Here is an update on the Society Conference that will take place over the weekend 29th-30th October. There is still plenty of room to attend, so please hurry and sign up via the website or contact me directly.

For those attendees planning to arrive on Friday evening, there will be a pre-Conference dinner followed by after-dinner games, plus a fun Command & Colours knockout competition – for which I am assured no previous experience is necessary and expert coaching will be available.

The Conference proper begins on Saturday morning at 9am.

Each day is divided into two sessions, morning and afternoon.

Both Saturday sessions and the Sunday morning session will begin with a presentation from one of our expert speakers, followed by the playing of various games. Sunday afternoon will have a brief Open Forum followed by more games.

I am delighted to announce that our three speakers this year are:

• Dr Richard Taylor, author of the books The Greek Hoplite Phalanx and The Macedonian Phalanx, who will be speaking on “What is a phalanx?”
• Dr Harry Sidebottom,  Quondam Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at St. Benet’s Hall, Oxford, and lecturer at Lincoln College, and also author of the well-known “Ballista” series of novels – he will be speaking on “The Storm of Terrors: Ancient Siege Warfare”.
• Duncan Head, Society stalwart and former Slingshot Editor, who wrote the seminal book Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars among others – he will be speaking about ”The Second Battle of Mantinea”, which will be the subject of the 2023 Battle Day.

On the Saturday evening we will hold our traditional Conference Dinner. Before the Dinner we will have our Keynote Presentation. I can now reveal that this year our speaker will be Dr David McDermott, from the History Department of the University of Winchester, who will talk to us about “The War of Succession between Edmund Ironside and Cnut”, a fascinating struggle that featured at least five battles in just six months, with lots of action, intrigue and betrayal. And if it couldn’t get any better, David will dress a suitable volunteer to represent a high status warrior, adding another dimension to the presentation. This is not one to be missed!

While we are still adding games, and please do come forward to volunteer to run a game because we can never have too many, here are some of those already scheduled:

• A hoplite battle using 20mm figures, showcasing a specially written ruleset for hoplite warfare
  A 28mm Romans and Britons game, entitled “Shock and Awe in an Hour (or a bit more)”
  A Naval battle between the Diadochi in the Aegean circa 310 BC, using 1/600 ships (which are several inches long and so more visually appealing than the smaller scales)
  An opportunity to try the new big armies, big battles, ruleset Strength and Honour
  A Mortem et Gloriam Pacto game
  A workshop on The Battle of Issus, including a 15mm refight

So – this should be a great Conference – surely not one you want to miss! Please sign up as soon as you can.

See you there!

Richard Lockwood