6th and 7th May, Central Milton Keynes

MKWS CAMPAIGN 2017

The show in the shopping centre.  Yes, and a great opportunity to reach out to ordinary folk and engage them with wargames and military history.

To do that we team up with the Northampton Battlefields Society and the Battlefields Trust ...

( The Battlefields Trust reprised Phil's wargamable display of the 1645 battle at Naseby)

 

(Northampton Battlefields Society added a participation game of Northampton 1460 by Graham Evans)

 

(medieval weapons and equipment from the Northampton collection)

 

(while the Society brought out the Kadesh game 'Call it Qids')

We were busy all day Saturday and both games got played a lot.  The displays attracted a lot of interest - feeling the weight of the swords, trying the helmets etc.

 

 

On Sunday we were joined by another of the Northampton team, Peter, the archer who answered questions on the longbows, demonstrated fletching etc.

 

Here are some more pictures of the games and exhibits

 

 

 

There was a nice mix of scales and resolutions ... blocks for Northampton, 6mm figures for Qids 

 

(Call it Qids: 6mm Hittites from Baccus)

 

(showing members of the public how wargames work - and letting them enjoy some history)

 

(Northampton 1460)

Elsewhere in the show:

 

This 15mm game was DBMM at the Teutoburgerwald on hex terrain.  Lots of trees.

 

 

And some nice scenics and figures in 10mm

 

But if you want bigger figures, Skirmish wargames had these 54mm ...

 

Next to our Wars of the Roses displays, Bedford Gladiators put on this 28mm Barnet

 

Nearly all lovely ancient and medieval games but I also like this 54mm colonial bash...

 

For more of the Naseby, see Phil's ECWBattles blog.

 

See NBS, SoA and the Battlefields Trust/Naseby at Partizan next weekend 

Call it Qids is available from the Society website.

6th - 7th October, Donnington Park

Derby World Wargames 2012

New venue this year, of course, and like everyone, the Society of Ancients Shows North team has opinions.

I have been doing Society stands and participation games at Derby shows for years, and fondly remember those truly international events back in the Assembly Rooms.   Of course, I also remember the £20 per day parking fees (back in the days when £20 was a lot of money ...)..

I had no problem finding the new venue - I have used the Motor Racing circuit, watched bikes there, parked in 'Airparks' when flying out of East Midlands etc. so I'm afraid I have no idea about signage.   

We downloaded some instructions in case it wasn't really in the Donnington Park circuit compound (but it was, just as I'd assumed, so no problem ...)..

(Ambush!: Call it Qids by the Society of Ancients)

This year we were running the little 6mm Participation version of the Society's Call it Qids: we played a lot of games over the weekend and had no problem getting players once the venue had started to fill in the mornings.  I'll include a few photos as the game does not involve big figures or sprawl over several tables and so doesn't feature on many a bland photo report.

(the game uses 6mm figures by Baccus)

The game is a quick but highly variable rendition of the Battle of Kadesh ... broadly as depicted in Egyptian monumental records.

The movement system is designed to reduce the Hittite player's control of the treasure hunting chariot waves, whilst the game's built in sequence clicks through the battle's key phases.

(a quick but unpredictable game)

We continue to be surprised at how variable such a simple system can be and every game is different.

I think one of two of the shows team have stumbled upon a winning formula - but I'll not share it and anyway, the dice need to support the play solution (so it doesn't really break the game) ...

(Pharaoh Ramesses towers over the Hittites sacking his camp)

Some of the players had come particularly to try out the game, whilst others were looking for a game to play as they enjoyed the game - and picked up a copy (which we like to think meant the game had worked for them).

Then again, SoA games don't exactly break the bank  (Society of Ancients Games).

Nevertheless we appreciate player feedback: 'excellent - it works really well' ... 'yes - I like it' ... 'very good, thanks' ... and 'awesome little game' ...  Thanks to everyone who played and thanks for the kind comments.

Many thanks to Baccus and Warbases who supported the Call it Qids project.

In terms of games played, members recruited and Slingshot issues handed out, it is worth saying that the Society stand was 'up' about 15% on the last couple of years at the Derby University venue (not a patch on the old days, of course - but this is the age of the internet and historical wargaming subsists in a much watered-down version and so positive trends are nothing if not good).

(Splendid 6mm game)

(Sudan: one of the better 28mm games on display) 

Whether the good turn out and positive response is a result of people trying the new venue rather than approving it will show up in future years, but it was certainly a good trade show with lots of depth and variety.   I topped up with gear (2, 6 and 54mm) from Irregular Miniatures and was delighted with the 15mm geese I found at Museum.

(excellent RAF club night bomber game - great searchlights ...) 

(another good 28mm game I saw ...)

There were some good games on display elsewhere in the hall: though disappointingly not too much for the ancients enthusiast (big money has moved on from our turf lately and wants you to buy 28mm WW2 etc these days).   Scales and styles were well represented, from 6mm to 54mm and there was a huge battleship.

(some flavours of Derby 2012)

For people are less interested in wargaming I understand there was also quite a lot of fantasy, Sci-Fi and Zombie games.   There were also some nice tables of period equipment laid out by the various heritage societies (though not very much 'walking around in costume').

Out and about, I got a look at some of those new Adler 10mm Celts and had a very informative chat with the designer.   These are very fine little figures and I am now awaiting with enthusiasm a range of Macedonians (one day, maybe ...) ...

(really good 10mm Celts photographed on the Adler stand)

And it was great to see the Glasgow lads who were down for the Armati competition.

*****

In all, a good and productive weekend, and 'activity' up compared to the last couple of years.  On the plus side, the venue is really easy to find and accommodated a lot of variety in single hall.  I didn't have any of the A38 grief that often accompanies a Sunday evening trip back from Derby .

Most of us did not really take to the venue - dark, soulless, seen better days etc. being the common comments.   With the uncarpeted concrete floor and no big windows, I expected the venue to be cold ... but it wasn't (unless, I guess, you were near an open door - it is October, after all), and I didn't find the noise as bad as some of our team.  I was disappointed with the muddy access and parking.

The venue is currently poorly managed.  The toilets were not presentable, the venue was tawdry and the food, despite its top price, was not up to the appropriate quality standard.   Anyone who knows the back story of Donnington Park will not be surprised.

However, there is nothing to say the facilities won't be better run in future.   There could be quite a good venue currently being hidden by the poor management and poor maintenance.

That said, it will always have a Motor racing Circuit and Airport adjacent, so it will never be quiet.   It is not Kedleston's beautiful atrium, nor is it Newbury or York Racecourse (today's best wargames venues, to my mind).

Next outing for our Shows Team will be SELWG ... and fantastic venue but a terrible drive (for me at least) - and although Phil Sabin will be doing his Lost Battles as the ancients game, manning issues mean it will be my shows North stand that will be there for membership support.

But I always like SELWG ... great show - come and join in!

6th - 8th July, Knuston Hall Northamptonshire

COW 2012

Wargame Developments' Conference of Wargamers is a highlight of any year - the only opportunity this side of Historicon to sample such a wide variety of wargames - and at COW they have a more European flavour and pace.   And many of them are innovative or at least exploratory in their format.

 (Martin Rapier's presentation of Phil Sabin's Fire and Movement game from Simulating War)

This year, for me it was a little like pulling one of those 1960 wargame compendia type books (a Featherstone or a Grant) and doing it for real. 

 (moving the tables up as the Felissima Armada progresses)

Jim Wallman entertained me with a Spanish Armada game with Airfix plastic ships (and some scratchbuilds) as well as an outdoor game (indoors) played with 54mm Britains plastics (what I was using in the 1960s) and toy canons ...  I solved my unresolved terrain conundrum for Plataea by building a sand table - a first for COW perhaps ... and two of my games used flats ...

 (Images from the gods part of the ancient history talk)

In addition to hosting a joint session with John Bassett on Gods and Generals (a follow up to the short 'Bloodletting at Plataea' contribution I made at the BattleDay), and the Plenary Game (the whole Conference were fireteams in Vietnam holding a base perimeter ...) ... I played or hosted 9 or 10 more games over the weekend.  I sat in on a number more ..

(Call it Qids at COW 2012)

Graham Evans presented his Society of Ancients Kadesh game (get your copy here ...) ...

 (Ramesses II towering over the Amun division encamped outside Kadesh - wjat could possibly go wrong)

... and I hosted a number of ancient warfare session or games ...

 (Lords of the Nile - V3 DBA in the Late Bronze Age)

The V3 DBA tryout was popular with players who had sampled my treatment of the current game last year in the Zama reconstruction. 

The Plataea project remains 'work in progress', I'm afraid - so COW had part 3 of the ongoing experiment adapting Neil Thomas's ancient rules (AMW, basically, though I am spinning adaptations off the earlier version in Wargaming - an introduction ...) ...

The refurbishment of the flats is not complete yet, and the summer has been so bad I've not been out in the garden building battlefields - hence the sand table ..

 (step by step sand table)

Sand table?  Yes - I got a couple of bags of sharp sand from the builders' merchants (one was actually enough), spread a plastic sheet out over my table and them moulded and painted  the landscape I wanted.  It worked sufficiently to last the session, and packed away very quickly once the game was done.

It probably took a couple of hours to set up (so needed to be a late night prep for a morning game session) but cost less than £5 in materials - and all bar the paint will recycle for a new project (or a better version of the Greek and Persian battle).

Sorted.   Different, anyway.

 (Byzantine Arab Skirmish)

Fred Cartwright enhanced the ancients options with a splendid looking experimental game which he put on in 28mm, using Arabs and Byzantines for some 'small wars' ... (De Bellis Parvis ... ?) ..

 (some of Fred's splendid 28mm Byzantine/Arab small wars warriors)

If 28mm isn't big enough for small wars, 54mm is the business for Little Wars.  In this case Little Garden Wars ... Jim Wallman's take on the H.G.Wells classic.  

Although I confess it isn't the sort of thing I do every week, I quite enjoyed this carpet game (it was intended to play outdoors but the weather gods were not accommodating!) ... the casualty system (firing matchsticks) made an interesting change to rolling dice or turning cards.

 (indoor Little Garden Game - Freedonia vs Corduguay)

I'm obliged to note that Jim also inveigled me into a Samurai game that involved fighting already dead bandit people (yes, the dreaded 'Z' word): I embrace the possibility of some mythic value in hacking through legendary creatures in what turned out to be an entertaining little game - and then I will move on ...

 (Jim Wallman's Samurai myth game)

In the last pass of the last turn of the last game, my skyhook team successfully scooped Trebian's Cold War mission leader off a hostile ice flow - but that's another COW story.

More modern stuff on my 20th century blog soon.

You can join WD and/or book next year's COW at Wargame Developments.

The Festival of History is next week.

 (a scene from Tim Price's S.W.A.B. Napoleonic naval game)

(more of those flats)