RE: PLAY 2026; a Well-Engineered Show

Having taken far too long to produce my account of The Other Partizan show from a  couple of weeks back, I am determined to be much quicker with the next one - I'm  making a start only a few hours after the show. That 'next one' being RE:PLAY wargames show, held at the Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham, and run by Milton Hundred Wargames Club, who also run the popular Broadside show each summer. 

I've been to this show once before (in 2024), so I had an idea what to expect, but I'll admit I had forgotten how unusual and (mostly) great the venue is.  You get an idea of what to expect when you arrive at the car park and find you are sharing it with at least half a dozen vintage tanks - a Churchill AVRE and a Bridge-laying tank, for example! And then inside, the games and tradestands are scattered around  among the exhibits - so you can be looking at a game, while you stand in the shadow of a V2 rocket... I must admit, from the moment of walking in I had a smile on my face. 

sharing the car park..

..and gaming amongst the hardware!

There were about 16 games listed in the program, and at least 8 traders (I suspect actually a couple more?), so a very manageable smaller show with  none of the need to dash around to get a glimpse of everything that I experienced at Partizan.  This was much more relaxed, plenty of time to look at all the games and traders, and of course the museum itself.  I think I may have actually managed to get a picture of every game at the show, which may be a first for me!  As usual, I'll show them in more or less the order I found them, as I wandered somewhat randomly around the museum ( itself rather labyrinthine in layout! ).  So without further ado:

First up, Shepway Wargamers An Englishman's Castle,  Wars of the Roses period 28mm game played with  Never Mind The Billhooks rules, I think. 

 

 

 

 

The titular castle was a lovely piece of work - it helps that one of the club members is an architectural model-maker by profession! Constructed mostly just  from card, it seems... 

..

Skirmish Wargames brought their game Phakati! set in the Cape Frontier War of 1850-1853, British colonials vs. local  Xhosa tribes.  A nice 'prequel' to the ever-popular Zulu War, in this one the British are still using 'Brown Bess' muskets!  The rules were an adaptation of Fighting the Dragon, which are intended for the Boxer Rebellion, it seems - an interesting choice. 

                              
 

Rainham Wargames Club showed two games - first,  a Lion Rampant game with late Romans facing various Celts and Britains in the twilight of Roman Britannia: 

 

and for their second game, something aimed at the younger player - Brickskrieg, WW2 with Lego : 

  

I was quite impressed with the vehicles 

Maidstone Wargames Society showed their Labyrinth Mars Sci-Fi game: 

Sorry, I know nothing about sci-fi, but it looked impressive! 

 Real Time Wargames were promoting their 1745 Jacobite Rebellion rules and campaign system, with a 10mm scale game of Redcoats vs Highlanders ( of course!). I think the figures were largely Pendraken, as you might expect in this scale.  I think that's Gareth Evans and Bernie Ganley in the first picture, discussing rules matters (or when to have lunch, who knows!)   

 I thought the figures were very nice, and one of the players explained they were pretty simply painted in a 'block colours and a wash' style. Hmm, would I prefer these to 6mm for any new period? I think perhaps yes..

Deal Wargames Society presented their Polish Blitzkrieg!  WW2  Rapid Fire Reloaded game in 20mm scale - I've seen this one at least twice before, I'll admit, but they always do such a great job and there's always another little vignette to notice. I particularly like the tiny Polish tankettes - they appear to be not much bigger then a motorcycle and sidecar combination! 

Polish column advances through the woods.. 

 

..while Germans muster to defend

 

those Tankettes 

Polish air support  scaring some cows 

The chaps from Deal can always be relied upon for something 'different', which is especially good in the WW2 period, where we perhaps get a little too much NW Europe 1944 (discuss..) :  I was told that their next game will be  Hungarians vs. Slovakians in 1939  ( possibly showing at Warfare in November? ), and that they are also working on something involving clashes between German and Turkish forces - we shall see! 

South East Essex (SEEMS) presented  Sci Fi- Voidfighters on a Budget.  Again I plead the fifth on sci-fi, and my photo of one of their two games was blurry, but here's the other one at least: 

 Given my penchant for the Seven Years War period, the next game was one of my favourites of the day - 'Hastings Unarmed' group with their 28mm  Battle of Zinna 1759 :

  

Sadly I don't recall if they told me what figures were in use, but I think the rules were Keith Flint's Honours of War,  and they had the very same HoW Scenarios book 1 that I bought at Partizan, open at the scenario for this battle! The game had been set up using several sources, including the HoW scenario book and the Kronoskaf 7YW website. All looked very nice - I liked the buildings of Zinna town, which I think were vintage Hovels.  The players looked familiar, and it turned out they are usually at shows representing the Society of Ancients, fighting various large battles with Impetus rules.  Anyway, a really nice game, and we had a bit of a chat about 7YW gaming nostalgia - Minifigs, Garrison, Spencer-Smith, Charles Grant etc;  all good stuff!  

 Shed O'War Games   aka Des Darkin brought his Battle of Piedmont 1864 game  (15mm, I think) to demonstrate his recently-published ACW rules - he was happy to chat even when I admitted I don't do ACW!  If I remember rightly the rules feature a command and control mechanism which gives each commander a number of action points (representing staff officers)  and you actually need to run those down by taking actions - the points then go back into a 'pot' and when all are used, you get the 'pot' back again - so you might try to time that, such that you get your available actions topped-up just as the enemy are getting low..interesting!    Unfortunately this game was in rather a 'back of beyond' room of the museum - I nearly didn't find it at all - and the lighting was quite poor, too, so my pictures might not be so good. It did look good, though - and if the rules sound interesting, he has a lot of material including tutorial videos on his website ( see link above).  

 More Sci-Fi next,  with Medway Wargames Society's Konflict 47  game.  They were very happy to explain the concept of the K47 system - 'rift energy', was it?  Their game had a twist in that one side included units of Dr Who's own Daleks - these apparently simulating the British 'automatic infantry' in  the game rules (did I get that right? I have no idea 😀 ).  The standout feature, though, was the huge gun turret on legs - which was apparently 3D printed and took about a week to produce!

 Back to history now, though not exactly certainty.  Milton Hundred Wargames Club's  Battle of Brunnanburh 937 - a battle for which there are multiple suggested locations,  with the two most popular seemingly  the Wirral and the Humber areas, so quite far apart! One of those classic 'little is known about the battle' Dark Ages engagements.  Tony aka MS Foy of Prometheus in Aspic may be interested to see this, as a son of Merseyside himself and therefore a supporter of the Wirral scenario..

The game was played in 28mm scale, using Hail Caesar rules, which allowed the big shieldwall vs shieldwall melees to involve a very satisfying number of dice ( 'that'll be 13 dice at 4 to hit'...). Nice figures and units, with a proper 'Dark Age Britain' feel to the battle - even if 'little is known', I guess I still have my impression  of the period! . 

Friday Night Firefight  brought their Clan Wars Fantasy  game  - a sort of Japan/Samurai look (great buildings) but with lots of fantasy elements including plenty of mythical monster figures, such as the rather spectacular dragons! 

 

Almost at the end now, in the afternoon I found Postie's Rejects with their 28mm Napoleonic 1812 Retreat from Moscow game - in fact a series of games, as they played through the first three scenarios in the rule book that rejects Ray and Big Lee co-authored with Paul Brook of Pazoot.  They'd been placed in the furthest and darkest corner of the museum and were hard to find - maybe the chilly atmosphere was appropriate for the subject?  Anyway, it was interesting  to see the game being played, it's a collaborative skirmish game, with all the players controlling small bands of French troops, and the Russians run by the umpire with an automatic system driven by die rolls. In the game I saw (scenario 3)  the action was happening in a blizzard, which meant that groups of  Russians would appear almost anywhere on the board, coming out of the snowstorm, and the French target exit points on the edge of the table would keep moving as the snow enveloped them - so plenty of surprises for the players! 

umpire Ray directs operations: Dave & Steve await their fate..

 

this last picture isn't too good technically, but tells a story - taken hurriedly while the combat dice rolls were being made. The foot figures nearest were Steve's party of French, who had almost reached their exit point (the red counter behind) when three scary Cossacks charged out of the blizzard. Quite surprisingly, Steve managed to shoot down two of the Cossacks and might have got away, but then the blizzard came down again and the exit point moved out of reach!    
      

You can see official reports on this game by both Ray on his  Don't Throw a One  and Lee on his Miniature Adventures blog - well worth a read. And I believe they sold a few sets of the rules, too.   

The last game I saw (because I didn't find the room until late!) was one of the most interesting for me, Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society's  WW2 Air Combat game using Check Your Six rules. The scenario was from the Stalingrad airlift - a formation of Heinkel 111 bombers loaded with supplies had to try to reach an  airfield near the city, escorted by Me 109s but opposed by a gaggle of Russian fighters (possibly Yak-9s?). The models are 1/200 scale, which I thought looked 'just right'.  

Russians rise to meet the distant German formation 

      

The German formation, with very close fighter  escort

                              

Russians (dark green fighters) attack, as escorts close in 

..and two Yaks and one He-111 went down! 

 I stopped and watched a few turns of this game, and was quite impressed with the way the rules worked; they seemed to strike quite a good balance between ease of play and the right 'feel', and the use of a hexed playing area made things easier to operate. I'm quite tempted to acquire these rules - I've got a bunch of 1/300 Battle of Britain aircraft that have been sat in a box for decades waiting for action.The guys playing the game were very welcoming and  happy to talk about the game, and were obviously pretty keen on these rules, including campaign systems such as Guadalcanal 1942  and Norway 1940 that are available in a series of supplement books.   All very interesting.. 

That was all for the games, and I had plenty of time to look at trade stands. I thought I should spend a bit to lend some support to them, and I went for some scenery and some figures. For the scenery, I  liked some of the items offered by Reaction Games, and couldn't resist their Water Mill, complete with wheel of course, which will do nicely for 25mm 7YW layouts. From Debris of War I bought a small stone bridge (I suspect you always need another bridge) which will do for both  20/25mm and 15mm scales, and a few gabions - 'just because'.   Finally from Brigade Models, a Mediterranean Church (2mm scale) to go with the village that I already have (and haven't painted, oops!) as an experiment for possible use with 6mm figures, as I've seen done by others.  

As to figures, The Pit Gaming Shop were there with  a selection of Eagle Figures, including some 7YW packs, and I thought I'd try a sample of them. I got a command pack for Prussian infantry Musketeers -  because my current re-organise/re-base project seems to always result in the need for more officers - and a nice Russian artillery piece with four crewmen, because my Russians have no guns as yet, and their distinctive red uniforms should look good!  They are nominally 28mm but don't seem too tall  and are quite slim, I'm sure they will fit in with my (mainly)  25mm vintage Minifigs.

 Having arrived about 11:00 am, I stayed until the show ended at 4:00 pm, and had a thoroughly good day. I had a reasonably-priced sandwich lunch at the museum cafe (on the 'upper deck', with a view across the exhibition space) in company with my old friend Tony Toms, which felt a bit of an honour since he's chair of the Milton Hundred club  and was therefore running the whole show!  Tony is a fantastic motivator   ( 'what's your next project, Dave?!') with a career in  Project Management, so I reckon the show is in good hands..  Great to see you, Tony, and always good  to have a talk! The next project is probably getting enough 7YW Russians and Prussians based up for a small battle - hence the figure purchases..  I didn't really have time to seriously look around the museum, but to gain entry to the show you bought an ordinary  admission to the museum, which is valid for a year - so I am quite likely to go for a look around on another occasion. One that springs to mind is the day of the Broadside show next summer.  

Shows: Large and Small  

Having done this show and The Other Partizan in the past fortnight, it's perhaps instructive to compare and contrast.  The Partizan shows are of course huge affairs, among the largest in the UK with probably 100 games and dozens of traders, and many very large and spectacular display games. All of which is of course great, but I do feel there are some issues arising. With Partizan I'll admit the location is about the furthest I would travel to a show. At over 2 hours each way I have to spend 4.5 hours 'on the road' , which means that I am lucky if I can actually spend as much time at the show as I spend travelling. That in itself puts some pressure on me to see as much as possible - but the show is so big, I never can, or not in any meaningful way.  The big shows can also be very crowded, which makes for an uncomfortable day,  and it's often very difficult to 'engage' with people running the games and have a good talk abut what they are doing. And then the 'spectacular' games - all very impressive, amazing what can be done, etc, but I'll admit that I am beginning to tire of them. Quite a few I suspect are not really games that can be played, but really just great big dioramas. And though the sheer numbers, size and detail of models and terrain can be amazing, I'm not sure they are actually inspiring - there is no way you are going to be able to reproduce anything like this at home, so why bother? Perhaps a bit like the hyper-detailed, 'umpteen layers of shading and highlights' figures so often shown in hobby magazines, which do the opposite of inspiring me to paint.. I will continue to visit Partizan (and Salute, which is a lot nearer), but I need to think a bit more about how to approach it and what  I want to get out of the day. 

In contrast, smaller shows like RE:Play may seem a bit insignificant - only 16 games and less than a dozen traders?  But it's all so much easier and more relaxed, and that means quite a lot. With a smaller number of games you really can stop and engage with  the ones that look interesting, and with a smaller number of punters, the players are much more likely to step forward and talk to you. I spent at least 30 mins watching and discussing that WW2 air battle, safe in the knowledge that I'd seen all the other games already, enjoyed an unhurried lunch  and had plenty of time for shopping too!  There were not many really large 'spectacular' games but there were plenty of  interesting ones, and pretty much all 'do-able' - 'I could put on something like this at home', and you could discuss and learn about the rules.  Of course,  RE:Play has the unique selling point of the location - the museum  really is worth a visit on it's own, and the way the games are set up amongst the exhibits is great.  That said, there were some minor issues - the obvious one being difficulties finding some of the games! The quirky layout is fun, but it was sometimes a bit hard to work out where things were, and a couple of games did seem to end up in a an obscure area with no signage guiding visitors to them.  There wasn't a paper (or on-line) ground plan available to show where each game or trader were situated - that would have helped, I think! From something Tony said, I suspect the final layout wasn't sorted until the day before the event, so I guess that's why no plan could be distributed.  But this is a minor point; I for one did manage to find everything in the end.    

Of course it's not really fair to directly compare shows in this way, and they are trying to do different things - at something like Partizan or Salute you will probably get a survey of just about everything going on in the hobby currently, and that is valuable, even if one person would struggle to take it all in! And there's that feeling of 'everyone is here', if only you can bump into them.. So, long may the big shows continue, and I will try to keep going to them; but in my heart of hearts, I  reckon I had a more pleasurable day at RE:Play. I'm glad to have gone to both, of course! 

I hope you've found this post interesting and/or entertaining, assuming you made it this far.  Now, suitably inspired and with some more figures and terrain to paint, I'd better get back to 'normal' hobby stuff. I also feel the need to set up a game, however modest, in the near future - and then report on it on this blog, of course! Until then, keep well everyone.