Cake wars

The November 30th meeting was cancelled due to a mix up with the hall booking. St John's was running its Christmas fair. Many members caught the WhatsApp cancelation, others were stopped at the door. However one of our newer members did not realize the meeting was canceled and carried on regardless. Here is his report of the days events.

A most interesting mornings gaming. Here is the AAR :

I was a bit surprised not to recognize anyone, with an especially high proportion of the fairer sex than usual. I thought "is it ladies day ?" and as it was only my sixth UWS session and I still have not met everyone, I was not that concerned. 

I pressed on regardless, a fix is a fix and it was bring and buy day which explained all the stalls.

I proposed an island hopping campaign of Christmas bauble and cake wars, an imaginations WW2 style war. To be fair most of the other players looked a bit confused by this.

I was on the side of the Cake confederacy and my first opponent was a lovely lady called Emma, on the side of the Christmas bauble hegemony. I merrily hurled cakes at Emma's baubles hunkering down in their bunkers ( scratch built sturdy cardboard boxes ). 

Then it got a bit strange, instead of taking her turn, Emma sat under the table crying and shouting "stop it you lunatic". Then 2 burly men, who I still did not recognize, grabbed me quite roughly and dragged me out of the hall. My protestations of "I've paid my years subscription, just ring Jeremy" falling on deaf ears. They then made it very clear that I should take myself to a different location.

Now I find out it was St Johns Christmas fair I do feel  a bit silly.

An introduction to the UWS

 

 

The Ulster Wargames Society (UWS) is the longest established historical miniature wargaming society in Northern Ireland.  We started out in the 1960s as the Ulster Military Modelling Society, but over the years more and more members wanted to game with their nicely painted models.  Eventually we changed the name in the late 1990s, to reflect the fact that for a long time our focus had been primarily on wargaming.

We meet monthly, usually on the last Saturday, from around 9:30am to 5pm.  Most years we have about 20 members signed up, and there’s plenty of room for more.  Visitors are also welcome, although we may charge a small entrance fee.

A typical meeting will feature a large participation game with multiple players, usually with room for people just to turn up on the day and play, and two or three smaller games.  We also run an annual Bring and Buy sale.

As previously mentioned, most of the games we play are historically based.  Frequently used rulesets include:

• ·         Age of Eagles (Napoleonic)
• ·         Battlegroup (WW2)
• ·         Black Powder (Marlburian, Seven Years War, Napoleonic)
• ·         Blucher (Napoleonic)
• ·         Chain of Command (WW2)
• ·         Dux Britanniarum (Arthurian)
• ·         Field of Glory (Ancients and Renaissance)
• ·         Fire and Fury (American Civil War)
• ·         Lion Rampant (Medieval)
• ·         Sharp Practice (Napoleonic)
• ·         They Died for Glory (Franco-Prussian War)

Several of our favourite rulesets are published by TooFatLardies, and in 2013 we enjoyed a visit from the Lord of Lard himself, Rich Clarke.  This event, dubbed the Lardy Ulster Fry, featured a selection of games from the TooFatLardies stable, and a good time was had by all.  Hopefully we’ll be able to arrange a further visit from Rich before too long.

We have also put on display games at different venues, to tie in with local events, most recently a refight of the Battle of Aughrim (1691) at Carrickfergus Town Hall.

We are a friendly bunch when you get to know us, so do feel free to come along to one of our meetings and join in the fun.