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 ...

1st-2nd February, Salford and York

The Gentlemen Pensioners York weekend

Due to the treatment we have received over the years, SoA Shows North no longer supports Vapnartak.   That usually means I would not go to the York Racecourse event.

However, the weekend is also the occasion of one of our reunion gatherings and Steve had proposed a refight of the AWI battle at Brandywine Creek on the Saturday together with an invitation for players to play in the Lance & Longbow Society's Cravant demo game at the show.

So, with two historical games on offer, Friday evening saw me heading North.

Brandywine may not be of interest to all my fellow SoA enthusiasts, but was a great Saturday game, and there are more photos if you want to follow the link (York Weekend Brandywine) ...

Last seen at Salute, Cravant is a visually splendid game, and intriguing as a scenario.  It is set up for Impetus - which I still have not played that much - so I was keen to get some more mileage in.

The battle is essentially an attempt by an Anglo Burgundian army to come to the aid of Cravant which had been besieged by the French in the opening moves of a new campaign in the Hundred Years War.

Henry V had died, and England was in the hands of a minority ... so the Dauphin saw this as the time to break the agreed peace accords and renew hostilities.

Salisbury led the Anglo-Burgundian force, and after a stand off across the river, ordered his troops to ford the Yonne.

For the reconstruction, we had three players on each side ... a compromise between allowing show visitors access to what was going on and sufficient players to simulate the allied nature of both forces - I hope we got the balance right (I am not aware of turning my back on anyone but there is always a risk).

I took the central, but weaker, Burgundian battle.  We were first to get our feet wet.   

The river was waist deep but as on the day proved to be no real obstacle.    The waist-up figures on clear bases added to the spectacle for viewers (though have no game function) ...

(Salisbury's battle crosses the Yonne)

In the (modified) version of Basic Impetus in play, my crossbowmen were significantly less effective than the English archers on either side of me, and a rule was in effect allowing casualty effects to be 'passed back' further hampering my small contingent.

Whilst the English under Salisbury and Willoughby were smashing forward, I was losing the central slogging match ... driven back almost into the river.

(in the centre, the Burgundian contingent were taking a battering)

I was obliged to fall back, but this enabled the victorious English from both sides to come to my aid (without which the Burgundians would doubtless have eventually broken)

Meanwhile, Willoughby had pushed across the bridge and, supported by archers alternately wading and shooting, had secured a strong position between Cravant and the main battlefield.  He too gradually ground the enemy down.

(Willoughby's battle, archers to the flank, the walls of Cravant in the background)

The major French successes in all this were mainly to the far flank, where they broke through the end of the line, pursuing across the river by the mill ... then turning back on Salisbury's rear.

Had the English commander not destroyed the French to his front, this minor encirclement could have been devastating - however he was able to respond and stall the attack and the reverse was really too far from Cravant itself to affect the outcome of the battle.

(Cravant: the siege relieved ... although a major fight is still playing out on the far flank, the English and Burgundians command the approaches to the town and most of the French army has fled)

A splendid game, and one which caught the eye of many a browser.

The battle was played to a conclusion, lasting about three hours, mostly before we took a break for lunch (OK, we probably needed a sign for 'resumes at 2pm').

The York show doesn't change much and remains the same mix of big figure static games, fantasy pulp and shopping.   I got some 15mm Vikings and Saxons, plus some little aeroplanes from Peter Pig, Donnington and Irregular, and some Landsknechts from Museum ... I took my camera with me when I went off duty.

There was very little of interest to ancients enthusiasts ... a Dark Age game by the Falkirk club, participation games of Crossed Lance's (and no, I've no idea why there is an apostrophe), and the Lance & Longbow game - but there was a goodly dose of hot air balloons, Martian walkers and high flying biplanes to lap up ...

(Falkirk's Slaughter of the Danes)

(a Vapnartak quickie ...)

If I can't vote for Cravant, my best of them would be the sprawling ECW display battle ... more for its convincing elaborate terrain and scenic effects ...

The Battle of Justice Mills (Aberdeen) 1644

I didn't see the game being played at all, and but for the numbers, the figures were not outstanding - but maybe every show has room for one of these 'set design' battlefields ... Just one, though, hey, Vapnartak?

York in February.  And no snow.  None at all.

Thanks to the Gentlemen Pensioners for a splendid weekend and two sumptuous episodes from military history.

(eye level eye candy: more splendid ECW terrain)

London, Excel, 16th April

Salute 2011
This year, the Salute display was not as we had originally planned ... Although we booked in advance, and forwarded details earlier than we had done last year, we were deemed 'too late' and were only grudgingly given two 2.5x6' tables for our entire area (less than half what was required just for the 28mm Lost Battles display we had scheduled).

(Corporate - and chauvinistic - Salute)
In some ways, perhaps, this might not be a surprise - although vast, Salute at ExCel is clearly becoming the creature of the vast commercial 28mm operators (and 28mm, includes, of course FoW 15mm WW2 ...).. And to be a volunteer-run, historically based enthusiast club is clearly going out on a limb (and will seemingly get you flung out on a limb..)..

(Harfleur scratch-built in 90mm)
With the reduced space available, I was asked to step in with Greyhounds in the Slips. It fits into a small space, and we hoped the big 90mm skirmish figures would somehow bring us out into view a little ...

I built this ruined building for the interior of Harfleur to raise up one of our caption boards. Although you wouldn't really know, it is actually quite big, and might stand out in other venues.


( ... and upon this charge, Cry 'God for Harry, England and St George')
This made Salute the public launch of A Domino Double Header, the new Society of Ancients publication featuring The Elephant in the Room and Greyhounds in the Slips.

A Domino Double Header is available from the Society of Ancients. Compiled by Graham Evans, Graham describes what you get on his blog (Wargaming for Grown Ups/Domino Double Header)
I think the corporates know how important it is to stand out in ExCel's amorphous vastness, already, so have used their money to create zones within the show in which they can waste space in order to be as big as their brand demands (space, I guess, which would otherwise go to clubs and Societies).

So, the first requirement is a big table, even if the bit you play on is no larger than wargaming at home. Fill the rest out with a camp, or a random town or just an empty space.

(Warlord Games/Hail Caesar)
Needless to say, it often works very pleasingly ... having enjoyed the Kadesh game at the BattleDay, I wandered over to the Hail Caesar game. It was splendid, and very well presented. There were enough of the 'professional style' Romans to look the piece, and the game was being played.

Unlike the BattleDay, Rick wasn't actually running the game himself, but was on the Warlord stand signing copies of the glossy book.

The 'more is more' approach was best exemplified by Gripping Beast. It is quite telling that I managed to get a photograph of the Maldon game with nobody even near it (and that's quite random - I can only take pictures on my break, so if the game looks unmanned that's how it was when I went snapping). Lost in the middle of that picture is a wargame.

(Gripping Beast/Maldon)
A wargame you could equally have fitted on your dining table at home. As I'm sure will show up in other people's pictures, gobbled up by their long lenses, once you reach into the green, there are some quite splendid figures in there ...


Do all those piles of odd dice mean it is WAB? They didn't add much to the spectacle - but I can't tell you much else as there was nobody around to explain any of it. Presumably they were taking money off punters (really the whole object of the event, for them and their customers).

The side table with ships and campers on it was splendid, but appeared only to be there to ensure the game took up even more space.

I remember Philip Sabin did one of these battles for the Society of Ancients many years ago back when Salute was in Kensington Town Hall. It was using 'Shieldwall', an earlier version of his historical games system (and published in Slingshot). It might have been Maldon. 25mm, it would have fitted on that side table. It got played all day long. Times have changed.

(Crush the Kaiser)
I must admit, really, this was one of the duller Salutes. I suppose the big corporate zones are off putting to those of us who haven't joined the faith, but their sheer size and sameness tends to swamp everything else ... so the little gems fade away into the 'much of a muchness'.

I thought the 'Crush the Kaiser' mud was better than the Gallipoli sand (part of the Battlefront zone) ... and I thought (part of the Victrix zone) the painted backdrop to the Peninsula game was well worth the effort (somehow a way of shutting out the 'Excel shed' effect that I was surprised succeeded so well ...)


One of the most refreshing games (again, almost lost in the crowd) was this excellent ECW game of the Siege of York. Not rectangular! How long has it taken?

My 'Welcome to Jerusalem' of a decade ago was, of course, not rectangular - but sort of became rectangular when it went down on rectangular shows pitches. 'By The Pike Divided' had managed to lap their irregular shape over the tables in such a way as to preserve the shape. Maybe their table had its own legs.

Full versions of those pictures on ECW Battles (here ...)..

Verneuil

(The Battle at Verneuil)
But I'll finish on a high spot ... Lance & Longbow's 28mm Verneuil game, which won Best Demonstration Game ('Figures by Simon Chick, Darrell Hindley and Nick Palmer. Terrain provided by Simon Chick') ...

(the English camp)
August 1424, England's 'Second Agincourt', Verneuil is the battle where the ground was famously baked so hard the English couldn't use their stakes effectively and got broken thorough by heavily armoured Italian mercenaries. On a fearfully bloody day, however, Bedford's English still prevailed over its Franco-Scottish enemies.

More pictures of Verneuil (La Journee)
Simon Chick's blog (Je Lay Emprins)

(Anglo-Burgundians)
So, in the end, a reasonable day out for the Society - and probably a good day out for the visitor (though I'd have thought the average punter gets a better deal from Triples or Warfare these days, unless the corporate zoning really matters to them ..)..

Salute is changing. And even though it may not be in a good way, it might be that we have to change with it, in order to allow our unique SoA brand to be shown on fair terms with the overblown machines of corporate wargaming that will otherwise and happily drown it in the pursuit of profit.

How? is a different question.

Boy, it has been a busy and exhausting Spring.