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Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society was formed at the end of
the 1960's by our Founder and Life President George Gush, and has maintained a steady membership since then. Many of our
current members joined at the start of the Society and have, with occasional
absences due to work commitments, been members throughout that time.
Important Notice re Road Works in
Speldhurst
Due to gas main replacement work in Speldhurst between 25
July and 6 December 2010 there are a number of road closures. Details can be
found on the following two PDF Files:
RoadWorks.pdf
RoadWorksmap.pdf
Meeting Times
The Society meets twice per month at the Village Hall in Speldhurst. The
postcode for Satnav users is
TN3 0PR
The Primary Meetings are on the first
Sunday of each month and start (with effect from February 2009) at 10.00.
The second monthly meeting is held on the 3rd Sunday, starting at 1300. For details go to the Meeting dates and venues page. There you
will find the dates and a plan of how to get to the venues.
The Society is run by a Committee, elected at the
AGM. The Society can be
contacted via the Secretary using the email link shown in the Link area on
the right.
Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society is affiliated with the
Gaming Club Network. A link to this organisation appears on our LINKS page.
 What do we do ?
There are groups of members who specialise in specific periods or themes
such as the Ancient World, Napoleonic, American Civil War, World War 2, as
well as Naval warfare in all periods, where we have a relatively large
number of players compared to other societies. First World War air combat
has become popular and of course there is a Warhammer/WH40K following
through our participation in the Gaming Club Network.
The games at the meetings are generally set up informally
between groups of members who regularly play wargames together. Many of the
members have overlapping interests, so there is also a exchange of players
between the groups. On occasions we have special events at the hall,
involving all the members attending. These can be big games, or tournaments,
sometimes with visiting clubs as well.
There are usually about 6 to 10 games going on, and there will usually be an
opportunity to join one of these if you arrive early on before the battle
gets started. The Club operates a painting competition at its
meetings on the first Sunday, for which there are annual prizes, awarded at
the Society AGM. See the Painting Competition
page for more details.
Club members also offer painting services. The club also occasionally runs
Special Meetings to allow for "One Day Campaigns". There is now a new page "The
Club Notice Board" devoted to this and other club activities.
The Society runs an Open Day called Cavalier every February, at which we
have many traders and visiting club games, either as
participation or demonstration games. There is also a BIG Bring and Buy. Very good refreshments are available from a
professional catering company. For details see our Cavalier page, using the
navigation buttons at the top of the page. These will show the details of
the next planned show from about the preceding October onwards. After the
show there is a holding page with some of the basic organisational details
of the event which can be referred when planning for the next show.
The Society has an Annual General Meeting,
from 2009 this will be held in April.
There is a wargaming resource area on the Rank and
File page.
A pictorial record of the games at many of our meetings is now created by
one of our members, and these are posted on
www.youtube.com. When you get there, search for WARGAMESANORAK.
We put games on at other clubs' shows, regularly at SELWG and Salute. These
games are run by a hard working team of players who ring the changes in the
games put on. We have started to create a photo report of the battles we
have laid on at these shows. Go to our
Wargaming Events page to
have a look.
Rules we use With a membership
interested in a wide variety of periods, the club makes use of an equally
wide variety of rules. These range from the "home grown" variety written by
members for use at the club to the whole range of commercially published
works. A list of the rules we use appears on the
Rules Page. This shows a table
split by period and with a rough guide to how many of the members use them,
based on a sample of 40 members who responded to a questionnaire issued at
the start of the last "club year". The questionnaire will be repeated again
in the coming year to see whether anything has changed. Who can join ?
There are no restrictions on membership, however, under-16s must be
accompanied by a parent or guardian.
What does it cost and how do I join ?
To join the Society, it is suggested that you contact the Secretary by email
in advance, so he can confirm the date and time (just in case these have
changed which does happen occasionally). The first visit to a meeting is
free, so you can see how we operate. After the first visit you will be
expected to pay the annual membership fee. The membership year runs from
April to March.
The current Membership subscription costs £10.00 per annum, renewed annually. Each
member receives a membership card for the year which they are required to
bring to each meeting they attend. The committee reviews the level of the
subscription at
each annual general meeting and asks the membership to vote on any increases
considered necessary.
Facilities
Our venues are a non-smoking environment. There are
refreshments provided free of charge in the form of tea, coffee and
biscuits. Tables are provided mainly 6 foot by 2 foot, and we
also have larger MDF table tops up to 8 feet by 5 feet. There are
Club armies in 15mm scale (Napoleonic), several DBA armies, Warhammer 40K
armies. |