Claymore 2026

 Ken Reilly, more famous as the Yarkshire Gamer, asked for volunteers to play in his award winning 1499 Siege of Forli game and I decided to jump in with two feet. As you know I have armies for the Italian Wars and play Furioso rules which is convenient as Ken also uses them.

My missus insisted on coming with me and I insisted she did not drive so we booked for a couple of nights on the Leith waterfront. Our journey north was halted for an hour or more at Langholm as it was their Common Riding, a tradition of horse cavalcades enacting the old custom of inspecting the town boundaries, which involved closing down the main A7 road, I was slightly miffed. The whole town was also closed apart from the pubs so we stopped at Hawick for lunch, our second disappointment began. I expected more of such an historic town. We eventually arrived in Leith and dinner on the waterfront was very nice, although the range of alcohol free beers was pretty poor with stuff I had never heard of, no matter, an early night as I had to be at Claymore for 0800.

I was last at Claymore two years ago, maybe three, before that it was when it was being held opposite the Museum of Scotland and I couldn't even guess how long ago that was. I arrived on time and met Ken and the other six guys  who had agreed to help, the table was stunning, some 2,300 figures in technicolour, banners flying and harnessed for war. Ken introduced the rules as four of the players had never played before (Andrei had come from Croatia to play) and we took our places, I had a mixed force of Landsknechts and Italians in the centre opposite Jason who commanded the Swiss, I knew just how dangerous these men were, Jason did not. The whole point of the day was to showcase wargaming the Italian Wars, the amount of gaming we could get in was simply a bonus.

As the game kicked off around 1000 hrs everyone's cavalry leapt forward while the infantry found their way to the front blocked by the horse, I did not have a lot of cavalry and neither did Jason, certainly nothing like the swarms on both flanks, I was also happy not to rush my foot forward and be crushed by the dastardly cash greedy Swiss. I did however hope to sweep away the Swiss cavalry and their Italian mercenaries and although starting well the combats bogged down and I eventually basically lost. Jason had got one huge pike block closer than the other and seeing there was a hedge to its front I knew from experience that there was a good chance it would not move through it without being disordered, my plan was to position one of my blocks to hopefully take advantage of this possible mayhem.

It was not to be however as by now there was only about fifteen minutes to go until the show ended, so we finished off that round and called a halt. It had been a long day with an hour off for lunch, Ken didn't get much time to himself as he did a sterling job fielding all the questions and visitors through the day, a lot of people were impressed and my lasting memory will be of a young lad and his sister staring in pure awe with mouths open at the spectacle, grabbing at his fathers arm to see what he had seen. Hopefully a convert in years to come.

A huge thanks to Ken for allowing me to take part and to the other six lads who were a pleasure to meet and play against.

Claymore was far better than I remembered and it was busy, there were lots of games in the same mould as Forli, large set pieces to showcase the hobby, there were also many smaller games and quite a few participation games, all in all a diverse mixture. I had the good fortune to run into some of my Old Guard from our big ACW game of a few weeks ago, Robert, Billy and Davy, the bus load of Groupies Robert had promised sadly never turned up, I knew 'Wargaming Celebrity' would not fly and tried to tell him.

Some of you will know I have been taking a fiver to shows now for several years, more than I can remember, so I decided on a heartfelt plea from Ray Rousell 'for gawd's sake spend that fiver' to do just that. I admit the M8 Hellcat cost more than the fiver and the pain was almost unbearable, but I am now officially skint. 

A great experience and I need to get my own Italian Wars back on the table.  

 

Nellie the angry elephant

 Friday and another War and Conquest clash against Ian's Classical Indians, this time we went large, or largeish with 3,000 points, this still only allowed us both to field half the figures we have.

I have a little system for laying down the terrain, once it is down the pieces are then possibly moved so you do not always get the effect you are looking for. In this game it was a disaster for the Seleucids as most of the terrain moved towards my side of the table and a large difficult hill ended up right in the centre of my deployment area which restricted my deployment somewhat. Despite this my plan was to advance as quickly as possible to limit the incoming fire from the bamboo longbows and slay the infantry as they were inferior to mine. Sadly for me I found a line of elephants blocking my path to the rabble.

Indians on the left, Seleucids on the right.

Indian centre.

Seleucid centre.

I pushed my whole army forward especially the flanks with the thought I would kill or ride down the enemy skirmishers and chariots, this was successful on the right as Ian lost his light chariots to the Skythians but on the left my vaunted Macedonian light cavalry were shot up and routed. I loosed arrows where I could at the elephants but only managed a few hits, my bolt shooter failed throughout the game to hit anything, so much for that plan. Ian managed to rush one elephant at my Purple pike block and to my disgust they ran taking the Blue pikes with them in sympathy, nearby my second unit of skirmishers had also routed from incoming fire, I had also had to pull back my otherwise victorious Skythians due to incoming missiles. To make matters worse one of my elephants went out of control and started to head towards the right of the battlefield, I had almost nothing left, a humiliating defeat was on the horizon.

Doomed charge by the light chariots.

Steady boys, steady.

Then Lady Luck intervened, all my troops rallied, apart from the out of control elephant of course which almost blundered into the Blue pike block on its travels. It was now Ian's turn for the bad luck, his left flank elephant went out of control and headed for the rear while two others refused to charge the Galatians, I had managed to get some breathing space. The elephant which had routed the Purple pikes now came in again but the lads had now found some grit on the hill and fended it off, I was now forced to charge the elephants which had stalled with the Galatians and Hoplites, a dangerous ploy but the only one left to me. Several desperate struggles now ensued. In the meantime I had once again advanced my Macedonian cavalry with archer and elephant support and wiped out the Indian right flank. Things looked better.

My elephant goes out of control.

The elephants get ready.

Courage lads.

Eventually I killed most of the beasts and forced another to go out of control and head towards the Indian left flank, the Galatians surged forward despite the deadly fire coming at them and took out the first of the Indian infantry, the Skythians rode back to support. The Indian spearmen looked on aghast as the Seleucids prepared to fall on them. It was all over.

The Indian general thinks of running.

The Indian left is destroyed.

What a change in fortunes and an incredibly exciting battle. My useless bolt shooter was a disappointment while Ian's volleys were deadly, I am also learning more about chariots and elephants in War and Conquest and they are very scary. Despite the Indian infantry being of low morale I suspect that if they had been moved up to support the elephants Ian could have sealed a victory, although to be fair they are just as deadly at long range due to the longbow effect and they have a tendency to fail morale checks without officers leading them. The Indians looked especially nice due to Ian using nail transfers to spruce up shields and elephants, a great idea, I would have said female nail transfers but hey, it's 2025.

I was pleased to finish my first unit for the new army, the first of many. It is a bit difficult to get transfers at the moment due to the change from LBMS to Victrix, I was lucky with this unit as I got some straight from A&A and some from Phil Robinson. I did however get two sets from Victrix which fit their own range, the small banner sheet will fit the A&A vexilum with a bit of trimming so I was pleased to actually get one which had I Minerva on it. The second sheet is a little large for the Moors' cavalry shields but I think they will fit with a bit of trimming, fingers crossed. As I start on the cavalry I have a second unit of infantry and two bolt shooters in the queue so thought it was appropriate to order another batch, more infantry, Roman horse archers and some Clibinari. I did varnish the figures in the end, a light one then highlighted the metal parts so they do not, hopefully, fade. The Twelfth look on with jealousy.

I went to Vapnartak in York yesterday, the first show I have been to in quite some time and it has been at least three years since I went to York but I actually had a list of things to buy and bases for the new army to pick up. We got there at 1045 in order to beat the queue but we didn't, it wasn't huge but it was still there, they really need to look at this, having said that there was a lot of punters there it was like sardines inside. Quite a few of the big traders were absent but on the other hand there were quite a few smaller outfits which I have never seen before, these were mainly selling 3D terrain and figures, all superbly done and at a decent price. I managed to get everything I went for and a couple of extra things so the trip worked for me. Here comes the moan, the wargames were basically hidden away upstairs on one of the mezzanine levels and that was it, a row of participation games which all looked very nice including our own run by Rob and Stuart and all seemed busy, at least before lunch. There was one large D-Day exhibit on the lower floor which despite being very nice did not seem to attract many people, perhaps because it was up against the traders. The only other large game worth mentioning and star of the show for me was Yarkshire Gamer Ken Reilly's magnificent Italian Wars game. For me the show worked in that I got what I went for and managed to meet and talk to several friends along with upcoming 'Wargaming the Italian Wars' author Conrad Cairns (Colin Ashton couldn't make it) and Helion Wargames supremo Charles Singleton, I am busy drawing the maps for the book at the moment.

My loot.

D-Day.

Rob and Stuart's game.

A nice table.

Italian Wars.

And again.

Parthian Shot: I saw a nice headline this week, "Trigger Warning: Your Local University, Literary Society or School Board May Contain Nuts".

Stuff and Partizan

 It's been a while, or it seems that way as other things like the missus and the good weather drags me away from the computer

First up games, I missed one night at the club after the What a Cowboy game and went back last night with some Italian Wars to introduce Jimi to the delights of pike warfare. I gave Jimi a small French army and I took along what I could of my Imperials with some French substitutes where needed. I kept it simple with a flat open terrain on a 6x4 table, quite small for an Italian Wars game to be honest, it is not a small game period and although I see skirmish rules for it, you are not playing Italian Wars.

I digress, as I rolled my initiative dice I found my army lacking in aggression, so the French were on me quite quickly, things were fairly even on the flanks, I won on my left and Jimi won on my right. By now the infantry had clashed in the centre and at first it looked good, my Spanish Pike even managed to halt the feared Swiss. It did not last long and just as the cavalry of both sides got into position for flank attacks my pike blocks fell apart, there was no real need to go on and as the troops take some time to put away I shook hands and congratulated Jimi. We had a couple of Hazards which thankfully had no effect on the battle, although on a larger table I could have been in trouble with my mercenaries.

Next week I am back on the Eastern Front with an early war game of Bolt Action against Simon. I have also booked a couple of games in June with Matt Crump, first up our sixth campaign game as I attack the Russian supply depot with a Panzer platoon and a game later in the month at the Dungeon. I think I am beginning to regret the use of the Panzers and should possibly held them back until game seven, but the die is cast.

I have manged a bit of painting and a resupply from TAG and Steel Fist. First up was a lovely unit of Spanish Jinette light cavalry, I will have to get some more of these, secondly I started on my second Spanish pike block, the front ranks are done and I mixed in some sword and buckler men for interest, I am now well  on with the mid/command ranks and the whole should be done in the next couple of weeks, a slight slowing down as I have my granddaughter visiting for two weeks, also I am getting some arthur itis in my hands or repetitive strain injury, whatever it is it gives me gyp during the night.

And now of course Partizan 2023, I was not going to go as I had nothing to get and the two books I wanted Duncan at Helion offered to post them out, Julian decided he was going and offered both Stuart and I a lift, so I succumbed rather than spend a lovely day in front of the computer. The weather was gorgeous and we arrived then minutes before opening, Rob was hosting a participation game on behalf of the club so we had a base of operations if required.

Well done Rob.

What a Cowboy.

Simon Miller, Ipsus.

Ditto.

Very British Civil War.

SYW.

WWII.

India?

SYW.

ACW.

Ditto.

The show is probably the best wargame show in the UK, a good balance of traders and inspirational wargames with the emphasis on the latter. The hall is large, airy and there is plenty of room despite it being busy. I had a word with the lads on the Helion stand and picked up the two books I was after having been offered a hefty discount. I caught up with several bloggers whom I know and said hello to Simon Miller and discussed his upcoming Montrose scenario book for which I drew the maps. Apart from the books I only got a couple of pieces of scatter terrain, some brushes, tufts, flowers and wire pikes, so not a bad exchange for my bottomless fiver.

I haven't seen Duncan for a while and tried to catch up last week but he was enroute to Pinewood Studios with a jeep, or rather a Russian jeep type vehicle. I popped up this morning and ran into all things Russian, he is building a Russian Humvee type vehicle on top of an old truck chassis, it looked like a lot of hard work is involved so I kept my distance. I wandered through his parking lot and took a few pics. The big Russian eight wheel APC is a brute of a thing, it doesn't actually move at the moment but it could, my favourite the German (Czech) half-track is out on a job at the moment, I really must get a ride in that one day.

So, I am up to date for now, it is my 48th wedding anniversary today and the flowers have arrived to keep the memsahib sweet, as will the meal out tonight. What a romantic.