Friday, May 25, 2012

19th-20th May, Sheffield

Triples 2012


Triples was such a big weekend for the Society Shows Team that I will be splitting my report into two.

On the Saturday, Triples, as well as being a fine 'must see' show, has for 8 years now, hosted the DBA Northern Cup, sponsored by the Society of Ancients.

(intrepid adventurers find out more about the Society of Ancients)

This has been a very fine venture, and we have customarily had a presence and a stand with the event.  It has, of course, left us with a conundrum as to what to do for the second day of the two day show.

This year, the Northern Doubles League took up the invitation to add Triples to its popular series of one-day FoG/DBMM events.   This was a very attractive prospect as the key stand personnel like to play occasional Sundays in the NDBML.

(Rob's Plataea table - left foreground, a visitor flips through the latest Slingshot)

But would it take the Society out of the show entirely?   Enter Rob Broom and his War & Conquest/Scarab Miniatures stand and his offer to host Slingshot on his table in the main part of the show.

I'm not saying the solution was perfect straight out of the box, but it certainly kept plenty of us busy and entertained all weekend (and I think if we can just give Rob a bit more support along the way, we may have it cracked).

(NDBML tournament tables against the backdrop of the running track)

So this is a view of the show as a whole, and of the NDBML Sunday event that was part of it.  Rob's weekend is covered here, and my separate report on the Saturday's DBA Northern Cup will follow.

Highlights from the show

So, we had the Lords of the Nile out with the DBA, Rob was doing Plataea and the Lance & Longbow Society were refighting Grandson (title picture).   Impartially, I'd say those were the best games in out period.

There were a number of good participation games at Triples ...

(WD's popular participation game ran all weekend)

I didn't get to play the jazzed up version of Rollbahn Ost (but am a veteran of the felt pen version) ...

And there were some very good smaller scale battles



The 28mm WWI game was much more interesting than is often the case, and had a number of nice vignettes around the board (the sort of thing I might do in smaller scales ...) ...

(Dachshunds and Bulldogs)


And there was a useful presentation board.


So I thought this massive presentation was worth its space.

 (click on the pictures fro a larger image)

My favourite was, of course, the Old School game resplendent with 40mm Prince August semi-rounds - looking like episodes from Charge! or The Wargame (although the original figures were smaller of course: but somehow this impression of an old wargame looks exactly right).

(classic looks from Ilkley Old School)


Good to see some of the players had the decency to wear their ties (smoking and drink-driving being out of fashion, wargaming in a tie is about it for a 60's revival these days ...)...

Tucked away in the smaller front hall, mention should go to the Burton 18th Century Colonial game which had a very  convincing look to it.


NDBML

Two games of FoG of a Sunday is about right for me, and having had a reasonable look around they show on Saturday, it was nice ot get some games in against old friends.  Graham Fordham partnered me in the morning so it was with old friends, too.  Graham and I have been doing shows for around 25 years, but seldom get to team up these days.   A quarter of a century.  Hmm...

(the masters at work)

I hope the 'Sunday only' players got enough time between the games to get good value from the show.

We used my Later Sicilian army for this event, and came out just ahead of par over the two games (it's a 'class II' army, so for us the best is yet to come). 

 (FoG on the Steppes)

In the afternoon, we had the luxury of one of those tournament 'what ifs' ... we invaded we invaded Medieval Peru and fought against a sea of barely clad footsoldiers armed with slings and clubs.


They made life difficult for the Sicilian horsemen by clinging to every bit of field and lowland cover they could find, but by sunset we had got a strangle hold on the game.  But by then the game had ended.

A very good day, which I hope will be repeated next year.

(Colin Betts dishes out the trophies)

Jon Fletcher won the DBMM, Dave Ruddock and David Eltringham won the (Ancient and Medieval) Field of Glory ...
More info on the NDBML: Maws Northern Doubles site

(Newcomer to the SoA stable: Call it Qids)

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