A Round-up of some of the other Games run in March-April 2025.

In last week's post I took the time to highlight the other games to feature at the club in January and February of this year, explaining the recent requirement in the club due to our expanding membership to host bi-meeting months from January to April to cater for the increased requirement in providing opportunities for members to play.

Devon Wargames Group - Games Round-up Jan/Feb

In this post I will feature some of the other games that were run in March and April but first I would like to introduce an honouree new member of the Devon Wargames Group, namely Marlon the sixteen month old black Labrador who is in training as a hearing assistance dog, and who accompanied Ian Mac. to club in March and who was extremely well behaved.

Honouree new member Marlon the sixteen month old black Labrador hearing assistance dog (in training).

I should add that Ian was looking after Marlon that day and so checked with the club that everyone was happy for him to come along, as he is the first member from the canine species to attend a club meeting, and the club was very happy to welcome him, me in particular as we have a black Labrador, Peggy, about fifteen months older and so I was very happy to see Marlon.

JJ and Peggy having fun away from the paint desk.

Anyway apart from this little detour into the pleasures of spending time with black Labradors we also had some fun games added to our schedule for March and April.

Wings of Glory Battle of Britain the Italians Join in..

In our first meeting in April, Lawrence dug out his WWII Wings of Glory collection to run a Battle of Britain scenario featuring the Italians who historically put in a late appearance at the end of the battle as seen here with their Fiat CR42 biplanes up against a lone RAF Hurricane.

 

Dr Who & the Crystal of Doom, to "Xenos Rampant"

In the second April meeting Chas treated us to a Dr Who inspired game, complete with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and one of the best Dr Who's, John Pertwee together with his canary-yellow Edwardian Roadster 'Bessie' using the extension to the Rampant Osprey/Dan Mersey rule sets Xenos Rampant, designed for large skirmish sci-fi games. 

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart organises UNIT's response to the threat of the Daleks.

Dr Who, next to 'Bessie', oversees the action.

Ancients to "Infamy" in 28mm

For our first meeting in April Bob hosted a game of Infamy with the Romans having a bit of trouble in the woods of Germania.

Modern Lego Skirmish, in 40mm to "Savage Worlds"

Tom was at it again completing four linked games of his Lego Wars games set to the rules Savage Worlds, this time complete with a police van running flashing lights and a siren which fortunately didn't get switched on too often.

Sudan Colonial to "The Men Who Would be Kings"

Nathan has a marvellous collection 19th century British colonial troops and enemies that often grace the tables at club and in the second April meeting he produced this Sudanese set-to using the popular rules 'The Men Who Would Be Kings' from Osprey.

Axis & Allies War at Sea, Convoy HX 229

Also in April, Paul organised an Axis & Allies War at Sea game recreating the battle for convoy HX 229 from the 16th to the 19th March 1943, which along with SC122 were the focus of the largest convoy battle of WWII.

So this post completes the look at the other games run at the DWG in the first four months of this year, with our calendar now settling back to our regular once a month meet up and our now usual four games a month, slightly thrown out of kilter in May with three club games being run at the Exeter Legionary show.

I look forward to sharing the next series of games for June onwards.

JJ 

A Round-up of some of the other Games run in January-February 2025

The Devon Wargames Group has grown rapidly in the last five years and we now have some fifty members on our mailing list and regularly host around twenty-five members at each of our meetings, with usually at least four games on offer.

This growth has produced a challenge for the club, meeting as it had done, once a month, to make more games and opportunities to play available for our larger membership, that has seen us in recent years run two meetings per month in January, February and March, and more recently increased to adding April to our calendar of bi-meeting months.

As regular followers of the club blog will know we generally run one new post each week to illustrate to the wider wargaming community and potential new members the games we like to play, with the blog very much our club-shop window, but with the number of games now increased to around eight per month in the first tertial of the year not all games, for one reason or another, have their own feature and AAR and so I thought it might be fun to show our readers some of the other games run this year.

So in January we had a Napoleonic Naval Game run by Jack hosting his collection of 1:700 merchantman and men-o-war in a convoy attack game using Kiss Me Hardy, with models that make me think I should seriously think about getting into this scale for age of sail.

Also on the second meeting in January we had John running out his Test of Honour 28mm Samurai collection.

In February we had Gregory running his Burrows & Badgers game featuring his marvellous collection of warrior creatures and matching themed scenery, with Greg having the plaudit of his name credited in the recent second addition of the rules.

If Greg's excursion into the wild and dangerous wasn't enough of the fantastic we had Tom and Taiwo taking things up anther notch with their Modern Lego Skirmish using Savage Worlds, featuring a helicopter complete with spinning rotor.

To reassure those of us in the club that historical themes weren't going out of fashion we were treated to a glorious Chain of Command game in 28mm by Bob with US paras going up against SS Panzergrenadiers in classic bocage country.

For our second meeting in February we had a WWII theme going on with Steve L running out his 15mm WWII collection for a bit of fun using Fire & Fury's Battlefront rules.

 

Tom and Taiwo were back at the table for our second February meeting organising an ACW Ironclad naval action using Dawn of Iron.

Finally we had Vince, never one to be backward coming forward, with a game of 7TV if it means he can get his collection of Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlett collection of 1960's and 70's toy cars, rockets and anything else a certain age-demographic in the club can remember from their childhood, this game entitled Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons.

Is that the 'Donald', a certain 'Mrs T', Putin and the 'Little-Rocket Man' himself, Kim Jong-un? If so that has got to be the first North Korean to feature in the club.

I think you'll agree we enjoy a very varied diet of gaming experiences in the Devon Wargames Group, blessed as we are with some very talented model makers and game creators that makes every month at club an experience not to be missed.

In the follow up post to this round up of other games run at the club in March and April, I look forward to showcasing yet more varied themes and collections.

More anon

JJ