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No More Siege

We are sorry to inform all of those who have supported us that it has been decided not to hold any future Siege weekends.

During the last nine years many changes have occurred and as you may be aware there is now only one of the organisers actually resident in Jersey.

Even with the wonders of modern science the wide spread locations of the team, together with changes in domestic and business circumstances, have made it increasingly more difficult to organise the event.

Looking back, it is interesting to note that in 1987 we staged a weekend wargame exhibition at Elizabeth Castle and this was the birth of Siege. For the next eight years a Siege weekend was held over the August bank holiday and included as a special event in the annual tourism calendar. In total 33 demonstration and participation games were presented.

In 1997 we decided to relocate this weekend to a hotel and invite wargamers from the mainland to join us. For the record six Sieges in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, 2004 and 2005 were held in three different hotels in both Jersey and Guernsey. During these weekends we presented 19 wargame sessions offering 101 games with 76 different scenarios. In addition some 10 Saturday evening fun games were also included. 50 individual gamers joined us for these weekends, several more than once, giving us a total attendence of 123. So we managed to notch up two centuries over the years which is very gratifying. Our weekends also offered the chance for non playing partners to attend which is as far as we know is unique.

We are not disappearing from the wargame scene, we are not that easy to get rid of, and intend to visit more shows both as spectators and presenters. Apart from our appearances at shows in England it has been a long cherished wish of ours to take and present a game overseas either in Europe or America.

Email Problems

We have been experiencing problems with our email over the last couple of months. We haven't received all the email sent to us. So if you have emailed us and haven't had a response please accept our apologies and would you mind re-sending? Thanks.

Operation Dumbo at SELWG 2005

We launched our latest Show Game , at SELWG 2005. Set during the Vietnam war, and very much in the style and tradition of previous Jersey Wargame Society award winning games, Operation Dumbo offers gamers the chance to take on the persona of a film character and experience the trials and tribulations of dealing with the native population and the jungle under wartime conditions. As a small US army unit in the remote highlands the players have to find and deliver an elephant to keep the loyalty of a strategically important village.

In recognition of the exceptional work by our own David Humphries the game received the prize for the Best Scenery at the show.

As a result of various questions fielded at SELWG David has added to his previous terrain construction article. The new Part 2 can be found here.

More details of the game and photographs from SELWG 2005 can be found on the new Operation Dumbo page.

What is Wargaming?

The hobby of wargaming has existed in its present form since the nineteenth century and has developed from an exercise designed by the Prussian Army as a training aid for officers. It was soon realised that it was not only of educational value but that it was also fun to play. The original version of "Kriegspiel" used lead blocks to represent the soldiers but the drama of battle was better represented by the use of Britain's Lead Soldiers. The author HG Wells wrote and published a set of formal rules called "Little Wars" which can still be found in many libraries. In the last 40 years the hobby has grown dramatically and there are now thousands of wargamers worldwide and a staggering range of figures available covering almost every imaginable period from the ancient world to the far future. The UK is very well served with manufacturers and organisations that can provide armies ready for the tabletop.

At its simplest level wargaming is a game of maneuvering miniature soldiers about a tabletop representation of a battlefield according to an agreed set of rules and regulations. The battle can be an historical one or a fictional, but historically possible, scenario. Usually a game starts with the figures in the positions that they had at the start of the historical battle and then what they do is up to the player who controls them. In this way Napoleon does not always lose the Battle of Waterloo and the player controlling the French forces can try to fight the battle in the way that he thinks Napoleon should have done (he did have an off day after all!)

So that we can fight big battles without the use of a ballroom a miniature figure may represent several men in real life. Napoleonic Battles usually use a scale of 1 figure representing 20 to 50 men while a Second World War skirmish will often use one figure per man. The speeds at which the models move over the table, and the likely outcome of what happens when they meet, or see each other, is regulated by the set of rules being used for the game. These are based on the various army manuals and memoirs from the period of the wargame. However, war is not an exact science, and no plan survives contact with the enemy, so we need some element of chance in the game. If we did not then events such as the Charge of the Light Brigade or the sinking of the Bismark would not take place. Therefore we use dice to determine the outcome of certain actions. Chance is not allowed to dominate the game and the excitement from wargaming comes from developing a plan of campaign and then taking the correct decisions to adapt it during the game to meet and defeat the moves of the "enemy". Nor are wargames complicated to play. If the newcomer plays the first few games with some "old hands" he need only be able to explain what he wants to do and this can be converted to the tabletop without any problem.

Wargames are not restricted to land battles by any means. Sea battles are very popular due to the fact they do not require the construction of any scenery. We have re-fought Jutland and tested the supposed capabilities of modern ships with, fortunately, hypothetical scenarios. Air wargaming has covered Great War duels in biplanes to high-speed combats over Korea. We also take in space battles and fantasy battles along the way.

It is very easy to find out more about the hobby. We are well served with two monthly magazines available in newsagents. The figures can be ordered very easily and come in a variety of sizes to fit both money available and painting skill.