Rules used are a slightly modified version of Forlorn Hope- most of the changes being in the Umpires head and hopefully unknown to the players. This is after all "little war" and not a game!!

The accent is on Historical feel and a good laugh- in that order rather than some sweaty browed and anally retentive gaming exercise. Consequently the only enforced rule in our group is -"The Umpire is always right, especially when he's wrong."

The Armies for this scenario totalled something over 4000 men at our 1 to 10 figure ratio. Units on both sides are larger in terms of figures than is usual these days. This is simply because larger units behave more accurately than the tiny "dancing infantry" units one so often sees on the table DBR- BAH!! HUMBUG!!. Larger units have REAL flanks and cannot dance around like the 10-20 figure units most often encountered. Players get to use their brains instead of the rulebook…

As mentioned previously the playing area was 10 feet by 6. The Parliamentarian left flank was covered by the town of Ambridge, occupied by the Dragoons, on the right "Archers Woods" provided a barrier to the superior Royalist horse - or so the Roundheads hoped. They singally failed to occupy these woods. This omission was to have serious consequences.

The action began with a thrust from the Royalist horse through Archers Woods. The Roundhead Cavalry Moved to counter hoping to catch the Royalists in a disordered state as they emerged. However things did not go to plan after a prolonged and often vicious cavalry fight the Roundheads were beaten. However the blown Royalist horse could not immediately exploit the situation.

Meanwhile in the centre the Royalist foot were simply not getting on with their job. They seemed to be intimidated by the units of Roundhead foot opposing them. The Royalist advance was, at best, tentative. They never even looked like coming to grips with the Parliamentarians. To complete their discomfiture a sally by a company of Wardlaws Dragoons from Ambridge captured and spiked the Royalist gun.

As the day drew to a close the Parliamentarian infantry were untouched and defiant. Their Cavalry defeated. The Royalists had become hesitant and confused, despite their battlefield success they did not feel confident about an all out assault on the Roundhead foot, who,as night fell (move24) retired sullenly into Ambridge.

The following paragraph gives a small idea about our wargames group and its attitudes- interested parties should contact me, Andy Copestake through the website

.Tantobie Warfare and Tactical Society.

We are a small informal group formed - or perhaps congealed- about 6 years ago to play almost exclusively Historical games. In our time we have played most periods to various sets of rules. We play "to period" rather than "to game" by which we feel free to mangle, change or mutilate any set of rules to meet our needs and our view of history..

All our games are umpire controlled - each member taking it in turns to run the game at a meeting. He, of course, choosing the period, rule set, scale etc..

This means that we play many periods. Ancient, ECW, ACW- both land and Naval- 7 years War, AWI and Colonial and that's just this Year!! Not forgetting WW1 and WW2 Naval.

We are probably the most relaxed and non-competitive group in the country. Rules lawyers get short shrift - we considered burning at the stake but the W.I. who own the Hall were worried about the carpet!!

That's about it really there's not much more to tell- getting a relaxed game in a historical context- or sometimes not- is what its all about. Oh and having a pint or three afterwards…..

So if you fancy becoming a T.W.A.T. drop me an email or give me a call. A fine sense of the ridiculous is a pre-requisite as is a sense of humour. A decent collection of figures will help but is not essential. We tend to meet on Thursday evenings with occasional Big Games on Saturday.

All the pictures were taken "live" at the show. At the second Stockton show in November Old Glory will be attending as traders so no display game from the T.W.A.T.S, however at the next spring offensive in 2005 we will be doing another game we hope.

Andy Copestake.