I had a very good time at the recent National Wargames Championships held in Leicester, where I met a lot of old friends and made a lot of new ones. It was a very sociable atmosphere, made even more so by convivial discussions at the bar with a lively Irishman running a French television crew who were filming the proceedings. The hard work and enthusiasm displayed by the Leicester Club was most impressive and the lively Trade stands never seemed to pall and appeared to be constantly changing their displays (or was it those frequent visits to the bar?). As a social event it was great and I only wish I could heap as much praise on the wargames themselves. It is well known that I dislike competitive wargaming so that some of the feeling generated between competitors sent chills up my spine and the wargames bore little resemblance to what goes on on my table-top battlefields. There seemed to be little attention paid to the actual spectacle in that the terrains themselves were of a very low standard and there was little indication of what particular period was taking place and when. I know there was a timed programme but wild unpunctuality ruled largely because too much was attempted and lack of strict control allowed arguments and disagreements to delay proceedings. The semi-final of the Ancient Championships was delayed 1 hour and 40 minutes because of a disagreement on terrain between the two contestants! I thought the rules were far too complex in their attempts to cover all the angles and eventualities. Far better to tell the wargamers nothing but distances and ranges and leave everything else to strict umpires with all the power of a football referee. Having said all that, I repeat again that I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and will make a great effort to get along to more of these affairs where everybody (except the contestants) is friendly and the unpaid organisers take years off their lives by their unremitting efforts. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter #141 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1973 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com