The 5th edition (can you believe?!) of the UK's most pasty-tastic v4 L'Art de la Guerre Tournament will again take place in Brixham in the glorious South West of England

• More B&B's and out-of-season-priced self catering accommodation options than you can shake a haddock at!
• Great pubs & local restaurants !
• World-class fish and chips - straight from the boat!

"There's a good chance you're retired, or at least working part time by now, so why not make a long weekend of it and come down for a few days ?"

Date – 6th & 7th December 2025 (a bit later this year as the Brixham Christmas Markets gazumped me with the hall booking!)

• Both 15mm & 25/8mm periods on offer
• The event is limited to about 50 or so players, so secure your spot soon.
• Standard ADLG v4 rules, 200 points, 5 games.

Entry fee is £30, to cover the venue, prizes, and what are often laughingly described as "trophies", plus (barring any unforseen price hikes by the venue) a round of pasties for all competitors on one of the days of the event.  

The theme for both periods is (as threatened in 2024) - a "Biblical+" one of:

"The Ancient & The Arbitrary"

In essence this is a Biblical Era themed competition to which I have given up any pretence of legitimate historical justifications for the inclusion, exclusion or restrictions placed on the list of permitted armies, and am instead just telling you what is allowed instead of making some vague old guff up, as it would seem that 5 editions in most people have wised up and realised that's what I have been doing all along anyway. 

Lists allowed are:

• 1-37 ("The Ancient Period") 
• 47 Italic Tribes 
• 48 Etruscan (pre 500BC options only) 
• 54 Early Carthaginian ((pre 500BC options only) 
• 57 Saitic Egyptian (26th Dynasty Only, Assyrian ally compulsary) 
• 58 Kyrenean Greek (pre 321BC options only)
• 59 Meriotic Kushite (no elephants) 
• 64 Achaaemenid Persian (Pre 484BC options only, at least 2 chariots - scythed or Assyrian - must be fielded )   
• 65 Lydian 
• 66 Lycian (pre 500BC options only)

All armies can only include a maximum of 8 Heavy Chariots. All allies must be drawn from this list, or (where permitted) can also take a Classical Greek contingent dated before 500BC .

(* Da Management reserve the right to tweak this theme at a later date should anything really unbalancing get spotted)

I'm sure you can beg, borrow, steal or - god forbid - buy and paint up something for this period, especially as Newline Designs traditionally hold a sale in January which makes their already great value 28mm Biblical ranges even cheaper (I mean, check out their army deals anyway - the only way to buy chariots in 28mm!), but if you are struggling please let me know as I may be able to loan an army in either scale if needed.

Happy Fish & Chip eating!

Lists to lists@madaxeman.com by 28th November please. Late lists might be displayed on the wall throughout the day for all to see. Each round will be 2 and 1/4 hours plus a bit, the ideal timings will be

Saturday

9:30 - 11:45 Round 1

Lunch - Pasties! 

12:45 - 15:00 Round 2

15:30ish or sooner - 1745ish Round 3

Sunday

9:30 - 11:45 Round 4

12:45 - 15:00 Round 5

Prizes and packing away

If we find that all games in any round are concluded within the time limit we will try and crack on and start the subsequent rounds a bit earlier so we can all get away sooner.

If you have a playing mat of the correct dimensions please bring it along!

Venue – The Scala Hall, Brixham, Devon, TQ5 8TA.

Brixham is a picturesque seaside town on the south coast of Devon, home to England's busiest fishing port as well as a host of great pubs and restaurants. It's about 45 minutes south of Exeter, so both the M5 and A303 will take you pretty much straight there from most points in Britain (or the A38 from further West).

The Scala Hall is right next to the bus station at the end of both of Brixham's main streets (Fore Street and Middle Street). There is a large car park in the middle of Brixham which irritatingly has a 3 hour limit (we're still not 100% sure if you can keep feeding the meter) so the best bet is to park up at your accommodation and walk to the hall if you can. There is free on-street parking on residential streets in Brixham, but they can be both steep and narrow and spaces can be hard to find and tricky to get into. The all-day paid car park in Brixham is the Breakwater, which is a 15 minute-or-so walk away along the harbourside.

The venue will be open from 8:30ish, and if you have a hefty 28mm army you should be able to pull up outside to unload (if you do so quickly!)

We will have tea and coffee making facilities at the venue, but there are also some fantastic cafe's and coffee takeaways only steps away from the venue - The Curious Bakery, Port Expresso and The Larder to name but three.

Brixham has loads of great pubs and restaurants for the evenings, and tradition states that Friday night sees almost all of will pass through The Blue Anchor for a pint or two before popping across to eat in at Simply Fish, the fairly posh chippie across the road.

For accommodation there are a good number of hotels and B&B's in Brixham so off-season availability and prices should be good.

If there are at least a couple (or more) of you self catering is an even better option, with a huge number of holiday let properties available right in the centre of town for as short as 2 or 3 nights - ideal if even only a couple of you are travelling down together.  This also means you can walk to the venue, have a pint at lunchtime and pick up a sausage butty (no guarantees on vegan/Kosher being available though...) for breakfast on the way to the venue.

The rates on self catering accommodation work out much better if you stay an extra night or so (cleaning is a fixed price cost for the owners), and some places may only offer 3 night rates so make sure to check that even if you are only staying for 2. having said that there is plenty to do around the area if you do want to add a day or so, or if you and your clubmates just want to sit in a cottage living room playing some board games and going to the pub too!

For queries contact tim@madaxeman.com

We're looking forward seeing you at the table!

Tim & Jason

The Devonian Classic is a BHGS affiliated event

(This year you may find your entry confirmation comes from Anagram Events, not Madaxeman.com. This is because even though I always aim to run Brixham and Kegworth at break-even, the combined revene across the two is now such that it's become rather close to the point at which HMRC could choose to become interested in them.  Anagram is a limited company I've owned for many years, and which I do my event-based consulting business through, so by running Brixham and Kegworth through it too rather than my personal bank account it makes my life much easier tax-wise).