TWWS Welcome

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.

The Society meets twice per month at the Village Hall in Speldhurst. The postcode for Satnav users is

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. The AGM is usually held at the first meeting in April, though this can change if circumstances require this.

Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society is affiliated with the Gaming Club Network. A link to this organisation appears on our CLUB LINKS page.

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 informal visits from other clubs in the area. While the general ethos of the Society is non-competitive, we do on occasion hold tournaments 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.

A pictorial record of the games at many of our meetings in 2010 was 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.

There are no restrictions on membership, however, under-16s must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

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.

Games planned by members for future meetings are found on the Club games page. Details of how this operates can be found on that page.

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 decided in 2009 that it would make a regular donation following our Open Day to the Charity Combat Stress, which helps our Veterans and ex-service personnel. We also operate a Charity book stall at our meetings, where donated books raise money for the cause.

For more information about the work of the Combat Stress charity please visit their website at

As a result of Cavalier 2011 and donations collected in 2010/11 we were able to make a donation of a few pennies under £450. Just after updating this page I received a letter from Combat Stress, as follows:

I am writing to thank you and everyone at Tunbridge Wells Wargames Society for the kind donation of £447.89 received as a result of the collections and booksales held at your shows. This is a very generous gift from which our Veterans shall benefit. I would be most grateful if you could pass on our warmest thanks to everyone involved in raising this sum.

As I am sure you are aware, Combat Stress is increasingly reliant on volunteer fundraising in order to maintain the unique service we provide to ex-Service men and women who have been psychologically injured through active service.

...

So, thank you so much for helping to make our work possible. Your continued support really will make a difference to the help we can offer a particularly needful - but often overlooked - group of Veterans as they rebuild their lives.

Best wishes and kind regards

Charlotte French
Fundraising Manager

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.

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 measuring 8 feet by 4 feet.

There are Club armies in 15mm scale (Napoleonic), several DBA armies, Warhammer 40K armies.