Warhammer Historical Gaming weekend.
A general view of the hall.
The aim of these weekends is for all players (new and old) to have fun – they are an opportunity to get together and play games – not to win at any cost.
On the 29 and 30 October 2005 around 100 people gathered at Warhammer World Nottingham England for the 5th WHW Gaming weekend.
Attendees had been able to enter a choice of the following campaigns and below you will find brief background to each campaign and any relevant highlights or reports along with some photographs.
Legends of the Old West- Blood Bath in Dodge City
Presented by Mark Latham and Pete Borlace, with help from Byran Glasspool.
Dodge City has been a hotbed of activity for those on both sides of the law since it first sprung up as a railroad boomtown. Now, all manner of notorious Posses are descending on the town, knowing that there’s money to be made and fame to be earned. Get down to Dodge and stake your claim, but beware – the US Government has heard of the approaching lawlessness and is sending its own Posses to enforce law and order…
Best painted posse - Matthieu Batiste.
Most fun to play against - Ray Earle.
Best overal posse - Byran Glasspool.
Byzantium
Presented by Andy Sherwell, Darren Harding and Soapy from Gripping Beast.
The Emperor is dead! Long live the Emperor!
The throne of the Byzantine Empire is vacant once again, and turmoil is rife.
Now is the chance for all you Kings, Lords and Princes to stake your claim.
Will Byzantium fall under your dominion, or as a Byzantine Noble will you save the Empire at its hour of peril?
There will be Mercenaries to hire, treachery, gold, cunning plans and more gold in your bid for success.
Best painted - Jim Sweeny.
Emperor - Ken Pearce.
English Civil War
Presented by John Stallard (author of the rulebook) and he was ably assisted by Bert Smith.
The main action of the weekend was the hypothetical “Battle of Pogles Wood” with a combined Parliamentarian and Covenanter force versus a Royalist army.
This was a huge English Civil War battle using primarily Johns own collection of miniatures.
The main table was principally infantry and gun lines. On the sides however were two more tables for the cavalry actions, which were fought separately, only surviving cavalry and dragoon units coming on to the main table. This is very flavoursome for the period, and means command can be divided up nicely and some chaotic befell the unwary!
Nick Simmerson
Andy Cummings
Punic Wars
Presented by Chris Stone and Tim Dagnall
During the period of the Punic wars, Rome’s life and death struggle to survive and her obstinate refusal to be defeated even in defeat after defeat is testimony to the Roman stubborn self confidence of supremacy and her ability to raise fresh armies.
Fight Roman Legionaries against the Barbarian hordes of Numidians, Hill Tribes or the Mercenary armies of Carthage or take charge of your Spanish or Latin armies at a two-day weekend of political betrayal, intrigue and most important lots of wargames battles.
Winner - Simon Holman
Most fun to play against - Dave Stone
Best painted - Phil Turner
Warmaster Ancients.
Presented by Ewan Lamont.
In Mighty Ancient Empires you will take on the role as one of the famous generals that shaped the political landscape of Europe and the Near East.
Each empire will be represented by a set of coloured counters placed on a map of the Mediterranean basin. The object of the campaign is to control more provinces then the other players at the end of the game.
Unluckiest player - Paul Arnold
Winner - Tom Merrigan
The Three Realms - The Art of War.
Presented by John Kersey.
China, Japan and the Nomad Hordes. Three rival powers using differing military systems. Each competing on their strengths and exploiting the weaknesses of their opponents. Each system a product of their unique culture and terrain.
The Three Realms is a chance to explore aspects of the oriental style of warfare. As well as facing opponents in their own Realm or style of warfare they may face invaders from another. The Three Realms are:
Zhonquo (China)
Nihon (Japan)
Manchuquo (Nomads)
The Young Emperor - Tom Stafford.
Most fun to play against - Paul Wallis.
Best painted - Wayne Richards.
John Kersey also produced a more detailed report, which will be appearing in a future edition of Wargames Illustrated.
Chariot Wars.
Presented by Tony Garry
The campaign was open to any armies from the Chariot Wars supplement; players provided armies of 2,000 and 1,500 points. If players had larger forces available, by mutual agreement they played any of the first four battles at 2,500 points. Before each battle a single combat was fought between each armies respective champions, theses were allocated to players on the day and included such mighty heroes as Achilles and Hector. The Gods formed an important part of the lives of the people and armies of the period and had an impact in this campaign in the form of special events.
Best painted - Tony Rodwell
Winner - Jason “I am a Living God” Ralls
Most fun to play against - Nic “Pimp my chariot” Yarwood-Buchanan.
James Morris and Steve Jones also organised a play test of their proposed Arthurian campaign with a couple of willing volunteers (Guy Bowers and Mike Evans) and authors Guy “demon dice roller” Halshall and Dan Mersey.
Alan and Michael Perry of Perry Miniatures brought along an attractive Samurai game on the Sunday and were ably assisted by Steve Saleh.
The following companies very kindly provided prizes and other merchandise towards the weekend.
BL Publishing
Curteys Miniatures
Gripping Beast
Magister Militum
Perry Miniatures
Warhammer Historical
1st Corps Ltd
As the weekend is not really about winning (although its always preferable to win a couple of games!) and these companies were so generous we had a number of wonderful prizes left over and so we put the names of everyone who attended the weekend (plus some who had to drop out at the last moment due to illness) into a bag and drew out 10 names at random and they also got some nice bounty from the weekend.
On the Saturday evening after the evening meal, attendeees relaxed in Bugmans Bar and took part in an Arthurian skirmish organised by James Morris or returned to the hall and played some more games.
The whole weekend was played in a wonderful spirit with an incredibally high standard of armies and it just leaves me to thank everyone who attended the event, especially the eight players from France who kindly brought me some wine- much appreciated!
Kind regards
Rob Broom
Warhammer Historical Manager
November 2005.
Next event - May 2006.
