Devon Wargames Group & Friends - Fleet Air Arm Museum 2025.

 

This weekend just gone, the Devon Wargames Group together with friends spent the weekend doing what wargamers do best, gathering around a large table, with plenty of toys on it and playing to our hearts content, followed by and accompanied with the usual good humour and banter such opportunities present, all courtesy of the wonderful folks at the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton and their excellent facilities for running such a weekend.

With our club now boasting a healthy membership and a regular attendance of some twenty-five players gathered around four sometimes five games during our normal club calendar, our games have to be tailored to accommodate everyone wanting to play and our time is more limited to play them than perhaps we would want.

So the chance to play a big game over several days on a big table with all the swings of fortune and drama that a big game can offer over and above the more normal fare of skirmish type offerings, now very much in vogue with wargamers and wargame manufacturers, was too good to turn up; and we were very happy to take the opportunity offered by the FAA Museum to play on the Saturday and Sunday and to run five large games, with most attendees staying overnight for some evening association, and others coming up for one of the days to play.

As you will see the games were very much in the 'Grand Manner' to quote a legend of the hobby, and with a broad mix of eras and themes to appeal to most folks preferences.

So in no particular order our games featured:

The Battle of Cape Ferrol, 22nd July 1805, better known as 'Calder's Action', run using Far Distant Ships, and hosted by 'Yours Truly', with thirty-five 1:700 model ships of the line battling away in a thick Atlantic gloomy fog.

I have posted a full AAR on my own blog JJ's Wargames for those interested to know more, but suffice to say here that the two days of play illustrated well the frustrations commanders faced trying to fight a battle and manage their respective forces in the kind of weather the Atlantic can produce, that was a real problem in the days before modern radar and ship to ship communications.

JJ's Wargames - Battle of Cape Finisterre (Calder's Action) using Far Distant Ships

A Cold War Scenario in 10mm, run and hosted by the chaps from the Penarth & District Wargames Group using a home-brewed set of rules 'Chieftain' battling away on the North German Plain.

ACW Gettysburg 28mm using Fire & Fury 2nd Edition hosted and presented by Jack and Charlie with the Union having a tough time holding the line.

In the 250th anniversary year of the start of the American War of Independence in 1775 it seemed very appropriate that we should have a game in 28mm using British Grenadier and hosted by Ian and Paul with a lot of buildings, toys and ships!

 

Finally we had Willz and Guy presenting The Battle of Dettingen which took place on the 27th June, 1743, during the War of the Austrian Succession and here using Austrians for the French and British for the Prussians in 20mm, with some 1200 infantry, 250 Cav and using the Osprey rule set 'Honours of War'.

Many thanks to the Fleet Air Arm Museum for making their facilities available to us on this hopefully our inaugural Devon Wargames Group event and to all those who took part in making this a gathering for the memory.

Cheers all.

JJ