Little Wars Revisited games day 2023

 

So I'm a little late with this post, but last weekend I finally made it along to one of the annual Little Wars Revisited 54mm gatherings which happen once a year in Woking (along with a sister event up north in Stockport).  I went to this first one of these a few years ago and then a combination of covid, work and a flat tyre have meant I've missed every one since.  The day is a small event bringing together players who frequent the Little Wars 54mm forum and who enjoy games with larger figures (40mm and upwards).  There are usually around a dozen or so players from around the UK who get the chance to catch up and play a few games over the day.  The event takes place in the very pretty upstairs room at Christchurch in the centre of Woking... definitely the nicest wargames venue I've been to!

I could only make the afternoon but games on offer included Age of Penda, The Men Who Would Be Kings, Lion Rampant and a Cornish smuggling skirmish game.  There was also an intriguing snowball fight game which somehow I neglected to take any photos of.

First up some of Mike Lewis's very impressive NWF game featuring an armoured train being attacked by Pathans...

Some pics of the medieval themed Lion Rampant game with some impressive ramparts...

I played the Age of Penda game which pitched Vikings against Saxons and uses an intriguing order board.  Players have an allocated number of orders which they can use to claim the available slots on the board... there are enough order slots for everyone to be able to move, attack etc but there are a couple of limited special tactics and initiative orders which it's important to bid for if you can.

In our game my Viking force was a small but elite army with a lot of order points available.  Facing it were some rather poor Saxons with few order points but a lot of troops.  I decided to ignore subtlety and to charge headlong for the Saxon centre, carving my way through several units but at a cost to my small army.  Eventually it came down to the last dice throw of the game which sadly didn't go my way and rubbish Saxons claimed victory.  An excellent set of rules and ideal for this kind of event where you want a relatively quick game.  It would be very feasible to play both sides in an evening.

Finally a pic of the Smuggling skirmish... this looked great and had smugglers, locals and government troops all trying to seize the booty and polish off the opposition. It looked great fun and seemed to be heavy on the role-playing aspect

I haven't done anything with 54mm figures since I painted up m North West Frontier figures and I came away inspired to have a think about some larger scale gaming.  I was particularly struck but how good some skirmish games with a handful of figures can look (eg the smuggling game) with relatively few figures.  I always struggle to paint up lots of models so thinking about this kind of game (and my recent Fist Full of Lead games) has set some new projects into motion....