23rd - 24th April, Leeds, Royal Armouries

RAGE: Royal Armouries 100 Years War Event

This event at the Royal Armouries was organised to mark the arrival of the Armouries' Agincourt diorama in Leeds (formerly the centrepiece of the Agincourt exhibition at the Tower of London) ..

Most wargamers and military enthusiasts will be familiar with it ...

(Agincourt at the Royal Armouries)

Will has some better pictures than I got on his blog ...

We had a steady throughput of general visitors over the Saturday and Sunday and a range of wargames to help them explore the 100 Years War and try out wargaming.

I was there with the Northampton Battlefields Society, promoting our project and running a participation game of Greyhounds in the Slips, the Anno Domino game of Henry V at Harfleur which we published through the Society of Ancients a few years back ...

(Northampton Battlefield Society)

This was the first time I've been back to the armouries in a while (well, for a proper look around - which I was able to get on Saturday lunch time - at least) ...  What a splendid Museum and activity centre it is.  Really interesting, achieved with absolute quality - and a national asset we can all be proud of.  World class.

(The Royal Armouries, Leeds: world class)

We played GitS a total of 16 times (OK: I may have missed one or two) and, with differing degrees of success, Henry took Harfleur 12 times.  The other four times, his heroic story ended early, killed in the storming of the town (usually by an unexpected counter-attack after a failed hack at someone) ..

Here's his story ...

Game by me, script by W. Shakespeare ...

And what a joy it was to have (mostly young) players playing Henry V, on St George's Day, quoting their Shakespeare, on the 400th anniversary of the bard's last gasp, and in the Royal armouries.

That ticks a lot of my boxes.  No finer venue.  No better day.

I also took along some of the smaller figures from the Northampton display to showcase our work protecting and interpreting the battlefield ...

(Yorkists from the Northampton display)

(Lancastrians from the Northampton display)

(Warwick's cavalry from the Northampton display: picture by Alma Traska)

You can see the Battle of Northampton at Campaign in the Centre MK on 7th and 8th May.

Here's a look at some of the other games ...

(Simon Chick's Agincourt)

The Lance and Longbow Society had a Lion Rampant game of Bauge 1421 and the Simon Chick Agincourt that won all those awards at Salute last year (which uses Basic Impetus) ...

(Bauge 1461)

Also ...

(Sheffield Wargames Society: Castillon)

(Wargames Illustrated and the Perrys)

(The Peterborough Club revived the Donald Featherstone skirmish game with old Britains soldiers)

(Derby's Combat of The Thirty)

As diverse a mix as a BattleDay ... There's more ...

(St Crispin's Day)

(Doncaster's Sluys game)

(Wakefield and Osset's mini 1415 campaign)

... and a different take on the storming of Harfleur ...

There were some changes for the Sunday ...

The lance & Longbow, Chick, Perrys and Sheffield were not available both days ... and were replaced by 

(More 28mm skirmishing)

(... and a very pretty DBMM game by the Headingly wargamers)

Meanwhile ...

... Harry led assault after assault ...

Most ended like this:

(Harry triumphant)

But the French cut him down in around a quarter of the games:

What a great weekend - and hopefully some new recruits for our shared interests ... well some seeds sown.

Greyhounds in the Slips is part of a two game pack A Domino Double Header published by the Society of Ancients ... get one while stocks last!

See us next at Milton Keynes ... we will have The battle of Northampton 1460, supplies of the 1460 book and some pick up ancient and medieval games for you to try out ... DBA, ADLG etc.

I hope to see you there ...

25th April, London, ExCel

SALUTE 2015 - AGINCOURT 1415

Salute likes to have a theme ... and the Society is seldom able to join in with it ... this year was different, however, and the theme, Agincourt, felt directly into our period of remit.

We set up two games from Henry's epoch defining 1415 campaign, a full scope Agincourt game using Impetus rules and the Society's Anno Domino game of the assault on the breach at Harfleur, Greyhounds in the Slips.

(Agincourt - the French vanguard moves forward)

(Agincourt - some 'extra input' on the game from Lorenzo)

(larger figures for the 1:1 action at Harfleur)

(Greyhounds in the Slips - the author was also on hand to help players through this game, too)

Both these games ran during the game and I enjoyed giving Greyhounds another run out ... players and browsers were appreciative as usual and we had the full range if outcomes (including Henry getting killed by a crossbow bolt from the tower ... how very 'lion-hearted' of him! ... ) although generally the iconic warlord won the town and went on to fight at Agincourt.

Elsewhere there were a number of impressive ancient and medieval games ...

('Bloody Cremona' played with To The strongest')

(Jugula)

(Saga)

... and, of course there were a lot of games out of our period and 'off theme' ... plenty of Napoleonics (in what is also Waterloo year), plenty of 20th Century and a whole host of wonderfully presented figures - I'll include a couple of collages in the vain attempt to capture the feel of a truly vast show ...

Back to the Agincourt theme, Donnington/Ancient & Modern had a great and well thought-out Field of Glory game in glorious 15mm ...

(Agincourt across the ploughed fields of glory)

(FoG Agincourt ... battlegroups of Frenchmen surge forward)

But with less emphasis on the ploughed fields but a strikingly French castle, The Lance & Longbow Society's Hail Caesar game swept the board as far as the organisers were concerned (bagging 3 awards) ...

(Hail Caesar Agincourt ... a panorama of fighting men in the fields of France) 

(Painterman Simon adds to his trophy cabinet on the Lance & Longbow stand)

And here are some futher joys from this lavish presentation ...

(Salute 2015 ... some details from the award winning Agincourt game) ...

Well done to the L&L ... and well done to the Agincourt theme ... I have featured games using Impetus, HC and FoG but there were others as well.  A great showcase.

I always try to wrap up with some thoughts on the show but with Salute it never works (the show is so big I can't take it all in in the few sessions I get off from running the game ... and then I bump into people anyway so miss half the other games) ...

The lighting seemed better, but the acoustics can be attritional ... and the fantasy shopping hubs were a bit scary ... but it remains the UK's premier show and it was great to see the societies there flying the flag for traditional historical wargaming and contributing some of the best looking tables at the show.

See you next at Campaign ... don't miss it.