You never know what will turn up at the PW Show each year, it's a perfect mélange of toy soldiers, all scales large and small, collectable rarities rub shoulders with terrible tat, it's anybody's game and it's always a lot of fun. I never go with any expectation of what I might find, mostly I'm looking out for figures to flesh out my 54mm toy soldier wargame armies and this year there was a bumper crop of Medievals:
When I have a little money, I buy Toy Soldiers; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. (with apologies to:) ERASMUS
Saturday, 20 September 2025
A Medieval host at the Plastic Warrior Show 2025
Tuesday, 5 August 2025
Battle of Saguntum 1811 - 54mm Battle Cry game.
For our latest game we decided to try a Napoleonic version of Battle Cry and Anthony suggested the Peninsular War Battle of Saguntum 1811.
Tuesday, 24 June 2025
New Replicants English Civil War figures at the Plastic Warrior Show 2025
Each year, Peter Cole of Replicants uses the Plastic Warrior Show to launch his latest range of figures, this year he had eight new mounted English Civil War troopers to tempt us, and this is what they look like:
Saturday, 21 September 2024
Malcolm III and William Rufus 1093 - Battle Ravens
Since discovering that the boardgame Battle Ravens translates so well to the tabletop for a wargame with 54mm toy soldiers we thought we'd give it another outing.
Our first trial of the game was a standard shieldwall encounter between Vikings and Saxons, but the game also offers sets of cards to portray the national characteristics of Scots, Welsh and Normans so we decided to try something different.
For a scenario I chose the border raid in 1093 by the Scots of Malcolm III, in support of Saxon refugees, against a frontier outpost held by the Normans of William Rufus.
Friday, 6 September 2024
Jacobite Rebellion - One Hour Wargames
Subsequent to this year's Plastic Warrior Show, Anthony has acquired the greater part of a Jacobite 54mm wargames collection created by our old friend Eric Kemp. Needless to say, we couldn't wait to get them out on the table. We turned to our default ruleset for such games, One Hour Wargames by Neil Thomas and selected Scenario 6 - Flank Attack.
This post is really a shameless opportunity to show off some very pretty toy soldiers, for which I offer no apology!
Monday, 1 April 2024
Battle Ravens - Dan Mersey
It's been a while since we last had a game but this weekend I finally managed to clear enough space for one. Battle Ravens is a board game designed by Dan Mersey with graphics provided by Peter Dennis, both well known names in the gaming world, the former for rules systems and the latter for his excellent ranges of paper soldiers. The game is about combat in a Viking/Saxon shieldwall and comes with opposing 35mm armies of Peter's card mounted paper soldiers. Anthony thought it would be good to play using 54mm toy soldiers so I dusted off the Dark Ages collection and this is how it went:
The two armies square up to form shieldwalls, each has armoured Hirdmen (Hearthguards) in the front line, unarmoured Bondi in the second line and a group of Thrals (skirmishers) behind them. The command units overseeing each shieldwall have no role in the game but I included them to represent the players, and because they look good.