2026 Convention - 16th-18th October 2026

[GavinP]

I expect to be able to confirm my availability and book in the next few days.  Are there still plenty of spaces?

How many do you need?

At least 2 unless I go on a diet before then  

whereas with the food on offer I'll need a bigger car to go home lol.

[Nick Harbud]

Booking Deadline 31^st August

Just a gentle reminder to guarantee your spot at the Convention... 

[Richard Lockwood]

Games. We need attendees to put on games. Lots of them.

We have around 55 booked to attend - which is fantastic. But did I mention we will need lots of games for us all to play?

[michaellaneuk]

I spoke to Richard at Colours today and I can see why he asked me to have three players a side rather than two a side as I had planned for my refight of Frigidus of 394 AD with 15mm figures.  The more the merrier!

[Bohemond]

Was someone asking for information about the heraldry of the knights at the battle (both sides)? There's a booklet which should be very helpful. I'll bring it along to the Convention in October since it was published nearly 30 years ago by a small outfit in Keswick entitled:'The Battle of Bannockburn, June 1314, Heraldry, Armour and Knights'. The author is Peter Armstrong, published by Lynda Armstrong Designs and printed in 1998 by Border Miniatures (ISBN 1 902667 02 06)

[Richard Lockwood]

The following has just been emailed to all attendees so far signed up for the Convention:

Dear all
This is going out to all 57 of you so far signed up for this year's Convention.
Wow! 57! This is by some way a record attendance, and I can only thank you for deciding to attend. For this returning for another year, I am glad you have enjoyed the event in previous years enough to come again. And for those who have signed up for the first time - thank you, welcome, and I really believe you will have a splendid time.

Now, what this increase in numbers means of course is that we need more sessions to be run by attendees than ever before. So please, please, please: if you have not already stepped forward to run a session then we really need you to think seriously about doing so. This event only works if we all contribute - and that means running a session if at all possible.

So what can a session be? Well nearly anything!
- At its simplest it can be organising and running of a game (with figures, or a boardgme, all are welcome) and allowing ideally at least 4 and preferably 6 players to join in (or 8, or 10, etc).
- But it can also be a "work in progress" game where you are developing ideas and need to try it out with live players and get feedback - we've had many examples of this over the years.
- It could also be more of a discussion than an actual game: one year I ran a session on "understanding the Battle of Issus" which was a kind of workshop where I presented information and we talked about what it meant for the interpretation of the history and a potential war-game; similarly Matt Bennett ran a workshop session discussing how to potentially wargame the Xenephon's March of the Ten Thousand.
- And almost anything else can fit the category so long as it encompasses history and wargaming in our period.

If you decide to run a session, or have already let me know you will be doing so (thank you to the relatively few who have so far stepped up) then I need the following information as soon as possible:

A title/heading for the session
A short descriptive piece to be printed in the Programme, perhaps including info such as rule set, figure scale, and ideally selling it!
The number of players  you can accommodate
The size of table you will need
Any special requests (eg Don't want to clash with another particular person's game as you are assisting each other)
Anything else you want to tell me, or ask about

Also, please produce and bring with you a "Signup sheet" which should be an A4 sheet, with name of your game, short descriptive piece, number of players you can accommodate, and then some lines underneath for people to sign up on. These Sign-up sheets will go up on the notice board in the main event hall on the morning of each day, around 8:45am, to allow everyone a fair chance to sign up for sessions they want to. (Those physically less able to participate in the "scrum" can assign proxies to sign up on their behalf.)

I hope to start sending our drafts of the Programme in the last week of September. As usual it will be update a number of times, hopefully as more and more games get volunteered.

Finally - not long now! I look forward to seeing you all there.

Regards
Richard