Battlegroup South

Since its conception, this has always been on my wish list for visiting. What more can you ask for with the magnificent backdrop of the Tank Museum for a 2 day wargaming show.

This year, with enough brownie points saved, I managed to get a 2 day pass and joined by fellow wargamers from both Melton and St Helens, we headed South early on the Saturday morning.

Three and a half hours later, including the obligatory cooked breakfast at Fleet services, we arrived.

Having a brief glimpse inside we decided that we would put up our tent 1st rather than wait until we were incapable later in the day. A wise move as it tuned out. The camp site was in effect the overflow car park for the museum and as such was a mere 100m from the entrance. What was more important however was how far was it from the beer tent!! 

The show itself made full use of the museum and had numerous games on display scattered throughout in and amongst the exhibits. Overall, there was as perhaps you might expect given the venue, a greater percentage of WW2 games than most shows. They ranged in scale from a superb 1/285 scale Normandy game through to 28mm Russian city fight.

In addition to the WW2 games, there was a WW1 trench warfare game, 54mm Colonial participation game, Fantasy Sci fi city fight, Seven years war 15mm game, WW! Aerial dogfight, Hammers Slammer sci fi, WW1 naval game, Biblical campaign/DBA in 28mm, Modern US v Soviet encounter in 15mm, a loud and fun pirate participation game and a large fantasy game put on by a bunch of young enthusiastic gamers.

The standard of modelling and painting was second to none and consistently high across all of the games. Such was the attraction of the game put on by Wargames South, I got conned into yet another scale - 20mm WW2 British. A £150 lighter and with a Company of Brits to look forward to paint I went one further and purchased from Dave Thomas a pack of Renegade 28mm WW1 French!! 

A unit of painted Perry Norman knights from Dave Thomas and some more terrain maker hexes and GHQ bridges from Chiltern and a number of 1st edition Osprey Man-at-Arms books from the bring and buy completed my expenditure apart from beer!!

Time flew as we were able to leisurely converse with trader and gamer alike in a most civilised manner. In between which we took advantage of the location to view the extensive museum exhibits - how on earth you get 8+ troops in the BMP1 beats me and where do you fit the crew in the Panzer III? Anyone over 5ft 8" would struggle to get in and out and I certainly didn't even try to see if I could fit in the cut away exhibit.

At 5-30pm, we were "thrown out" of the museum and had to resort to a couple of cans in the back of the car whilst waiting for the bar at the camp site to open. How we suffered for our hobby!!

Having booked our places for the pig roast we waited our turn in the various queues and was pleasantly surprised as to the quality and quantity of food offered. We wargamers tend to come mainly in the oversize versions, myself being no exception and I was wondering whether 1 pig would be enough!!

Several beers to the better, we gathered our quiz team together, sparing no expense in attracting the best we could afford- well not quite, in addition to our small team, we had the services of Andy (Grubby Tanks), Julian and his wife (Chiltern Miniatures), Andy (Last Valley) and Dave and his mate from Pendraken - what an eclectic spread of experience - or so we thought!!

Well, having been able to answer only 2 questions in the 1st round, we thought it could only get better, - WRONG!!! In our defence I can only express dismay that in the early rounds we managed to pick a team who with few exceptions, didn't express any expertise in the topics on offer.

Notwithstanding our early failures, in the latter half of the quiz we came good - well perhaps let's not get carried away - we were less bad!! Somehow when the points were added up we, "The confused Northerners" were elated at being declared the winners. We, quite wrongly as it turned out, assumed that the big cup on the trophy table must be for us, but no, we made do with the adoration bestowed on us by our fellow competitors, or something like that!

At 2 in the morning, and after several beers, I sampled the joys of an early bacon and egg sandwich and with a tot of whiskey in the other hand, retired to my pit.

On the Sunday, I concentrated on taking a shedfull of photos for the forum and myself to remind me what can be achieved in this hobby of ours. 

Intrigued by the way Wargames South had modelled the wheat fields in their Battle for Rauray I learned that they had used caramel coloured teddy bear fur!! To date I have been unable to locate a source of this material, although I have had some strange looks whilst trying.

By 4pm, my colleagues were desperately trying to pull me away from a deep conversation with one of the organisers and with some reluctance, bade the show farewell for another year!! - well it goes without saying that we will return - bringing a game this time and more of our compatriots from St Helens and Loughborough.

If you are tempted to go to the show - GO - it's a superb weekend, although be warned you may come away with something you didn't intend. 

Graeme Spencer
Organiser of Phalanx