Again an Open day at the Dutch Artillery Museum

 As Alde Garde we presented a French Revolutionary wargame at the Open Museum Day of the Dutch Artillery Museum. Our whole car was filled with stuff: 

Already our fifth (or more?) year that we visited the open day, it is always a great event in our eyes. 
Next to our game there were four WW2 games and one 2mm game of

The day itself was sunny and a lot of people found their way to the artillery museum and all the events that took place. I understand from the people we spoke (and we spoke a lot!) that they enjoyed themselves with all that could be seen at the open day. 
Of course there is the museum but also the artillery material (old and modern) that was exhibited along roads, between barracks etc. Also you could ride with trucks, bands were playing, kids were entertained, groups in historical uniforms were giving presentations etc etc. The Dutch army presented itself in a very good way!

As a lot of people found their way to the wargame section, we got a constant stream of visitors to our table. We have talked to whole families (from grandparents to children in a pram), veterans of the artillery regiments, groups of friends etc. Some were very interested, some couldn't believe grown up men play with soldiers and everything in between. But a lot of visitors appreciated the effort which goes into presenting the game, make terrain, painting figures etc.
As always; our Milka cow is a hit and we had a scoop: our Milka cow had give birth to 2 young cows. So the family is expanding! (sadly, no pictures are available).

To be honest, we talked so much (something like grandpa is talking about history - we are both 71) that playing the game became second. I think we have finished 2 or 3 turns at the most. But we liked it very much.

And of course; thanks to Ludwig, the organiser of the wargames section. We love to participate next year again.
When you want a great day, visit the artillery museum open day in September 2027. For the correct date in 2027 go to artilleriemuseum

Underneath are some pictures of our game, then the  other games but starting with some pictures I took when parking the car. We didn't have time (as explained above) to visit the whole exhibition.

Our table:

    

                

the other presentations:

the 2 mm wargame!

Demo wargaming and history for school

We received a request if it was possible to present a wargame demo to the senior class of the elementary school where Hermien, the wife of Peter, is a teacher.
The class had closed a project about famous persons in history so our wargames demo should have a connection to that. 

After some looking at the list of our available demos we decided to present two demos; the first one about the Eighty Years War in connection to William of Orange and the second one about the French Revolution in connection to Napoleon Bonaparte (although our demo would be situated in the Low Countries 1793 while Napoleon would be fighting in soutern France at that time!).

 So, last Wednesday in Peters livingroom, we set up two tables (each 6*4 feet) with terrain and figures (we already had prepared beforehand some simple to understand rules for both periods), picked up 19 children at their school, split them in two groups, one for each table, and introduced them shortly to the two periods, the figures, the rules and the game.
And we have a go with it. After some time, we switched the groups of course.

We hope that the children had a good morning with us, seeing their reactions we did succeed with our goals but of course some liked it more then others. Some loved the game (esp throwing the dice and moving figures around), grasped the simple rules very quickly and even understood some of the formations used.
So as introduction I think we were succesfull.

Some pictures of the visit underneath.

Scaleworld 2024 KMK Geel

On the 2nd of June 2024, Scaleworld, organised by the KMK group of Geel, Belgium was held. But of most importance for us was that for the first time a lot of wargamers were gathering there to have games and demos. The first wargames event we could visit for years! 
This wargames event was organised mostly by members of the Witte Ridder of Leopoldsburg, Belgium so a big thanks to them esp Patrick and Dominic (which we know for years already) but maybe more members of de Witte Ridders needs to be mentioned but sadly , and sorry for that, we don't know their names.

We love to chat to a lot of people (wargames and modellers), look at various presented games that were on and admire all efforts. And although there were ,in our humble opinion, some minuses regarding the location (celllar of the schollcomplex) and communication, we like to come back next year (hint, hint!).

To give some impression of the big modellers part of the show:

We had our French revolutionary game with us, so some pictures of our table:

 

And some pictures of other tables/demos etc. 

A great day, big thanks to the organisers and hopefully we will see each other at Crisis in September!