Warfare 2025 - Retail Therapy

Of course, no hobby show is complete without a little light shopping, and I did pick up a few new shiny things at Warfare last weekend. There was a pretty good range of traders present  (see Big Lee's excellent video report on his visit, which featured the trade stands quite heavily ), so plenty of opportunites. Here is a summary of my purchases, the directions they may be sending in.. 

I had pre-ordered a couple of things to collect at the show - first and most important being from Commission Figurines.  I acquired 10 packs of their 6mm MDF semi-flat figures, to increase the forces available to my 'Risorgimento' 1859 Italy armies.  A cunning combination of packs from the Napoleonic and ACW ranges should allow me to represent two divisions of Austrians and one division each of Piedmontese and French - the first time that Louis Napoleon's men have appeared. 

 A major plus point for these figures is that a packet of nearly 100 infantry costs just £2, and that will make four battalions - very economical!  I am using Napoleonic British infantry in 'Stovepipe' shako for Austrian infantry, and ACW foot and artillery in Kepis for the French, for example -  as I think my friend  Chris aka Nundanket has said 'as long as the hat looks right, you're OK'..

My second 'pre-order' was from NewLine Designs  20mm Ancients range - specifically the 'personality' set of Darius of Persia in his chariot. I already had their Alexander figure for my DBA Macedonian army, so obviously I needed Darius.  And here he is, in kit form.. 

 I am quite looking forward to assembling and painting this, along with Alexander  (albeit the latter is a simple single  mounted figure ).  

Having dug out the Macedonians and Persians the other week and tried out Dominion of the Spear rules with them,  I admit I had a hankering to add another DBA-sized army to the collection, allowing a potential three-cornered campaign - so obviously, I needed Porus and his Indians.  I was fortunately able to make good on that idea, thanks to a couple more acquisitions :

First these two HaT 1/72 packs,  which I found on the Grubby Tanks/Brittannia Miniatures stall

These will provide up to 12 cavalry and 3 chariots, which should be plenty for a DBA-size army. I was mildly disappointed that they didn't have the Elephants pack from the same range, but I'm sure they will be available for on-line ordering  somewhere - it wouldn't be  Porus' army without some elephants! 

I also spotted some appropriate infantry on the Newline Designs display, so I picked up 2 packs (4 per pack ) each of their archers and javelin men - I think they are rather nice: 

 

I am looking forward to painting these too, they are nice figures, and I have a piece of wargaming magazine nostalgia to inspire my efforts too, of which more in a future post. 

Well, the above seem to have go me well and truly into an 'ancients' mood, and that doubtless influenced a couple of purchases from The Society of Ancients stall, and the pen of Phil 'Lost Battles' Sabin :  

 

Strategos II is a set of fairly simple rules for tabletop battles, using a gridded system. Armies are a little bigger than DBA, for example, which suits my longer-term plans, and I know Phil Sabin is absolutely an expert in this field, so it will be interesting to see how these play.  Empire is 'a very simple game... simulating the struggle for imperial dominance between Carthaginians, Romans, Macedonians and Persians/Parthians, from the 4th to the 2nd centuries BC'  - I am intrigued by the way that this period saw the parallel existence of all those powers, and the resulting campaigning possibilies (real or imaginary). The game has rather a nice map, too: 

 With a simple strategic game and more than one set of relatively simple 'small armies' tactical rules, I can feel  an Ancients campaign coming sometime in the future (though of course that might mean raising Roman and Carthaginian armies too!). 

And last but not least, I couldn't resist a bargain (it was the cheapest item here), from the second-hand books offered by  Stonewall Figures  - not quite directly relevant to the above purchases, but who can refuse a piece of vintage (1981)  Terry Wise, with classic illustrations by Angus McBride?  

file under 'comfort reading' 

 And that, as they say,  is about that - not a bad selection of stuff new and old, which should keep me busy in the winter months. I will need to have some regular painting sessions for the various figures, but I think I have kept them to manageable numbers which can be painted fairly quickly without boredom setting in.  

 As a quick postscript, I was fortunate last week to take part in one of Jon Freitag's remote games - this time the Reconquista battle of Zallaqah 1086.  I took the part of King Alfonso VI, leading his Knights to... well, I'll let you read about it in Jon's battle report.  A very challenging and tense game that went right down to the wire - many thanks to Jon and the other players for a great evening's gaming. The picture below shows an 'interesting' manoeuvre that I tried with Alfonso's Knights..

  

 Anyway, do read Jon's report for a flavour of the back-and-forth of a nerve-wracking game! 

Next time, perhaps an account of an interesting talk that I attended recently. Until then keep well, everyone. 

Warfare show 2025

 Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the 'Warfare' show put on by the Wargames Association of Reading  at Farnborough, Hampshire,  and a thoroughly good day it was, too.  As usual I tried to  take some photos  of the games that interested me - of which there were plenty.  So I'll show some of them here, more or less in the order I stumbled across them: 

 Boscombe Down and Amesbury wargames club were running a nice-looking Chain of Command game, Battle for St,Venant, France 1940. 

 The gentleman from the club who I spoek to was very happy to chat, and keen to explain how they think that the new 2nd edition of the rules is a big improvement - at least partly due to a much-improved layout of the rulebook, as well as some good new and amended rules.  They had a pretty good information board, too: 

 

 A group called Jackmanimation Gaming Studio  - or was it Maidenhead and District Gaming Club? showed their Vietnam War game Battle for Hue.  I am confused because  the show program showed two games, both depicting Hue, at adjacent tables in the same corner of the hall - and I only remember one such game!  Anyway, it looked nice:

Battle for Hue - I did like that helicopter

 -  and again were chatty and welcoming. As with any participation game players worth their salt, they invited me to join in, but I had only just arrived and wanted to tour all the games first - the problem is that invariably by the time I've gone round, and looked at traders too, it's too late to join a game!  Perhaps I should have gone for both days of this show..?   

Swindon and District Wargames Club brought their Battle for Berlin - WW2 28mm skirmish game: 

 

I omitted to ask which rules were being used, but a nice table anyway, and I liked those trams. 

I think the next one ( feel free to correct me!) was  the Écorcheurs! Historian in Harness group, with Crossing the Somme, 1346 - 28mm Hundred Years War skirmish : 

 

 while nearby was another splendid-looking  medieval game, from  Alverstoke Battle Group : 1216 Assault on Winchester   in 28mm with Barons' War rules  :

 

 Next, Malvern Old Wargamers with their 28mm Seljuk Turks vs Sicilian Normans using Armati rules

 

I rather liked the honesty of their information sheet

They were friendly and happy to chat ( my 'in' being that I have relatives living in Malvern!), and indeed very contented with Armati as their preferred rule set - not too complicated, no 'buckets of dice'   and with authentic 'feel', they thought. The game was 'old school' looking in its simple terrain, but quite impressive and with nice figures. 

  

Steven Deeprose and friends presented a 15mm Napoleonic Battle of Leipzig 1813 - suitably impressive 

 

 

The next game was sadly not listed in the program, so I don't know who was staging it (perhaps the host club?) , but anyway a rather nice-looking Cuba 1898  Kettle Hill  game   :

 

 

 

 Crawley Wargames Club presented Normandy Axis & Allies  which looked rather smart, the map showing Normandy as a whole for a large-scale 'Operational' level game:

 

Another very impressive-looking setup was from Guildford Wargames Club with their Treachery at Gyldeford 1036 : always a good idea to set your game in your home area.. ( I should look at the siege of Colchester sometime, as Parliamentary troops were allegedly billeted in my village in 1648, but I digress! )

Leipzig 1813 appeared once again, in a 28mm version by the Huntingdon & District society, using Soldiers of Napoleon rules : 

 

  

very impressive, but it wasn't the largest Napoloenic game of the day, as you will see,,,

 Deal Wargames Society can usually be relied upon to stage an interesting and unusual scenario, often from the 1930s or early WW2, and they did not disappoint with their Polish Blitzkrieg – Polish Raid on Fraustadt in ( I think ) 20mm, a rare Polish counter-attack during the German invasion of 1939. Lots of interesting 'kit' such as the Polish aircraft and tankettes, and cycle ( or possbly even motorcycle ) units on both sides.   

 

I also picked up their customary very comprehensive information leaflet - they really are exemplars in that area - but I have managed to mislay it! I suspect the rules may have been a Rapid Fire variant, and I remember that the terrain cloths are the famous Dunelm throws used by so many canny gamers these days. All in all, a rather nice table. 

There followed a series of fairly spectacular games, be it for detailed terrain, massed armies, or both..

The Werelords  presented  GROND! Battle of the Pelennor Fields from The Lord of the Rings - I am ignorant of Tolkein, and had to look that up!  Anyway, a rather amazing fantasy battle/siege, with that enormous battering-ram in its wheeled carriage/house,  pushed by creatures who were taller than the giant war elephants escorting them. Relly quite something to see! 

The Society of Ancients put on a re-fight of Raphia  217BC as Ptolomeic Egyptians took on Seleucids, both sides of course fielding their massive Alexandrian Successor pike phalanxes 

  

 

This was in 28mm, using Impetus rules - as it happened I had taken part in a  remote game using Basic Impetus only the night before, so the die-rolling and associated calculations being discussed were familiar. The only downside from the spectator point of view was that the four  or five  players were so engrossed in the game, they didn't seem to have time to stop and chat to anyone else.. 

 Shepway Wargamers showed a great-looking 20mm WW2 game, set around Sedan in 1940, with  really lovely buildings and terrain ( I think I have chatted to them in the past and learned that one of their number is or was an architectural model-maker!) 

The next one I've seen and featured from previous shows, but there's no harm in repetition when it's such a spectacular as Joe Bilton's Operation Charnwood – Caen 1944  using What a Tanker! rules from TooFatLardies, It's the most amazing set-up! 

Now another spectacular - Ardhammer Group with their 28mm Napoleonic What-if Russia - surely the game with the most figures on the table in the whole show?   And beautifully painted, too.. 

just feast your eyes on these next few pictures..
 

Of course you can do a big battle in a slightly smaller scale - as Loughton Strike Force did, with their Battle of Pydna 168 BC,  Rome against Macedon using  Vexillarius , a new set of rules by David C R Brown. 

 

 and that's about all from the Participation/Demonstration games area - there were several other games which I've missed, because either they didn't grab my attention or I didn't get decent photos - but other bloggers will no doubt show more and better pictures than mine. The 'other half' of this show is the very large tournament gaming area, which takes up at least as much space and allows for dozens of games in many different rule sets to be in progress at the same time. I am no tournament player, but it was great to see so many enthusiastic players getting stuck in!  Here are some random pictures of that area, just to give an impression : 

 - phew.  And that was that, games-wise, for me. Of course there were plenty of traders to visit, and I did so and spent some money, but I will save the details of that for my next blog post.  There is a welcome social aspect to these shows, of course, and I was glad to meet up with my good friend Tony and his son Oliver, and their friend Paul (mastermind of Retired Wargamers Reloaded's huge Carentan and Berlin 1945 games, which have boggled minds at shows in recent years!) - we had a good old chat over tea and coffee in the pretty decent cafe. Tony has recently stepped up to an important new role with his local club, and it  will be very interesting to follow his progress there.. Good to see you guys! I'll admit I didn't run into anyone else I know - probably at least partly due to the show being a two-day event, maybe other folk were there on Sunday!  I did see someone I recognised, though I don;t know him - military historian and TV/radio jornalist Mark Urban was sitting a few tables away in the cafe. Is he a wargamer, I wonder?    

I'll wrap up there, and save discussion of my purchases for another time - suffice it to say I seem to have made a start on a new army for DBA and/or Dominion of the Spear!  It was a very good show and a thoroughly enjoyable day.  I hope my pictures and commentary have been interesting and entertaining - I'm sure several other bloggers will show their views too.  Now I have a new  'lead/plastic/MDF pile' to deal with, more about that in a my next post. Until then, keep well, everyone.