Warfare 2023 – Tournaments

Let us start with a bit of background – Warfare is run by the Wargames Association of Reading (WAR) Club who began way back in 1978 – yep 45 years ago.  I first attended Warfare as a callow youth fresh off the train from the frozen north back in 85 or 86.  I played WRG 6th (still at Warfare to this day) as a member of the Pinner Wargames Club (home of the raw liver smoothie) and I still have a vague memory of my first Warfare – we were upstairs somewhere in the outskirts of Reading in a council building with an entry akin to a bunker and for some odd reason I remember rain on a long series of windows.

Since those early days the event has mushroomed with the trade, tournaments, demos/participations  and not forgetting the Bring and Buy all showing steady growth.  Many of you will associate Warfare with the Rivermead Leisure Centre – where we spent many a happy year – however by 2019 we had outgrown it and needed to find a bigger venue – we briefly moved to Ascot (with Covid in between) and have now settled in out new home at  Farnborough Exhibition Centre.  – For a brief (well under 4 minute)  video of last year and a strong taste of what it is all about – see here below

This year we are looking at something a little bit different – 1913 saw the publication of HG Wells book Little Wars  which is one of the cornerstones of our hobby today – so to celebrate the 110th anniversary (or as  many of our tournament players may say 1 year shy of its eleventy first birthday) we are proposing to make this year  a major celebration of all aspects of wargaming.  Some more info about this key point in Wargaming history can be found here at the BBC when they celebrated its 100th anniversary.  The actual rules used back then are still available here. 

We can accommodate Tournaments of all sorts and sizes – be it one day or two day – from just 6 competitors to easily over a 100.  We owe a lot to HG Wells and are not restricted to just miniatures – we would thus welcome traditional games, card based games and board games as well.

Invites to known Tournaments Organisers have all gone out and i am pleased to say that the majority are all back and likely to be bigger and stronger.  Tickets will start to go on sale from  26th April onwards and will be a gradual series of sales – stretching through May as Rules packs etc get finalised.  So check out your tournament specific page for details and watch out for announcements.  Good news is ticket prices will remain the same as last year £45 for two day events which includes show entry and free parking and £25 for a one day event including show entry for that day only and free parking.  

Click on the appropriate category to see a bit more about Fantasy, Historical, Sci-Fi or Traditional/Cards/Board Tournaments running this year.