The German Team Tournament: Medieval Pool in Germany 2024
Belgian & German Tourism on the route to Braubach
Game 1 Medieval German vs Samurai
Game 2 Medieval German vs WOTR English
Game 3 Medieval German vs Hungarian
Game 4 Medieval German vs Sahelian Empire
Game 5 Medieval German vs Flemish Low Countries
In the dark midwinter of 2024 a crack London team set off by road and a bit of rail to head to the dark forests of Germany for the German Team ADLG Tournament
With sat-nav to guide us, the plan was simple - drive, museum, drive, eat, drink, drive, museum, drive, museum, museum, museum, drive, a bit more tourism, beer...and then toy soldiers.
Even if the sat nav had been playing up though we were well served by the handy instructional signage at the Eurotunnel embarkation point (aka roadside service station with duty free)
Soon we were through bits of France and into the Belgian heartlands of wargaming history - the town of Mons, already a stop on our last trip but this time a mere diversion on the way to our overnight resting and drinking place
Mons now has a relatively new museum which is mostly about WW1 (surprise..) which featured these rather strikingly Germanic items in one of the display cabinets - more of this later when it gets to discussion of my army's Commander!
Luckily there was among the WW1 gloom and destructions some more historical items from earlier centuries for us to consider too
This is apparently trench armour from WW1, although it does have a rather strong resemblance to a Mycenean Dendra panoply
Whether Mycenean chariots would be allowed a bolt action rifle as well as their long spears is however a very different question I suspect
Plenty of WW1 equipment is displayed in a nicely sized museum, ideal for a leg-stretching break in the trip from the coast into the heart of the European mainland
This gun apparently fired the very last shell of WW1
It belongs to the Canadians, who have donated it to this museum - a real landmark bit of history
But, with darkness falling we made our way further east, to land up in a familiar spot, the town square of Bastogne with its rather badly holed Sherman
We'd picked Bastogne in part as we knew it from a previous trip that Dave and I had made, which meant we could look forward to going to a restaurant we knew would be good rather than wandering around aimlessly for an hour in the cold beforehand
And, with three meals ordered we can report that Dave's Cassoulet, my Turbot fillet, and - the winner of the evening - Gordons Bouillabaisse were all absolutely excellent
The couple of beers before our meal, together with the bottle of wine with it were however not quite enough, leading to a selection of digestifs and then several nuttily strong beers in an ill-advised stop at a pub on the way back to our cabin in the woods for the night
The next morning.. had seen us visit the Bastogne Barracks Tank Museum, which had been closed the last time we went through Bastogne (as that had been on a Monday - and all of the bits of Europe where you want to go are always closed on Mondays). You can see the tanks (and guns) they have here in this video reel of the photos I took in the museum:
Bastogne Barracks Tank Museum
After leaving a very foggy Bastogne we headed East again, aiming for a key destination the Roman city of Trier
As well as lots of roast pork shops and a nascent Christmas market (which was being set up as we arrived) Trier is littered with Roman-era buildings and more recent medieval ones as well as a very well heeled and self-satisfied population in their picture-book German regional city sort of way.
Trier is also home to the Black Gate, a Roman-era imposing gatehouse which had subsequently been converted into a church, and then re-converted back to a Roman-era monument by no other than Napoleon, in an episode which didn't make Ridley Scott's film for some reason..?
Next to it is a comprehensive yet rather all-in-German museum showing bits of the history of Trier, including this statue of a halberdier nicked from the top of a local building which sports a helmet the like of which you'd probably find rather fanciful on a 15mm figure.
One thing always worth taking a picture of is a 3D layout of any town in the middle ages - not sure what scale figures would fit though?
The Porta Negra in Trier
This particular bit of torture history looked quite innovative - the hot coals would probably count as some sort of therapy these days no doubt?
This museum promised a history of the Black Gate, but rather annoyingly we paid to go into the museum, and then found it would cost extra to actually go into the gate - so as it was a bit nippy we declined and headed to the Landesmusee, Trier's legendary ancient history museum
On the way we bumped into this imposing edifice - this is ROMAN ERA stuff - amazingly intact (or rebuilt perfectly no doubt) but you can't actually get in as it functions as a real church.
Like a lot of Trier it seems the amazing Roman-ness of it is just, kinda, well, "there" with no-one making a big deal out of it.
Once we made it into the Landesmusee we were pretty much the only people in there, in a huge modern museum that was also somehow rather retro, in that everything we, well, just "there" in glass cases.
A definite lack of mannequins in historic uniforms, dodgy videos or re-enactors, or stuff to give you all that much context
But even so, some of the most impressive Roman mosaics ever found north of the Alps is not to be sniffed at
And this amazing model of Roman Trier, capital of the entire Empire for a number of years, really did underline what an amazing amount of Roman history there is (or perhaps should even more visibly be?) in the city and the museum
But, enough of that... leaving Trier after a trip to the Roman Baths (empty..) saw us finally arriving in our ultimate desitination, Braubach on the Rhine, with its well lit Frankenstinian castle and welcoming selection of German wargamers, beers and pizza!
The next day would see the mighty Medieval German army I had chosen competing in a "Knights onwards" Medieval pool in Germanys premier 3-person ADLG competition !
Click here for the first battle report of my Medieval German Army in action in Germany in this competition
Game 1 Medieval German vs Samurai
Game 2 Medieval German vs WOTR English
Game 3 Medieval German vs Hungarian
Game 4 Medieval German vs Sahelian Empire
Game 5 Medieval German vs Flemish Low Countries
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