Pevensey Bay, 7th-8th November

Anderida Doubles(click on the images for a bigger picture)

Yes, Pevensey Bay still looks as bright and blue as this, in Early November.

Many thanks to Eric Cruttenden and his team for continuing to bring us the Anderida event and its unique flavour. As an unashamed 15mm enthusiast, I delight every year in the trouble the entrants take over their armies - and actually just the brilliance of what they achieve. There is something about the size of 15mm and its ratio to table space that makes the spectacle of massed miniature armies in this scale unsurpassed, I think. And at this annual event, for sure, the effort is always appreciated.
(Pevensey Bay - some local colour)

OK ... While we're doing the beach view thing, I thought I'd indulge you a view of the local night-life. Not quite a pagan festival, there was certainly a ritual burning! Anderida is held on the weekend of Remembrance Sunday ... and this year that also meant that on the Saturday night they had organised their Guy Fawkes celebration. Quite handy to have a beach at your disposal. All this took place right outside the Aqua Club, the event's now traditional venue. The event now embraces an extensive FoG competition as well as its traditional DBM. The big prize of the event is the annual Society of Ancients trophy - not, of course, for the top scorers, but for the most valued contributors ... and appropriately half the Society Committee were playing (and the last two Slingshot editors usually umpire the competitions) so it has a bit of a family atmosphere.

This year, the DBM theme was medieval, the heavily subscribed FoG theme was the Greeks. Well, quite a lot of pikes, then. Thankfully, they can provide a reasonably diverting game in FoG, even though it remains more often the cavalry and the flanks that settle the battles (not, in itself, of course, a bad reflection of Hellenistic warfare - but I still feel Armati does this sort of thing better) ... That Seluecid mix of Phalanx with Elephants, Cataphracts, Chariots and Imitation Legionaries (Thorakitai ... Horse Archers .... Arabs ... the list is endless) proved very popular, of course (and I still have a soft spot for it - it was my first ancients army back in the early seventies ....)...

(Anderida 2009 - yes, we did get the 200 pikes vs 200 pikes clashes ...)

(Some very nice Legionaries chase off those pesky horse archers...)...

Yes, Chris and I did OK, and our Graeco-Bactrians had four entertaining games against Seleucids, Early Successors, Persians and Classical Indians (2 wins saw us sneak into the top half of the table in 9th place) ... You can get a full round up of results, and more pictures on the Anderida website (here ...) but the top teams were ... (FOG winners) Ian Stewart and Richard Collins (DBM winners) Darrell Pearce and Jeremy Morgan.


Coming up trumps again in the best army category, Adrian Bird's colourful style caught the judges eye, and his Seleucid army took first prize.

The blue ribbon award went to Kevin Large and Andy Rourke for an all round warmly appreciated contribution - helpful and entertaining play, good 'up for it' wargaming and a smartly turned-out Thracian army that was a contender in the painting prizes.


(Society of Ancients trophy winners Kevin and Andy surrounded by some of the good looking troops from the event)

Time to get the brushes out, I guess ...

Pevensey Bay 8th-9th November

Anderida 2008 - 15mm Doubles for the Society of Ancients Trophy
(thanks to Chris for this fantastic shot - honest, this is from the Aqua Club window on the Sunday morning where we were playing the games ...)

Yes, that's a pretty fantastic shot of the sportier types in the surf outside the Pevensey Bay Aqua Club - and well past the best weather on England's channel beaches. That said, it is England, and we'll go down to the beach in any weather. The late night skinny dippers on Eastbourne Promenade could testify to that. But that, as they say, is another story ...

It's a long time since Michael Grant came up with the idea of a friendly late year tournament down on the coast - and the idea that the main prize, the Society's Anderida Trophy, should go to the player that best summed up the event's spirit rather than to the team that amassed the most points. An old-fashioned idea, but one which over the years seems to have kept Anderida an enthusiasts tournament rather than attracted the usual pot-hunters.
(one of the best collections of trophies you will find)

The welcome and the organisation is old fashioned too - and much the better for it. Perhaps I shouldn't have put in the picture of the trophies, though (maybe they are better a 'best kept secret' amongst the Anderida regulars). From the beginning, Anderida has been a restricted lists event, with a new idea each year. The Best Army and Best Baggage awards are well respected, and many of the teams work for much of the preceding year on the new army for the new theme. It is a pleasure often to be asked as a representative of the Society of Ancients, to scout around and see who's come up with contenders. The final decisions are often very difficult.

(Anderida - my collage with some of the armies in use this year)
As for the games, for many of us, they are as much a chance to catch up with old friends as to play toy soldiers (and Pevensey Bay's traditionally English breakfasts generally mean a fairly leisurely approach to the day's work is embraced by all ...).
This was very much a DBM swansong for me and my SoA Doubles partner, former Treasurer Chris Ager: we have long since both switched and now play Field of Glory for tournaments.

We kind of got dumped on our derrieres in the opening game (against eventual winners Pearce and Morgan) mostly as a result of me deploying as defender in a position where I would be overexposed if the command opposite got a 5 or a 6 on the opening turn. Bit rusty, then ... Fool's Mate for one of our commands - though Darrell and Jeremy administered the blows with their usual offbeat charm. The results, of course, brightened up ... though we could hardly do much to winkle the Romans out of their fortifications in the final game ...

(Phil and Mike's crowded side of the table)

We had chosen Early Armenians for this last DBM tournament - partly because it didn't require too much changing in our busy army boxes (and brains!) from the recent Field of Glory Palmyrans, partly because cavalry armies seem to give a more satisfying game than the dour footsloggers that became such a constant feature after the 3.1 version was adopted ... but mostly because I wanted to curry favour with the gods by circling an eagle over our camp. And I like cataphracts (and I don't like Romans ...)...

(An Armenian Snake Eagle soars auspiciously over the camp)

Clever little camp vignette - clearly stolen in some time travelling raid on Byzantium, if the flag is anything to go by ... Not the best, though - that went to Barry Harman's assemblage of Hunnic wagons (in contention also must have been the Davies/Parker Roman Marching Camp ... the army itself got the main painting prize ... check out their pictures on the Anderida link ...)..

More important, what a good time we had. Great games all. In the end, Chris and I managed to break into the top ten .. level with organiser/hosts Eric and Alan (who seem to spend half their time these days doing Lost Battles displays for the Society at shows as part of Phil Sabin's team ...).. The Society was able to fly the flag (and productively reminded quite a few people to update the subscriptions). And we all did our bit to keep Michael's cherished values going for another year. And yes, we enjoyed playing DBM over the weekend. It made a change.

You can look up the full results on the Anderida website (here ...), but for the tournament positions, Jeremy Morgan and Darrell Pearce came first with their Sassanids, followed by Colin Sharpe and Mike Bennett (second), and Graham Willmot and Paul Stovell (third). Paul Fencott won the Society of Ancients Shield to universal acclaim for his spirited disregard for personal safety (losing six generals over the course of the weekend, including one in every game ...)


I understand next year will see a choice of either FoG or DBM. Never been before? maybe 2009 will be the year ... Meanwhile here's another of those Pevensey views to sign off with.

(Another of Chris Ager's holiday photos)