First Show of the Year : Cavalier 2025

I will admit I've been rather inactive hobby-wise since Xmas,  Fellow blogger Neil Patterson started his latest excellent Aufklarungsabteilung blog post by saying 'My apparent silence on the blog is mostly due to a profound lack of wargaming activity and continued lack of focus and distractions' -  I couldn't have put it better myself (though I did have some hobby activity, thanks entirely to other people's generosity - Jon Frietag's remote games and Chris/Nundanket's PBEM Bohemia 1757 campaign, have both been fantastic ).  But I had something to look forward to, in the form of Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society's annual Cavalier show, which took place this  Sunday just gone. I went along, had a good day, and gave my hobby 'mojo' a bit of a boost. Of course I took some photos of the games being presented, and I will show some of them here, in more or less the order I came across them. 

Shepway wargamers brought their Dornier Down  Operation Sea Lion 1940 game; I had seen it before, but it is a rather nice setup. I particularly liked the large-scale Hurricane ( Airfix 1:24?) model 'flying' over the battlefield, and the beautifully-modelled town terrain. 

   

Another one I'd seen before, but still nice - Deal Wargames Society Gradual Sunset: Counter Insurgency in Thailand 1980-83. 

 

The game was played to the club's home-grown rules, which included interactions with jungle wildlife - including giant poisonous caterpillars... (another nice bit of vintage Airfix too, with that house on stilts).

Real Time Wargames were demonstrating their new The Ruin of Britain  rules for Dark Ages Britain, with a nice 10mm scale battle - I liked that village, though I forgot to ask where it might have come from.  I also like that Real Time usually include a campaign system with their rule sets - good for them. Dark Ages Britain is a bit of a 'wish-list' period for me, but not sure if I will ever get to it..      

 The Shed Wargames Club put on  A Song of Fire and Ice; Battle for Westeros,  a 28mm scale Game of Thrones battle with impressive  terrain and colourful troops. I think I saw Miniature Wargames editor  Jon Treadaway nearby, so I suspect this one may appear in a show report in his magazine, if he does one.   

 

 South East Essex Military Society showed a Peninsular War game An Affair of Outposts, using Rebels and Patriots rules with Flags and Eagles Napoleonic module.  It was a two-part game, using two linked scenarios taken from Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames, which I thought was an interesting idea (OHW is endlessly useful). My first picture shows the second scenario, being played in the afternoon :

   ..and my second picture is from the first scenario, in the morning - as you do. I am told these nice (Voltigeurs?)  figures are old-school Minifigs, and well over 40 years old. 

 Warlord Games showed a  snowy Battle of the Bulge type game to promote their Bolt Action rules - note blatant 'product placement' of the rulebook, but you can't blame them, can you? Good to see a large trader like them supporting one of the smaller shows.  

Maidstone Wargame Society came up with a really fun idea for their game Battlezone - Futuristic Tank Warfare in 1980 .  

Who'd have thought we could get nostalgic about those really clunky early computer games?  Quite some feat of 'reverse engineering'! 

Now for some really 'old school'.gaming: the Little Wars Revisited Group's  Relief of Fort Pippin, 54mm and distinctly shiny toy soldiers representing 'Imagi-Nations' from c.1900,  but looking distinctly British and German.battling for possession of the titular fort,  using Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame rules.    

The very nice (equally shiny) gridded terrain was made from MDF, with ingenious gridded scenery pieces allowing troops to stand in woods, building etc - I had a good chat with their maker, who turned out to be none other than Mike Lewis,  host of the LittleWars1913 blog.  His current 'Siege of Dendermonde' project involves some amazing terrain-building and is well worth having a look at. 

ooh, shiny,,

  Note the armoured train, with trucks each occupying one grid area and capable of holding one unit - it's all been thought out very carefully. 

'Red'/British gunners closely assailed by Blue/Prussians

The Society of Ancients can be relied upon to come up with a decent 'big battle' game: this time of Sentinum, 295BC,  Romans vs a coalition of Samnites, Etruscans, Umbrians and Gauls  - played with Impetus rules. 

SoA : Sentinum 295BC

Clash in the centre :Legions vs Gauls (probably?)

Central London Wargames club demonstated their Emperor of the Battlefield Napoleonic rules, in 15mm scale :

Rainham Wargames club had a nice looking 28mm Wars of the Roses game with Never Mind the Billhooks rules :

 

 

Tonbridge ( note: not  Tunbridge Wells ) Wargames Club had a Sci-Fi game Tonbridge Marines vs. the Aliens using Xenos Rampant   rules

..and Guildford Wargames Club brought their impressive  A Zeppelin over Guildford  1915 aerial combat game in 1./144 scale

 

 And that's about my lot. There were several other games which I didn't quite get around to photographing - as ever, for a much more comprehensive set of pictures of the show I'd recommend Big Lee's excellent  video report. 

I enjoyed the day; I arrived just after 11am and stayed till about 3pm. It was pretty busy when I arrived, but distinctly quieter after lunchtime - I heard some grumbling about parking prices in the car park outside, which  was free in previous years, so I wonder if that had an effect ( I travelled from London by train, 45 mins journey then 5 mins walk to the venue). The venue is decent, with the sports hall of the local leisure centre as the main room for games and traders, and a second smaller room with more games and the Bring and Buy. The cafe upstairs is pleasant and did tea and coffee for £1, and good sandwich rolls too. I was pleased to meet a few friends old and new - I lunched with  old compadres Tony and Reg, and chatted amicably to Ray, Richard and Steve from Postie's Rejects despite being deadly enemies in a wild West Gunfight only the other week - good to see you all! 

 'In other news' : I have been slowly plugging away at my 6mm Risorgimento 1859 armies, and have now almost finished them - a further 5 Austrian and 6 Piedmontese units await only flags and green  flocking on bases, and after that I just have to paint an artillery battery for each side. Here are the almost-finished units, with Austrian Cavalry at the front - figures are semi-flat MDF from Commission Figurines.  

 

I have enjoyed painting them, except for the fact that I think I tried to do too many at once! Smaller batches, little and often, may be a better way forward. 

So, with these very close to completion,  there may be some actual gaming with them soon! Watch this space - meanwhile, keep well everyone

Postscript :  3 years this week, and how things have changed. 

No words, really..