlefield moves around it as it bears down on the Hastati - or not, of course, if harassment from the Velites manages to shoo it away.

(The Elephant in the Room - run by the designer for an enthusiastic crowd)

The Old Glory show is quite a bit bigger than you can see, of course - as well as the exhibition and trade show, the back halls are used to house a wargames tournament (the aforementioned 'world championships') ... perennially the host of Mansfield's random armies Armati event, and, this year, undergoing something of a resurgence of interest amongst the FoG/DBM crowd.
(Derby 2010 - scenes from a lively show)
The show itself has the usual mix of trade, societies, fantasy, participation games and colossal 'statics' - I guess it is the 'Old Glory' show, so that big 25mm Napoleonic game has to be expected. Nappies tend to outnumber ancients at this event.

A new feature for certain this year was live blogging from the Society of Ancients zone during the show. Despite the high turnover on TEITR, Graham managed to update his blog audience on his experience of the weekend and the progress of his game in several episodes over the course of the event. For Graham's weekend, and some more reflections on running the elephant game, Wargaming 4 Grown Ups is Graham's busy personal blog. Try the Derby label for this year's live updates ... (Graham uses a lull to blog another update)

Both games were busy throughout the weekend, and, just as at Colours, at times both games were running in tandem (and sometimes, I'm afraid - space an manpower being at a premium, it seems - browsers on the stand had to wait a few moments ...), though, it has to be said, over at Harfleur, Henry got himself killed in the breach a couple of times (usually the result of not leading from the front).

We got a good mix of established wargamers, intrigued visitors and plenty of youngsters - in fact, by the end of the weekend, I think we had put most of the organisers through the Anno Domino experience too. Indeed, I am pleased to be able to report that the Society of Ancients came a worthy third in the Participation Game awards - narrowly pipped by the painting class and a fantasy game .... so top historical contribution, then ... just where the Society of Ancients should be, of course.
(Henry leads the charge at Harfleur)
Over the weekend, we talked to lots of people, distributed numerous complimentary copies of Slingshot, and many visitors left with their own copies of Anno Domino and other Society publications. Late year subscriptions were thin on the ground, however - one can only hope that the 'feed through' is coming via Internet subscriptions, therefore. Everything you can possibly want is available through the website www.soa.org.uk.

Although packaged with Crosby group's Gladiator game from a few years back (rather than TEITR or GitS, the show games at Derby), basic Anno Domino is included as an appendix in 'Let The Dominoes Decide' (available from the games page of the website) ... or you can join the Society using paypal by clicking on the Join Now For 2010 banner (or following this link) ...

We didn't see much of the competition wargamers over the weekend - except the ever sociable Armati players, of course ... maybe next year the Foggies'll come visit ...

Milton Keynes, 8th-9th May

CAMPAIGN 2010


The last of the late spring cluster of shows this year was Campaign - MKWS's unique show in the heart of shopping centre ...The Centre MK. Although quite a few wargame and military enthusiasts do attend, the majority of passers-by are ordinary members of the public. A great challenge, but a great opportunity.


We teamed-up for a Society of Ancients led multi pitch zone, SoA, WD and the Naseby Project/Battlefields Trust. As SoA, we had 2 versions of Anno Domino, Graham E's brand new The Elephant In The Room (Velites skirmishing against a Carthaginian War Elephant) and (a compressed version of ) 'Greyhounds in the Slips', and the latest version of my Zama Workshop DDBA game.

(a space saving version of Greyhounds in the Slips)


(close up of the 10mm figures in my Zama Workshop development game)


Graham and associates ran TEITR a dozen or so times over the weekend (x 3 players, each run). which was our most prolific game. He has some concerns about balance - elephant is almost always nobbled - but it doesn't seem to be worrying the players. Of course, against Roman Velites, the Elephant usually doesn't get through ... so no problem there, then. But you can pick up more thinking about this popular challenge on Graham's blog (Wargaming 4 Grown Ups) ...


(Surrounded! 54mm HaT models on the TEITR board)

Away from our little zone, Campaign was the usual mix of game/wargame trade, national competition tables and displays. On the Saturday, Aylesbury reprised their Roman attack on a British hill fort.


(last seen at Salute, looking good at Milton Keynes)


On the Sunday, I came across this excellent Lake Peipus game using Impetus - confirming, perhaps, that comment I made on the Salute entry re the diversity and quality of ancient/medieval games coming through at the moment.


(the snow is apparently material used for shop window displays - now there's a thought!)


Yet another busy and enjoyable show. Apparently Campaign will move dates next year as there will be an eco house built in Middleton Hall this time next year (of course, if I was building an eco house, it would have a wargames room! We should be working on that, perhaps!) ...

Thanks to all the SoA helpers (with me mostly seconded to the WD/BFT Naseby display, the manpower really helps) ... We had almost a full house on the Saturday ... variously Chris A, Graham E, Will, Graham and Alison Fordham (and Tamara), and Ian Lowell. Thank you all.

Thanks to MKWS for an event which continues to be a highlight.