Durham Tactical Society

I have not added much to my page for some time.  The main reason being is I had become distracted on a new project; The Durham Tactical Society.  In 1881 Henry Spenser Wilkinson an officer in the 2^nd Manchester Volunteers along with six of his fellow officers of the volunteers formed the Manchester Tactical Society with the aim to study the operations of war. 

Through a demanding programme of reading and study, and rigorous self examination, they learned a great deal about the practical aspects of war.  As a result of their activities tactical societies sprung up in all the principle volunteer centres across the UK.

Central to their understanding was the playing of the ‘Kriegsspiel’ or Game of War.  It is the research and participation in this game that I propose as the foundation of the Durham Tactical Society with the principle aim of its application in the context of August 1914 and the outbreak of war.

My scope therefore remains within the theme of Kriegspiel I was keen to develop a game in the spirit of the original; transportable within a box system.  Using the Rules for the Conduct of the War Game, dated 1896 (link here) I was keen to place this game into the context of the First World War.

To that end I have spent the last several months preparing the board, equipment, blocks, etc.  I hope to run a training game to prove the game process, (as I am new to this ! ) and then I hope to garner interest from a wider group for the first proper game in commemoration of the centennial of the start of the war.  Below are some photo's of my progress !

Those of you who may be interested in a PBEM game, please email me at oldfaithful68@googlemail.com

Base Coating home-made village

Final finishes to home-made village

Irregular Miniatures infantry block, home-made village and trench system

 Base coat of the board tiles

 Stripping down artists box bought at HobbyCraft ready to be converted into a Kriegspiel chest

 Campaign handles are fitted

 Completed box

 Home-made Rumpler Taube

 Using a 1:20000 scal map of Ypres I started to plot out the grid squares

 Hills, roads and rivers added

 Fields Woods begin to be added

 Painting of the 2mm troops.  British and German Divisional level

 Troops are trayed up like the original sets, tweezers, dice shakers, rule add to final set

Current project to complete final stages of the project include making trench systems and craters.