Woking Wargames Day 2022

 A couple of weeks back (how time flies) I went along to the Woking Wargames Day organised by Mike Lewis of the Little Wars Revisited Group, there were four games in play throughout the day and here is what they looked like:

Mike Lewis put on the Battle of Quatre Bras using Neil Thomas' Napoleonic rules.

The Prussians take the crossroads..........

................and hold it to win the game.

Anthony Morton brought along his Romans and Ancient Germans, as seen on this blog recently.

We didn't use these German cavalry last time we played so I was very pleased to get this shot of them.

Pat (sorry didn't get your last name) treated us to his Anglo-Normans game using the Lion Rampant rules, which seem to be universally popular with 54mm wargamers.

The figures used are 54mm metal castings from Irregular Miniatures.

Nice to see all the different shield designs.

The fourth game of the day was Eric Kemp's Italian Revolution skirmish using Eric's own simple fast play rules.

All the figures were conversions made from just about every American Civil War range you can think of.

Garibaldi's Red Shirts get to grips with Papal Zouaves, Eric's conversions are always a joy to behold.

The home made rules were very easy to assimilate and gave a realistic outcome despite Eric's legendary ability to throw a 1.

I can't remember which Regiment these chaps represent but they were a welcome addition to the Papal forces.

That's all for another year folk's, I missed the last two and am already looking forward to the next one.

Woking Wargames Day 2019

Spending a whole day just enjoying yourself can be quite exhausting, but that's what the various members of the Little Wars Revisited group (and a few others) did last weekend at the LWR Forum 2019 Games Day in Woking.  The event boasted five games played using 54mm toy soldiers and here's a taster of how it went:

Eric Kemp put on a skirmish game using his own rules set in the Schleswig-Holstein War and featuring his rather superb conversions

If you want to refight an obscure period like this in 54mm you have to go with metal figures (expensive and heavy to transport) or plastic conversions (requiring skill and time to make) so skirmish games rather than big battles are the order of the day.  And this shows what a spectacle you can provide with just a 4'x4' table and about 20 figures a side.

Anthony Morton brought out his "Little Legions" Zulu war collection for the Battle of Isandlwana using "The Portable Wargame" rules by Bob Cordery.

The modular terrain blocks are made by Mike Lewis of Black Hat Miniatures (who organises the Woking Wargames Day) and provides an infinite variety of options for landscaping a battlefield, its also idea for grid based games like The Portable Wargame.

Mike Lewis, mentioned above, staged a 19th Century game using his own Little Wars Revisited range of metal figures using a draft version of  "A Gentleman's War" rules which are due to be published right about now by Howard Whitehouse.

Keen eyed readers will recognise this layout as the battle of Hook's Farm from H G Wells' "Little Wars" an ideal scenario as A Gentleman's War is played in much the same manner as Wells' rules.

As you can see here, smaller scale buildings work perfectly well with 54mm figures, well I think so anyway.

My own humble efforts using Britains Deetail and various other converted figures, 

the rule system was "Battle Cry" by Richard Borg and the scenario selected was The Battle of Falling Waters

The beauty of a system like Battle Cry for an event like this is that it's very quick and easy to pick up an understanding of the rules.  On this occasion my opponent was already well versed in the Ancients version of the game so had a feel for the order of the game and lead his Confederates to a resounding victory over my numerically superior Federals. 

Tim Rose offered us "A Very British Civil War" using his own rules the game is set during the 1937 Tithe Wars in East Anglia, never heard of them? me neither but Tim gave us a very interesting potted history on the background of them.

I played this game in the afternoon session and thoroughly enjoyed it, it's a true toy soldier game with each individual figure counted as using whatever armament he's been made with, be it a grenade, rifle or anti-tank weapon. It's all very 1930's and introduces lots of factions like Fascist Blackshorts, Foresters, Yeomanry, Territorials, Anglican League and Communist Militia.

Tim did an admirable job as umpire, controlling the chaos we were  making on the table and occasionally adding to it by feeding in unexpected reinforcements.  A fast free flowing game and great fun.

It is nice to get your toys out of the shoebox once in a while and play with them.

Little Wars Revisited - Woking Wargames Day 2018

Yesterday saw various members of the Little Wars Revisited Forum gather together in Woking, Surrey for a day of 54mm wargaming. Five different games were played throughout the day, each a different period and rule set, here are the all important pictures:

Anthony Morton brought out his English Civil War armies for an airing of the Pikeman's Lament rules written by Daniel Mersey.

I should have taken more pictures of the terrain and buildings (and I thought I had but apparently not!) which were superb, but as usual I was beguiled by the figures.

At least this time I remembered to include the cavalry, which I omitted when his collection last graced this blog.

Here we see Bob Cordery's Portable Wargame as presented by Mike Lewis using his Little Wars Revisited range of figures and new modular terrain.  The 54mm Wargames Day was Mike's brainchild and he did all the work, so many thanks Mike (and can we do it again next year?)

This was the North West Frontier game that I participated in, the rules used were The Sword and the Flame, written by Larry Brom

This was my first time using these rules and my thanks go to Alastair (sorry don't know your surname) for patiently steering me through them.  The scenario shows a relief column trying to fight it's way through hostile Pathans to save a beleaguered garrison.

A well sighted Pathan gun plays havoc with the British troops pinned in the rocky landscape.  Again there was great use made of simple terrain pieces to create a visually enjoyable game.

We used activation cards designed specifically for TSATF and available from The Virtual Armchair General which all agreed made the game a lot easier, quicker and more fun to play.

This impressive display was brought along by Eric Kemp and features figures from numerous manufacturers including his own Helmet Soldiers

Eric was using his own rule system to refight the action around La Haye Sainte every roof tile has been individually cut and fixed to the the buildings, wish the slates on my house were as well laid.

Eric is aiming build up his collection to 1,500 figures for a massive outdoor game at the end of this summer, we wish him luck!

My own humble offering was a pitched battle between the French and English using Lion Rampant rules and my well worn medievals.

A fast flowing game, helped or hindered, (the jury is still out on this) by a quick reference sheet that I had prepared in advance.  Here the French men at arms are about to serve the coup de grace on the English.

After a long tiring day of playing with toy soldiers I retired home and met Mrs C in our local pub just in time to watch the French trounce the English for a second time in a day, this was a rather more serious matter, it was the 6 Nations rugby match in Paris.

 A great day had by all.

Helmet Kits figures at the Plastic Warrior Show

Eric Kemp had a stand for Helmet Soldiers and displayed some of the great figures he makes to promote his kits.

"An army marches on it's stomach!" Eric uses a lot of the Helmet Kits parts to make figures for his wargame armies, see the link to his blog "Towards a 54mm Waterloo Wargame" in the list on the right, it's been dormant for a while but there's an awful lot of great conversions to look at.

An artilleryman struggles to change a carriage wheel, small vignettes like this add a bit of  fascination to the table and help to tell the bigger story in a wargame.