History of the Society

2021 was the 50th anniversary of the society and we decided we should have a properly documented history of Maidstone Wargames Society. It’s taken a bit longer than we anticipated but we have finally managed to reconstruct the main highlights of the society from 1971 to the present day.

We’ve given our history its own page and we will add to it each year details of our show games, open days and other events of significance.

History of Maidstone Wargames Society

 

A Day at the Society

This week we thought we would show you what a day at the Maidstone Wargames Society looks like.  As a reminder the society meets on the second and fourth Saturday of each month at the Linton Village Hall between 10am to 5pm, which gives members enough time to pay a couple of quick games or to play something larger.

At our 12th of October meeting there were six games covering quite a varied array of periods and scales.

We start with the game from our featured image above. Andy and Stephen have started a short campaign of the Norman conquest using the Lion Rampant ruleset.

Both have extensive 28mm dark age armies which means as well as being able to play larger battles they also have enough miniatures to represent both forces. This allows them to accommodate new players to the period or scale.

That’s always been an advantage to being in a club or society. I had no dark age miniatures when I first joined, but other members provided miniatures so I could try out new rules and games to see if I wanted to get involved.

We did this for the Saga rules and I now have a sizeable Viking and Anglo Saxon force of my own.

For that big battle feeling Paul put on a Napoleonic battle using 3mm miniatures.

Paul was trying out some home grown rules and the game was a good example of one player providing all of the forces for this epic battle.

All Paul needed were some willing volunteers and so a number of other members joined in to test the rules.

For this meeting Tony F and I had a practice game of Xenos Rampant. There’s normally a good mix of historical and fantasy or sci-fi at the society. I’d not played Xenos Rampant and asked Tony who had played a couple of games to go through the rules with me.

The games were played using 15mm miniatures, but my Xeno Rampant army was still on the painting table and so I used some of my other sci-fi miniatures that would work at any scale.

Namely some 6mm scale mechs and some 28mm powered armour that also double up as suitable armoured mechs for 15mm.

Tony F provided the terrain for the games and we managed to really test the rules and get two games in on the day.

Mark J and Felix had been painting like mad to get ready for the Vietnam game they were putting on. Often at the society someone will put on a larger game that can accommodate a number of players. I believe this game had six members playing on the day.

Again a great advantage of being a member. When real life gets in the way it’s great to be able to just turn up an play. No need to prepare anything, you don’t even need to bring dice or a tape measure, although there is always a shortage of the latter!

The Vietnam game was a nice big one using several of the tables available, giving the US forces lots of jungle to get through.

I didn’t ask who won, but each time I looked over the table there were a number of concerned faces.

John La was also testing out some rules he is writing covering the notorious boarder reiver period along the Anglo-Scottish boarder.

A number of members have been regularly helping John with the rules, I’ve not played it myself, but I do believe the games are now flowing very well.

Also nice to have games that are more scenario based and not just a straight forward battle to challenge players in other ways to achieve victory.

Speaking of scenarios the sixth game at the meeting was provided by Eric who put on a Call of Cthulhu role playing session.  A number of members jumped at the chance of a bit of RPG action. In recent times the society has seen a number of members run role playing games.

If you are interested in joining the society or just want to come and have a look at what we do, either to learn more about the hobby or re-kindle your enthusiasm for miniature wargaming check out the details on our about the Maidstone Wargames Society page., or come down to one of our meetings, you can see what we currently have planned on our diary page.

A busy weekend, Society meeting 24th February and Cavalier 25th February

Andy rounds up a busy weekend for the Society. Photos by Andy unless stated otherwise, header photo by Stephen.

Last weekend saw both a Society meeting and our annual trip to the Cavalier Wargames show run by Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society.

Only three games at the meeting on Saturday, perhaps due to some members only being able to get out on one of the days.

First up, David ran a Napoleonic Corps game using General d’Armee rules and figures from his collection. This was a popular game with half a dozen members partaking.

Eric ran a Judge Dredd RPG, only a couple of photos of this one I’m afraid.

Judge Dredd RPG
Judge Dredd Bar room Brawl

Finally on Saturday Andy and Stephen finished off their Lion Rampant Five Battles campaign, joined this time by Treasurer Mark and new member Charlotte.

Game one.

This was a Convoy mission, the Christians had to escort three “baggage” markers diagonally across the table, a cart, some monks and some civilians. The Muslim forces had to stop them.

Much reduced cavalry face off (Charlotte)
Andy’s convoy and escorts (Charlotte)
Egyptian Light Cavalry (Charlotte)

Game 2. This was to be our “Big Battle”, with two commands on each side. Here the objective was simply to defeat the opposition.

Andy’s warband
Andy’s Warband (Charlotte)
Charlotte’s and Stephen’s warbands
Stephen’s view point (Stephen)

We will post a write up of the final games in the campaign in the near future.

CAVALIER

On Sunday half a dozen or so members travelled to Tonbridge for Cavalier.

The Society’s game for this year was masterminded and built by Phil, and was a 3D representation of a map game published in the 1977 Warlord Comic Summer Special portraying a Luftwaffe raid on Southern England during the Battle of Britain.

Phil’s board, 560 individually marked squares!
Airfields and ammunition dumps are three of the targets for the Luftwaffe
A close up of the town
A copy of the original game can just be seen at the bottom of the photo

First Society meeting of the year

Andy rounds up the first meeting of the year.

A good turn out for the Society’s first meeting of 2024, which included the Annual General Meeting, as well as half a dozen games.

The games staged were representative of the many periods and genes covered at the Society, consisting of historical, fictional, fantasy and sci-fi games.

Tony and Phil made a start with their “Quest of the Ringbearer” Middle-Earth campaign, playing out 4 scenarios of the journey from the Shire to Mount Doom.

Scenario 1 Farmer Maggot’s Crop

Farmer Maggot’s cottage
Starting positions for scenario 1. The hobbits by their stash (giant tomato), Grip, Fang and Wolf by the kennel and Farmer Maggot asleep in his cottage.
One of the Hobbits fends off Fang while the others gather cabbages

Scenario 2 – Short cuts make long delays

Pippin gets left behind as Frodo and Sam head for Gildor Inglorion. The Nazgul blunder their way through the woods
Sam has three Nazgul to face, Pippin has fallen and Frodo is nowhere to be seen.

Scenario 3 – Buckleberry Ferry

Starting positions for Scenario three, Three Nazgul spread out near the ferry, the Hobbits are in the trees near the top of the picture.
Stalemate, the sole surviving Nazgul (with 5 points of Will left) has crossed the Brandywine tying the ferry on the far side of the river. The four Hobbits have taken some damage and can’t face swimming the river with a Nazgul waiting for them.

A more detailed report on these scenarios will appear in due course.

Stephen staged a 15mm American Civil War game using Brigade Fire & Fury, ‘The Battle of Mansfield April 1864’

Union defenders on the hill
Union fall back as the Confederates take the hill
Last ditch Union defence
Confederates turn the flank

Alan put on a Pulp Alley game “The Castle of Terror”, teams from the Intelligence Agencies of various countries have been dispatched to investigate secret German activity at Schloß Weidergänger.

The teams approach the castle through the woods
The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend
Russians investigate one of the huts
Sentries patrol, “Hast du etwas gehört, Fritz?”

Jeremey and Eric tried out –“Grimdark Future” from One Hour Wargames using their Space Marines and Robot collections.

Space Marines attack!
Part of the robot horde
Space Marines with air support
Space Marines take a beating

John staged a FoG Renaissance 15mm ECW game pitching Royalists vs Covenanters

Scots Covenanters defend the hill
Push of Pike
Cavalry clash on the wings
Kings’s Lifeguard of Foot supported by cavalry attack the Covenanters

And finally, David put on a 28mm Napoleonic Corps game, Russians vs Prussians using General d’Armee rules

Battle lines are formed
Cavalry clash while infantry hide in the woods.
Russian foot attack the Prussians in the woods
Attack on the Cross Roads

Well, that’s it for the round up of our first meeting.

The Society meets on the 2nd & 4th Saturdays of the month at Linton Village Hall. You can find our diary of games here.

For new members/visitors, we will always endeavour to find you a spot in a game if we can.

Lights! Camera! Action! Take 2

For our next instalment in this series Tony starts with a couple of submissions:

Our title image is a scene from the film “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”, the Charge of the Rohirrim, with Théoden at the fore during the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. Figures from Tony’s extensive collection.

Returning to history, Tony says: “I thought I’d have a go at recreating some WW2 historical photos for this. I dug out my copy of “Blitzkreig in the West” from After The Battle publishing, which specialises in showing contemporary photos and then retaking the scene as it was in the 70s (when the book was published…)”.

We can’t reproduce the photos from the book for copyright reasons, but here are Tony’s reconstructions.

On May 10th, 2nd Panzer Division was moving through the Ardennes – the original photo shows a PzIII passing a Protze truck. I used a Pz.III and a Horch field car – I didn’t have a Protze with crew figures, the Horch just looked better. In hindsight it needed a backdrop of some sort to hide the garden fence.

Horch field car and Pz.III

In the early hours of May 15th 1940, the French 26eme BCC (heavy tank battalion) encountered units of the 7th Panzer Division near Flavion in Belgium. After heavy fighting the Char B1s were stopped by German artillery. I found a fully painted B1 in my collection that was still awaiting its tracks, so I thought it would make an ideal stand-in for the disabled vehicle on the road.

Char B1s of the French 26eme BCC (heavy tank battalion)

Moving from WW2 to the Hundred Years War, Stephen gives us the Battle of Crécy

The battle of Crecy, 1346

And finally for this submission, a couple of scenes from the Original Top Gun film (1986!) provided by Marcus.

Scene from the original Top Gun, F14 and “Mig-28”, Watch the Birdie!
Scene from the original Top Gun, F14 vs 2 “Mig-28s”

Society Meeting 9th July 2022

A tad late, but here’s a short pictorial round up of the games staged at our last meeting.

Stephen and Tony G ran a game of Sword & Spear (Romans and Germans) in 15mm.

Paul also ran an Ancients game, using his own rules for 3mm figures.

 

And finally, Marcus and Eric played a game of Marcus Sci Fi adaption of What a Tanker, using 15mm tanks. There will be an article by Eric on this game shortly.

Bingo Master’s Breakout #2

As expected, progress has accelerated in the hobby bingo challenge in the past two months. At the end of February, five club members had claimed a total of 14 squares on their respective boards; we’re now up to 40 squares in total with two new participants.

Stephen has held onto top spot, having now claimed 12 of the 20 squares on the board already, including being the first to complete a line (in fact he has two), giving him 160 points. Jeremy has stalled, claiming just one square in the past few weeks, although it did help him become the only other person with a full line. Tony F has slipped past him into second place, although a scattergun approach means that while he claimed five squares, he has yet to finish a line. Andy and Mark K both got onto the table with their first points, and Eric and Marcus both added at least one square to their existing totals (Eric’s Chaos horsemen shown above gained him square B3).

Square A1 (play at least four different games) is the most popular and was claimed by almost everyone as we got through more club meetings. Next most common are D4, B3 and C3 which have all been claimed four times. There are still two completely unclaimed squares – D4 (write a book report) and C5 (paint any unit).

Hobby Bingo Leaderboard 2022

NameSquares (10 pts)Lines (20 pts)Total
Stephen197330
Tony F151170
Eric121140
Jeremey7190
Mark H5-50
Andy4-40
Tim4-40
Marcus3-30

You can see the full grid plus everyone’s individual progress in the Bingo Hall page at any time – this gets updated weekly, usually after WIP Wednesday.

Bingo Master’s Breakout #1

Welcome to the first bi-monthly roundup of the club’s Hobby Bingo challenge for 2022.

Club members have taken a while to get up and running – the challenge only rewards completed tasks so I’d imagine that there are a number of partially completed projects out there which will be claiming various squares soon. So far five members have claimed one or more squares.

Jeremey took an early lead, getting to 40 points very quickly with a number of Vikings that he rapidly painted for the first meeting of the year (claiming squares B1 and C1). However, Stephen has since overhauled him, reaching 50 with his Capt Selwyn Froggit character figure that claimed square B3. Tony F is mid-table, getting to 30 points with two squares in the last week – D3 for his A Billion Suns Krakens (above), and D1 for a recent blog post on his 6mm SF village. Marcus and Eric have also claimed their first squares.

Three members have claimed square D1 (write a blog post) – this is the most of any single square, and unsurprising since the three in question are regular blog contributors anyway. Squares A4 and B3 have been claimed twice each.

Hobby Bingo Leaderboard 2022

NameSquares (10 pts)Lines (20 pts)Total
Stephen197330
Tony F151170
Eric121140
Jeremey7190
Mark H5-50
Andy4-40
Tim4-40
Marcus3-30

You can see the full grid plus everyone’s individual progress in the Bingo Hall page at any time – this gets updated weekly, usually after WIP Wednesday.

Society Meeting 08/01/2022

A tad delayed, but here’s a photo round up of our first meeting of 2022. In addition to our AGM, we had a SAGA battle day, involving 8 players, a FOG Renaissance ECW game, a Lords of the Rings Game and some Spy-Fi action.

First up a SAGA-fest with Scots, Bretons, Welsh, Vikings and Anglo-Danes. In addition to some experienced SAGA players we had a couple of prospective members join in for their first games.

Andy’s Anglo Danish face off against Stephen’s Welsh
James’ Vikings vs Jeremey’s Anglo Danes
Tony’s Bretons vs John’s Scots
James’ Vikings vs Jeremey’s Anglo Danes
James’ Vikings vs Jeremey’s Anglo Danes
Close up of John’s Scots
Tony’s Bretons

Moving on the the English Civil War, 15mm figures using Field of Gory rules.

ECW Armies line up
Cuirassiers charge
Colonel John Lamplugh’s Regiment of Foot
Royalist Regiments

Moving from history to fiction, Marcus had a try out of his underwater Spy-Fi rules.

Marcus’ seascape
Divers and mini-sub
More divers hiding behind a shoal of fish
The two sides fight over the lost missile.

And finally to Fantasy, a Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

The scene is set.
Dwarves advance across the bridge
Uruk Hai advance with a Troll in support
Dwarf Heavy Metal
Dwarves holding the Bridge against the Uruk Hai

Lights! Camera! Action! Take 1.

Shortly before Christmas Stephen issued a challenge, throughout the rest of December post pictures on our members groups.io page of famous scenes from military history, or myth, or fiction. Fantasy or sci fi, film or whatever, but using models from our collections.

Stephen kicked off the challenge with a picture of Grendel and Beowulf

Grendel and Beowulf

Moving from myth to history, Andy contributed Gaius Julius Caesar leading Legio XIII Gemina across the river Rubicon in January 49BC precipitating (another) Roman Civil War.

Alea iacta est

And going back to fiction, Andy staged the battle between Gandalf and the Balrog in the Mines of Moria:

Gandalf and the Balrog at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.

Marcus provided a scene from Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

“Your dead sleep quietly, at least, Captain, out of reach of sharks” “Yes, sir, of sharks and men.”
― Jules Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Stephen had a play with his camera to create a sepia print of Pickett’s Charge.

Picket’s Charge

Mark delved into comic-lore to give us a scene from the comic 2000AD, Judge Death vs Judge Dredd.

Judge Death Lives! 2000ad progs 224-228, “you cannot kill what doesss not live”.

Marcus offers a scene from an Iron Hand mission in Vietnam.

Two MiG 21 Én Bạcs pursue a pair of F105 Thunderchiefs on an Iron Hand mission. A SAM-6 site is the F105’s target.