13th to 15th July, County Durham

Based at Durham University, the 2018 BFT annual conference event featured a talk by Michael Jones on the Black Prince (see his new book) as well as a visit to the site of the battle of Otterburn in Redesdale ...

Another feature was the presentation of battlefield models ... in this case Mark Hornsby's stunning 6mm reconstruction of the ECW actions around Piercebridge. 

I had taken along the Northampton Battlefields stand and the Naseby model ...

But we ventured even further North to within sight of Scotland for the trip to Otterburn.

(Guide and Trustee Geoffrey Carter leads the BFT party to the battlefield)

The Battle of Otterburn was fought in 1388 between Henry Percy (the famous 'Harry Hotspur') and James Earl Douglas ... DBA enthusiasts will enjoy the fact that the Scottish camp played an important part in the battle (indeed the English raid on the Scottish baggage was the key that drew the belligerents in) ...

This is definitely worth reconstructing in miniature.

Follow the link above to the Battlefields Trust resource centre for more of what we know and can suppose ...

(the Battle of Otterburn: possible site of (part of) the Scottish camp ... )

The Conference was mostly 17th century in content, but on the way home a took a trip round the beautiful remains of Barnard Castle overlooking the River Tees ...

(Barnard Castle ... artist's reconstruction)

(overlooking the Tees: Barnard Castle - the Richard III window)

6th to 8th July, Knuston Hall, Northamptonshire

The 2018 Conference of Wargamers

Midst the 2018 heatwave it was off to Knuston for WD's annual residential event.

Ancient and Medieval content was a little sparse this year but we started off with an '8 years on' visit to nearby Northampton battlefield.   WDers had walked the battlefield on the 550th anniversary back in 2010 - which is pretty much what kicked off the Northampton Battlefield Society (of which I have subsequently become vice-Chair) ...

It was a pleasure to show people round and instructive to reflect how much our knowledge and understanding has come on over 8 years.  In itself it shows that local heritage activism works.

Not ancient and medieval but very much a project I have helped with, Saturday morning saw a very impressive run out for Trebian's War of the Spanish Succession game 'Va t'en Guerre' ...

Later, I gave another run to the Tony Bath wargame complete with some new accessions ...

(the Tony Bath wargame reconstructed with the original 1960s flats)

We are making some progress toward a playable authentic version of this classic game.

Some aspects are timeless innovations that have become mainstream - other bits have fallen out of use as better systems have been devised ... nevertheless, this is where today's ancient wargame began.

(The Tony Bath wargame: a loan surviving elephant rampages forward) ...

In this play through, archery made a bigger than usual impact, none of the light troops running way, and a group of 3 elephants being shattered by bowshooting (2 elephants killed, the last being panicked and out of control - though, it must be said, it went on to do considerable damage albeit not under the direction of its notional commander!) ..

We also added some chariots into the mix (at the far end of the table) with mixed results.

Also over the weekend I played some WWII games, tried to capture Gordon at Khartoum

(54mm scale lawn game: a big push on the Western Front)

(CoW 2018: Indian Mutiny M&T; Save Gordon; Suffragetto; Airfix Battles)

A great stress buster of a weekend in what has become a hell of a year.

Always a great event ... but book early if you fancy it.  Everyone's welcome but it sells out very quickly these days ...

WD website

(CoW 2018 Friday excursion ... looking over Northampton battlefield from the Eleanor Cross position)

DBA Special: IV/75 Timurid ... 1360 - 1506 (15mm)

 

(Phil's DBA Timurid army as used at Bakewell)

I have very muched followed tradition in the look of this army ... it is quite decorative and I think much of the inspiration for reconstructions comes from contemporary illuminations and ceramics.  So perhaps fancifully ornate?   Nice for collectors, anyway ... and a useful sort of army for players ...

It is mostly a cavalry army:

 

A general plus 5 Timurid armoured horse archers ...

 

(the rear corners are clipped as an unobtrusive way of clarifying the general's element)

 

The figures are mostly a mix of Essex and Museum (for the cavalry) and (for the infantry) the old Tabletop Miniatures range (now 15mm.co.uk) ... plus (to keep figure fanciers on their toes) some bits from Minifigs, Irregular and Gladiator.

 

... and ...

 

Ther's a smattering of foots option that gives you some variability ... I always like a couple of bowmen, so my choice was ...

 

... and ...

 

It is 'Steppe', aggression 4 (so you mostly invade other countries - which seems fine ... ) ...

(please click the images for a larger picture)

16th June, Bakewell

The Society of Ancients UK DBA League 2018: The Midlands DBA Open

Or ... Timur and the lads go to Derbyshire ... 

I was very pleased to complete the Timurids for this tournament.  I have various bits of Turkish/Arab/Nomad troops loosely allocated to such a project for years - actually I think originally it was an Armati project.  So a jumbled box of unpainted figures with a mental note saying 'Timurid'.

 

(2018 Midlands Open ... Simon and David C man the command desk)

... and they did OK so no lame jokes.

 

(the DBA army of Timur Lenk - or Tamburlaine as we said at school)

It's a 'medium power' army, reliant on 6 cavalry elements (5 + Gen) ... it's 'special' tweak is that it can have an elephant.

The elephant seems to die in most battles - ity's real value being that it sucks in a lot of enemy focus ... they're all bothering about the beast while your cavalry set them up and kill things.

Sometimes it works.  Here are my 6 games:-

 

 

 

The first two games were random vs players you had not played before ... thereafter 'Swiss Chess'. 

Apologies for the poor picture of the Rajputs game.  Not sure what happened there (but I included the photo for completeness.  Paul M's Hindu Rajputs are a splendid army and doubtless will feature on the DBA Yahoo site so give them a visit.

I did just a bit better than average.  I won things like this:-

(do or die vs Patrick's Lydians)

So the Lydian Kn Gen is overlapped and reared ... my Cv Gen is not overlapped but has an enemy in edge contact (4 v 3 to me but neither of us can recoil)

We both did our best ... 6 plays 6!  So the Lydian Gen goes down and the Timurids take the game.  Well, as an idea, it worked ...

Here's some scores ... 

1 Arnaud Marmier (Tamil), 2 Martin Smiith (Tamil),  3 Tony Green (Lydian), 3 Martin Myers (New Kingdom Egyptian), 5 Scott Russell (Late Tang), 6= Craig Allen (Ariarathid Kappadokian) and Phil Johnson (Palmyran), 8 Colin O'Shea (Zanj Revolt), 9= Paul Murgatroyd (Hindu Indian) and Tamara Fordham (Italian Condotta) ... that's the top of the table (well done Tamara, on breaking into the top ten!) 

The rest of us followed  ... Phil Steele (Timurid), Richard Pulley (Palmyran), Patrick Myers (Lydian), Graham Fordham (Early Achaemenid Persian), Mark Skelton (Wu), Keith Murphy (Italiot), Tim Kohler (Late Achaemenid Persian), Philip Donald (Late Roman) Keith Brown (Mongol Conquest), Simon Wilson (Early Polish), Reese Bettison (Later Carthaginian), Baldie Storey (Ancient British), Dale Needham (Norman), Tim Rogers (Alexandrian Macedonian), Rob Rush (Hatra), Nick Wright-Carter (Post-Monol Samurai), Tris Gale (Marian Roman) and Andy Wheeldon (Norman).

A splendid 28 players in all.

 

(well done Arnaud and his Tamils!)

For those of you fascinated by such stuff ...  there were 2 each of the Tamils, Lydians and Palmyrans ... the Tamils coming first and second, with one of the Lydians in third.

But otherwise it was a wide spread of army selections.  Everything from Chinese to Ancient Brits.

In addition to a prize for the winner, Simon made an award for the highest scoring 'weaker' army (based on a ratio of the scores you got to the total fighting factors of the army you selected) - Craig won that with his Kappadokians - and an award to the newcomers who gamely toughed it out with those of us who have been round the block more times than we can remember.  Well done to all of them.

And here we all are (thanks to Alison who assumed camera duties) ...

 

I will do a feature on the Timurids in a few days.

Excellent day out, Simon .. great event!

SoA UK DBA League

DBA Yahoo Group

20th May, Newark

 

Back at the Newark Showground after what is a very short break for Partizan.

Here we add the Lance and Longbow Society and Battlefields Trust to the mix and comprise a fair chunk of the History Zone.

(the Society of Ancients at Partizan 2018)

As the 1960s flats had not been to Newark before (and proved such a rich talking point at Campaign) we took along the same set up to Partizan ... albeit with some improvements and variations.

 

(original flats by Phil Barker from Phil's 1960s collection) 

 

We had all the kit there on the Northampton Battlefields Society side of the zone ...

 

... and the Northampton 1460 participation game ...

 

 

We were joined by the Newark Civil War Centre and by Tony Pollard's Waterloo Uncovered/Waterloo Replayed project (on which I am the Battlefields Trust link) - it all does hang together sometimes ...

 

(the little acorn from which a record breaking number of figures will emerge)

 

(Partizan 2018 ... working, networking and putting helmets on children - again!)

All that - and there was a wargames show too ... 

There were some nice Civil War games ... here, Simon Miller's For King And Parliament (a development of his popular card-driven ancients game To The strongest) ...

 

... available to play in 10 or 28mm!

 

(Partizan 2018 - Wargame Developments)

... and around the show ...

(a very convincing woodland glade on the Perry's 18th Century table)

And I've never been shy about my soft spot for armoured trains ...

 

... or old planes (same game)

 

 

... and a gratuitous piece of scenery ...

 

 

Meanwhile here's our old friends at Burton and District adding another ECW contribution ...

The game was FoG-R ... a good and very popular set of rules that handles 'Pike and Shot' very well - but doesn't get seen that often at shows (or indeed in 28mm) - so a big thumbs up for that.

A great show ... although there was so much in the wink of an eye it was over.   

Thanks to everyone involved.

 

Join the Society of Ancients 

Join the Lance & Longbow Society

Join the Battlefields Trust

Visit the Civil War Centre

Visit Northampton Battlefields Society

Visit the Naseby Project

Next we will be on the move to Derbyshire to play DBA in Bakewell.