Battle Day 2015

This just in from Richard Lockwood:

…he was informed that Porus, with the whole of his army, was on the other side of that river…

The twelfth annual Society of Ancients Battle Day, Saturday 28 March 2015

Sycamore Hall, Drayton Road, Bletchley, Near Milton Keynes, MK2 3RR

The Hydaspes 326 BC

Upon this, the drivers of the elephants urged forward the beasts against the cavalry but now the phalanx itself of the Macedonians was advancing against the elephants, the men casting darts at the riders and also striking the beasts themselves, standing round them on all sides. The action was unlike any of the previous contests; for wherever the beasts could wheel round, they rushed forth against the ranks of infantry and demolished the phalanx of the Macedonians, dense as it was.

Macedonians meet elephants in battle for the first time, from Arrian’s Anabasis, found online at http://websfor.org/alexander/arrian/book5b.asp

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

The battle: The Hydaspes 326 BC  – the invading force of Alexander the Great and his all-conquering but war-weary Macedonians  are met on the banks of the River Hydaspes by the Indian army of King Porus.

So sharpen your sarissas and xystons and prepare to fight one last battle for glory with Alexander, or fight to repel the invaders atop elephants and chariots with the brave King Porus.

The aims of the day remain the same:

·         To have fun!

·         To gather as many ancient and medieval 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.

Phil Sabin, Professor of Strategic Studies at King’s College, London, but better known to Society of Ancients members as the innovative game designer and author of the book Lost Battles, will be giving a pre-battle introduction to the Hydapes, putting it in its historical context and highlighting the controversial aspects of the battle.

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 – 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 once again at £7 (juniors free), as it has been for ten 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.

Battleday 2014: Montaperti

Reports are now coming in on the Society forum regarding the battleday held at Bletchley over the weekend.

Montaperti was the battle of course, and information (Richard Lockwood's battle pack) on it can be found here.

Photo from Phil Steele's Ancients on the Move blog.

From Richard Lockwood, the organiser:

Well that was another Battle Day. I think it was a good day's gaming, we had seven games going, so a little down on previous years but that is probably down to my choice of a (to UK gamers at least) "non-mainstream" battle. So a little self-indulgence on my part this year!

I got the sense that all the games were enjoyed by the players. That may sound a bit of an obvious thing to say, but what I am trying to say is the games seemed absorbing and challenging. So I take from this that the choice of battle was a decent one despite it not being well known.

Many richly-deserved prizes were won - among which Best Terrain was a hard-fought duel between Pete Kershaw's DBMM terrain and Mark Craddock's Armati terrain. This year the prize went to Pete Kershaw's DBMM terrain. Overall Best Game went to Phil Steele's set up, using Impetus rules, beautifully-painted 15mm figures with hand-painted banners, and effective terrain.

I am hoping we get good write-ups for Slingshot - I think the way people approached this battle will be very interesting.

From Duncan Head:

The smaller number of games didn't, to my mind, detract from the experience - and at least there was a bit more room to move around between the tables! Peter's prize for the terrain was well deserved: I loved the detail he'd put into it. 

From Ross Bigley:

Just a quick note to thank all and sundry for making it such an enjoyable day.... It was all jolly good fun which, I suppose, is why we bother! I'd like to echo the previous comments about the terrain on show, top form all round. It really adds to the immersion of the experience when the board looks good.

From Peter Kershaw:

Thanks to Richard and co. for the day. I think it was a good choice. One of our players said it was nice to come to a big battle and not know about it - it gave more surprises. I think it also fitted the whole point of the Battleday - an encounter where there are good but often conflicting sources, with issues of how to deal with various events under different rules. Thumbs up from me

And Phil Steele (who supplied the photo above) has posted pictures of all the games on his blog here.

The battle for next year has also been announced, and it is Hydaspes.  Time to get painting some Classical Indians!

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.

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)

Battle Day 2010 update - Four 28mm games aleady planned!

The choice of Zama for the 2010 Battle Day is proving very popular - even at this early stage we have four games planned - all in 28mm (or 25mm in old money)!

First up we have the regular SoA "Lost Battles" show team, including Phil Sabin the rules' author who we are very pleased to say will also provide the Introduction to the Battle talk first thing in the morning.

Then we have a huge Command & Colours game under construction - two groups of C&C aficianados combining to put on a game on an 18 foot wide table with well over a thousand 28mm figures! Wow! What a monster!

Next, we are delighted that a WAB team is putting together their take on Zama, probably utilising some of the Gripping Beast figures used in the Zama game that was used to promote the Hannibal WAB supplement some years ago. Another big game is promised!

Finally, the DBMM team have warned me to reserve them a large table as they too are coming with the big toys! Yet another big 25mm game then!

Just what is it about Zama that is dragging out the 28mm meglamaniac in us all?

Also note the date: Saturday 17 April 2010, the week before Salute.

Watch this space for more news on Zama 2010!

New date for 2010 Battle Day: Saturday 17 April

Please note the new date of Saturday 17 April 2010. We have moved it from the week after to avoid clashing with Salute.

2010 battle for Battle Day announced!

With unprecedented speed and decisiveness, the organising committee has already selected the 2010 battle for the seventh annual Society of Ancients Battle Day. It's Zama. So that gives you all plenty of time to dust off your Hannibals and your Scipios, or paint up new ones. Pencil in Saturday 24 April 2010, at the usual venue in Bletchley near Milton Keynes.