Vapnartak

Luckily the weather was kind to us as we made our way over the Pennines to the Vapnartak show at York. I always enjoy this show, a good mix of traders and games, plus the opportunity to catch up with fellow gamers after the Christmas/New Year break.   The Lance & Longbow Society had a stand as usual and we ran a participation game based on the battle of Hexham, 1464.  Following our recent play-testing we used the 'Lion Rampant' rules and they proved to be a success.  The members of the public who joined us all picked the basics very quickly, even the complete novices, and all seemed to enjoy the game.  We had made a few alterations to the known historical force sizes and deployment to give the Lancastrian army the ghost of a chance. On the day we added a time restraint, setting the duration of the game as 1 hour, by which time the Yorkists had to have completely driven the Lancastrians from the field.  The game ran four times, with the Yorkists winning two.  In the remainder, one battle saw Somerset (the Lancastrian commander), killed and only one battered archer unit remain on the hill.  The other battle had two battered Lancastrian units remaining, but both were edging towards the fords to their rear.

Above is an overview of the game with the Lancastrians on the hill and the more numerous Yorkists deployed ready to attack.

We didn't have much time to look around, playing four games and manning the busy society publications stand, but I managed to take a few photographs, my apologies to the many clubs/organisations whose games I haven't included.  First was the League of Extraordinary Kriegspielers with their Suez 1915 game which featured on Wargames Illustrated  on facebook.

Lovely terrain and figures from a little-gamed theatre of WWI.  Curtey's Miniatures put on a very well produced Arthurian period game,

Finally, the host club had a representation of John Paul Jones raid on Leith, I particularly liked the detail on the harbour and the ships.

A very enjoyable day out, I even found time to buy the bases I had looked for at the Pudsey show in December!