17th -18th November Reading(and 25th Nov, Warwick)

Nearly up to date, now, following this little furry of posts.

I've always like Warfare ... 20 years ago it used to be the last event of the season.  Based nearer London, it was a local show and the Society of Ancients and Pike and Shot Society personnel traditionally swapped around and played each other's show games before thy got put into storage for the Winter.

This year I was only able to go for a few hours on the Sunday, wasn't doing the stand and I'm not sure if P&SS actually do this one any more ... the SoA game was a WRG 7th edition bash in 25mm, however - so somethings looked just as they did back in the 1990s!

(WRG 7th at the Society of Ancients)

(the games hall at Warfare and some of the lovely ancient/medieval games on show)

Adjacent to Adrian and friends doing the SoA game, the Armati enthusiasts from Malvern were playing a large Paraitakene (which had, of course, been the Society's BattleDay topic for earlier in the year) ... a perfect match.

(Malvern's Paraitakene game was played using Armati)

Armati has remained on of my favourite ancient battlegames.   It is a pity it couldn't make it into a third generation that addressed some of the peculiarities that somehow got between it and the outright best ancients game.

It's also not unfair to say that, implicit either in the rules or in how people play them ... Armati still seems to come with too much table clutter ... markers of all sorts.  Playing within the bubble of the game, you cease even to notice these aids, but they are a barrier to browsers who might otherwise get more engaged.

As I said, this was very much a flying visit.  I didn't get to see or photograph everything and there was plenty of good stuff, though not all of it ancient/medieval in theme.

But my last picture is that of the big naval/skirmish game.  I love the idea of these big ships and of proper toy soldiers on them.  Yeah ... one day ... indeed.  Where would you keep the models to do even a modest action in this scale?   But it is tempting ...

Graham and I had agreed to take the Northampton 1460 game to Pudsey, Leeds, for Recon on the first weekend of December, so that will be the last Shows North outing of the year.  Meanwhile this I hope to have a couple more entries to populate the new DBA Armies page.

SoAC ... Chessford Grange, Warwick (24th - 25th November)

The 2018 Society of Ancients Conference

Again unfortunately I could only make the Sunday (well Saturday night dinner and ADG) due to other commitments (battlefield guiding at Naseby on the Saturday) ...

We managed a certain degree of  'alternative approaches' this year (the theme that kickstarted the conference 30 odd years ago) ... Graham put on Hydaspes using De Matrica Bellae (a development of Ancients by Other Means - a matrix game).  A norm for the Conference of Wargamers, matrix games progress the narrative through player reasoning and a probability roll, rather than the mechanics of the conventional wargame.

(a wargame from a grownup - Hydaspes by other means at SoAC 2018)

Overall, you should have been there: a weekend packed full of ancients games and study ... Duncan Head on Telamon, games across all periods, and a chance to sample everything from Mortem et Gloriam and Dux Bellorum to Gladiolus and new battlegame rules that don't even have a name yet.

(Gladiolus at SoAC: original version on squares not hexes)

For my part, as well as running the Gladiolus ADGs and helping with Hydaspes, I ran a full version of Pharsalus with Double DBA.  

(Pharsalus - the opening engagement: 10mm figures and a Double DBA scenario)

(Pharsalus at SoAC - the final showdown)

It was a real battle of attrition and very hard work for Caesar.

A great event as usual.  There is still a tendency to stay within comfort zones but there is innovation too.  Well worth a look next year.

19th November, Reading

For our next Society outing we popped down to Reading on the Saturday to lend a hand and have a look round.  

Richard was doing the stand and presenting a 'Lap of the Gods' treatment of the Battle of Tewkesbury which seemed to go down very well.

(Society of Ancients: The Battle of Tewkesbury)

The competitions were obviously dominated by Ancient and Medieval wargames ... but elsewhere not so much ... 1066 was still prominent and I really liked the Dark Age game ...

... and I got to play a bit of the Staines group's Schweinfurt game ... some good ideas, there ...

The Pick of the Non-Anc/Med games:

(Chain of Command: Foy)

(Schweinfurt Raid)

I had a bit of time to play but there weren't as many Participation Games as you would have liked.

The Bring & Buy was excellent ... very well supported and continuously busy all day.  Almost too much stuff to browse it all but I got a couple of out-of-print books in mint condition for a good price so worth the effort.

Parking was free but you had to be early I've heard ... Good on Warfare.

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.

16th/17th November, Reading

Warfare 2013

Warfare is the last outing for the Society of Ancients main UK show team for 2013.   The 'Shows North' team still has Recon and Wargamer to come, but for the big show we were as usual helping as day 2 volunteers.

Saturday saw Phil Sabin recreate the Battle of Carrhae, which I understand went well ... On Sunday, Secretary David Edwards provided a taster Crusades game loosely based on some 13th Century sources as a tryout for Field of Glory.   The Kingdom of Heaven look proved attractive ...

The way Field of Glory handles the interaction of charging Knights with lighter shooting cavalry is both plausible and entertaining and shows the game off to its best.   It has enough fun in it to be a good introduction to the Crusades period and is simple enough to explain in a show environment.

(a closeup of some of those splendid 28mm knights from David's collection)

Elsewhere around the Societies zone, John Curry's History of Wargaming Project had a memorial exhibit remembering Donald Featherstone including books and trophies from his estate ...

(Donald F. Featherstone 1918 - 2013)

Many thanks to Chris Scott who explained the significance of some of the memorabilia to me.

Don Featherstone made a massive contribution to turning an almost invisible fringe activity into the recognisable leisure activity I could get captivated by in the late 1960s.   He was a key contributor of the books I could find in the library as a lad.   Without him, Tony Bath, Charles Grant and Peter Young things might have been very different.   We miss them all.

The Lance & Longbow Society also attended with a display of publications and a WotR skirmish game ..

(Rollo guards the L&L Soc treasures)

In the rest of the show:

Overall it did seem to me a bit quieter than previous years (we usually get asked to help on the Sunday, so that is the day I am most familiar with) ... and some traders thought so too - OK takings but not particularly busy.   There was plenty of good stuff to look at, of course ...

(Celtic village terrain by Kallistra)

(Elephant action from the Old Malvern 28mm Armati game)

(54mm cattle from the Skirmish Wargames Society)

(this chap will pass for a soldier, perhaps ...) ...

(sticking with 54s, here's some ECW chaps from the Rearguard at Rowdeford game last seen at Colours)

(splendid Napoleonic Egyptian campaign game - these always look great)

(detail)

(beautiful Sengoku period Samurai game with home grown rules)

(detail)

Well, those some of my favourites, and there was alos the 1/35 scale Stalingrad game (seen at Campaign) and Peter Pig's Longships in the main trader hall.

John Curry and Chris Scott were good neighbours on the Don Featherstone stand, and Ian Lowell was a welcome guest for the Society of Ancients.  Roy Boss dropped by, too, although he was playing in one of the events.   And Richard Jeffrey-Cook.   

Notable too, Colin Froud stayed for a chat.   He was the outgoing Committee member from whom I took over sales and Back Issues in 1987.  1987!  I had to hire a van and collect the stock from Colin's attic and - another 100 miles away - Bill Thurlow's garage.   Not a home owner all those years back, I was able to store the stock together at the vicarage in Wellingborough courtesy of Ian (who became President in 1993) ... Some of us are still around, but it isn't often we meet for a chat.