26th February, Tonbridge

 

The day after Alton I was down at Cavalier helping the shows team with the stand in support of a Lost Battles demo of Cannae ...

 (The Society of Ancients - the lost battle of Cannae BC 216 - Tonbridge 2017)

The game was ably run by the author Prof Philip Sabin of King's College (and a long standing SoA Committee member), together with regulars Eric, Alan and Mark ...

A vibrant game ...

 

and an excellent collection of figures ...

 

Hannibal's greatest victory.

Elsewhere the show was well attended and featured an attractive mix of games ... WW2/Modern and Naval seemed to be the trends ... Perhaps something we will see during 2017?

(Cavalier 2017: other stuff)

Look out for Hammerhead and WMMS in March and Salute in April.

26th February, Tonbridge

CAVALIER 2012Parking seemed easier than usual at the Angel Centre/Sainsbury's car park this year (has the recession hit Tonbridge, now?) ... A better than usual start to what is always a good show.

This year we were parked back in the Jubilee Room rather than the main Hall. Have we upset someone? I surely hope not - the Society's mix of enthusiast meeting point and tabletop exploration of ancient history certainly seemed as constantly popular as ever.

This year, the Sabin-Cruttenden-Waller team was reconstructing the Lost Battle of the River Bagradas, the catastrophic First Punic War defeat of the consul Marcus Atilius Regulus at the hands of Hadsrubal and the Spartan mercenary Xanthippus.

(click on it for an enlargement)
I was invited to play Regulus in the second game, and did my best to thwart the in-built (on table) advantage the bullish Roman took on.

In Lost Battles 'points' the Carthaginians have an edge of around 15% (for what it's worth*). That's enough to mean the Romans are outnumbered, in particular on their flanks, where it is almost impossible to hold the ground.

(Big, big, trouble for the Roman flanks ...)

The Roman strength, of course, is in the Legions - but the battle sets a real challenge in how to bring that strength to bear before everything collapses around it.

(Roman and Italian infantry - the heart of the Roman array)

In the following photo, I have marked in the sweep of the Carthaginian flank under Hadsrubal - almost unopposed. You can see how much trouble the Romans are exposed to:

(this was the position after a couple of turns in both of the first two games)

My instinct is that when, earlier in the campaign, the Carthaginians wanted to make peace on reasonable terms, Regulus should probably have given it more consideration.

Historically, of course, this is the Regulus who was captured by the Carthaginians after the battle, then subsequently released on parole to argue for peace and prisonner exchanges: he argued strongly at Rome for war, then kept his word and returned to Carthage. They put him to death.

You'd have to call him inflexible.

Also in the Jubilee Room Loughton Strike Force presented a good looking Alamo Participation Game with appropriate gusto all day. It seemed much appreciated by a good mix of veteran wargamers and yougsters. Excellent

(storming the Alamo)

In the Bring & Buy hall, more good games on show, including the HOTT mini campaign in Bronze Age Mesopotamia ...

(Kingdoms in the Dust - SEEMS)

I often don't get much in the camera on these great show pieces ... so here's a couple of 28mm eye candy shots ...

Otherwise, there were some good WWII games, amongst them Staines/Tim Moore's 'Climb mount Niitaka' Pearl Harbour raid (a follow up to the successful Taranto game) ...

While in the main hall 'Defending the Bridge at Obourg' featured a very popular (but appropriately fragile) flying machine ...

(there are more flying machines on my 20th Century blog P.B.Eye-Candy)

(a typically chatty moment chewing the fat over the crowded Lost Battles table)

Meanwhile Bagradas got played throughout the day, very much to the satisfaction of those with a soft spot for the infanticide Carthaginians ... indeed Professor Sabin rattled through a final game taking the role of Regulus himself - he did better than me, but he didn't beat Xanthippus ...

A very enjoyable day out - as always at this well-organised middle sized show.

South Coast next ... Bournemouth and our annual Armati event ... I'm sure you can't wait.

*about half the advantage Alexander enjoys in his battles against the Persians, since you ask ...

Tonbridge, 27th February

CAVALIER

I was pleased to drive over to Tonbridge the other weekend, and join the Society's 'A' team for this year's Cavalier.

Pleased, of course, that is, once I'd done the parking thing. Tonbridge is clearly one of those South East towns where the locals enjoy driving around in circles, chatting to each other (amiably and angrily) in Car Parks already full of people driving round in circles ...

At least, I assume they enjoy it ... as they never fix it. I come from the East Midlands, where, on a Sunday morning, we prefer just to drive up, park and go about our business. Going by car somewhere where you can't park, on a Sunday morning is something I just don't 'get' - but it is very popular in Tonbridge.

I was delivering supplies of the newly printed January issue of Slingshot (the first issue of the new subscription year) which we were proud to show off to the public - slightly different, this year, as we have gone for the 'lie flat' stapled option.
(a rare quieter moment: the Secretary flips through a newly delivered January Slingshot)

January Slingshots are available now, of course, as part of your 2011 subscription (still only £20, at shows, by post or online from the Society website) ...

At Cavalier, we also launched the latest 5 yearly upgrade of the Slingshot Archive DVD - now of course containing every Slingshot from 1965 to 2010 ... an invaluable resource of over 13,000 pages about ancient and medieval history and wargaming. Fully indexed and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or later.

The DVD is available to Society of Ancients members only, and clicking on the thumbnail should take you to the appropriate page of the website to order your copy (Paypal available) ...

To showcase historical wargaming in the ancient and medieval periods, at Cavalier Phillip Sabin put on the battle of Sentinum using Lost Battles.

At Sentinum, in BC 295, Rome took on and defeated an alliance of Samnites and Gauls on a flat plain in Umbria ... Eric Cruttenden and Alan Waller helped stage this in 28mm.

(Sentinum, 295 BC, directed by the author of Lost Battles)

Lee Hadley has a great selection of photos from this year's Cavalier, including some good shots of the Societry team presenting the Sentinum game (The Society of Ancients presents Sentinum) ...
Thanks, Lee ...

(Sentinum, 295 BC, the Romans exert more pressure on the tiring allies)

Elsewhere, having moaned about the lack of variety, even lack of originality, at Vapnartak, I must say I was impressed by Cavalier, and could have lost myself in this show for hours. There's a lot more on Lee's blog (Big Lee's Miniature Adventures), and some of the WW2 stuff on my themed pages (P.B.Eye-Candy) where I will often post pictures of interesting stuff that is a little off topic for Ancients on the Move ...

The Lance & Longbow game was equally expansive, and photographed well ...
(Lance & Longbow Society)
(Red Army takes Budapest)

... and the Budapest game won best demonstration game. There were quite a few planes, boats, trains and other interesting stuff, and a wide range of scales and styles of game being played.

I quite liked the Stringbags at Taranto WW2 game (which looked great, and seemed in play all day long), but you will have to follow the links provided to see more.

Graham F will be covering WMMS for us with a DBA medieval game while I am away playing Armati in Bournemouth. It is a pity to miss such a good Midlands show, but against all odds, I won something in Bournemouth last year - so feel duty bound to go back and defend my title!

Be nice to Graham.

See you all at the Battle Day if not before ...

Tonbridge, 28th February

Cavalier
As the Northern shows season kicks off with Vapnartak in York, the southern winter groans on until Cavalier at the Angel Centre in Tonbridge. A must for the Society these days, and generally the first outing for the Sabin/Cruttenden/Waller participation games.

('Lost Battles' Sellasia game in progress)

Although usually that means 25mm, because of the requirements of the battle they had decided to stage, Sellasia, this year it was spectacular 15mm. Phil Sabin's terrain was very impressive - all the more when you realise he has made components for this modular system to enable all the Lost Battles scenarios to be staged.
The tiles are made up from thick cork on a base of blue carpet tile (the rivers and streams at the base of the cuts, of course). Visually, the illusions work, and the battlefield and its challenges is convincing.

The figures were pretty good, too ... so not only did this prove a good introduction to Lost Battles for the participants, it proved a good 'eye candy' talking point next to the Society Membership stand ...

Elsewhere, the show boasts many of the familiar traders, and also Gareth Simon clearing out books and comics and demonstrating clockwork model locomotives (caring readers will notice that I avoided working with that old phraseology, 'from the sublime to the ridiculous' ... that's partly because I'd be a poor judge of which was which - but also because I need to keep something in reserve should I ever touch upon the Space Vixens from Mars ...)...

(award winning 'Charge of the light Brigade' participation game)

My own choice of what I saw elsewhere includes a nicely done episode from the blitzkrieg on Poland, some superb small scale terrain, and the men in coats from the lobby ...


Actually, the costumed enthusiasts were doing some French and Indian Wars stuff and had a table of artifacts to enhance a fairly fun-looking participation game .... A theme that was followed up (sort of) in the Bring & Buy/Participation Games Hall, where I found more laced warfare from the Americas ..

(another War for America)

Quite a lot of impressive stuff to look at - with quite a high ratio of games you could join in. In truth (hint, hint, to the Kentish men ...) not that many ancients games other than our own ...

Interesting.

Thanks, as usual, from the Society of Ancients to its loyal band of helpers, to the Cavalier hosts - and, not least, of course, all you visitors who came along and joined us for a game or a browse or a chat (it would have been a dull day without you!)..