The Royal Armouries, Leeds. The morning of Sunday, 31 October 2021. It’s raining heavily. Outside the New Dock Hall, a queue of paying public is forming. Starved by months of pandemic restrictions, they have come to see wargames at the Fiasco wargaming show. Good ones. One of the very first things this discerning crowd will come across, just inside the main door, is my game. It’s a 700-figure 28mm attempt at the Battle of Stoke Field 1487, the last battle of the Wars of the Roses. My friend Richard Hudson has brought his fifteenth-century Irish collection and has added them to the Yorkist army. We’re as ready as we’re going to be.
I stand back from the table and assess our efforts. A thought flies unexpectedly through the fog of an early start buttressed by bad coffee and good bacon. A blast of humility, sharpened by the fact the organizers have put me by the main doors. What if …?
What if no-one
