At the end of June, Mike hosted the latest iteration – the second summer gathering – in Thirlmere, near Keswick, attracting about 30 gamers from across the north and Scotland. Thirlmere is a tiny habitation that boasts a pub, a few holiday homes and a community hall. It’s also handy for Hellvellyn and other fell-walking opportunities.

I met Mike at the first PunchedCon back in 2022. We played Quartermaster General 1914, my introduction to the series. We went on to play a Thirty Years War playtest variant of the QMG system with the designer. Towards the end of the evening, Mike was asked to say a few words to the full convention. It was at this stage that he talked about his small event in Cumbria.

Coincidentally, the day after PunchedCon ended I was due to go on holiday to Borrowdale, just south of Keswick. So I talked to Mike about his event, then called Unthirl Your Banners. Thirlmere; Unthirl; geddit?

Whilst up in the Lakes, I stopped by the local Keswick bookshop where Mike works to talk further. Having only just got back into the hobby, I was at litle hesitant about meeting up with heavy grognards. PunchedCon had been ok. I didn’t feel intimidated but I had my reservations. Mike put me at ease, and sold me a couple of Wainwright guides for my walks.

This year’s event ran from Thursday through Sunday. I’d arranged a couple of days beforehand to grab some fell-walking time. The combination works perfectly for me. Mike and I have had a couple of pre-con walks in the past – up Catbells and, overlooking Thirlmere Reservoir, Eagle Crag.

I had a relaxed gaming schedule, partly due to a last minute cancellation. But, I still played five longer games over the four days.

Apart from the games I played, there was the usual mixture of epic multi-map games, multi-player games, pop-up two-players, and not quite war games. These included Commands and Colours Napoleonics, DAK North Africa, Twilight Imperium, Imperial Struggle, Triumph and Tragedy, Conquest and Consequence, Holland ’44 and Fighting Formations.

I started with 1793: Patriots and Traitors, which some of us had played at the last Unfurl. In the first game, we’d struggled with the rules. And, I’d struggled with seeing a path to victory. But, we gave it another try. And, again, we bounced off it. It’s a shame as there is such potential for a good French Revolution political game. But this isn’t that game.

Congress of Vienna was next up. As you may know, I’m a big fan of this 2025 release. Again, it didn’t disappoint though I had a bruising time. We played the Clash of Armies scenario, which is much more battle heavy than the earlier scenarios. My Napoleon lost a crucial battle in Saxony during the second turn, opening the path for the Russians and Prussians to take Hanover. It was downhill from then on. In retrospect, I should have made a couple of tactical retreats to limit my losses. Ah well, it was good to get another session under the belt. One of these days, I’ll manage to play the full campaign.

Mike’s enthusiasm for camping is a bit a running gag but he has persuaded the hall to allow gamers to camp onsite. And, they do. For Summer Gathering, I counted over half-a-dozen tents, campervans and camping pods.

On Saturday, I joined a five-player tilt of Kingmaker II. This was just my second play of the re-worked classic. It’s a fun game though totally chaotic, as I experienced. I’d manoeuvred both my nobles to Exeter for a calling of Parliament only to get hammered by plague in the next turn. We got the rules wrong: I should have retained my least powerful noble. But, lesson learned.

Kingmaker was a taster for Fire in the Lake, the epic COIN Vietnam game. We played a shorter scenario rather than the campaign game. Even so, we weren’t able to finish that either. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable game with a lot of chatter around the table. The US and ARVN worked very closely together, and the US were in a good position as we ended. Their work together stymied my efforts as the VC. I was forced to play my pivotal event in a suboptimal position,I didn’t see a path to victory as things stood. Still, another epic battle.

A couple of years ago, the future af Unthirl was in doubt as Thirlmere hall was slated to close due to lack of volunteers to run it. Although the hall has been saved, Mike has subsequently moved the event to a bigger venue in Dalston near Carlisle. Whilst it’s a better facility, it lacks some of the charm of the original site.

As such, Mike has now arranged a couple of extra summer events back in Thirlmere. This makes it an attractive option for combining gaming and walking. Of course, being the Lakes, you’re subject to the vagaries of local weather. And, the elements didn’t disappoint as we had some epic mist and rain throughout my week up there. I still managed a good walk up Stake Pass, and some gentler strolls along the Langdale and Mickleden.

On the final day, I played a re-arranged game of Churchill from the same series as Congress of Vienna. I’ve been less impressed in my previous plays but I think that’s due to playing the tournament scenario which starts in the middle of the full campaign. We started with turn one but only got about halfway. We were well on the way to defeating the Axis, and – playing as Churchill – I wasn’t too far behind Roosevelt.

All in all, I had a good weekend despite a couple of disastrous performances. Unfurl is a great opportunity to meet up with old friends and to make new connections. Mike’s done an excellent job creating and nurturing the community. I look forward to the next event in October, and back to Thirlmere next June.

My good friend, Duncan Young (aka Statto99), who runs the Tre Kronor group, has undertaken the Herculean task of assembling a PunchedCon GeekList.

This past weekend saw PunchedCon 2025 held in Coventry, England. PunchedCon is the UK’s largest war boardgame event, and, in it’s fourth year, drew a record of 220 gamers from these isles and mainland Europe. Included in that number were ex-pats from the US, Australia and New Zealand.

Coventry is near the geographic centre of England at Meriden. So, it’s very handy to reach by car or train, and it’s just 20 minutes from Birmingham Airport. More on Coventry at the bottom of this post.

Tickets sold out in about a week!

There’s really nothing like PunchedCon in the UK and, possibly, Europe.

Armoury

The convention is jointly organised by James Buckley, from the Cardboard Emperors club based in London, and Second Chance Games (SCG), the UK’s biggest war boardgame distributor.

There’s a good selection of sponsors from the industry, and this year we had demos from Nuts!, Sound of Drums, Form Square Games and NAC Wargames.

SCG runs a store during the event, offering a discount to attendees.

Every year there’s a bring and buy sale so you can clear your shelves, just to be replaced by more games! I was sorely tempted with a copy of For the People in shrink for a low price but I was already going to be overloaded for travelling home on the train.

Saturday night is the traditional prize draw with games donated by the sponsors. I picked up a couple of Tank on Tank games, which I had to pass on to someone else for safekeeping.

Battlegrounds

An extra bonus this year was the dedicated monster room for the hardcore. I saw two games of A Most Fearful Sacrifice, Valley of Tears, Red Strike, Eclipse, War of the Ring and more.

Back in the main conference room, there was a very wide selection of games on the table. Of note, Congress of Vienna (more on that later), Fire in the Lake, Air War, Paths of Glory, Dien Bien Phu, plenty of Napoleonics and conference favourites like Here I Stand and Virgin Queen. You could find hex-and-counter, point-to-point, COIN, Commands and Colours, sci-fi, WWI, SPI, Avalon Hill and so much more.

Surprisingly, I didn’t see any of the Levy and Campaign series but I’d need to check Duncan’s GeekList. But I did see a prototype of the latest COIN P500 – The Pure Land.

Command and control

Most of the game arranging takes place beforehand. In my case, I filled my card within 48 hours of buying a ticket!

Nevertheless, there were a lot of pickup games over the weekend, especially in the evenings. Although beginning at 9am on Friday, the rooms were open on Thursday night and there was a pretty good crowd on hand.

Roll call

Like most conventions, it’s not just about the games. I’ve made lots of new friends and put faces to names and online pseudonyms.

In amongst the crowd were some of the more recognisable wargame personalities.

The first PunchedCon took place just as I was getting back into the hobby so it turned out perfectly for me. It was there that I met Mike Smith who runs a boutique convention – Unfurl Your Banners – in the northwest of England that pre-dates PunchedCon. Mike is a long-time gamer, is great company and a very genial host.

Thursday night – chaos rules

The main hall was about a quarter full when I arrived. Dangerous Dave had arranged a game of Russian Civil War. We had the full six players for several hours of anarchic fun. Dave and I were constantly checking our phones for updates on the Europa League semi-final between Bodo-Glimt and Tottenham Hostpur – COYS!

I hadn’t met any of the others, so we did spend a good part of the evening getting to know each other. Spurred on by the game topic, especially the map, there’s was considerable reminiscing about doing business in the former Soviet Union. And, I met Stuart from north Devon where I used to live. We’d chatted on Discord and BGG previously, so great to meet IRL.

I’m not sure if there was a winner but certainly no losers as our convention had kicked-off with good socialising.

Friday – nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

My original plan was to play Bayonets and Tomahawks but my opponent decided it wasn’t the game for him. Instead, I signed up for Here I Stand with Richard who was running three semi-teaching sessions over the weekend.

I love Here I Stand and have played it now eight times. But, I’m always learning so thanks to Richard for hosting, and thanks to my opponents who were good company and fearsome opposition. Shout out to Christophe for showing some nifty Hapsburg play, things I’d not seen in a game before.

I played England and had decided beforehand to play it per the script: seek an agreement with France to go to a field battle in Scotland, start the marriage stakes in turn two, build my forces, take Antwerp, dabble in the New World, and ally with the Protestants to further the Reformation in England.

France didn’t want to do a deal but I took Scotland in turn one, used my home card to re-marry in turn three, took Antwerp and Brussels by turn four and set about the English Reformation from turn five.

Meanwhile, the Pope was racking up points and through turns three to five was very near victory. But, in turn six the Hapsburgs played Sack of Rome to wipe out 5 VPs. France and England managed to eke out extra VPs in the New World to tie at 25 VPs. France took the victory on countback.

Coincidentally, there was another Richard hosting Here I Stand on the adjacent table! And, I’m sure I saw another game spool up later in the weekend.

Saturday – five players in search of a rulebook

Back again on an unseasonably warm Saturday, I met up with Mike for The Sword of Rome. While I like CDGs, this topic is a little outside my normal fare. My knowledge of Rome extends to the story of Romulus and Remus, elephants and the Ides of March.

We were also in a quandary. Pre-convention, there’d be a lot of discussion about whether to house rule the chaotic combat system that allows battle winners to lose more units than the loser. James Buckley did offer the revised rules which he is preparing for the forthcoming Nuts! version. In the end, we went for the house rule that meant winners wouldn’t lose more units than the loser.

As the Carthaginians, I spent most of my time building my forces for a late game assault on Rome. In the meantime, the Etruscans managed to hamper the Greeks with some card play which allowed me to walk into Syracuse. We came to an agreement after the first turn which allowed him to scoot up the peninsular while I had my eyes on the growing Etruscan power in the north.

All best laid plans fell apart as the Etruscans had magic dice or, more precisely, everyone else had terrible dice. Towards the end of a long day – we struggled with the rules – the Romans recovered and were in a winning position before we decided to call it.

Many thanks to Dangerous Dave for loaning a copy of the game.

Sunday – au revoir PunchedCon

A day of goodbyes but a great game in between.

As the main room slowly emptied, I hosted Congress of Vienna. I was very pleased to get this to the table as I’ve pushed it around for several months in anticipation.

This was still, very much, a learning game. Although I’d soloed a couple of turns and had a Vassal session for a turn (two-and-a-half hours though), it’s still quite rules heavy such that we missed a couple of things. It was really good to see how things develop from turn to turn, something you can never get from reading the rules.

I played the Austrians, mostly because I thought this would allow me to help the other Allies understand how the mechanics work but also giving them advice on tactics.

My original intention was to go for the full campaign of ten turns but it was clear from all my preparation that we’d only ever get through four turns as people were wanting to head home in the afternoon.

So, we played the Clash of Armies scenario, starting at turn five. Historically, there is an armistice at the start so that England is alone but there is pressure on Austria to enter the war.

We did take a long time with the first turn as one of the group hadn’t fully digested the rules. But, we picked up after then.

Through three turns, we were pushing back Napoleon on Paris. Despite several handicaps in the first turn, England had picked up plenty of VPs and had crossed the Pyrenees. There was a little less progress towards the east but the Russians were in control of the main Allied army.

We called it after three turns with France, Russia and England all with a chance to win in turn four.

Thank you to David, Laurent and Mike for playing and making it a good learning experience. I’m now keen to get this back to the table as soon as possible.

Reflections

And so, time for final farewells and promises to meet back in 2026 if not before at other events.

For me, the standout was getting Congress of Vienna to the table. I saw a couple of other CoVs on the table and chatted to others about their experiences. The conclusion is that this is likely to be one many people’s top ten lists for 2025, and a conference stalwart for years to come.

Otherwise, it was a delight to meet and talk to so many gamers. I’m so glad to be part of a friendly and welcoming community.

Thanks to James and SCG for organising the convention. I know everyone I met was full of praise for their efforts in putting together this essential event.

Coda: contemplation

I have a bit of a soft spot for Coventry as I spent three years at the University of Warwick, which confusingly is not in Warwick but sits on the outskirts of Coventry. In my day, not many students would venture into Coventry as it was a campus university, and almost all off-campus accommodation was in the opposite direction in Leamington Spa.

But, I did spend the odd Saturday in Coventry either in the covered market, the 1950s shopping precinct or the football ground.

As you may know, Coventry suffered a terrible air raids in November 1940. Up until I lived there in the early 1980s, Coventry was associated with the automotive industry. One of the benefactors of my university was the Rootes family, owners of one of Britain’s former marques. So, it was a strategic bombing target.

But those raids flattened much of the city centre including the medieval cathedral.

In the post-war optimism of the 1950s, much of the city centre was rebuilt giving us the first, traffic-free purpose built shopping precincts in Britain.

Also, instead of rebuilding the cathedral, the ruined shell was retained and a new church built at right angles in a dramatic modernist style. It may not be to everyone’s taste but the whole area is today a moving monument to peace and reconciliation.

Coventry suffered yet again during the era of de-industrialisation and is now a mix of that post-war optimism (unfortunately spoiled by new buildings at the east end of the precinct), post-industrial decay and (ugly) post-millennial “regeneration”.

I spent time on Thursday wandering through the city centre. On Monday, I had a few moments of contemplation before heading home taking memories and whole bunch of new games!