May 2008
Warhammer Historical and Friends.
From left to right they are as follows -
Phil Turner, Mal Green, Alan Perry, Rob Broom, Tony Rodwell, Aly Morrison, Michael Perry, Alex Buchel and Dave Andrews.
This event was held for the first time in 2007 and focussed mainly on genealogy (which is basically how to go about tracing your ancestors). It’s a three day event and is held at Olympia, in London. The whole event is now branded as the National History Show as this year the organisers wanted to expand the show to include Archaeology and Military History.
Originally Alan and Michael Perry were invited to represent table top wargaming and they suggested the organisers contact us here at Warhammer Historical. After some discussions we agreed to all go along as a team and put on a number of display games as well as a feature allowing people to actually try a wargame. We really wanted people to get a first hand experience of some inspirational table top games.
Olympia is a large venue and on arrival it was good to see some fantastic pieces of hardware already in place.
Mal Green from BL Publishing next to a replica World War One Mark IV tank (male).
A British 25lb gun. A personal favourite.
Two views of one of several Living History groups.
Unlike the average wargames show the National History show was decked out in a similar manner to a professional trade exhibition with shell booths provided and we proceeded to set up the trade booth and all the games.
Mal behind the trade booth.
The event had a strong publicity machine behind it and here is the advance promotional text we supplied for the games we were bringing along with some accompanying pictures from the actual event.
Introduction
Table top wargaming with model or toy soldiers has been a popular hobby for many years. This past time can be an excellent opportunity to recreate famous battles from history or played simply for the tactical challenge of the game.
Warhammer Historical is part of BL Publishing, a division of Games Workshop Ltd. Warhammer Historical produce a range of highly playable table top wargaming rule books and supplements based in historical settings, including the Ancient World, the Old West and the English Civil War. When these are used in conjunction with armies of model or toy soldiers you can take up the challenge of Caesar, Hannibal or King Charles and your destiny can change with the roll of the dice!
New for the Military History Live event will be “The Great War”, a rule set enabling players to recreate the epic confrontations of the First World War. This exciting new release will be launched at the show and demonstration and participation games will be on display.
Warhammer Historical and the following companies and gaming groups are pleased to present the following games for your enjoyment.
Kaiserschlacht 1918
Presented by Great War Miniatures.
Dave Andrews (left) and Alex Buchel. Alex travelled all the way from Strasbourg to help us at the event. In the background in the bright green shirts are Richard and Zoe from Magister Militum.
Operation Kaiserschlacht of March 1918 saw the last and largest offensives by the German army on the Western front. After the first day the Germans had broken through and forced the British Fifth army to retreat. Despite this initial success, after several weeks French reinforcements and German supply problems caused the offensive to grind to a halt.
Using the Great War rules from Warhammer Historical this game recreates a German stormtrooper assault on the British trench lines as the German army attempts to break through.
Great War Miniatures are owned by Aly Morrison and Dave Andrews and they do all the sculpting of the miniatures. They both also work for Games Workshop, Aly as a miniature sculptor and Dave as a hobby designer.
Retreat from Mons 1914.
Presented by Gravesend Wargaming Club
Phil Turner (left) and Tony Rodwell.
The Battle of Mons took place on the 23rd August 1914 and involved the British Expeditionary Force withdrawing from an exposed position. This led to further engagements during the coming days.
Using the Great War rules from Warhammer Historical this game portrays the defence of a canal on the right flank of the BEF, near the village of Obourg, by D Company, 4th Middlesex Regt. While pressed by Germans from the 75th and 85th Regiments of the 18th division, D Company completed a fighting retreat to prevent them becoming outflanked by German cavalry.
Phil Turner and Tony Rodwell are both members of Gravesend Wargames club and typify the historical wargamer - passionate about history, collecting, painting and enjoying a decent game. There are many clubs and people like this around the country.
Phil has a particular interest in the Great War, his granddad signed up in August 1914 and joined the 12th Middlesex Regt, finishing the war as a Captain, DCM, MM and Bar and 2 “Mentioned in Despatches”.
To quote Phil “a great bloke and fantastic granddad”.
The Battle of El Teb and the Siege of Mafeking
Presented by Perry Miniatures
Alan Perry (right) and Michael Perry.
The Battle of El Teb 1884 was the first of the war in the Sudan against Mahdist forces in which the British Army was involved. After stiff opposition British forces won the day against the fanatical and entrenched Beja tribes.
During the course of the weekend, Perry Miniatures will also be presenting the Siege of Mafeking 1899 which occurred during the Boer War. Lord Baden Powell led the defence of Mafeking for 217 days despite being outnumbered 6 to 1 and events here led to the birth of the Scout movement.
This table was seen on the BBC2 programme about Baden Powell’s book “Scouting for Boys” presented by Ian Hislop.
Perry Miniatures are owned by Alan and Michael Perry, and they do all the sculpting of the miniatures. They both also work for Games Workshop as miniature sculptors.
Interactive Wargaming
Inspired by what you have seen and want to find out more?
Our interactive table all ready to go.
Warhammer Historical presents a series of game and information sessions allowing you to learn some of the basic rules, talk about the pleasure of the table top wargaming hobby and how to collect and paint the armies you need!
We will also suggest places to look for opponents and clubs for those who want even more.
Keeping with the main theme of the event these game sessions will use the new Great War rule set, where you can take command and fight at engagements set during the later stages of the war.
We will also talk about other areas of table top wargaming with some particular examples such as Ancients and Pirates.
Each game session had the following format and last around an hour.
• Setting - the history, choices and the pleasure of wargaming
• Basic training - the rules and how to play
• Arming for battle - collecting and painting
• Intelligence - where to find clubs and opponents
• Debrief - any other questions about the hobby and where to buy today!
Warhammer Historical Manager Rob Broom will be presenting these sessions along with Alex Buchel of Comitatus Figurines from Strasbourg, France.
The Doors Open
The event ran from the Friday through to the Sunday with Saturday being the busiest day. There were queues waiting to enter and the early moments of each day reminded me of the Games Workshop Games Days as people first through the doors hurried to locate particular topics of interest or book tickets for the many workshops and activities.
A number of television and radio celebrities were doing talks and presentations during the course of the weekend and tickets were limited if you wanted a seat.
Peter and Dan Snow during their Battle of Amiens presentation.
A number of the celebrities stopped by the wargame tables for a look and we made sure they got a copy of our Great War rules. These included Nicky Campbell (BBC Radio 5 Live), Tony Robinson (Channel 4 Time Team and BBC TVs Black adder) and Peter and Dan Snow (BBC/ History Channel Battlefields of the 20th Century).
Peter Snow (centre) takes a look at the Great War game.
Peter Snow will be well remembered in the UK for his famous “swingometer” and dramatic arm movements during BBC election night specials and here we see Dave Andrews with some arm action of his own while Aly looks on somewhat bemused.
After rubbing shoulders with the celebrities, Dave gets some clear orders from High Command.
Over the course of the 3 days all the wargames tables were very popular with people of all ages. The interactive table got its share of attention as well with plenty of people joining in.
On the Friday this British “Tommy” looks slightly glum as he was actually using the Germans in this game but he took charge of the British later.
Saturday was the busiest day on the interactive wargames table and our thanks to Tony Stafford who stopped by to help Alex and myself out.
Living History
The 10th Essex Great War Living History Group brought along some fantastic displays as these pictures show and put on a very entertaining presentation each day.
In Conclusion
We had a very busy weekend and met a wide range of people. Many of these had never really seen wargaming before and asked many questions and showed plenty of interest. This really was a new arena for us to display our hobby, but with a strong military theme at the event, we were certainly at home talking to people with a passion for history and we complemented the Living History displays very well, allowing people to see the connections between the two hobbies in the broader context of military history.
Our thanks go to the organisers of the event for inviting and looking after us so well.
Kind regards
Rob Broom
Warhammer Historical Manager
