Battle Abbey wargaming theft

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**reds8n**

Facebook OP

URGENT APPEAL FOR HELP

In 2016, the members of 1066 Wargaming Club bought over 1000 miniature Saxons and Normans. Over several months an army of volunteers painstakingly built and painted all of these miniature soldiers in order to enact the Battle of Hastings as a huge boardgame. Since then, more volunteers from the club have taken this massive game to different boardgaming events and historic events; you may have seen it at Battle Abbey during their annual Battle of Hastings weekend, or at the Wyntercon gaming convention.

Sometime during the night between Saturday 13 October 2018 and Sunday 14 October 2018 this massive army was stolen from Battle Abbey. 1066 Wargaming Club members had been planning to spend both days of the historic event running games for the public, and showing our hobby to a wider audience.

Of course this huge number of miniature soldiers has great significance to 1066 Wargaming Club because we have all spent a long, long time making this game the massive spectacle that it was.

The miniatures are Saxon & Norman Infantry, Archers, & Knights, mostly from Gripping Beast and Conquest Games, and are plastic minis, based in groups on wooden bases. They are all painted, but as they were painted by a large number of volunteers, the paint-jobs are not all identical.

If anyone has any information that might lead to us getting our game back, please let us know. Also, please share this post to any groups you know, so that we can cover as much ground as possible, or at least make it hard for any thieves to sell this game.

Thanks in advance.

what a crappy thing to happen/do eh ?

Please spread the word then folks.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Bad show,

and probably somebody in the community or else why target something like this that isn't going to be of huge value

**bubber**

Shared.
Feeling angry & disgusted

**Tannhauser42**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Bad show,

and probably somebody in the community or else why target something like this that isn't going to be of huge value

Without knowing further details of the theft itself, it's hard to say why. If, for example, the army was still all packed up in nice looking hard plastic cases near a window, someone passing by might think there's something valuable in those cases and just did a quick smash-n-grab.

I hope they recover the models intact. We all know the horror stories.

**leopard**

opportunists perhaps, who will likely chuck the lot in a river when they find out, or someone expecting to be able to gradually feed the lot out via eBay perhaps?

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Tannhauser42 wrote:
OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Bad show,

and probably somebody in the community or else why target something like this that isn't going to be of huge value

Without knowing further details of the theft itself, it's hard to say why. If, for example, the army was still all packed up in nice looking hard plastic cases near a window, someone passing by might think there's something valuable in those cases and just did a quick smash-n-grab.

I hope they recover the models intact. We all know the horror stories.

I was thinking that since the theft was the night before the weekend and was from battle abbey itself the armies would have been set up so the organisers could avoid a frantic 'set up on the day of the show' thing

but I guess you're right and they could still have been cased.... It's a more palatable alternative that it's just a random low life grabbing a carrying case or two than somebody specifically pulling stuff off a board

**porkuslime**

How many cases/units are we talking? from the OP, it sure sounds HUGE .. something that would require more than 1 person to opportunistically grab.

**tneva82**

porkuslime wrote:
How many cases/units are we talking? from the OP, it sure sounds HUGE .. something that would require more than 1 person to opportunistically grab.

If they were still in cases don't see why they couldn't be carried by one guy. 1000+ models is lot yes but they are historical models so no huge primarches, land raiders, baneblades etc. I find with 40k models that it's the vehicles that eat up space like hell. With just infantry I carry ~500 without too much of a issue with one bag that is carried on one hand so 1000 or so could fit into 2 bags depending on how they are packed.

Now if they were in battleformation and the criminals were worried about damaging paint job that would take lot more effort(if paintjob damaged isn't worry quickly throwing them to big box could do the trick fairly fast likely)

**Overread**

Historical models tend to be smaller and thinner thank bulky 40K models so chances are if they were in custom foam for them then they could easily fit 1K models into a bag. A nice big expensive looking bag is a prime target for an opportune thief to steal as they might well think its got camera, audio, computer gear within.

It's less likely that they'd want to take time selling on ebay; more likely that they'd dump the models. Most are not after a slow selling product, they want fast to sell goods that are passed on quick with little reliable trace back to them. The longer they hold onto them the more chance there is of getting caught.

Based on the stories in other threads it might well be good to patrol the local bins/area and see if the models/bags have been dumped. If they were on foot they won't have gone a huge distance before checking what they stole - if they had a car though then they could have gone far further.

A huge shame for any gamer to lose models in such a way, and really nasty for a community project like this to get stolen where the pain of the theft affects far more people.

**Ginjitzu**

I wonder is it possible for the club to contact their local council and ask for the bin men to keep an eye out?