"Battleground Wargames Show - Sat 23rd Nov (UK)" Topic

This year's Battleground will be taking place on Saturday 23rd November and this year we're moving to a NEW VENUE! Middlesbrough Sports Village (TS4 3AE) is only about 6 miles away from our previous home and will give us a bit more space to spread out, along with free parking, a cafe and nearby train and bus routes. The show is open 10am until 3pm and entry is completely FREE!

We've got 33 Traders booked in and you can see all of these on the Battleground website here: link There are a few new faces this year too, including 5 Dice Games, 7th City Collectables, Crescent Creations 3D, Mardav Miniatures, Novo Cast Miniatures, Oberon Auctions, Ontos Games, Test of Resolve and War-Drobe!

We've also got 23 Games booked in with our usual mix of Display and Participation, so head over and check those out here: link We're still waiting to hear from a couple more and we'll update those as soon as we receive the bookings.

We'll be joined by 4 Living History groups, with Lonestar (ACW), La Columna (SCW), East India (19th C.) and Hawtin's Military Anecdotes (WWII) all attending this year.

The Tabletop Sale is always massively popular and we're almost fully booked already. There are only a few slots available so get in touch asap if you'd like one! We've switched things up a little for this year, so we're now offering Morning and Afternoon slots, each being 2hrs long at a cost of £6.00 GBP Grab the opportunity to sell off any unwanted goodies you might have, dealing with the customers directly to offload some kit, and then go buy something new from the traders!

Our Historical Talks have been a great addition to the event and this year we've got 3 on offer:

10:45am: Rory Pratt – Armoured Warfare during the Spanish Civil War
12pm: John Wilson – Gallipoli 1915: A Campaign Doomed to Failure or a Campaign Almost Won?
1:15pm: Sean and Lorrain McCartney – The Percy family and the Civil Wars

All of the show info can be found on either the Battleground website here: battlegroundshow.co.uk or our Facebook page here: link If you've got any questions about the event, just let us know.

So, don't forget to tell your friends about the NEW VENUE (and the FREE ENTRY) and we'll see you there!

1 5 Dice Games fivedicegames.com
2 7th City Collectibles 7thcitycollectables.com
3 ABC Brushes abcbrushes.com
4 Baccus 6mm baccus6mm.com
5 Beanie Games beaniegames.co.uk
6 Bow and Blade bowandblade.co.uk
7 Colonel Bill's colonelbills.com
8 Cozzmic Cakes facebook.com/CozzmicCakes
9 Crescent Creations 3D link
10 Dave Thomas auction
11 Galloping Major gallopingmajorwargames.co.uk
12 Gaming Figures gamingfigures.com
13 Gelatinous Cute gelatinouscute.etsy.com
14 Graham's Wuerkshoppe
15 Grubby Tanks/Britannia grubbytanks.com
16 Iron Gate Scenery irongatescenery.co.uk
17 Ironclad Miniatures ironcladminiatures.co.uk
18 Keelmen Miniatures keelmenminiatures.co.uk
19 Last Valley worgaimz.karoo.net/gbsd
20 MarDav Miniatures mdminis.co.uk
21 Novo Cast Miniatures novocastminiatures.co.uk
22 Oberon Auctions oberonauctions.com
23 Ontos Games ontosgames.co.uk
24 Pendraken pendraken.co.uk
25 Phoenix Games Studio pgstudio.co.uk
26 Sarissa Precision sarissa-precision.com
27 Sheppey Models sheppeymodels.co.uk
28 Test of Resolve testofresolve.com
29 The Pit/KR/Eagle thepitgamingshop.co.uk
30 Vixens Miniatures vixensminiatures.etsy.com
31 War-Drobe war-drobe.co.uk
32 Warbases warbases.co.uk
33 Warlord Games warlordgames.com

This year we've got 3 talks booked in:

Talks in 2024

​​10:45am – Rory Pratt – Armoured Warfare during the Spanish Civil War
Rory Pratt is a long time member of the Spanish Civil War living history group La Columna as well as being a keen wargamer of the period. He will be giving a talk in conjunction with a participation game that will be running throughout the day. The talk will centre on armoured warfare during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, the equipment used by the factions during the conflict, as well as the lessons learnt and missed by the nations supporting them. Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany as well as the Soviet Union were actively involved in the war so this talk will appeal to anyone interested in tank warfare in the Second World War as well as those interested in the Spanish Civil War itself.

12pm – John Wilson – Gallipoli 1915 – A Campaign Doomed to Failure or a Campaign Almost Won?
John Wilson is a well respected historian, he has published extensively through Gosling Press, a small publisher specialising in books about the First World War.

The Gallipoli campaign of 1915-16 was an Allied attempt to shorten the war by eliminating Turkey, creating a Balkan alliance against the Central Powers, and securing a sea route to Russia. It has since become the basis of a number of myths and half-truths, the massed machine guns covering the beaches. The incompetence of the navy in landing the Australians in the wrong place and how on the heights of Sari Bair we almost won the peninsula.

Without a doubt Gallipoli was the scene of great bravery, horrendous privations, bad command decisions and missed opportunities. Given the small geographic area that the campaign took place in, it's a good way to get to grips with some of the issue of the early part of the first World War. The talk will give a good overview of the campaign as well as bust a number of myths. It will also include a number of first hand accounts so that people really understand what life on the peninsula was like.

1:15pm – Sean and Lorrain McCartney The Newcastle Garrison Living History group – The Percy family and the Civil Wars

Sean and Lorrain McCartney are time served historical reenactors, concentrating on the period of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639-1651). They are founding members of Newcastle Garrison Living History Group and take the field as members of the Earl of Loudoun's Regiment of Foote.

In 2019 Newcastle Garrison were asked to provide a living history display at Alnwick Castle, seat of the Percy family. Upon looking into the Percy's involvement in the Civil Wars of the 17th Century, something they knew very little about at the time, they discovered a true tale of a family split by differing allegiances.

We're only a couple of days away and here's your map for planning any purchases!

We've put up a quick report about this year's show over on the Pendraken forum here: link and we've uploaded all of the pics from the day to Facebook: link

And here's a selection of the games we had this year: