Cavalier 2024 and Transports of Delight

On Sunday just gone, I visited my first hobby show of the year - Cavalier 2024 at Tonbridge, staged by the Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society. It proved to be a good day out, from all the important points of view - seeing games, meeting people and acquiring 'goodies'.  I'll describe them in roughly that order.  

There were 17 games advertised, in  a good variety of periods, scales and universes - I admit I tend to stick to the 'historical', with apologies to Sci-Fi and Fantasy fans. Having said that, first up was a really  interesting sort of  'crossover' game,  Death on the Savannah (Survival of the Thickest) from Deal Wargames Society - not a toy solider in sight, but kind of 'historical' .  As the show program stated, 'Can the Wildebeest cross the Savannah, hunted by lions and crossing a crocodile-infested river?; 1/32nd using vintage Britains figures'  

 

I don't know how it played and whether the wildebeest made it (that looked quite challenging!), but I like the way the Deal guys always come up with something a bit different, and always make it look good.  

Another group that can be relied upon for a really good-looking table are Retired Wargamers Reloaded - their Hold Until Relieved game of Pegasus Bridge, June 1944 is well up to their usual standard. I have featured this before ( at SELWG 2023 ),  but can't resist showing a few pics again - apart from the fine terrain and scenery, I like the details such as  columns of vehicles moving up, aircraft overhead etc.  

Also in the  WW2 period,  Tonbridge Wargames Club presented LRDG - The First Rogue Heroes ('LRDG Raids in the Western Desert 1942; DAK Mini-campaign; 28mm' ) as a participation game. I am very bad at trying participation games - just for once I probably had time to give one a go, but ended  up spending quite a lot of time talking to various people - so participation will have to wait for another time!

Looks like LRDG did a good job,,

Another one I really should have tried was Maidstone Wargames Society The Summer of '77 - no, not punk rockers vs. disco divas, but a Battle of Britain game, based on a game that had been published in Warlord comic in, presumably, the summer of 1977.  I liked the way they had taken the simple printed square-gridded map from the original and made a really nice scenic table, with the 1/300 aircraft 'flying' on stands above.  The game ran several times and always looked busy.

 

And just one more  WW2 feature:  Friday Night Firefight Club's Fall of the Reich, depicting battle around the Reichstag, Berlin in 1945 using 28mm scale and Bolt Action rules. 

that Reichstag model  looks suitably grim and imposing

Other periods are available, of course: starting with the oldest, The Society of Ancients   put on a game of the Battle of Ilipa 208BC  in 28mm using Impetus rules: 

Ilipa : view from Carthaginian line

..and the Roman force

This was interesting, as I had taken part in one of Jon Freitag's games of this battle, using his version of Basic Impetus.  Watching the play, I recognised the mechanisms in use for combat die rolls etc, though I think the 'proper' version of Impetus has a bit more chrome than the basic version.  The action seemed to move along at a decent pace with  experienced players.

battle in full swing, later

 

Several Napoleonic games were in progress: first up Battle of Villamuriel   from  Konfederacy of Eastbourne Gamers using 10mm figures 

I really liked the Vineyard terrain pieces, cleverly made to allow units to fight amongst them! 

Central London Wargames Club brought their Tally Ho Vera (!)  in 15mm,  showcasing the Emperor of the Battlefield rules written by one of their members, I think. I had previously encountered them at SELWG - I'm sure if I was thinking of a move into Napoleonics (get thee behind me, tempation!) they would be worth a look.

Meanwhile Warlord Games had a nice-looking demo game of their Epic Napoleonics system in 13.5mm.  They look pretty good en masse! 

Rainham Wargames Club showed a game of Hammerin' Iron : Riverboat Action in the ACW 

Nice layout and 'buckets of dice' !

..and Real Time Wargames had their Russian Civil War  rules and campaign system The Glittering River on show, attracting quite a few players to a participation game. These guys often seem to create games in 'interesting and different' periods and settings. The ships and aircraft were 1/600th and the terrain was 2mm scale.

South East Essex ( SEEMS ) showed their Nach Paris!  ( previously seen also at SELWG )   28mm Franco-Prussian War game, using The Men That Would be Kings rules but pitting two European forces against each other - an interesting idea.

 Last but certainly not least Milton Hundred Wargame Club with, their  1/100th Modern (Soviets vs. NATO )  game featuring 'an armoured bridge assault including a paradrop' , Eine Bruecke zu Weit  (geddit?). 

 

 

That's all the tables I managed to photograph, as I think you can see it was a good selection of games. The second aspect of any show is the social side - I was very pleased with that side of things. I met up with old gaming friend Tony Toms ( from  Retired Wargames Reloaded ) who I had met at the Broadside show  last year after a very long time out of touch. Tony had come along with his son Oliver  also a gamer, and friend Reg, another of my former Rainham Wargames club-mates from the 1980s(!) - Reg and I think we had not met for at least 40 years!  We all had a good long chat over a coffee in the cafeteria, and there may even be some gaming to follow, as it turns out Reg and I don't live so very far apart. It was really great to meet these guys!   I also bumped into various members of Posties Rejects, and had another  good  chat with  Ray Rousell ( looking surprisingly well after his recent illness - thank goodness!)  and Big Lee - including a bit of tactical talk ahead of their second playing of Jon Freitag's Battle of Lake Trasimene game ( they didn't win in the end, so not sure how much help I was! ). I would strongly recomment both Ray's and Lee's blog/Youtube  posts on this show -  loads more and better pictures than me, and a pic of me on Ray's blog - fame at last! 

I also had an important appointment to meet  up with the excellent David Crook of A Wargaming Odyssey  blog,  as we had arranged for me to buy some WW2 British vehicles from the collection of the late Eric Knowles. These turned out to be a really splendid purchase, as you can see :

 

Four Jeeps, six Bren Carriers, four Lloyd Carriers, eight trucks and a 'Dorchester' command vehicle - a pretty useful collection!   And David threw in a lovely 'Brucie Bonus'  -  a box full of command figures and AFV crews. Star of the show is this command group map table :  

This is fantastic stuff, it will provide transport for at least two British battalions in my 'D-Day Dodgers' Italian Campaign project, plus a rather well-appointed Brigade HQ with the Dorchester! Many thanks indeed to David, I am very pleased indeed with these! 

A little light shopping with the tradestands was also done - 1-72nd Models are always of interest, and I picked up a couple of items from them. All those games of the Punic Wars with Jon F must have had an influence, and I have dipped a toe in the water of that period with these HaT Carthaginian Veterans:

Sadly I 'ummed and ahhed' too long over a nice unit of Garrison Roman Republican infantry on the Bring and Buy stall, which would have been a good match with these - learned my lesson there, if you like them,  buy things when you see them!  So the Carthaginians are a bit of an impulse buy, but could be the start of a DBA army - maybe even using some of my vintage  Airfix Ancient Britains for Celtic warbands.. From the same stall, I also picked up some cheap MDF road sections, which should come in handy for the more urbanised setups which are bound to feature in WW2 games As you can see they come with neat jointing included, and also some 'end caps' ( not shown ), so they will lay out nicely and should remain straight when placed on the table! Just need a bit of suitable paint and texture. 

 

So there we have it - overall, a pretty good day and a pretty decent 'mid-size' show, with good games and  traders  and best of all, meetings with friends old and new! Many thanks to the organisers, and all the  clubs, traders  and players, and to everyone I was fortunate enough to chat to.  I was glad I attended, a nice relaxed  start to the 'season'. More to follow I suspect, as  I note that  April, May and June will offer Salute, Partizan and Broadside, all very tempting..  Now I'd better take inspiration from all this and get some painting and/or gaming done... Until then, keep well everyone.