" The Battle of Deorham" at Colours 2013

As this was to be a demo game at our favourite show, we wanted to have a good mix of warbands as well as special rules to show the game in its best light. A couple of trial games later and Craig and I, who were providing the figures (not forgetting Pendraken who sponsored two of the warbands), had the scenario nailed and the warbands composition drawn up. I chose to be the Saxons who were the Agressors, and Craig the Britons who were the Repellers. Details of my warbands can be found below:

Cuthwin's Warband - 6th Century Sea Raiders
These were to be a small, but highly skilled raiding force, as reflected in the high number of noble warriors. 

1 x Foot Companions
4 x Noble Warriors
2 x Ordinary Warriors
3 x Foot Skirmishers
1 x Fanatics

Ceawlin's Warband - 6th Century Saxons

These were to be a larger warband, with the higher numbers to allow them to take more losses before reaching their morale test point. 

1 x Foot Companions
2 x Noble Warriors
6 x Ordinary Warriors
2 x Skirmishers
1 x Stampede
1 x Monks
 

The game was to be a demo rather than participation, but for a variety of reasons, we ended up running as a semi-participation game for a few members off the Pendraken forum. This proved to be great fun and allowed Craig and I to spend more time seeing the show, which was nice.

An overall view of the table, with the hill in the top left as one of the objectives. The two Saxon warbands can be seen just to the right of the centre of the table, deployed ready for battle.

Cuthwin's warband are at the top, with Ceawlin's immediately below. In the centre of Ceawlin's warband can be seen the 'killer sheep' and 'Moses the Monk', both of which proved to be great fun to play.

A close up of Ceawlin's left wing. All figures are from the superb Pendraken Late Roman range. So many people commented favourable on the level of detail that Clibinarium achieved in his sculpts. Many could not believe that these were 10mm figures.

Unfortunately my dsytonia was playing up after the drive down and the rest of my pics had bad camera shake. To add insult to injury I forgot to take pics of other tables at the show!

General thoughts on the show.
For the first time I was able to have a reasonable walk of the show, as in previous years I have always been too busy running or taking part in a demo game. So my thoughts are as follows:

• We were on the top floor this year, which is always noisier than the First Floor, due to the competition games that take place there. The bonus is that most of the demo and participation games are on this floor. As I arrived early I was able to have a quick look around and get my bearings as to which games I would like to see more of during the day.
• We only put a game on the Sunday, as this works for us with regards our families, but is also a more leisurely day. Apparently Saturday is always a bit of a scrum, good for traders, but less so for visitors and those putting on the games. The Bring'N'Buy table has gained a certain notoriety on the Saturday...
• This year seemed quieter than previous years in terms of footfall, but maybe that's because we were on the top floor away from the traders. Apparently the traders had a good show overall.
• There seemed to be slightly less demo tables this year and no real big 28mm 'museum piece' ones where nothing really seems to happen. A few of the tables were really very nice, but this year I thought was the poorest in terms of quality since I've been attending.

Bruce Weigle
The highlight of the show for me was without a doubt the Rossbrunn table put on by Bruce Weigle of Grand Tactical Rules. Quite simply it was the nicest table I've seen in years. Other tables at the show were very good and certainly 'eye candy', but to my mind looked too crowded and 'fussy'. The elegant simplicity of Bruce's table instantly caught my eye and made me want to have a game. Unfortunately as I was running a demo game, I was unable to. 

Quite by chance I got talking to one of Bruce's friends, Mike Embree, which in the end led me to buy a copy of both the '1859' and '1866' rules. As many people know, these are far more than rulebooks and I'm so happy that I bumped into Mike. They are packed full of information for the relevant periods as well as superb scenarios and OOBs, on top of containing a complete set of rules. I certainly am looking forward to giving these a go in the future.

Closing thoughts.
Well certainly this was another enjoyable show, and one that I look forward to attending each year. You never know what you are going to see, who you might bump into or what purchases you may make. We are already thinking about what table to put on next year.

Sadly the show was once again plagued by another series of thefts. This only seems to happen to this show, but is a real shame for the traders and us gamers. It would be a sad day if a few thiefs put off traders from attending to the detriment of all of us.