Auckland Wargaming Club

Well the latest Classic Wargamer’s Journal is out – and in it is an article from Dan Grove of the HATSOFF (Heart of America Tactical and Strategic Order of the Followers of Featherstone) Wargaming Club. Dan points out that in addition to rules for playing wargames a club also needs rules for the club itself. The HATSOFF Club have their 10 ‘commandments’ which have been in play for 35 years and Dan assures readers their club has run to the spirit of their intent the entire time. In the unlikely event something crops up outside the particular rules of a specific game they also have a ‘Quadribium’, which consists of the 4 senior club members, or the 4 members hosting the game(s), who are called on to make a unanimous adjudication – the Quadribium has been convened once in 35 years!

UPDATED: Reg Newell reports that at the Hutt Valley Wargaming Club they have a number of people interested in the SYW. They are trying to gauge whether there might be interest in a 1-2 day convention next year with a SYW theme – probably mainly 28mm Die Kreigskunst, possibly Black Powder, but also skirmish level games, naval, F&IW (French & Indian War), SYW boardgames, etc. There is no specific date in mind at this time other than beyond midway through next year.

Der Kreigskunst is a set of battalion level rules based on the General De Brigade system. Battalions are 4-6 bases of 4 castings on a 40x40mm base. Cavalry are in units of 20 or so castings. Many people have SYW armies in mothballs and this might be a good opportunity to dust them off and give them a run

The Christchurch Wargames Club is starting to publish details on-line for the Nationals in Easter 2011. Player packs look to be available for several fantasy systems as well as 15mm DBA and 15mm DBR. For more information See Here.

Events being offered are: Warhammer Fantasy Battle ; Warhammer 40k; War of the Ring; Lord of the Rings; Flames of War; FOG; DBA; DBR; DBM (apparently not DBMM); Bloodbowl; & Warmachine. No scales specified, except 15mm for DBA & DBR, so unclear exactly what scales are being played for the Historical (Ancients) rule sets (but sounds like 15mm only)...

Why ME? Since the international success of The Lord of the Rings movies, New Zealand has been identified (rightly or wrongly) in the eyes of many as the home of Middle Earth. MEDBAG is a site dedicated to keeping people around the world informed of DBA and HotT activities in New Zealand.

DBA is quite popular overseas, where its small scale and quick play time allow enjoyable one-day competitions, where six games can be comfortably played. These can be themed to a period or have some sort of campaign mechanism. The liveliness of the DBA community is attested by their Fanaticus Website. In New Zealand the game is quite strong in the South Island, with a number of DBA competitions in recent years in Timaru and Christchurch. It's also a rule set that is being offered at the IWC next February and has 17 players already registered.

AWC Member Ben Hill reports in from Oxford, UK, on the local wargaming scene there:

Herro AWC,

In March this year, my wife and I moved to Oxford in the UK. We will be here for a several years while my wife does genius things that I do not understand, similar situation to my wargaming.

I miss the AWC and its excellent members not to mention my Romans and newly painted ACW army. However, with England being the home of toy soldiers I have an excellent opportunity to buy buy buy. With that in mind, I visited the Foundry in Nottingham on July 23 for their open day with Sean (who was visiting the UK). Firstly, Nottingham has very few trees, no men in tights, no sheriff, and maid Marion had no teeth but she knew where St Mark’s road was luckily.

Interesting thread recently [on the Yahoo!Group about attendance at the Club meetings and related areas of interest such as club competitions]. Some interesting points have been raised, and of course a few red herrings (unintentionally I am sure) have been thrown in there too.

Club competitions have two effects usually. They raise interest in a particular theme, but often cause people to stay away for a bit until the "silliness" (in their eyes) is over. Club periods can have the same effect.