Welcome to the History of Maidstone Wargames Society. 2021 saw the society celebrating it’s 50th anniversary and we felt it would be good to create a history of the society.
The first meeting of Maidstone Wargames Club (initially we were know as a club) was held on the 13th November 1971, with the initial meetings of the club held at the Territorial Army Centre on Boxley Road in Maidstone but soon after changed venue to the hall of the Tonbridge Road Methodist Church also in Maidstone. This venue was shared on club nights with the International Plastic Modelers’ Society. A member of the club also worked at a plastics company and often brought spare bits in which were soon put to use scratch building scenery. In 1976 saw a change in club chairman and the club was renamed Maidstone Wargames Society.
In 1983 the society moved to a new venue, Shepway Manor youth centre, and the following year saw the society put on its first ever game at a wargames show. The name of the game remains a mystery, but it was a medieval game setting using 25mm miniatures; the rules were Tabletop Games’ Retinue. This game was taken to Salute and Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society’s show.
The Society ran a total of nine different games between 1984 and 1989, often putting on two different games in a year. A complete list of the society’s show games can be found on our show games page.
The 1990’s saw a change of society chairman with Trevor Pearless taking over the role. Trevor would go on to be the society’s longest standing chairman. The society was still meeting at Shepway Manor and continued to put on games at various shows. In 1992 the society show game Blood, Guts ‘n’ Gore in Space would go on to win the award for Best Participation Game at the Invicta wargames show. The game had previously been to the Invicta show in 1991 as well as the Tunbridge Wells, Salute and SELWG wargame shows, but picked up the award on its second showing. This award would be the first of seven won by the club in the 1990s.
1992 also saw the debut of most decorated of the society’s show games to date. Beds of Jonquils, depicting the Roman Siege of Masada in AD73 won no less than five awards from the shows attended during 1992 and 1993. The game was entirely scratch-built (including the siege engine).
In 1995 the society moved from Shepway Manor which was becoming unreliable as a venue, and took up residence at St Hilary’s House in Senacre. The venue was small which led to society members only being able to put on one or two games at each meeting. The 1990’s ended with two more show games winning awards, Tatooine Droid Hunt and Danes On Tour in 1997 and 1998 respectively.
The 2000’s saw the society attend various shows, putting together no less than 13 different show games during this period. However the awards were scarce with the only Non Son Hombres Son Demonios!, a game depicting the French Foreign Legion’s famous last stand at Camerone, Mexico on April 30th, 1863, picking up an award for best participation game at the Cavalier show in 2008. The game itself was a last minute replacement of the game that had been planned for that year, with the rules being put together literally by committee in time for the first show.
2003 saw the society create the new committee position of Webmaster in order to concentrate on a website to provide information about the society and showcase its activities. In 2004 the society started its long running annual DBA competition. This would see the majority of members participating at one point or another, with a society meeting given over to the competition each year (the lack of space at St Hilary’s House precluding any other games).
The period between 2004-2007 saw the society making efforts to increase its membership to try and address some of the issues over irregular turnout at meetings and support for running show games. But in 2007 a large increase in the cost to hire the venue at St Hilary’s House saw the society moving to the village hall in Linton, holding its first meeting there at the beginning of 2008.
A motion was proposed at the 2008 AGM for the society to hold its first ever Open Day, as an effort to attract members of the public and those interested in joining the society. The open day took place on the 14th June that year, and has been held almost every year since (the COVID years were the exception).
A unique opportunity for the society presented itself with an invitation to take part in the 360th anniversary of the battle of Maidstone organised by Maidstone Council on May 31st and June 1st 2008. Society members ran a game depicting the events of the battle in one of the galleries of Maidstone Museum. In 2009 the society also contacted the organisers of the Military Odyssey show held in Kent with an offer to put on a game that the organisers were happy to accept. The society attended for two days and took the Battle of Maidstone game and that year’s regular show game, The Battle of Aspern-Essling.
Sadly as the society embarked on its fourth decade, its long standing chairman Trevor Pearless died in July of 2010. Trevor had been the society’s chairman for 20 years and had left an indelible mark on both the society and its members.
2010 saw the society return to the Military Odyssey show for a second year, and was also invited to put on a game at the Royal Engineers Museum in Gillingham. The museum was holding a Victorian era event and so the society ran a game called Skirmish at Ngoway’s Kraal, set during the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879.
In 2011 the new committee member role of Open Day Coordinator was created to replace the previous Interest coordinator position, to provide a focus on the now annual Open Day. This period also saw a return to form for the society’s show games, winning no less than ten awards from the wargaming shows attended. The first of which being Operation Deadstick, the code name given to the coup-de-main assault on the Orne River and Caen Canal bridges on D-Day; more commonly known as the airborne assault on Pegasus Bridge. The game was created using 6mm miniatures to represent the forces that took part, with the landscape modelled to match aerial photographs taken during WWII. The game won best demonstration game at Salute and best game of show at Broadside 2012. This was followed by awards for the show games Somewhere in Belgium (2014), The Road to Homs ’82 (2016), Fenris Descending (2017), Twisting the Dragon’s Tail (2018) and Dogfight ’69 (2019).
During this period the society was featured in a number of wargaming magazines such as Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames. These included articles covering the society’s meetings, open days and a number authored by members demonstrating how they created their show games. 2014 saw the society undergo a number of modernising developments, the first being the creation of a of a new society logo. The design adopted was created by a member of the society and features the Russian cannon captured during the Crimean war on display in Maidstone High Street. The society also started a Facebook page in 2014 as another outlet for society news and to engage with the public. In 2019 the society started a blog to further increase its online reach and accessibility.
The society started the new decade with the show game Biggles and the Island at the Top of the World at the Cavalier wargame show in February 2020. Unfortunately the COVID pandemic soon meant that the society had to suspend all in person meetings. This was swiftly followed by the cancellation of all shows in 2020.
Unable to meet, the society looked at other ways to engage with the hobby. The first of which consisted of a number of online Quiz Nights in May of that year and in June the society held a virtual meeting, with some members playing solo games and others managing to play actual games via a Zoom link. As restrictions changed during 2020 some members were able to meet up in gardens and other outside spaces to play a game or two, but access to the society venue remained restricted throughout 2020.
2021 continued the same as 2020 with restrictions still in place meaning in person society meetings were not permitted. This continued until August when the society was once again able to meet after a break of 17 months. Several shows where also rescheduled for the second half of the year. The society took the Biggles and the Island at the Top of the World show game to the Salute show in November and to the Broadside show in December. It won the Jim Clarke Memorial Award for the Best Science Fiction / Fantasy game at Salute.
Some UK wargame shows took a readjustment break during 2022 and so the society took our award winning game from 1997 (Tatooine Droid Hunt) featuring a 25mm scale scratch built Sand Crawler which remarkably was still available for one last outing at the Broadside wargames show.
2023 saw the return of many wargame shows and the society’s return to form with a thriving membership and more award winning show games. A rare modern game depicting Falluja during 2004 picked up best 10mm – 18mm game at Salute in 2023 while for 2024 our game Summer of 77 won Most Innovative Game at Salute in that year.
To be continued …
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