2020 BBB "Bash Day" will be on Saturday 13 June 2020
We are pleased to let you know that the next BBB "Bash Day" will be on Saturday 13 June 2020.
Where - Wolvercote Village Hall, Oxford. OX2 8AB. Wolvercote is in the very north of the city and the Hall is about 1/2 mile from the A34 and A40 (& A44, for that matter!)
Time - games run from 10.00 to 17.00
Cost, per person, payable on the day, will be £7.50.
Format will be similar to the previous Bash Days. See comments below on last BBB Day. Gamemasters will provide a range of participation games. Some tables will run two games, one in the morning session and another in the afternoon (possibly as linked battles in a mini-campaign). Other tables may just run one longer game. Most games are likely to be 19th century historical battles, but previous Bash Days have seen earlier or later wars represented as well. If there is a particular war or even a particular battle that interests you, by all means let us know, as we will try to adjust the programme to provide what people want.
Tea and coffee will be provided. For lunch, please bring a packed lunch or there is an excellent local pub, the Plough, just down the road.
Please do not hesitate to contact me for further details, if any of the above is not clear or if you want more information.
I trust that this has whetted your appetite, I look forward to hearing from you soon. Last year was a really fun day - I look forward to renewing old acquaintances and to welcoming new players to the ruleset where you can achieve the HQGE (High Quality Game Experience, see Chris Pringle's BBB Blog http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.com/ ) and learn a bit of history along the way.
Cheers
Colin
Colin Wilcock dogboat202@yahoo.co.uk
The 3rd BBB Bash Day was held at OWS on Sunday 12 May 2019
Thank you for all the kind notes of appreciation, both here on this group and offline, concerning last Sunday’s BBB Bash Day.
Let me first pay tribute here to all the dedicated and creative gamemasters who laid on such beautiful and enjoyable games. In chronological order by battle:
Bruce McCallum: Edgehill (1642), English Civil War Haim Ben-Zion: Helsingborg (1710), Great Northern War Rodge Williams & Alan Millicheap: Germantown (1777), American War of Independence Dave Whaley: 2nd Battle of Komárom (1849), Hungarian War of Independence Crispin Matson: Italian War (1859) – trio of Montebello, Palestro and Magenta Simon Dunsterville: Gettysburg (1863), American Civil War Anton van Dellen: Colenso (1899), Second Boer War
These gentlemen’s efforts included creating custom terrain, designing scenarios, painting up armies specially, and above all, getting up unreasonably early on a Sunday morning to set up to entertain others. Huge thank yous and very well done.
Thank you also to those who helped out with logistical support in various ways, setting up tables, collecting entrance fees, washing up etc, lending troops, having reserve games ready in case of dropouts, and general encouragement and moral support: Graham, Nigel, Mike, Mark J, Mark S, Colin, Dave.
Last but not least, thank you to the players. Some of you I already knew very well, and it was great to see you again. Others I knew only slightly or not at all, so to the latter group in particular, Sean, Matt, Paul, Tony, Mike, Ian, Tim, Nick, David – very good to see you all. Thank you all for coming to Bash Day and participating in such good spirit. I hope you enjoyed it.
To those who wanted to be there but couldn’t for various reasons: sorry you couldn’t make it, we missed you, and hope you can get to the next one.
It was a bonus that we were so efficient this year that almost all the games were done by 4:30 p.m., enabling a very convivial reorg and replen phase in the Plough.
I thought it was a great day and could hardly have gone better. We had a wonderful variety of games (over 250 years of history) and scales (2mm, 6mm, 10mm and 15mm all on display). We had pretty much ideal ratios of players to games, so by and large everyone got two or even three games in and had a fair share of battle, no players sidelined and no GMs sitting forlorn and neglected. People mixed and mingled, met new faces and got new ideas. Above all, I think we all achieved the #1 victory condition, to have fun.
Therefore, my final thank you is to all those who nudged and chivvied and prompted me to run Bash Day III. As I write this on a tide of caffeine, sleep deprivation and general euphoria, I can say with some confidence that we will want to repeat it and run Bash Day IV in 2020. Comments welcome as to what features to keep, and what to change and improve, etc.
Until then: Bash On!
Chris
For a taste of what Bash Day 2016 was like, see these blog posts by participants: http://twomarshals.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/bloody-big-battles-bash-day-2016.html http://wwiiwargaming.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/bloody-big-battles-bash.html http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/bash-day-2016-bloody-good-show.html
Bloody Big BATTLES! https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BBB_wargames/info http://bloodybigbattles.blogspot.co.uk/