Slingshot Editor's Prizes

As sent out to the Society Yahoo! Group:

"Time once again for the announcement of the year's editor's prizes (i.e. the subset of SoA prizes which are within the grant of the editor), and following on from our esteemed president's announcement of the new Phil Barker prize. This year, I should mention, the list of potential prizewinners was significantly longer than the list of actual winners. To avoid various cats getting a good kicking, I won't list the articles and authors that just missed out. But it's a good thing to have such a large reservoir of quality material (and the amount currently "in the hopper" is actually more than at any other time when I've been editor), and it reflects the amount of new, high quality material that has come in over the past 12 months.

The prizes are awarded for articles published in the 6 issues running from November 2008 to September 2009 (reflecting the fact that they would have previously been announced at the AGM). Some "series" articles do cross the "consideration year" boundary, and those that do so this year will be eligible for consideration in the 2010 prizes.

• The Editor's Prize: Doug Melville, for "Putting it All Together: the Sasanians Re-Examined", S/s 260, 261, 264
• The Charles Grant Prize (for a historical article in the period pre 500 BC): Alastair McBeath, once again, for his Mesopotamian Warfare series, S/s 261-266 and ongoing
• The (inaugural) Phil Barker Prize (500-1 BC): Patrick Waterson, for "Amazed Was I Ere I Saw Zama", S/s 262
• The Ian Greenwood Prize (1-1000 AD): Stewart Hey, for "Ambush at Callinicum 531AD", S/s 263
• The Alan Nickels Prize: (post 1000 AD): Mick Hession, for "Cogadh Gaedhil, Medieval Irish Warfare 600-1500AD", S/s 263-265
• The award for Best Wargaming Article, kindly sponsored by Gripping Beast: Adrian Goldsworthy, for "Thinking About Romans", S/s 263-266 and ongoing

Congratulations to the winners. David Edwards will be contacting them individually to establish the how they'd like to receive their prize."

Championship Standings Now Online

The championship standings are now online - they are updated live by Bill Thurlow, as he processes and validates the results. I'll try and find a way of subbing to the results page via email, and update the blog when it's there. Till then, keep an eye on that page.

Phil Barker Prize

New Slingshot Prize.

To reflect the number and quality of material submitted for publication in the BC periods, The Society of Ancients has added a new prize to the honours it awards for contributions to Slingshot. The Charles Grant Prize will now cover contributions from the earliest periods of warfare up to 500BC. The new prize will cover the period 500 BC to 1 AD.

In 1971 WRG published Armies of the Macedonian and Punic War by Phil Barker - the first in a ground breaking series of books aimed at wargamers, and attempting to translate the latest research into clear and reliable reconstructions of the soldiers of the ancient world. Barker’s next in the series, Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome, went through 4 editions over 10 years and is widely recognised as a definitive guide to the appearance of the Roman Army. For many enthusiasts, the modern approach to historical wargaming in these periods began with Phil Barker’s unique contributions.


(Phil Barker, left, presents awards at the English DBA Open)

In recognition of his immense contribution, through stand alone publications, WRG rules and Slingshot articles, The Society of Ancients has named its new award for outstanding contributions to Slingshot in the period 500 BC to 1 AD The Phil Barker Prize.

For a brief appraisal of Phil Barker’s contribution to wargaming, there is a Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Barker

Phil Steele
President

Gorgon Studios offers SoA members 10% discount on its figures

I am delighted to let you know that Gorgon Studios, the US-based company, has very generously agreed to offer Society members a 10% discount on their figures

Please note that this is ONLY for purchases made through the webcart at their website http://www.gorgon-studios.com/. Members should have their membership number handy to enter during the purchase process for verification.

Gorgon Miniatures has Steve Saleh’s 28mm range of early Spartans which represents the Spartan army of the Persian Wars, including the battles of Thermopylae (480 BC) and Plataea (479 BC).
Gorgon Miniatures also recently announced its first original historical line of wargames figures, the Etruscan army of Lars Porsenna, again sculpted by Steve Saleh in 28mm. This range represents the Etruscan army of roughly 600 BC to 474 BC – when at the Battle of Cumae the Etruscans suffered a defeat that would see their influence in Italy diminish.

Slingshot 266

The latest issue of Slingshot is 266, publishing date September 2009.

The next issue will be the November issue.

This issue is 60 pages long, not including the cover pages. It's published in the same format introduced with issue 258.

The contents of Slingshot 266 are as follows. For games articles, I've indicated the relevant rule set where it's not immediately obvious from the title; with historical articles I've tried to indicate period if a similar issue applies.

• Guardroom
• Hannibal’s Masterpiece: The Battle of Cannae, by Patrick Waterson
• Crusader System Lists for Peloponnesian War, by Craig Woodfield
• Constantius II, Ammianus, and the Big Parade Part 2, by Jim Sye
• “Then Adab was defeated and the kingship was taken to Mari”: Mesopotamian Warfare Notes IX, by Alastair McBeath
• Callinicum 531AD with Commands & Colors: Ancients, by Andrew Lawrence
• Thinking About Romans – Part Four, by Adrian Goldsworthy
• (FoG) Society of Ancients Championship Battle Report: Alexandrian Macedonian v Classical Indian, by Richard Lockwood
• (2mm figures) Watch Your Armies of Thousands Conquer the Known World!, by Craig Dobson
• They’re Coming! A Warmaster Ancients Tournament Report, by Marc Adda
• Book Reviews, by Steve Brennan & Chris Webber
• Figure Reviews, by Richard Lockwood, Theo Roske, David Edwards & Mark Watson

Website Refresh

The Society of Ancients website has had a refresh for 2010. There may be some glitches in there; if so, let me know directly. Many thanks to Tim Mayall for doing testing work on the new site over the last few weeks.

As part of this, subscriptions for 2010 are now available from the store. 2009 subscriptions will continue to be available until after November's issue goes out.

Anyhow, hope you like it.

Got a Blog?

I've added a blog aggregator to the website, the idea is to pull together the various blogs kept by society members. In the starting stages right now, so there are relatively few on there. If you have a wargames or ancient history related blog, and you're a society member, contact me, either using the contact details in Slingshot or the contact form on this site (set the topic to "Website Stuff").

The aggregator is here. At some point I'll change the template to better fit with the rest of the site.