S.O.D.S. Skirmish – December 9^th 2001

Leasowes Leisure and Community Centre, Halesowen  

John Tuckey does it again

So, what do you do when you read your early morning email and find a request from our Webmaster, John Sharples, to visit a local show that day.  Well in my case it was to finally give up with the Cossacks campaign I’d been losing all night and rejoin real society for a few hours.

  By way of an explanation, I believe this event is the old Sandwell Skirmish, now in the hands of the Selly Oak and District Society for Wargaming (the SODS in the title!), at a new and much improved venue.  In fact the size of the venue (with a potential for expansion), the more than ample free parking and the easy access from the motorway network, make this an ideal location for a one-day event of this type.

    It was well attended by Traders from near and far, with a wide variety of demonstration and participation games.  Sadly, certainly for the couple of hours or so that I was there, visitor numbers seemed quite low.  The ‘upside’ being that I was able to freely spend far too much money at the trade stands, so like John I’m now the ‘proud’ owner of a medieval wooden fort with all the accessories.

  (Just one suggestion for the guys at SODS.  I’m local, so I knew where I was going, but I found the white A4 notices on the lampposts very “missable”.  So please invest in some bigger or more colourful notices for next years event and maybe you’ll attract some ad hoc visitors, as well as making it easier for the travelling wargamer to find you.)

Burma 1944

My eye was caught first by the impressive Burma 1944 diorama by John French of the Victorian Military Society, who clearly has interests outside of his clubs main period.

Another view of this very impressive game

 John deservedly won the best game in show.

  The biggest crowds seemed to be drawn to the participation game, put on by the Guards Wargames Club, with their Viking raid on a Norman castle and settlement circa 1086, using the Tactica rules.  They in turn won the runners up prize on the day.

From the Fury of the Norsemen....

Presenting his 162^nd demonstration in 13 years was the ever-present stalwart of the hobby, John Tuckey with his Seljucks and Byzantines 1029. As usual the game had masses of figures impressively engaged in ferocious combat. Just what we like to see!

John Tuckey - Master of the Wargame display

 While buying yet more 15mm Huns, this time from Matthew Drayton of Table Top Miniatures, (and very nice they are too!), though when I’ll actually get round to painting this ever growing army is any ones guess.  My DBM project has seen work in progress, a 6mm ECW army that I’ve been working on for well over 20 years! Where does the time go?. But I digress, Matthew showed me a new item they have in production… 15mm DBM/DBA camps in a one-piece casting.  Currently they have 4 on offer with more variants set for release this year.

New from Table Top Games

Need a camp?

Finally, to round the day off and empty my now depleted wallet, I bought a few of these excellent Viking boats produced by Essex Miniatures.

Ready to tackle the great portage

  My final thoughts, well, thanks to John Sharples for getting me out of the house for a few hours to an enjoyable small event, that deserves to grow successfully in the years to come.

Paul Kay

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