Society of Ancients Battle Day 2013 Announced

…the fight grew fierce, confused, monstrous, unrelenting...
The tenth annual Society of Ancients Battle Day, Saturday 13 April 2013
Sycamore Hall, Drayton Road, Bletchley, Near Milton Keynes, MK2 3RR, UK

Chalons 451 AD

And although the situation was itself fearful, yet the presence of their king dispelled anxiety and hesitation. Hand to hand they clashed in battle, and the fight grew fierce, confused, monstrous, unrelenting--a fight whose like no ancient time has ever recorded. There such deeds were done that a brave man who missed this marvellous spectacle could not hope to see anything so wonderful all his life long. For, if we may believe our elders, a brook flowing between low banks through the plain was greatly increased by blood from the wounds of the slain. It was not flooded by showers, as brooks usually rise, but was swollen by a strange stream and turned into a torrent by the increase of blood. Those whose wounds drove them to slake their parching thirst drank water mingled with gore. In their wretched plight they were forced to drink what they thought was the blood they had poured from their own wounds.

Phew! The ferocious hand-to-hand fighting, as described in Chapter 40 of Jordanes “The Origin and Deeds of the Goths”, translated by Charles C. Mierow and found online at http://people.ucalgary.ca/~vandersp/Courses/texts/jordgeti.html

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

The battle: Chalons 451 AD – Attila and his Hunnic hordes finally meet their match on the Catalaunian Fields at the hands of the Roman/Visigoth/German alliance scraped together by the Roman Patrician Aetius.

So turn back the Hunnic hordes with Aetius and his polyglot alliance, or join Attila the Hun and sweep aside the last resistance in Western Europe to your bloodthirsty conquest.

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.
  

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

As usual we will have an expert speaker giving an introduction to the battle at the start of the day. Simon MacDowall, author of many books on the period including the Osprey Warrior series “Late Roman Infantryman” and “Late Roman Cavalryman”, will be opening for us this year. Simon will also be running a game using the latest incarnation of his period-specific Comitatus rules.

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.

To offer to stage a game, either at the event itself or as a "partner event" somewhere else in the world – please contact Richard Lockwood either by going to the SoA contact page (set the topic to "Battle Day" - it will go to him automatically) 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 eight 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.

For more information on the Society of Ancients, please visit www.soa.org.uk.

You can join the Society at www.soa.org.uk/store.