The Group was set up in 1993 so as a number of people could enjoy wargaming in a friendly atmosphere on a Wednesday evening while enjoying a chat and a cup of tea or coffee. All of the founder group had been wargaming for many years with Napoleonic, American Civil War and WW2 were the main periods being played.
There has also been a venture into participation gaming and one such game "All Quiet on the Sea Front" took prizes at a number of shows. The number of members has grown and and so has the size of the games. "Shifting Sands" a game based on adventure films was some 18 feet long and covered in dense Jungle, a dinosaur inhabited gorge along with a desert were the spirits of the Pharaohs ruled in a pyramid that opened out to reveal an additional playing area.
Going forward "Diamond Geezers" appeared a game based around south London where well known crime busting pairs had to stop the villains. This was a great favourite on the show circuit. "The Day of the Triffids" followed using a lot of the "Diamond Geezer" scenery.
A year later there was a bit of a change to our show games and a more historical theme began to emerge, "Allo Nighthawk" was a game set in France in 1944 just before "D" Day and involved members of the French Resistance, Communist Resistance and the collaborates trying to establish where the plane would land with its valuable cargo.
Carrying on with the World War 2 theme we moved into Dambusters. A participation game which saw the table increase in length to some 24 feet and utilised no less than four 1/72nd scale Lancaster bombers. The "aim" of this game saw the player pilot a Lancaster to the dam and then guess when to release the famous bouncing bomb with a view to destroying the target. The game proved extremely popular and a number of pilots were successful in their goal. Asd something of an irony two of our German gamers tried their luck and neither was able to complete the mission with one being shot down by the roving night fighter!
Dambusters was a hard act to follow, a decision was made to look in a completely different direction for our next game.Someone came up with the idea to look to the cartoon world for inspiration. So it was a great fun game designed around the well known and loved Wacky Races programme. Players took control of the various characters with their cars and so we saw Peter Perfect and Penelope Pitstop and all the other characters racing to the finish avoiding various hazards on the way. Many of these were instigated by Dick Dastardly and Mutley, these were played by the club members and generally interfered with the race as in the real show
One of the clubs favourite board games is Colditz and what better game to make into a participation game. Including, a 10 feet long castle on an 18 feet playing area. Played with 28mm figures the participants had to escape from the castle. While the guards played by the club tried to stop them.
This was the 2010 entry to Salute. A game based on the idea that you are the Kamikase pilot and have to attack one of the US ships. Your targets were an escort carrier, a cruiser or a carrier. As you flew your plane you took flak and damage was allocated via the wheel of fortune. Once you were over the target you made your dive..... for this darts were used with a magnetic board with the Silhouettes of the ships as targets. We as a club enjoyed putting on the game and you the public appear to have loved the game.
To top it all we were awarded "Best of Show". Thanks to everyone who made this happen.
At Salute for 2011 our game was a World War One game and this was to aid Paul and Ian on their venture into wargames rules. Crush the Kaiser is a new set of rules due out shortly. They are designed to be fast play and include air warfare. The first set is designed around the latter part of the war, but further supplements are planned to cover different periods of this 4 year conflict. In addition there will be army lists for the main nations involved.