Colours 2025 Games & Competition

[Nick Harbud]

As always, the Colours show in Newbury will feature a tabbletop wargames competition and a wide range of demonstration and participation games.


Participation Games
Whilst looking at the games is perfectly acceptable, many of the exhibitors at Colours would also like you to join in.  Here are some of the participation games that you can expect to find at the show.

The Saxon Shore is Burning Britannia Campaign
Richard Jeffrey-Cook will once more be in charge of the Society's show presence and will reprise his popular mini-campaign of barbarians attacking Roman Britain.  Battles will be resolved using Mortem et Gloriam Pacto rules.  Please stop by to chat with him and the other helpers at the stand.

Never Mind the Ruckus
This is a Medieval skirmish game inspired and influenced by Never Mind the Billhooks where each player runs a company of warriors under the control of their Captain to contest the field and win glory. Ruckus is set in the Wars of the Roses conflict, a time of misrule, lawlessness, and divers alarums! A time for Rebels and Outlaws, a time of border conflicts and raids, a time when old family feuds escalate, a time to settle scores.  Brought to you by the game designer, Mike Peters and the Ruckusteers.

World War 1 Mass Battle
Gripping Beast go over the top with this game from the Great War.
 
WW1 Aerial Combat
What would Colours be without Dave Fowler and the Wings of Glory Aerodrome?  Smoke me a kipper – I'll be back for breakfast!

Great Judge Dredd
For everyone who enjoyed Burrows and Badgers at last year's show, Magrathea Builder Of Worlds wargames group invite you to participate in their latest offering involving the legendary figure of justice.

War of the Spanish Succession
Join Simon Miller to fight a battle with his latest Lust For Glory rules.

Moby Dick or The Whale Game
Mark's Game Room hosts this fishy story about a big white mammal.

Franco-Prussian War
Liverpool Wargames Club invites you to participate in this battle using Eagles of Empire rules.

Packing Heat
Brutal squad-on-squad action brought to you by the author, Ioan Davies-John and his friends from Standing Ready Games.

Crossing the Somme 1346
Écorcheurs return to Colours with a medieval skirmish set in the Hundred Years War.

Battle of Hué 1968
Join Jackmanation in a 28mm skirmish game during the Vietnam War.

Schleswig Holstein War
Join the Table Top Battles group and attempt to settle the Schleswig-Holstein Question between Danish and Prussian forces.

Battletech/Alpha Strike
Leeds Wargames invite participants to join in this science fiction game.

Battle for Berlin 1945
Squad level action from the end of World War 2 hosted by Swindon & District Wargames.

Battle of Lens, 1648
Baccus invite you to join in the last battle of the Thirty Years War, all in their distinctive 6mm scale.


Demonstration Games
Each year, clubs and societies exhibit a wide variety of wargames and battle scenarios at Colours, with this year being no exception.  Below are the exhibitors who have already booked their place at the show.

Purple Heart Lane Breakout (D-Day +5)
This game is taken from 'The Road To Carentan', a book that features the adventures of 101st Airborne members during 6-11th June 1944.  American forces under Colonel Cole force a passage over the River Madeleine to enter Carentan from the south with positions taken at the point of bayonet under cover of a smoke screen.  A 20mm game using Rapid Fire Reloaded rules, brought to you by the Wargaming Headquarters.

Cannae 216BC
Hannibal's famous victory using Hail Caesar Epic rules, brought to you by Steve Deeprose and his friends.

Space Nam
Fight off the invaders using Nam 68 rules, brought to you by Boscombe Down & Amesbury Wargames Club.

Japanese-Korean War In the 16th Century
28mm wargame using Warlord rules, organised and hosted by Trevor Halsall.

Magnesia
25mm scale battle using Impetus 2 rules, brought to you by Eastbourne Wargames.

Battle of Henrysburg c.1750
An episode from the French-Indian Wars brought to you by the Leggetts.

Battle of the Five Armies
The epic Tolkeinian battle recreated in 28mm using Midgard Heroic Battle rules and brough to you by the author, James Morris, and his friends.

Maldon 991 AD
Earl Byrthnoth attempts to repel the Vikings using De Bellis Magistrorum Militum (DBMM) rules in 28mm scale brought to you by Wargames Association of Reading.

Bismark's Wars
A 10mm battle from later 19^th Century Europe brought to you by the rules' author and former Slingshot Editor, Nigel Emsen.

Ardennes 1944
Southbourne Tabletop and Boardgamers bring a later World War 2 scenario using the Chain of Command rules.

Waterloo 1815
The epic battle recreated in 28mm using General D'Armée 2 rules and brought to you by the author, Dave Brown.


To the Strongest! Competition
For the Colours 2025 wargames competition, we are pleased to bring To the Strongest! (TtS) an ancient/medieval ruleset played on a rectangular grid that enables players to completely dispense with measurement, and so permits the game to move along at a cracking pace.

To the Strongest! games use a unique activation system driven by either playing cards or chits. This system introduces uncertainty to a battle; in some turns a unit can move four or five times, and in others not even once. The same deck is used to resolve shooting and melee. No dice, whatsoever, need be rolled!  Further details on the rules can be found here.
 
All the above information is correct with what we know at the time of publication.  If you would like to enter this competition or have any corrections or updates, please contact me.

 

[Imperial Dave]

I should be able to attend....for once it doesnt clash with a holiday!

[Nick Harbud]

A late change to the demonstration and participation games.

The BBB Napoleonics game has been replaced by the guys from WiP Games who will stage a Saxons vs Viking/Norman slugfest using their On Bloody Ground rules.

[Imperial Dave]

good stuff...still on course for attendance