Cavalier: Part the first…..

Today saw me taking the easy hour long drive to Tonbridge in Kent to visit Cavalier - the wargames show organised by the Tonbridge Wells Wargames Society. It was a big deal for me in that it is the first show I have been to since 2024, hence this being over two posts.

This post is devoted to the ‘haul’ - in other words what I came away with and why. The second part will be the inevitable photo dump of the games, of which I was delighted to see not one but two naval games, both of which are of direct interest!

There were a a couple of bits I was after specifically but for the most part I planned to see what inspired me enough to part with any cash but certainly before I did so.

These were very much a ‘backfill’ for the library. I have always enjoyed gaming the wars of the late Roman Republic, mainly for the diversity of opponents, and so securing these three titles from the esteemed Dave Lanchester was a great way to start the show!

I have been an occasional member of the Society of Ancients over the years and seeing this hex based game devised by Prof. Phil Sabin was more than my wallet could endure…. His book Lost Battles is an excellent read and has some really good ideas for gaming the great battles of the ancient world. I caught up with Tony from Brigade Models and again, Imperial Skies had been on the radar from a while so I had to, finally, get a copy. Gotta love some VSF aerial action!

Now these two were definitely impulse purchases! Reaction Games are a new firm and the two offerings are a tank based game - for which they have a range of resin tanks available - and a WW2 coastal warfare game, again with resin 3D printed models. The starter set comes with a pair of S boats, a Vosper and a Fairmile B. I purchased some additional ships to round out the set and will certainly be adding some more when I can. These are scaled at 1:500th and I will post a review in due course. 

Finally, I picked up a couple of sprues of the Mantic Epic Sci fi ‘Enforcers’ for a project that has been several years in the planning!

The haul then, was varied but with nothing too outlandish. The Traverse rules are rather like a ‘World of Tanks’ style game which is fine for a quick armoured bash. I have a whole pile of 15mm tanks etc that would be ideal to use with these rules (they are scaled at 15mm) but seeing their resin offerings is certainly very tempting as an alternative.

It was great to indulge in some retail therapy and the mix between what I wanted to get and what I actually got was about even!

Win, win I reckon!