2011 Society of Ancient Doubles Masters - results

DOUBLES MASTERS 2011

The Society of Ancients Doubles Masters was hosted over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th September in Abingdon by the BHGS and the Oxford club.

24 Teams competed in DBMM and Field of Glory for individual awards and for the Doubles Masters Alexander Trophy (which would go to the highest scoring pair over both events).

Field of Glory (Ancient and Medieval)
1. Terry Shaw and Simon Hall
2. Dave Handley and Nik Sharp
3. Keith Martin-Smith and Graham Evans
.... S Munton/G Briggs; D Fairhurst/L Fairhurst; D Pearce/H Pearce; D Bannister/M J Simpson; A Ellis/K Ellis; G Jamieson/R Jeffrey; D Morrisson/ J Patrick; J Akers/P Card; P Steele/C Ager; J Simpson/D Saunders ...

DBMM
1. Mike Bennett and Colin Sharp
2. Greg Mann and Mark Hare
3. Mark Priest and Lawrence Greaves
... T Richardson/K Nathan; J Morgan/T Childs; P Kershaw; J Saunders/P Saunders; S Rathgay/J Smith ...

DOUBLES MASTERS
1. Terry Shaw and Simon Hall (FoG)
2. Dave Handley and Nik Sharp (FoG)
3. Mike Bennett and Colin Sharp (DBMM)

The event also hosted FoG R and AK47 events: Alastair Harley won the FoG R and Peter Parker Harris won the AK47

On behalf of the Society of Ancients and all the players, many thanks to the hosts and organisers and congratulations to the worthy Champions

(2011 Doubles Masters: Terry Shaw and Simon Hall)

East of England DBA Challenge 2011

CANCELLED

The Society of Ancients cordially invites you to the

A one day friendly DBA tournament taking place at Eastern Front Wargames Show, St Andrew's Hall, Norwich.
Sunday 21st August, starts 9:30am
Pleny of Games. Plenty of time to see the Show.
Great Prizes (Champion, Dux Britanniae, Junior, Newcomer, Best Presentation)
Counts towards the 2011 Society of Ancients UK DBA League

Please come along and join in. The cost is just £5, which includes entry to the wargames show. The fee is payable on the day, but please contact the organisers to book in, in advance. This should not deter late bookers (do come, even at the last minute), it is simply to speed up the organisation on the day.

Bring your own army in 15mm, any valid army is allowed from AD 410 to AD 1066. No terrain required. One list (all elements must be selected in advance for the event), normal dismounting rules etc. apply. Armies that actually fought in Britannia within the period also qualify for the 'Dux Britanniae' award. 'Newcomer' simply means you have not played in a SoA UK DBA League previously this year. Loan armies can be organised if needed.

This would be a great opportunity to get some games in whilst visiting a show, or for intrigued newcomers to tryout DBA (let us know and we will arrange the draw so you get to play an experienced player in the first round who can show you the ropes).

Enquiries and entries
yesthatphil 'at' yahoo.co.uk

The East of England DBA Challenge is sponsored by The Society of Ancients, Eastern Front and Monarch Military Books

Battle Day 2012 announced: Plataea 479 BC

The ninth annual Society of Ancients Battle Day, Saturday 31 March 2012
Sycamore Hall, Drayton Road, Bletchley, Near Milton Keynes, MK2 3RR

Plataea 479 BC

"When he had so spoken, he crossed the Asopus, and led the Persians forward at a run directly upon the track of the Greeks, whom he believed to be in actual flight. He could not see the Athenians; for, as they had taken the way of the plain, they were hidden from his sight by the hills; he therefore led on his troops against the Lacedaemonians and the Tegeans only. When the commanders of the other divisions of the barbarians saw the Persians pursuing the Greeks so hastily, they all forthwith seized their standards, and hurried after at their best speed in great disorder and disarray. On they went with loud shouts and in a wild rout, thinking to swallow up the runaways."

Mardonius the Persian general begins the battle by pursuing the retreating Greek alliance. From Book IX of The History of Herodotus, this translation by George Rawlinson and found online at
http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.9.ix.html


For our ninth annual Battle Day, we once again invite you to a unique day’s wargaming.

The battle: Plataea 479 BC – the day the Greeks decisively defeat the invading Persian army to secure their freedom, and arguably define for the next 2,500 years the cultural basis of what we call today “the west”.

So stand firm with Pausanias the Spartan King against the barbarian hordes of the Persians, or join Mardonius and the Persian Immortals in demanding earth and water from these Greek upstarts!

As ever, the aims of the day remain the same:
· To have fun!
· To gather as many ancient wargamers as possible to refight a historical battle.
· To fight the same battle simultaneously on many tables, using a different set of rules on each table.

As usual the day will run from 9am until 5pm, with an hour either side to set up and pack away.

And of course, The Society of Ancients will be awarding a number of prizes (for various criteria, some more frivolous than others) to the wargamers on the day, including prizes for Best Game and Best Terrain. With luck the lazy figure painter (that would be me) will have painted the prizes beforehand this year…

To offer to stage a game – contact Richard Lockwood at battleday@soa.org.uk or else via his details in Slingshot. But in any case, come along and take part as a player.

The cost of participating in the Battle Day, to contribute towards hire of venue and tables, will be held at £7 (juniors free), as it has been for several years now.

Every year it just gets better and better – this really should be a regular event on your calendar. Don’t miss out – come and be part of it!

The Battle Day is open to both members and non-members of the Society of Ancients.

2011 Battle Day - Kadesh

The eighth annual Society of Ancients Battle Day will take place on Saturday 2 April at Sycamore Hall, Drayton Road, Bletchley, near Milton Keynes, MK2 3RR. This year the chosen battle is Kadesh, and we have eleven games refighting this epic battle, using the following rule sets:

Armati - Command & Colours: Ancients - DBMM - Donald Featherstone - Giant DBA - Hail Caesar - Lost Battles - Peltast and Pila - Piquet Archon - Warlord - Warmaster Ancients

I am sure you will agree this is an impressive array of games for you to come along and take part in - most of the games are still looking for generals to join them!

The day is open to both members and non-members of the Society, all are welcome. We have to make a small charge of £7 to all attendees to go towards venue and table hire, although juniors are free.

The timetable for the day is approximately:

8am Hall available for set-up

9am Official start of the battles

9:15am Introduction to Kadesh: Ian Russell-Lowell puts the battle in context, and discusses the key moments and controversial issues.

4pm Prize giving. Oh yes. We give prizes. One for Best Overall Game and one for Best Terrain. And then we will be awarding the much-coveted and entirely spurious individual prizes for tales of derring-do on the tabletop.

5pm Official close

6pm Hall must be vacated

Contact Richard Lockwood (email: Richard@thelockwood.com or phone:07990 510492)

Armati by the Sea 2011 results

ARMATI BY THE SEA 2011

Sponsored by the Society of Ancients, Armati by the Sea was held at the Hotel Royale in Bournemouth over the weekend of 12th-13th March.

The format followed the now traditional matched pairs, with all the armies and terrain pre-selected and provided by the organisers (and drawn by lot for each round). All players were given A4 booklets containing full army lists and notes for all armies available in the pool (52 armies for 26 scenarios covering the full period range from 'Biblical' to 'Age of Chivalry').

After all 5 rounds, Roy Boss came out on top, with Bruce Rollet and Malcolm King as runners up.

The full results: 1: Roy Boss (132); 2: Bruce Rollet (127); 3: Malcolm King (109); then ... Stuart Campbell (100); Alan Zanich (92); John Bradley (84); Ian Kerr (83); Mark Fry (82); Craig Tannock (77); Phil Steele (69); Tim Cull (68); Paul Collins (64); Richard Jeffrey-Cook (58); Matthew Bennett (53); Oliver Hutt (47); Mick Owen (36).

Many thanks to Peter Barham for organising the event, to Mark Fry who umpired, and to Mark and Roy for again achieving the huge task of organising and providing all the armies, and shifting them down to Bournemouth.

Bookings are currently being made to secure the venue for Armati by the Sea 2012.

(On behalf of the Society of Ancients, Richard Jeffrey-Cook presented the Armati trophy to Roy Boss (central), Peter Barham (lower inserts) presented further awards for notable achievements. Photo by Phil Steele)

For more information and pictures from Society of Ancients events, please go to our Shows North blog (Ancients on the Move) ...

Phil Steele
President

Society of Ancients Games day

GAMES DAY 2009

ELLES HALL

Farnborough

Sunday 20th September

Same venue as last year's AGM. This is an annual open invitation for a day of Ancient and Medieval wargames ... display games, pick-up games, Championship games ... Contact the organiser if you need to book a table.

Elles Hall, Meudon Avenue, Farborough GL14 7LE
Follow the events page link (here ...) if you need a map

All welcome - facilities available all day from 10.00.
Come along and join in.

Society of Ancients at Claymore 2009

The Society of Ancients will be attending Claymore in Edinburgh on Saturday 1st August, at its new venue, Telford College. More space and fresher air are promised at the bigger venue.

Members of Glasgow's Phoenix Wargaming club will be running a version of the big 25mm Battle of Callinicum game which they put together for the Scottish contribution to the Society of Ancients BattleDay earlier this year. The game, originally played on the sandtable pictured, uses Tactica II rules. Please come along and get involved as we reconstruct this key border encounter between the Eastern Roman Empire and their Sassanian neighbours.

The Shows North team will be supporting the game with a full range of Society publications and the membership stand, so there will be an opportunity to meet and chat, as well as pick up any SoA material you need, join or renew your subscription - or just enjoy the game and browse the highly praised 'new look' Slingshots.

More on Shows North (here ...)
Details for Claymore (here ...)
More on the Callinicum game (here ...)

Phil Steele
The Society of Ancients

Society of Ancients at UK Games Expo

Clarendon Suites, Edgbaston B16 9SB


The Society of Ancients shows team will be at the UK Games Expo this weekend. Come along to this great event http://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/index.php - the place to try out new games. We will be taking along some Field of Glory kit with a Crusades theme in support of the mini tournament they are hosting, and to fly the 'ancients' flag. Please join in - especially if you haven't tried FoG before, or to break up the diverse choice of other styles and interests the Expo caters for.

http://soawargamesteam.blogspot.com/

Events

The events page was extremely slow, basically because it loaded the events from a very slow third party calendar server. Accordingly, I’ve replaced it for the moment with an embedded Google Calendar, which is less pretty and functional but which takes less than 20 seconds to load. It also allows somebody else to maintain the events list, which is in line with the intent of being able to distribute responsibility for the website in line with various people’s remits, rather than concentrate it because nobody can edit it but the webmaster. Anyhow, the address has now changed, and you may have to refresh the site in your browser to pick up the new tabs.