Our annual Napoleonic Open Day coincidentally landed on Waterloo Day, so there could only be one choice for the feature game.

The game was a refight of the Allied right, and French left battlefield between Hougoumont and La Haye Sainte. In the historic battle, Reille allowed his corps to be sucked into a fight for Hougoumont, weakening the main attack. In this refight, we assumed that the French follow Napoleon’s battle plan and screen Hougoumont, releasing more of Reille’s Corps to attack the shallower right of the Mont St Jean Ridge and attempt to smash through the Allied right. This also meant more of Hill’s Corps was available as a reserve, as they would not be drawn into Hougomount either.

On the French left, Bachelu's Division was a bit slow getting going, having failed two order throws. The British Guards were only troubled mid-game, when the French Dragoon Brigade rattled them and the Household Cavalry had to be deployed to push them back. In the centre and right the other two French divisions made better progress and the battle went back and forth several times.

The Hanoverians in particular held on under heavy pressure.

After around four hours of game play, it was clear that the French were not going to break through the ridge, with many units shaken. The Lancer Brigade didn't move from the base line and the Guard never got onto the table. Napoleon heading for St Helena and the Guard not even committed!

Pictures from our To the Strongest competition on 20/21 September 2019.

The tournament was won by John Conley with major thanks to Richard Keenan for traveling all the way to Glasgow to bring this fabulous tournament format.

Our 2016 Open day was held on 24 January. A number of big battles fought over the weekend.

First up is Fuentes de Onoro, Wellington v Massena in 1811 during the Peninsular War. The game was played with 28mm figures using Black Powder rules. It went pretty much to the historical outcome. The French eventually got into the village, but the left hook ran out of steam.

Then off to WW2 in 15mm using Command Decision. This is the battle of Sidi Rezegh in the Western Desert

Then fantasy with a big Warhammer battle

and another, this time Men v The Undead using Kings of War.

Other games included, Dragon Rampant, Blucher, FogR, Battletech and Art de la Guerre.

Our display game for this year's Claymore show in Edinburgh was Dystopian Wars. Arial battle this time.

We held a second double header this year to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

We refought part of the battle between the sandpit next to La Haye-Sainte and the village of Papelotte. In this refight, D'Erlon's Corps sought to break the British and Dutch line commanded by Picton. This was a multi-player game with three players on each side. The rules were Black Powder and most of the 28mm figures came from the collection of Liam Entwistle. As per the historical battle, the French nearly broke the line, but just failed.

GDWS held its annual informal open day on 25 January 2015. Just an opportunity for anyone interested in finding out about about wargaming to pop in. Those who did saw a wide range of games, representing the wide range of interests at GDWS.