Who's Playing What - the 2023 (slightly delayed..) edition

Various real life things, and a ridiculous amount of actual gaming have rather gotten in the way of usual programming here on Madaxeman, however I have finally managed to run a quick update on my now-traditional full-year snapshot of the UK Ancients competition scene in 2023.

As usual I'll start with (an abridged) version of the ground rules and caveats. 

• These "2023" stats cover competitions held in the UK during 2023 for which attendance information is the public domain. In practice this means "results that appear in the rankings" plus a few more unranked events that I've picked up from keeping a weather eye on various forums and FB pages - or in some cases where I've been sent results by the people who organise events for each set.
• It only covers "competitions" - that essentially means 5+ people from multiple clubs gathering together to play over a day or two at a single venue, at the end someone gets a prize for winning, and the then the world gets to hear about it afterwards on a forum or FB group. If it's a "gathering", an "organised play" weekend, a "boot camp", a "club ladder tournament"  or a "This isn't a competition, no scores will be recorded or published"-type event it's not included, a criteria which is applied consistently across all sets.
• I've adopted a totally arbitrary cut-off of "about 30 players and half a dozen events-ish" in the calendar year for any set to be included. Of the other sets being played Swordpoint may be closest to meeting this criteria, but is still a little short at the moment.
• I'm largely guessing who is "overseas" and who is "UK". C'est la vie huh..?
• Some players appear in the stats twice because they played two rulesets over the course of 2023. This is still (just about) too low a number for me to worry about, but it does seem to be on the rise so I have noted it in a couple of places. Maybe one for next year? 

After doing this analysis annually since 2016 I think I have a pretty good handle on whats occurring and where to look to pick up the data - and the idea that in this day an age a competition could be promoted, organised, played and concluded without leaving any sort of online footprint of any kind on any of the mainstream forums used by the players of the rulesets concerned, and not be picked up in the rankings system either is rather far fetched to say the least ! So, while I would not want to promise 110% accuracy, especially where nicknames are used, or where players may have dropped out midway through an event for example, all in all it's still a pretty good bet that every UK-based "competition" that has happened for the rulesets I'm looking at here has been included. 

The other thing to bear in mind is that for all bar one of the rulesets in this analysis the total number of players falls between 30-90, so the absence (or presence) of a car-full of players turning out for a single event staged at their local club can swing almost all of these figures by as much as 5-10%. 

So, please don't read too much into any single year-on-year variation - this is all about capturing moments in time and adding them together to form a broad-brush picture over the longer term - which is why I have been collating similar stats since 2017. 

So with those qualifications out of the way, onto the 2023 data.

Total Player Numbers 

(Numbers are UK based players / UK+Overseas players): 

• ADLG    178/186  (2022: 172/185)     (L'Art de la Guerre)
• MeG       78/89 (2022: 71/76)      (Mortem et Gloriam)
• DBA       64/64        (2022: 57/58)         (De Bellis Antiquarius)
• DBMM   60/73       (2022: 69/78)         (De Bellis Magister Militum)
• TTS!       43/43        (2022: 32/33)        (To The Strongest!)
• DBM      41/42        (2022: 39/40)         (De Bellis Militarium)
• FoGAM  34/38 (2022: 34/35)        (Field of Glory Ancient & Medieval)

In "League Tables" terms therefore ADLG continues to lead the pack by some margin, with over 1 in 3 of all players in this survey taking part in at least one ADLG event in 2023, more than the next two biggest sets combined.

MeG has consolidated it's grip on 2nd place through a combination of solid growth through 2023 and a continued tailing off of the numbers playing DBMM. 

This in turn leaves DBA very much now neck and neck with DBMM in 3rd place, recording higher UK-based player numbers but unable to match DBMM's international pulling power which sees total DBMM attendances just outstrip those of DBA. 

At the other end of the table (as John Motson would say..) both FoGAM and DBM have been overtaken this year by TTS! despite small upticks for both sets, as what appears to have been a concerted effort by the TTS! community to stage more events has started to pay off with greater overall attendance figures.

%age Change 2022 vs 2023  

(UK based players / UK+Overseas players):

• TTS!        +34% / +30%
• DBA        +12% / +10%
• MeG       +10% / +17%    
• DBM       +5% / +5%
• ADLG     +3% / -%
• FoGAM   -% / +9%
• DBMM    -13% / -9%

Unsurprisingly TTS! saw the biggest %age increase in overall player numbers, with MeG and DBA both recording double-digit increases too in UK-based players. 

DBMM saw the biggest fall in player numbers, somewhat masked by an increase in overseas players heading to these shores. 

Total number of competition entries made 

• ADLG      727    (2022: 703)
• MEG        379    (2022: 338)
• DBMM    263    (2022: 291)
• DBA         220    (2022: 204)
• FOG         185    (2022: 185)
• DBM        167    (2022: 123)
• TTS          101    (2022: 57)

These figures aggregate the attendance figures for every event in the calendar for each ruleset, and so give a combined flavour of the number of events held and average attendances at each event. 

Both MeG and TTS! saw significant increases in aggregate turnout, both coming off the back of increased numbers of events in their respective calendars. 

The star performer in this bunch is however undoubtably DBM, with a 36% increase in overall number of entries across its' 11 events last year compared to the aggregate attendance across the same number of competitions in 2022. DBMM was the only set to see a decline in the total number of entries made across the year. 

New players first seen on each circuit in 2023 

(UK based players / UK+Overseas players):

• ADLG     23 / 26
• DBA        13 / 13
• TTS!        13 / 13
• MeG        10 / 15
• DBMM     6 / 6
• FoGAM    3 / 5
• DBM        2 / 2

These numbers underline the fact that the strong showings by DBA and TTS! were driven in the main by significant numbers of UK-based players joining each circuit for the first time in 2023.

All of the sets bar DBM saw around 10% of their total player numbers made up of new recruits in 2023, with MeG notably drawing in as many "first time in the UK" overseas players in 2023 than all other sets combined.  

ADLG meanwhile saw 5 of its 26 "first-timers" last year coming from the ranks of players of other rulesets, with MeG also recording 2 inbound recruits as well. These are still tiny numbers in absolute terms however, underlining how few players have been drifting between rulesets in recent years.

7 year trends in UK player numbers (omitting 2020 & 2021) 

• DBM uses July-July figures for 2015 and 2016 as these were more readily available, all other figures are calendar years.  
• 2020 and 2021 have been omitted as all circuits were dramatically curtailed by Covid in these years

The clearest trend in the period since 2015 has been ADLG's rapid replacement of FoGAM as the most widely played rule system in the UK Ancients competition scene, with ADLG first exceeding  the "100 active players in the last 12 months" benchmark in early 2016, a benchmark no other set has managed to reach since then. The last few years (Covid excepted) have seen this position solidify (ossify?) with the UK's ADLG calendar consistently witnessing more players than the next 2-3 biggest sets combined in recent years.

7 years after its' launch MeG has now doubled-down on its position at the head of the "second tier" group alongside DBA & DBMM, all of which draw somewhere between 60-80 UK-based players annually (with DBMM and MeG both adding to this through their material overseas contingents too). 

After a rather erratic start, the TTS! competition circuit is now seemingly coming up on the rails, with both of the "free" rulesets, FoG and DBM both showing stable numbers in the 30-40 range made up of a core of longstanding supporters.

Ruleset-specific commentary

ADLG (L'Art de la Guerre)

Not much has chnaged for ADLG in the last year, with again 38 events across the UK, and player numbers hovering in the 180-200 band throughout the year, as they have done ever since mid 2018.

16 players accounted for 25% of all competition entries in 2022, with 42 making up half of the aggregate annual field. The 38 events held included some competitions some taking place in parallel (in different scales) at the same venue, and with date clashes as well the most events anyone could theoretically have entered in 2022 was 32. 

Unsurprisingly no players managed to make it to even half of this total - a symptom of both ADLG's uniquely wide geographic spread of events across the UK, and the sheer number of ADLG competitions now available to enter each year across the length and breadth of the UK.  

52 players appeared at the 6 ADLG events held across Scotland in 2023, just over a dozen of whom hailed from south of the border (with a good number of the Scottish players making the reverse trip to play in England as well). 60 different players also took part in at least one of the eleven 25mm events staged (with half of these 60 only wheeling out the big toys the once in the calendar year).  Either of these "circuits with a circuit" would sit mid-table in the popularity stakes in their own right, underlining the importance of both in ADLG's UK-wide popularity. 

64 players only took part in one ADLG event in 2023, including all 8 overseas players to grace the UKL circuit last year. At 34% of the total attendance pool this is a fractionally higher "one off" figure than seen with many other sets, with a couple of events staged at extreme opposite ends of the country (Elgin and Brixham) accounting for much of this variance.

MeG  (Mortem et Gloriam)

MeG saw it's third format shift since its launch in 2016, moving from a traditional hard copy rulebook to PDF + Print on Demand formats, and this has coincided with an uptick in player numbers which has seen the UK MeG circuit hit its highest ever rolling 1-year total of unique attendees at the end of 2023. 

The number of events also surged in 2023, up to 22 from 18 in 2022. Half of the 2023 MeG calendar took place in the East Midlands, with Derby and Daventry alone playing host to 9 competitions, and both Nottingham and Burton also chipping in to help deliver more than half of MeG's aggregate attendance to venues that fall within 25 miles of Leicester Forest East Services. Knowing wargamers this may well suggest that one of the M1's better "Full English" breakfasts is on offer in the cafe at this particular motorway service station!

8 MeG players chipped in with more than 25% of the aggregate entries across the year, with 19 players making up half of the total aggregate field. Those same 8 players all managed to enter half or more of the events held in 2023, with the most dedicated MeGGer making a phenomenal 18 appearances in the calendar year, more than anyone playing in any of the other sets in this survey. 28 of the 89 players (31%) only attended one event during 2023, with 9 of these unsurprisingly being overseas players.

2023 also saw the first 28mm events using the reduced-scale MeG Magna format competitions (DBMM's and ADLG's circuits also both feature reduced-scale events) included in the stats and rankings. These two 28mm events attracted 19 different players, only one of whom (an overseas player) did not make an appearance at any of the other 15mm events across the rest of the UK circuit in 2023.

DBMM

The DBMM player universe has dipped below 80 in both of the last two years and now stands almost 25% below its 2012 peak of 97. 

In 2022 the DBMM circuit was more adversely affected by the tail end of Covid than other rulesets, with one of it's traditionally best-attended events taking place in very early in the year. Despite this Milton-Keynes based January behemoth roaring back with 38 roundabout-loving attendees in 2023, overall DBMM numbers continued to slip across the rest of the year, with total player numbers falling for the 4th (Covid excluded) year in a row.

The non-appearance of the Guilford event in 2023 undoubtably affected numbers, however attendances appear to have reduced across a range of events in the MM calendar in 2023, with only 2 events exceeding 20 entries last year. For comparison, 5 events hit this mark pre-Covid in 2019, and 4 achieved it in 2022.

7 players now make up 25% of all entries on the UK DBMM circuit, with 17 making up half of the aggregate field across the year. The maximum number of events it was possible to enter in 2023 would have been 17, and 8 players managed to attend half or more of these with the keenest two players making it to 12/17. The proportion of players who took part in just one event was 34%. 

DBA

2023 saw DBA reverse a post-Covid decline in attendee numbers, with some new events and some returning to the calendar generating the busiest year of events for DBA since 2015, helping generate a notable uptick in overall players numbers as well. 

7 players made up 25% of all entries, with 15 making up half of the aggregate field across the year. The closest anyone came to entering all 15 events was to attend 11, with only 6 players managed to turn up to over half of the full circuit this year. 

TTS! (To The Strongest!)

As has been previously noted, the TTS! community are currently making a concerted effort to promote "organised play", and this seems to have paid off in 2023 with a notable increase in overall attendee numbers - even when discounting attendees at a number of TTS! "events" in the last year held under a decidedly "non-competitive" banner, which were therefore out of scope of this analysis.

With 8 events at present spread across a map which has seen events take place as far afield as Cardiff,  Glasgow and London, the TTS! circuit still clearly has more room to grow, with just 9 people making it to more than half of the 8 competitions staged in 2023 

FOGAM  (Field of Glory Ancient & Medieval)

FoG adopted a totally free, PDF-only format for it's v4 edition at the end of 2022, and this helped bring in 3 new UK-based players in 2023, seemingly all drawn from the same Wessex club which (with the demise of the Reigate club which saw the remaining players absorbed by the "Surrey Spartans" club) is now the epicentre of the UK's FoGAM community. 

Aside from that Wessex-based influx, the total number of FoG competition players in the UK remains stable at just over 30, with the 12 events drawing an impressive average of 17 players. That equates to over half the total UK community taking part in each event, with an astonishing 31/38 taking part in the biggest competition of the year (held in... you guessed it, Wessex!).    

Just 5 players chipped in with over 25% of the aggregate entries in 2023, with 10 making up just over half of all entrants. 16 players attended more than half of the events on the circuit, with three committed FoGGers managing to take advantage of every opportunity to play offered throughout the year. 

DBM

As is now almost traditional, numbers for DBM wobbled slightly but stayed very much in line with those seen in previous years in a roster of events which continues to be concentrated in two hubs, one in Essex/Norffolk and one in the West Country. 

The 10-event UK DBM circuit had 2 ever-present players last year, with just 5 players making up over 25% of the total field across the year, and 11 making up half of the aggregate field. The calendar features a mix of singles and doubles, with some 25mm events as well. 

All bar one of the events on the circuit are stand-alone DBM-only affairs, with the competition taking place at Attack! in Devizes the only time in the calendar year that DBM players get to rub shoulders with gamers using other Ancients systems. 

The Conclusion (FWIW!)

In 2023 the 7 most popular Ancients rulesets saw 498 UK-based players and a further 34 international visitors taking part in a UK Ancients competition in 2023.

The balance in numbers between all of these rulesets continues to be broadly stable, with very little migration of players between sets happening to upend the existing picture. 

In 2023 68% of all UK competition players were also still getting their Ancients "fix" using one variant or another of Phil Barker's "DBx" paradigm, with DBA, DBM, DBMM and ADLG all very much direct descendents or successors of the original DBA which first hit the shelves some 34 years ago. Who said historical wargamers are creatures of habit eh?!  

Encouragingly however, headline numbers are still creeping ever closer back towards the pre-Covid 2019 full year count of 549 UK-based players, and are already well ahead of the equivalent 2018 year end numbers - all suggesting that ancients competition gaming remains stable, but also very much in rude health across the UK right now, no matter what form or flavour of rules you personally prefer! 

Previous Years

I've been repeating this analysis every year since 2016. 

Previous years are available here:

• 2022 Year End
• 2019 Year End
• 2018 Year End
• 2017 Year End
• 2017 Mid Year (April) 
• 2016 Mid Year (May)

Check it for Yourself!

With almost all of the information used to generate these stats being drawn from a handful of "rankings" websites it's relatively easy to eyeball the original data sources for yourself and sanity-check these stats (should you so wish). 

The main sources I have used are as follows: 

• ADLG - The BHGS Rankings Page (PDF's of year-end rankings can be found by scrolling down the page)
• DBMM - The DBMM Rankings database (select "GB" and "2023")
• MeG - The MeG Rankings at Draco Standard (this is a global ranking system including overseas events, and sometimes seems to run for more than 12 months as well, so you may need to manually exclude attendees at non-UK and non-2023 events to get to the 2023 UK-only numbers) 
• DBM - John Graham Leigh's DBM page (The DBM rankings year runs July-July, so for 2023 numbers you'll need to look at the results from individual events too)
• DBA - The Fanaticus Forum (The DBA rankings year runs November-November, so as with DBM you'll need to do a bit of a manual adjustment using individual event results to get a 2023 full-year set of stats )
• TTS! - The TTS! Forum "Events" section (No "rankings" as such, so  you'll need to comb through the results from individual events)
• FoGAM - The BHGS Rankings Page 

  

Who Played What - the 2022 Year End Edition

This week it's been too cold to go outside and spray-undercoat any new figures to add to the painting queue, so that inevitably means I have had a little time to work out how on earth to produce my once-traditional end of year snapshot of how many people have been playing each of the most widely seen rulesets on the UK Ancients competition scene in this first full post-Covid-impacted year.

As usual I'll start with the ground rules and caveats. 

These "2022" stats count players at UK events held during 2022 for which results (or runners and riders) have been  published online that I've been able to find and make sense of. Every ruleset in this list is very good at doing this with most also producing their own annual rankings as an additional reference point to double-check the data. The odd player might be missed (or included) at an individual event, especially where nicknames have been used, but other than that unless any events have somehow been publicised, organised, played  and concluded during 2022 without leaving an online footprint of any kind on any of the mainstream forums used by the players of the rulesets concerned (I mean, really...?) you can safely assume every competition that has happened is included. 

I have omitted a number of the smaller circuits, adopting an arbitrary cut-off of 30 players taking part in the calendar year for inclusion. Of the other sets being played Swordpoint appears to be closest to meeting this criteria at the moment with 25 different people taking part in the 5 events staged across 2022, so in future years it may well be added to the list.

Normally a key part of this summary is comparing attendance trends with those seen in the previous years. With organised play across the UK ending abruptly early in 2020 and only really starting up again midway through 2021 both of these years are a rather tricky to include in any comparison, especially as the different circuits were impacted in very different ways by the shutdown and restart. To keep things clean therefore I've used 2019 (the last full year of events) for the headline comparisons with 2022 - it’s not perfect, but it feels like the least-worst option for creating as close to a true like-for-like scenario as possible this year (thank you Covid..). 

Whilst some players appear in the stats twice because they played two rulesets over the course of the past year this is discounted for the analysis as numbers are too low to impact the main trends. And it's too much work to de-dupe them by name as well !

The final thing to bear in mind is that for all bar one of the rulesets in this analysis the total number of players falls between 30-70, so the absence (or presence) of as few as 3 players turning out for a single event staged at their local club can swing almost all of these figures by as much as 5-10%. A car not starting, or two-lines on the driver's Covid test one Saturday morning is all that it takes, so please don't read too much into any single year-on-year variation - this is all about capturing moments in time and adding them together to form a broad-brush picture over the longer term - which is why I have similar stats from the end of 2019, 2018, and 2017. 

So with those qualifications out of the way, onto the 2022 (and 2019) data.

Total Player Numbers 

(UK based players / UK+Overseas players): 

1. ADLG    172 / 185  (2019: 189/210)     (L'Art de la Guerre)
2. MeG       71 / 75  (2019: 62/71) *      (Mortem et Gloriam)
3. DBMM   69 / 78     (2019: 73/84)         (De Bellis Magister Militum)
4. DBA       57 / 58  (2019: 67/68)         (De Bellis Antiquarius)
5. DBM      39 / 40  (2019: 43/45)         (De Bellis Militarium)
6. FoGAM  34 / 35  (2019: 48/48) **    (Field of Glory Ancient & Medieval)
7. TTS!       32 / 33  (2019: 64/66)         (To The Strongest!)

• * Rolling 12-month attendance for MeG in 2019 peaked at 71/75 in April 2019. 
• ** Rolling 12-month attendance for FoG in 2019 peaked at 59/59 in January.

After the first full calendar year of events post-Covid ADLG has comfortably retained the top spot in terms of popularity, seeing almost 25% more UK-based competition players than the next two sets combined. MeG has in turn climbed up to second place partly as a result of DBMM dropping a handful of UK-based players compared to 2019.  

At the other end of the scale FoG has continued to shed significant numbers of players between measurement points, only avoiding becoming the least widely played set in this ranking as a consequence of TTS!'s even more dramatic fall (driven in the main by the still as-yet unresolved dateline issues around the scheduling of its biggest annual event). 

In %age terms this gives the following picture:

%age Change 2019 vs 2022  

(UK based players / UK+Overseas players):

1. MeG       +15% / +6%    ( -/-  : no change compared to 2019 peak)
2. DBMM    -5% / -7%
3. DBM       -9% / -11%
4. ADLG     -9% / -12%
5. DBA        -15% / -15%
6. FoGAM   -28% / -27% (-42%/-42% : compared to 2019 peak)
7. TTS!        -50% / -50%

All sets bar MeG saw player numbers decline to some degree between 2019-2022, with even MeG's apparent year-on-year increase not quite managing to exceed that systems' previous high water mark for participation reached in April 2019 (after which the rolling 12-month player count began to tail off towards the end of that same year). 

FoG's and TTS!'s relative declines stand out as the clear outliers in this list suggesting more was going on with both of them here than just the mild post-Covid hangover that most other sets seemed to be experiencing.

Total number of entries made 

1. ADLG      703    (2019: 699)
2. MEG        338    (298)
3. DBMM    291    (311)
4. DBA         204   (189)
5. FOG         185    (221)
6. DBM        123    (143)
7. TTS          57     (92)

These figures are driven by a number of factors (most notably number of events held) in addition to the number of active players on each circuit, with both ADLG and MeG registering increases in the number of entries made to events on their respective circuits across the year.  

%age of players who appeared in 2019 but not 2022 

(UK based players / UK+Overseas players):

1. TTS!          70%                  (45 / 45)
2. DBA          37% (25 / 25)
3. FoGAM     33% (16 / 16)
4. DBM         33% (13 / 13)
5. ADLG       32% (60 / 76)   
6. MeG          31% (19 / 26)
7. DBMM     23% (17 / 18)

Pretty much all of the rulesets saw close to 1 in 3 players active on each circuit in 2019 fail to reappear in 2022. This sounds dramatic, but taking into account these stats span a 3-year period this level of churn is probably to be expected, even had Covid not intervened. 

As a comparison, the 2018-19 equivalent stats showed most  sets experiencing annual churn rates in the mid 20%'s across that one-year timeframe. 

Current Players first appearing post-2019 

(UK based players / UK+Overseas players):

1. ADLG     41 / 48
2. MeG        25 / 28
3. DBA        13 / 13
4. TTS!        12 / 12
5. DBM        6 / 6
6. DBMM     6 / 6
7. FoGAM    1 / 2

These figures only include players taking part in at least one event in 2022. 

Total UK Player numbers by system in 2022, new and returning 

A very healthy 104 players across the UK have used the opportunity of the Covid-imposed break to take up a new system game and joined a new competition circuit over the timeframe covered by these stats, with ADLG chipping in the most new recruits with over 40 new players picking up the (new v4) rulebook post-Covid to play at an event in 2022, a feat achieved achieved every (non-Covid) year since the ADLG ruleset first hit UK shores back in 2015. 

MeG's heavily promoted PSC-produced hardback edition helped draw in 25 new UK players to its circuit post-Covid, an increase of 12 on the number of new MeG recruits in 2019. At the other end of the scale FoG's lone new UK-based player in 2022 joined a circuit where 33 of the other 35 UK-based players were already played FoG competitively prior to the adoption of FoGAMv3 back in 2018.

6 year trends in UK player numbers (omitting 2020 & 2021) 

* DBM uses July-July figures for 2015 and 2016 as these were readily available, all other figures are calendar year.  

The clearest trend in the period since 2015 has been ADLG's rapid rise to replace FoGAM as the most popular and widely played rule system in the UK Ancients competition scene. In the 6 years since its launch MeG has managed to establish itself in the "second tier" group, all of which consistently draw somewhere between 60-80 players annually, with FoG now joining DBM in what might best be described as the "legacy" category alongside the small but loyal DBM community, each system being  almost exclusively centred around a small number of clubs. 

Ruleset-specific commentary

ADLG (L'Art de la Guerre)

Coming out of the other side of Covid ADLG has retained its place as the most widely played ruleset by some margin with a record 38 events (yes..) held in the UK during the year. 7 years after its first appearance annual UK player numbers for ADLG appear to have finally topped out to settle somewhere in the 170-190 players band, having first attained this level in mid 2018. 

The huge global following for ADLG (over 600 players took part in competitions held outside the UK in 2022) means the UK's ADLG circuit has always enjoyed a more international flavour than that of any other system, with overseas visitors uaually adding in 20+ extra players over and above UK-based curcuit members each year, pushing the total UK pool close to or just above the 200 mark.

The period 2019-2022 witnessed the launch of ADLG v4 (which English-language distributor North Star called this their biggest Ancients ruleset launch since WAB!), a change which seems to have barely moved the dial in terms of overall ADLG competition attendance.  The 2019-22 net fall in player numbers of 17 can almost entirely be accounted for by the absence this year of 10 players whose sole 2019 outing was at the geographically challenging Elgin one-day event (which did not take place in 2022, but is slated to return next May) and the loss of 4 players who have sadly passed away in the intervening period. 

The absence of the Elgin event also contributed to the proportion of players taking part in just one event dropping materially from 38% down to 30% - another indicator of the maturing of the ADLG player pool perhaps, and also a trend which was seen across most rulesets in this same period as those players who were keen to do so took full advantage of the opportunities presented to get out and play again after Covid.

15 players accounted for 25% of all competition entries in 2022 with 39 making up half of the aggregate annual field. The 38 events held included some competitions some taking place in parallel (in different scales) at the same venue, and with date clashes as well the most events anyone could theoretically have entered in 2022 was 29. Only 2 players managed to make it to even half of this total, giving ADLG players the most diverse mix of potential opponents at any given event seen for any other ruleset.

309 different UK-based players have now taken part in a UK ADLG event since the circuit started in 2015, 56% of whom were actively playing in 2022. In that time 53 overseas-based players have also take part in at least one event on UK shores.  

DBMM

The size of the DBMM player universe across all UK events slipped only a little in 2022 compared to 2019, as the UK circuit slowly ground fully into gear again after the Covid break. Even with a 2-year gap churn remained relatively low with the strong club-based support for DBMM seeing the dropouts largely offset by a trickle of new players and the reappearance of several others who had skipped 2019. 

Total DBMM player numbers have usually hovered in the mid 80's or 90's over the past decade, with 2022 marking the first time DBMM has slipped below 70 UK players since 2008 (according to the excellent rankings site at dbmm.org.uk). However, the fact that the Milton Keynes 1-dayer (traditionally the largest event in the MM calendar) took place in January of this year at a time when much of the UK was operating somewhat under the shadow of Covid, and as a result recorded a dozen fewer attendees than 2019, is almost certainly the key factor in the shortfall.

8 players made up 25% of all entries, with 19 making up half of the aggregate field. The maximum number of events it was possible to enter in 2022 was 16, and 8 players managed to attend half or more of these with the keenest player making it to an impressive 12/16. The proportion of players who took part in just one event also fell slightly to 31% (from 36% in 2019). 

DBA

DBA has seen a decline in unique attendees post Covid, despite staging a 14 events - the busiest calendar for DBA since 2015 - with an also 2015 record-matching average attendance of 16. DBA has historically seen relatively high rates of churn with many players joining and leaving the circuit each year, and that continued with 13 new faces in 2022. With average attendances holding strong,  the %age of "one event only" attendees unsurprisingly fell to just 19, one of the lowest ratios for DBA in recent years.  

6 players made up 15% of all entries, with 14 making up half of the aggregate field across the year. The closest anyone came to entering all 14 events was to attend 12, although 8 players managed to turn up to half of the full circuit this year. Since I started collating these stats in 2015 (with the kind assistance of Dennis Grey and the DBA rankings team), 126 individuals have attended at least 1 DBA event in the UK, 45% of whom played in 2022. 

TTS! (To The Strongest!)

TTS! had its best year even in 2019, and so comparisons with 2019 are always likely to be somewhat unflattering, especially as the biggest event by far in the traditional TTS! calendar (the "Worlds" at Chalgrove) has yet to really get back into a predictable and stable dateline post-Covid, and Glasgow is yet to return at all. Add to that a new version of TTS! in the pipeline and 2022 was always likely to be a challenging year for numbers.

20 of the TTS! players entered only 1 event in the year, with 6 people making it to more than half of the 5 competitions staged, one of whom attended all 5. Since the start of 2018 (when I started collecting data on TTS! events) there have been 98 different players who have attended at least 1 UK event. 

MeG  (Mortem et Gloriam)

The period 2019-2022 witnessed the extensively promoted launch of PSC's hardback MeG rulebook (replacing the "pizza box" ring-bound and much-updated set of 2016-19), and this new format and extra publicity saw the number of UK-based players taking part in one of the 18 MeG events held across the UK in 2022 increase by 9 over the 2019 year-end total, coincidentally exactly matching MeG's previous high water mark of 71 active players (which the system attained over the 12 months prior to April 2019). 

The 25 new players drawn in more than offset the 19 who didn't elect to continue their competitive MeG careers into the hardback rulebook era, with just over 1/3 of these new faces being recognisable from the UK Flames of War circuit - a pathway into MeG which has now been trodden by more than half of the current crop of MeG players.

Just 7 players chipped in with more than 25% of the aggregate entries across the 18 MeG events held during 2022, with 18 players making up half of the total aggregate field. Those same 7 players all managed to enter half or more of the 18 events held, with the most dedicated MeGGer missing out on only one competition in the full calendar year.  17 of the 71 UK-based players only attended one event during 2022 - achieving between them the same number of competition entries as the most active single player!

In 2023 MeG will again see a significant update and change of format, moving away from the PSC-distributed hard copy rulebook to a direct-sold PDF with an option for print on demand. With a series of events using some of MeG's various "lite" rule variants also now being promoted for next year it will be interesting to see how this revised edition, new distribution model, and the new formats for competitive play impact competition attendance across 2023.

Since the first UK MeG event held at the BHGS Challenge in 2016 121 UK-based different players have entered at least one competition in the UK (59% of whom were still playing this year), and they have been joined by 15 overseas-based players in that time as well.

FOGAM  (Field of Glory Ancient & Medieval)

2022 saw a further decline in the AM circuit, with almost 1 in 3 players who played in 2019 not returning to FoG post-Covid as part of a competition circuit that also reduced from 14 to 11 events in the year.  

Just 5 players chipped in with 28% of the aggregate entries on the 2022 FoGAM circuit with 10 making up just over half of all entrants. 16 players attended more than half of the events on the circuit, with two committed FoGGers managing to take advantage of every opportunity to play offered throughout the year. FoG has just adopted a totally free, PDF-only approach for its latest v4 edition as of the end of 2022, and so it will be interesting to see if the version change and new free distribution model has a positive impact on player numbers across 2023.

Of those who have departed the FoG ranks since the end of 2019, 3 now play ADLG, one plays DBMM and one currently plays DBA, the rest not appearing in any other data set. Since January 2017 (when I first started compiling FoG stats) 97 UK players have taken part in at least one FoGAM event, 35% of whom are still playing. 

DBM

Numbers for DBM wobbled slightly between 2019-2022, off the back of a record rise (of +6) in 2018-19, meaning that with some lapsed returnees and a few new players at the events held in 2021 the year on year fluctuations in the DBM figures remain very much in line with those seen in more normal times - unsurprising for a circuit strongly centered around a handful of local clubs.

10 DBM players only attended one event this year, with just 5 players making up 25% of the total entry across the year and a dozen making up half of the aggregate field. One player managed to get to 8 of the 9 events held, with 8 grasping more than half of the opportunities to play DBM afforded to them during 2022.

 Since I started compiling DBM attendance stats at the start of 2017 there have been 59 different players who have taken part in at least one event. 

The Conclusion (FWIW!)

In summary as 2022  draws to a close these 7 popular Ancients rulesets have attracted 474 UK-based players and a further 30 international visitors to make 504 different players in total taking part in a UK Ancients competition in the last 12 months. 

That total is 76 down on the 2019 full year UK player count. Even taking into account the fact TTS! and FoGAM are responsible for 2/3 of that shortfall (both sets seemingly experiencing unique, and not entirely Covid-driven factors influencing player numbers) it appears that there is still a limited degree of "residual hangover" from the Covid hiatus of 2020-21 affecting player turnout at competitions across the UK in 2022. 

Taking those two sets out of the equation a circa 5% fall in unique attendees in this first full post-Covid year is probably not as significant as many might have feared or indeed expected. 

Covid may now seem a long time ago, but we were in semi-lockdown as recently as last Christmas, meaning those events held in the first couple of months of 2022 were being planned and promoted very much under the shadow of Covid, so 2022 was by no means a completely year free of its influence.

My suspicion ("hope"?) is therefore that once each circuit has enjoyed another full, uninterrupted year there is every chance we will be completely back to "normal" again - provided there are no more pandemics of course…. 

(and don't forget, I have similar stats from the end of 2019, 2018, and 2017, as well as an immediately post-lockdown report compiled earlier this year)  

2021 Who Played What - a weird half year for the UK Ancients circuit

Competition gaming in the UK to all intents and purposes was rendered illegal in early 2020, and did not return (barring a few rule-bending 'private social events' held in back gardens, all of which are probably best brushed under the carpet!) until July/August 2021, meaning my regular updates on the state of the UK Ancients competition scene have been somewhat thin on the ground over that period too.

All of the various Ancients rulesets competition circuits have however surged back to life over the second half of 2021, with events taking place across the length and breadth of the country and feeding into various ranking systems. 

This has in turn allowed me to produce a rather truncated (and inevitably as a result even more meaningless than usual!) part-year snapshot of where things stand as of today across the UK in terms of player numbers and engagement at UK competitions held in 2021.

As usual, this data has been assembled from rankings and results published by the leading lights of each of the rulesets themselves, and further checked against event results shared online across various forums and social media. All of the numbers are for "players who've appeared at an event in 2021", with any comparisons being made against the equivalent "calendar-year" numbers for 2019. There were a handful of events pre-lockdown in 2020, but they were so few in number, and inconsistent across rulesets I've just gone for a straight 2019-2021 comparison for simplicity. 

All of the official ranking listings are consistent in that if an "event" hasn't been promoted or discussed online widely enough for people to notice it, it doesn't get included - so, intra-club events, invite-only gatherings, or get-togethers between groups of friends don't and won't make the cut, and so the definition of a "competition" is an event where the entire community has the possibility to enter, and where results appear online afterwards also. 

I've also - somewhat debatably - left out the online event played over a number of weeks by the TTS! community on Tabletop Simulator, as the main question to be answered here is "are people getting back to face to face events?". Clearly an online tournament does indicate an ongoing level of activity and interest - arguably more so than sets which didn't get around to doing something like this themselves - so there is a clear case for including it, but I've opted to do so by it being "honourably mentioned in despatches" rather than putting it into straight into the other numbers. 

In looking at UK vs Overseas players I've (inevitably) had to make some potentially uninformed calls on who is an 'overseas' player, so apologies in advance for any errors on that front - the numbers of overseas players this year has been so low that it seems unlikely any mistakes end up being particularly significant - but if you spot any, please let me know and I'll fix them (as I've already done having  somehow missed the 2 TTS! events held last year first time around!).

So, on with the business...

Competitions Staged

From July to the end of the year 49 competitions took place across the major Ancients rulesets, compared to 107 in the last comparable "full" year of 2019. The well-organised and keen DBM community were quickest off the blocks, managing to squeeze in a very impressive 2/3 of their normal annual schedule into the last 6 months of last year - a feat equalled by TTS! with their two face to face competitions compared to three in 2019. 

Whilst not approaching the efficiency of DBM, the UK ADLG community were also very  keen to get playing again, running just over half of the prior year's full roster. The other 4 rulesets in this survey staged around 1/3 of a normal full-year circuit.

Competition Attendances

Even with a truncated calendar, attendances at those competitions that took place were solid across all sets, and broadly in line or in many cases stronger than seen in prior years. 

With only a small number of events to draw upon in most cases the average attendance figures are rather uneven - often being impacted as much by which (traditionally well-attended) events didn't take place in 2021 as those which did. 

TTS! was most badly hit by this, losing 3 of 5 events from 2019 and also seeing far lower than usual attendance at the ruleset's hastily-rescheduled "Worlds" in Chalgrove, where just 16 players competed against 2019's total of 38 (and an early 2020 outing of 37).

The TTS! online competition also ran in 2021 using Tabletop Simulator, and gathered 19 different players from around the world, of which about 1/3 look to have been UK based. PLayed as a pick-up leage, some players managed to fit in 14 online games, with others only appearing once - a very creditable initiative and one which it'll be interesting to see if it continues as an option for international play now that face to face gaming is also back up and running again .  

DBMM also suffered from scheduling issues, missing the Milton Keynes 1-Dayer (which attracted 43 players in 2019) whilst counting three 1-day Northern League events (historically attracting 10 or less players) in its tally of 6 competitions in 2021. 

Warfare, the last major multi-ruleset event to take place in 2021 and with the longest lead-time after the lifting of restrictions in July saw especially strong attendances across the 4 of the 6 sets covered, with the biggest attendances of the year for 3 of them - FoG, ADLG and DBMM. The latter two sets in particular saw a turnout for Warfare than surpassed the entire full-year attendance totals of some of the other rulesets.

Total Unique Player Numbers

The number of different UK-based players who took part in at least one UK competition in 2021 across these 6 rulesets reached 362, compared to 521 in 2019, a very creditable 70% of the 2019 full-year total. This total does include (literally) a handful of players who took part in more than one circuit, but as such the numbers involved were not material. 

ADLG remained by quite some margin the most widely played UK competition ancients set in 2021, racking up more players than the 2nd, 3rd and 4th most popular sets combined for the second time in a row in these stats. The 19 ADLG events, running right across the country from Inverness to Devon, and Cardiff to York, saw 141 UK--based competitors take part, equivalent to 75% of the 2019 UK year-end figure.

As has been flagged earlier TTS!, DBA and DBMM player numbers did not quite recover as robustly as for most other systems in 2021 as a number of their traditionally better attended events didn't happen due to normally being scheduled for the first half of the year. When they did get the opportunity however the Milton Keynes/Reading/Guilford DBMM powerhouse managed to turn out in force at Warfare, which recording its biggest DBMM attendance in a decade, with player numbers up 1/3 on Warfare 2019.

Mortem et Gloriam saw 54 UK-based players at 7 events in 2021, as a flurry of new players joined the circuit offsetting many of those who failed to return after playing in 2019. With scheduling challenges impacting numbers for DBMM, DBA, and TTS! in 2021 MeG has (for the moment at least) snuck ahead of those three systems to end 2021 as the 2nd most widely played Ancients competition set in the UK.

New Players (players first seen on each circuit in 2021)

In a truncated competition calendar and with relatively little chance to play any form of face to face game over the last 2 years it would have been encouraging to see "any" brand new players, but in fact the majority of rulesets chipped in with a few new faces appearing in the second half of 2021 for a total of 40 new UK-based players and a smattering of first-time (and exceedingly brave!) overseas visitors too.

As has been the case every year since the first English-language edition was published, L'Art de la Guerre again drew in more new players than any other ruleset in 2021 with 18 UK-based players taking up the rules for the first time as the revamped v4 replaced v3 on the ADLG competition circuit, with a mix of players moving from other sets and totally new-to-ancients competition players. 

A new hardback PSC-published edition of MeG also landed around Easter 2020 and (no doubt assisted by the associated social media marketing barrage!) has helped draw in 14 new UK-based players for the MeG competition circuit in the subsequent 18 or so months. Around 1/3 of these were FoW circuit regulars, joining the many current and former FoW players in the MeG ranks, the rest being new to Ancients competition (at least in recent memory).

DBM also had a good year by any standard, adding a very creditable 5 new players over the Covid interregnum, underlining the depth of interest in those clubs where DBM remains the first-choice ruleset and where almost all of the events in the circuit originate.

(note - this section measures players who were completely new to each circuit in 2019. Someone who'd appeared prior to that, skipped 2019 and then appeared again this year will not be counted). 

Players Not Yet Returning in 2021

Roughly 1 in 3 UK players who participated in competitions in 2019 are yet to  return to the UK tabletop of battle, not being seen at any events in the second half of 2021. This proportion is consistent across every ruleset in this year-end survey, with DBA and TTS! the only real outliers - the non-reappearance of some historically well-attended events being largely responsible for this.

The first column of the table shows the fall-off if overseas players are included, disproportionally impacting MeG, ADLG and to a lesser degree DBMM and TTS!. This will surely come as no surprise to anyone given how severely international travel was severely curtailed throughout 2021.

3 of the "non-returning" FoG players and 1 DBMM player appear as "new players" in the 2021 ADLG totals, with a further 2 current FoG current players also doubling-up and starting to play ADLG this year. MeG gained one overseas player who had appeared in the 2019 ADLG figures, with one of 2019's UK MeG players joining the ADLG circuit in 2021 - but other than that I've struggled to spot any other movement of players between sets over the past 2 years. 

As a result, almost all of the 'new' players across all circuits are in fact completely "new", and almost all of the lapsed players have simply stepped away from Ancients competitions last year.

So, what's the conclusion?

The biggest take-away is probably the headline stat that the total number of players is already at around 70% of its pre-pandemic level, on the back of a severely truncated part-year competition programme which saw less than half of the regular UK calendar taking place. So, things are healthy and there's no real indication that there will be any material long term impact on Ancients competition attendance once things (hopefully..) start to return to normal. 

All 7 sets in this update continue to attract solid and loyal followings with almost no movement of players between them. It's also worth bearing in mind that most of whatever small differences this end-of-year review has thrown up remain, well, "small" - with most sets running with between 30-50 players the (non) attendance of only 2-3 people at a single event will generate a 5% swing in almost any of the comparative %ages I've cobbled together here. 

Put another way, "Dave & Steve didn’t make it to the competition in the end as they both have daughters who recorded positive LFT’s the week they came back from Uni just before the rearranged competition took place" is far more likely to be the cause of any of the differences seen between any of these stats as anything even remotely resembling a “meaningful trend”!

The mix of "who plays what" also hasn't really changed significantly in the last 2 years either, so once a number of accidents of scheduling work their way out of the calendar in the first half of 2022 there seems every chance that things may well end up almost exactly the same as they were at the end of 2019.  Which would frankly be a really great result all round, all things considered! 

(As usual, if you do see any mistakes please let me know and I'll correct them)

Who "was" playing what? The 2019-20 Ancient scene

With competition wargaming pretty much now done and dusted until (hopefully "early") summer across the UK there's no real reason to delay publishing my once a year analysis of the relative popularity of various competition Ancients sets as unfortunately nothing will change now for a few months anyway. 

I also have the luxury of a little more time to delve deeper than usual into some of the nooks and crannies of the stats!

So, whats' been going on?

As of today there are still a good spread of viable Ancients competition sets out there all attracting north of 40-odd players and hosting events throughout the year. 

• L'Art de la Guerre (ADLG) has continued to grow for a 5th consecutive year, such that it's pool of UK-based players is now almost as big as the next 3 most popular sets combined. 

• ADLG is also driving an increasingly widespread use of 25mm figures on UK tabletops, to the extent that 2019-20 saw more UK-based players entering 25mm ADLG events than for several other single (non-ADLG) rulesets at any scale.  

• To The Strongest! is now neck and neck with DBA as the third most popoular set, and is threatening to chase down DBMM's seemingly locked-in position as the second most widely played ruleset as it continues to pull in (but still churn through) large numbers of new players, even though the number of events for TTS! still remains far lower than for any other set.

• Both MeG and FoG have seen notable falls in the number of players taking part in each circuit this year, with new player recruitment almost entirely drying up for both sets in the UK. For both however the level of competition participation by the remaining players remains solid.

• DBM and DBMM are still both bubbling along at their previous levels, with the venerable DBM circuit enjoying an unexpected growth spurt in player numbers in the last few months.

The Summary:

The good news is that the number of Ancients events, and the level of participation is continuing to rise,  although the absolute number of players has remained stable over the last year as a continuing uptick in the numbers of people playing ADLG, TTS! and DBM has more than balanced out declines in numbers taking part in FoGAM, MeG and to a lesser extend DBMM events. 

The tables and charts below show the current direct comparisons between the leading sets:

Total Player Numbers (UK/Overseas), and amount of change from 2018-19

ADLG has seen the biggest net increase in players over the last 12 months, with TTS! and DBM also recording smaller increases whilst other sets have lost ground to varying degrees.

The number of overseas players now travelling regularly to the UK to play Ancients now stands at 48, up from 31 last year and has reached almost 10% of total player numbers - although this does vary significantly by ruleset. 

"Market Share" of leading Ancients sets by Total Player Numbers:

DBMM and ADLG players still make up just over half of the entire UK Ancients competition scene, with the other systems all each hovering in the 7-14% range.

One-unit-one-base systems (TTS!, and the DBx-based or derived DBM, DBA, DMM and ADLG) have increased their share of the overall player pool noticably in the last 12 months, with 82% of all UK-based Ancients players now favouring this approach, up from 75% last year.

Trends in numbers of "New" players adopting each ruleset 

Looking in more detail at just "new" players (those not seen on each individual circuit before), 5 years after it's English-language launch and even with the core rulebook now out of print for almost a year ADLG still continues to expand it's player pool. In the last 12 months more UK-based players joined the UK ADLG competition circuit than the total numbers of players for either FoG or DBM. 

The following graph shows the number of "new" players drawn into play each ruleset in any given 12-month period, as measured over the last 5 years, with the starting points for ADLG, MeG and TTS! being their first appearance in these stats. Over the past 5 years ADLG has also been consistently bringing in more new players in each 12-month period than almost any other ruleset, with around 40-50 new players each year.

TTS! and ADLG between them contributed over of 3/4 of all "new" players to the various circuits this year, although these numbers do also count players dropping out of one circuit and appearing for the first time in another.

(note - differences in 'net change' between this and the previous chart for some rulesets is due to some players returning 

to competitions after missing the entireity of the 2018-19 season. These players are not counted as "new") 

Numbers of Events and Total Entry numbers

Even with overall player numbers flat, the number of entries (each time an individual takes part in a competition) has still continued to rise year on year, and with 107 competitions held across all 7 rulesets in the last 12 months there are sure to be plenty of people out there raring to roll some dice again once the current social isolation rules are relaxed!

5 Year Trend analysis:

This illustrates the change (or not) of overall player numbers (in the preceeeding 12 month period) for each ruleset since 2016, measured at snapshots taken at year-end and in April/May each year. These do figures include overseas players.


Looking in more detail at the individual rulesets :


L'Art de la Guerre
Last 12 months: 37 events, 216 Players (194 UK, 22 o/seas), 741 entries

A year ago ADLG was comfortably the most popular UK competition ruleset with 187 players taking part making 671 entries in total across the year, and one year on ADLG is still seeing continued strong growth, adding a net +29 new players to it's UK circuit and witnessing a 10% increase in total event entries as well such that the UK ADLG player pool has now exceeded the number of players for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th biggest sets (DBMM, TTS! and DBA) combined.

The size of the UK ADLG circuit continues to include a solid smattering of overseas players, some of whom are now becoming regular visitors to these shores. In the last 12 months 22 overseas players played in the UK, a notable increase of 5 from the previous years stats meaning the domestic player pool grewn by a net 24.

The number of "occasional" ADLG players who only made a lone event appearance in the ADLG rankings increased from 65 to 81, up year on year from 35% up to 38%, driven mainly by the increase in overseas visitors (as 17 of these only played in one event). Just looking at UK-based player numbers shows almost exactly 1 in 3 players only entering one ADLG event per year in the last 12 months.

At the other end of the enthusiasm scale 17 players contributed 1 in 4 entries across the UK's 37-event ADLG competition circuit, extending out to 43 players who contributed half of all UK tournament entries.

The ADLG circuit currently includes more 25mm events than any other ruleset, with 13 of the events staged this year featuring large scale figures. 57 UK-based players (and one overseas player) dropped some heavy lead (or more often than not, plastic) onto an ADLG table in the past year. 

These figures are such that were the 25mm game considered as a stand-alone circuit, 25mm ADLG would just inch ahead of TTS! to have the fouth biggest pool of UK-based Ancients players (after ADLG 15mm and DBMM) - great news for the Perry Twins, Victrix and Warlord Games!

Just under 15% (32) of all players from the previous year's circuit dropped out in the last 12 months, however 9 of these were overseas-based leaving 23 UK players who failed to continue after playing last season. 50 players made their first appearance at a UK ADLG competition in the last 12 months, of which just 6 were from overseas and 44 were UK based - marking more "first timers" picking up ADLG than the total UK player universe for a number of other rulesets. 

The first ADLG event held in the UK was Roll Call 2015, and since then a grand total of 306 people have played in at least one UK-based ADLG competition. The current total of 216 means that a chunky-sounding total of 90 players have been "lost" to the ADLG circuit in the last 5 years, 29% of the all-time player pool, or 18 lapsees (!?) per year on average. 

These numbers are however tempered a little as 20 of these 70 'lapsed' players were from overseas. Removing overseas players from the entire analysis gives ADLG an all time UK-based universe of 70 lapsed and 194 still-active players, meaning 73% of all UK-based players who have ever entered an ADLG event since the ruleset was first launched in the UK were still actively participating on the circuit inside the last 12 months. 

Since 2015 the ADLG rulebook has been reprinted 4 times in it's English iteration, and is now only available as a discounted PDF from the author while a new version is under preparation for release later this year.

Taking just the last 10 months (starting just after Campaign 2019) there have been 208 people who've taken part in at least 1 ADLG event in the UK.

DBMM
Last 12 months: 19 events, 84 Players (73 UK, 11 o/seas), 301 entries

The DBMM rankings website at http://dbmm.org.uk/index.php/rankings/comps provides the data for the analysis, capturing details of all players and games in the UK.

Year on year, nothing much has changed in the world of DBMM. The number of active players has slipped back marginally by 3 to stand at 84 including 11 foreign-based players, continuing a pattern whereby the total player pool has hovered in the 80's for the last 5 years straight. The usual Irish contingent in the 2overseas" category this year was bolstered by a number of players from Germany coming over for the new BHGS Team Tournament last October.

Again as always, 8 players contributed 1 in 4 UK competition entries, with a group of 19 making up just over half. The total number of entries has again crept up with 301 entries - up from 282 last year. Yet again this seems to be driven by higher attendances at the one-day and "DBMM 120" short/small game format events.

Looking at the mix of "keen" vs "very occasional" players, 35 people only played in one event, up from 30 in 2018-19 to hit 42% of the total pool of UK event attendees, although 9 of these were admittedly overseas players mostly flying in for Warfare or Britcon (aaah - remember those days..?). 

After a year of some considerable churning in and out last time around, the last 12 months saw a period of relative stability with just 5 new UK-based players joining the competition circuit, together with 2 new overseas visitors, offset by 10 players dropping out.

The 2020 Milton Keynes 1-dayer was the biggest event in the DBMM calendar with 34 entries, closely followed by Warfare and the LGT Teams with 30 each. Just over 1/3 of current players only took part in events held in or near Milton Keynes, Reading and Guilford, the three clubs which continue to form the bedrock of  the UK DBMM community, with 10 of these only appearing in the stats as a result of a lone appearance at the Milton Keynes club's own 1-day event.  

The past year was however notable in DBMM terms for the the number of relatively new players taking a keener interest in competitions. In both of the last couple of years barely anyone (or, literally "one player") who picked up MM after 2012 managed to enter more than 2 events, but this year the number of enthusiastic newbies soared to a record total of 6! 


DBA
Last 12 months: 11 events, 65 Players (64 UK, 1 o/seas), 181 entries

DBA maintained a stable number of competition players in the last year with 65 players, down 3 from the previous set of stats. One of these players is from overseas, leaving 64 active UK-based DBA players - the change coming from 8 non-returnees and 5 new players this year.

With a couple of events dropping off the circuit in 2019-20 the number of competition entries fell 
noticably also, down to 181 from 224 last year, reverting to the level seen in in 2018-19's stats.  

28 players on the DBA circuit have only entered one event in the last year, getting on for half the player pool, and increasing noticably from the 20 one-event entrants last year. This seems likely to be linked to the loss of events, which denied some players the opportunity to participate more than once a year at competitions within easy driving distance.

6 players made up one in 4 of all entrants to UK events over the past year - a smidge under 10% of the player pool - and 14 contributed half of the total field across the year. 

Taking just the last 10 months (starting just after the PAWS Spring event in 2019) there have been 58 people who've taken part in at least 1 DBA event in the UK.

To The Strongest!

Last 12 months: 5 events, 59 Players (56 UK, 3 o/seas), 89 entries

To The Strongest! made a further net gain of 11 extra players across it's UK circuit to end on 59 different people taking part in at least one event, driven mostly by 2 extra events which brought the annual calendar up to 5. Three of these players flew (or used other forms of transport) to come to the UK from Europe to play at the World Championships at the end of February, leaving a UK-based pool of 56 active players.

A rather astonishing rate of churn saw 30 new players (including 3 overseas visitors) take part in their first UK TTS! event in the last 12 months, and a further 22 who failed to reappear. The biggest driver for "new" players was the first TTS! event to be held in Scotland which generated 14 new players for the circuit. More puzzlingly perhaps, the majority of the 22 lapsed players had all taken part in both of the previous two World Championships (held at the same venue and same end of February dateline) as this year's event, making their non-reappearanace somewhat noteworthy.

With just 5 events (only one of which was in Scotland) the stats for one-event players and enthusiastic players must be taken with a (wee) pinch of salt, but for what it's worth 5 players generated 1 in 4 of all tournament entries this year and 16 players delivered just over half. A huge 41 of the 59 players either chose, or were able to enter only one event. perhaps not surprising given there were only 5 to choose from in the last 12 months.

Taking just the last 10 months (starting just after Roll Call 2019) there have been 57 people who've taken part in at least 1 TTS! event in the UK.

Mortem et Gloriam (MeG)
Last 12 months: 14 events, 62 Players (52 UK, 10 o/seas), 245 entries

MeG also saw a noticable fall in player numbers in the last year, losing a dozen players overall as the annual total fell from 74 down to 62. This fall came after 2 previous years of growth, with the 10 new players who joined the UK MeG competition circuit offset by 21 who failed to reappear after taking part at events held in the 2018-19 season.

This downward trend would have been even steeper were it not for the MeG World Championships being again held in the UK and attracting even more overseas-based players this time around. This event, together with Britcon saw the overseas component of the "UK" stats doubling year on year (from 5 up to 10), leaving the underlying numbers of active UK-based players down almost 25% in the last 12 months (falling 17 from 69 to 52). 

Of the 10 new players seen on the UK MeG circuit for the first time this year, 6 were also part of this year's overseas invasion leaving 4 UK-based new adoptees, all of whom only entered one event. 

The number of MeG events staged last year also fell slightly with 14 staged (17 in the previous year) as some of the more poorly attended events dropped off the calendar.  The 62 active players racked up 245 entries between them - a fall of 16% following a 50% increase between the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons. 

Almost uniquely, every event on the MeG circuit is a singles competition and all are played in 15mm. Most other rulesets circuits support a mix of scales, or include one or more doubles-format events in their calendars with doubles in particular often being where new players for other sets will put a toe in the water and make their first competitive outings.

As with FoG, a relatively small number of very enthusiasic players are continuing to drive the MeG circuit. Just 6 players made up a quarter of the field at all competition fields across the year, with 13 players representing just over half of the field across all 14 UK-based MeG events staged. 

At the other end of the scale the number of players who only entered one MeG event this year was 21, or 34% of the UK pool with 7 of these being overseas-based. The list of 'only one event' gamers also included all bar one of the 10 "new" players, with the other being a French player who made it to two UK competitions last year. 

Since MeG was first launched in summer 2016 a grand total of 103 individuals have taken part in at least one UK MeG competition, with 60% of them active members of the UK competition circuit in the year. Just looking at UK based players the stats are 52 still active players out of an all-time pool of 90, or 58% - leaving the number of currently active UK-based MeG players back at the same level as it was in January 2018. 

Copies of the original ring-bound rules from the first print run are still available from the authors website, however a new, hard copy verison of the rules is due to be published by Plastic Soldier Company later this year.

Taking just the last 10 months (starting just after Campaign 2019) there have been 61 people who've taken part in at least 1 MeG event in the UK.

DBM
Last 12 months: 9 events, 44 Players (43 UK, 1 o/seas), 141 entries

The number of active DBM players crept upwards again, this time adding a net +3 more players over the last 12 months to end on 44, passing FoGAM in the opposite direction on the absolute popularity leaderboard in the process. 

Only one of the DBM players visits from overseas (I believe..), however this year also saw 7 brand new faces (well, "new" since I started keeping these stats back at the start of 2017) join the circuit, replacing 4 who lapsed and failed to return in the past 12 months  

The now-standard list of 9 events spread across two geographically diverse DBM hotspots of East and West England combined to deliver 141 entries in total (up from 132), although high proportion of doubles events on the DBM circuit continues to boost both players numbers and the total number of entries relative to the stats for other sets. Many of the 9 new players made their first appearance on the circuit as part of a doubles team, often at events staged by their hometown clubs.

Just 5 players make up over a quarter of the total entries on the UK DBM competition circuit (a shade under 10% of the player universe) with 11 chipping in with half of all entries. At the other end of the enthusiasm scale, 16 players only appeared once last year, including 6 of the 7 "new" players. 

Taking just the last 10 months (starting just after the Westbury event in 2019) there have been 42 people who've taken part in at least 1 DBM event in the UK.

FoGAM
Last 12 months: 12 events, 40 Players (all UK), 207 entries

2019-20 has seen FoGAM lose close on another 20% of its player universe, shedding 9 players and 3 (admittedly small) events whilst still holding firm on the total number of competition entries at 207 over the year. That reduction of 9 players was achieved through a simple loss of players, as no new players joined the UK FoG circuit over the last 12 months. Uniquely, there are no overseas players I can identify who take part in UK-based FoG events. 

As the pool of players shrinks, the importance of the keenest players to the FoG circuit continues to grow with 11 players now making up half of all competition entries in the UK (13 last year) and just 5 people (6 in 2018-19) now making up a quarter of the field across all 12 UK events held in the last 12 months.  At the other end of the scale only 6 players entered just one event in the last 12 months, a far smaller proportion than any other UK ruleset. 

The 6 biggest clubs chip in with 25 (62%) of the current universe of players, and the average FoGAM player now attends more than 5 competitions each year, the highest of any ruleset in this survey.

As a result of these trends the UK FoG scene is now pretty much identical in profile to the longstanding DBM circuit, with a committed group of around 40 players concentrated in handful of clubs which also play host to the more popular events in the calendar. 

Since the introduction of FoGAM V3.0 at the start of 2018 there have been 62 UK players who have entered at least one V3 event, of whom a smidge under 2/3 are still playing FoGAM. V3 is available through Caliver Books and some other outlets. 

Taking just the last 10 months (starting just after Campaign 2019) there have been 39 people who've taken part in at least 1 FoGAM event in the UK.

Others - Armati, 7th, 6th, Swordpoint, Impetus, War & Conquest etc

From what's available online, the only ruleset on the above list which comes close to generating comparable numbers of regular competition players in the UK to any of the rulesets covered here is Swordpoint, with 4 events and 34 active players in the past 12 months. 

The most recent couple of Swordpoint competitions have however both generated the highest attendances I've been able to track down for events for this system (with both getting into the 20's) so it may be that had CV19 not decimated the tournament schedules Swordpoint could have made a chart entry next time around. 

Interestingly this recent post on TMP by Gripping Beast states that they have now sold almost 3,000 copies of the first edition, and are now planning a revised version for re-release - a interesting benchmark for the sales of volumes of wargame rulesets given that actual sales figures are rarely published.

The Boring Methodology Stuff 

As usual, all the data is compiled using actual names and numbers of players taking part in events in the UK, as published online on a forum or similar. Sometimes I've had to rely on runners and riders lists rather than results, and sometimes I've had to make some assumtions and guesses where nicknames have been used - but generally, given the amount of hard data here any errors shouldn't be enough to skew the bigger picture.

The other key caveat is - as always - that this is just competition data. What gets played at your club, or even solo in your basement isn't visible and isn't measurable, so this is just a count of those weird people who, pre-social isolation, used to go out into the world and enter competitions held in the UK.

Last year's analysis ran from May-May, but with things screeching to a halt in mid-March there were a couple of ways to approach this year.

• Run a 10-month "year", from May 2019 to now. 
• Run a 12-month "year", from March 2019 to now. 

Having chewed it over I finally opted for using a full 12-months, and "double-counting" those competitions that happened between mid March and the beginning of May last year, so attendances at those events count in both this years and last years stats.  Neither way would have been perfect, but I felt that any trends are easier to understand and spot if when comparing 12 months with 12 months rather than comparing 12 months with 10 months worth of events and data. 

I've also presented the stats in a way which shines a clearer light on the numbers of purely UK-based players than it has perhaps done in previous years. This is because some rulesets have now started to see very significant numbers of overseas players coming to the UK to typically take part in one (or at most two) events per year, inflating both total player numbers and also the numbers of 'occasional' players for a couple of the featured rulesets. 

With some rulesets now drawing almost 20% of their total player pools from overseas, and others not attracting any overseas players at all last year, without adjusting the numbers to show the impact of overseas players these stats would struggle to give a fully transparent view of what was happening in the UK ancients community.

Previous stats published on this site:

• 2019 Year End Player Numbers
• 2019 Full Stats (May)
• 2018 Year End Player Numbers
• 2018 Full Stats (May)
• 2017 Year End Player Numbers
• 2017 Full Stats (April)
• 2016 Full Stats (May)