The Society of Ancients is a long-established international amateur society for the promotion of the study of ancient and medieval military history and wargaming the period 3000 BC to 1500 AD. It is run by volunteers for the benefit of its worldwide membership.
The Society publishes a bi-monthly journal, Slingshot, containing a wide range of items related to Ancient and Medieval military history and wargaming contributed by Society members. It organises various events, including an annual games day and members' conference, and runs a wargames championship. The Society also publishes a number of games and booklets which are available from our web store.
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Membership is open to all, and lasts for 6 issues of Slingshot.
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Society of Ancients Convention 2023 Editorial Interview with Simon McDowell If you go down to the woods today... Raining Arrows - the debate about the medieval arrow storm A Dying Light in Britannia part 2 15mm Figuare Comparisons and Wargaming the Dark Ages part 2 2023 SOA Membership Survey SOA Battle Day Round-up Mantinea with Alala Ruleset Mantinea with Spartans and Successors Harry Hurdow does Battle Day Hoplites in Messene Naval Gazing - a Comparison of Naval Rulesets 15mm Figures Review - Peter Pig Midianite Camels Ruleset Review - Hail Caesar 2nd Edition Book Review - A Military Life of Constantine the Great Book Review - The Legiones Cannenses Book Review - The Last Great War of Antinquity Why does it matter? - a plea from the committee
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Available in web store.
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Editorial The Society’s online forum The SOA 2022 Championship result by Peter Barham Still Wargaming in Lockdown by Gordon Garrad Hiccups for Hoplites by David Kay Invitation to take part in the SOA 2023 Ruleset Survey (and a chance to win some dice!) Deus Vult Ruleset Review (Part 1) by Mark Wilson Interview with Mark Backhouse by Gordon Garrad DBx - DB’Wildered by Gordon Lawrence Home Grown Rules by David Kay The 2nd Battle of Mantineia (SOA Battle Day Pack) by Duncan Head SAGA (2022) Ruleset Review by Ken Butt Test of Honour ruleset review by Steven Neate Thracians and Dacians book review by Denis Grey Venetian War of 1487 book review by Duncan Head Ancient Battle Formations book review by Andreas Johansson The Galatians book review by Stephen Brennan |
Available in web store.
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Editorial The Society Officer and Committee Member Nominations notice Refighting 2nd Mantinea using Lost Battles and Legion II THe Battlefield of Adrianople 378AD Galloping Horse and Bounding Chariot Roman Special Forces and Special Operations Interview with Neville Dickinson The Third Battle of the Mandubian Hills Centrefold Miniature Painting Showcase Teutoburger Wald AD9 A Dying Light in Britannia Testing my Resolve rules review and battle report Deus Vult rules review part 2 (making the rules work) Plastic Soldier Company 15mm Huns review 25mm Lamming Miniatures Review 15mm comparison of Celtic chariot miniatures Alexander the Great book review Romans at War book review Deception in medieval warfare book review Sparta's Second Attic War book review |
Available in web store.
Those of you who have avidly consumed your Slingshots, rather than savouring them to last the whole month, may have already seen that we are running a survey to gather feedback from you. To save you having to type in the URL again from Slingshot, here is a link to it so that you can fill it out directly.
The software that runs the website required some major updates because it was out of support. As a result of this, the template for the website, and quite of few of the plug-ins have had to be updated because they weren't compatible with the new versions of the software. Hopefully it is all functional - if you find something that isn't working, you can drop me a message please and let me know? The look and feel will get a bit smoother over the next couple of weeks as I get a chance to improve it.
Apologies for having taken the Forum down as part of the update. I have now rolled back to the old version of PHP, and the Forum seems to be working OK again. This isn't a long term solution, as I need to upgrade PHP, so I will need to have a mess around with the Forum at some point, which will require a big upgrade to that as well. Not about to start that at 9:15pm on a Sunday evening...
The Contact Us forms are also broken, and I can't work out why - they should be working according to everything I can find online. I will try and get them working again as soon as I can. The Championship results submission form should be working though - it looks a bit rubbish at the moment, as I had to use a new plugin for it, so need to do some prettyfying again at some point.
The Forum is now updated as well, and the main PHP is now on 8.2 which is a supported and secure version. There are some plug-ins for the Forum that are proving tricky to update, so will be working on them for the next week or so.
If you have an issues, I have created a Forum topic at http://soa.org.uk/sm/index.php?topic=6666.0 for you to report them.
Toby
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Editorial Guardroom Interview with Lorenzo Sartori Newbury and Reading Wargames Society and Colours - a short history Westbury Wars 2022 The Lamian War part 2 Hoplites at the SOA Conference 2022 Command & Colours Knockout Tournament at the SOA Conference 2022 My First Society of Ancients Article Selecting my Sassanid Aesthetic How I became the first non-UK member to win the SOA Championship A Hex on your terrain Horse Archer Units in Armati Shield Patterns at Second Mantinea SAGA - Age of Alexander supplement review Age of Hannibal rules review Strength and Honour rules review The Long War for Britannia book review The Field Campaigns of Alexander book review Empire of Horses book review Battle Day 2023 |
Available in web store.
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Editorial Guardroom Society of Ancients Conference The Goths 2: From Alaric to Theoderic the Great by Michael Friedholm von Essen Restoring New Rome - the strategy and military of the Byzantine Empire in the mid-1100s by David Harvey Refighting Adrianople 378 AD with DBMM by Jens Peter Kutz Legion II Fast Play Expansion by Philip Sabin |
Available in web store.
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The Goths - 2: From Alaric to Theoderic the Great and Beyond£18.75This is the second of two books which describe the Goths, their arms and armour, dress and equipment, army organisation, campaigns, battle tactics, and strategy.
The focus of this second volume is the Goths after their entry into the Roman Empire. The emphasis lies on the Goths themselves, the kingdoms they established, and their military history, rather than their part in the Late Empire’s history.
From the fourth century onwards, the Goths crossed Europe from one end to the other. They were the first Germanic people to establish lasting kingdoms in core Roman territories such as Italy and Spain, the first to successfully create a synthesis of Germanic and Roman elements, and the first non-Mediterranean people in Europe to enjoy an independent intellectual literary culture. The Gothic writing system was a major source of inspiration for the Cyrillic alphabet. In the Crimea, the last independent Gothic state outlived the Byzantine Empire for 22 years. Their legacy lasted far longer than their kingdoms.
The Goths were not the first lance-armed heavy shock cavalry in Europe, but they became so noted for it that cavalry of the Gothic type achieved an increasingly dominant role in all surviving Romano-Germanic successor states. Without the Goths, the medieval knight as we know him, armed with spear and shield, would not have existed.
This book is illustrated with 80 plates, maps, illustrations and photographs of original items. |
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The Society of Ancients is a volunteer organisation, and relies on its members. It's very easy to join -– just click on the button below, or for more details, go to the join page, add a membership to your cart and check out using Paypal. You can alternatively download a postal membership form. Membership costs £36 for 6 issues of Slingshot (normally a year), plus access to the forum.
The Society of Ancients respects the privacy of its Members and only retains such personal data as is needed to meet its contractual obligations or for which it has a legitimate purpose.
