Marauders are on the march

GAME ON: David Kinzett, Vince Cholewa and Phil Gates at the Winter Cup meet in the Hutt Valley.

Masterton Marauder David Kinzett has picked up the Hutt Valley Wargaming Club's top prize - the Winter Cup.

The Masterton Marauders Club gathers to recreate battles using toy armies.

They use well-known historic armies such as the Spartans, the Romans, the Persians and the Egyptians.

Mr Cholewa describes the activity as "essentially a tactical game".

In layman's terms, he described each army as having particular strengths and weaknesses and each soldier or cavalry having different capabilities in battle.

"Like a more complex game of Risk."

The Winter Cup is an Ancient and Medieval tournament played over two Saturdays.

Mr Kinzett has been a part of the Masterton Marauders since he moved to Wairarapa from Wellington about three years ago but has been involved in war gaming since the 70s after reading a book by Charles Grant that sparked his interest.

He says he is more interested in using armies that actually existed rather than fantasy armies.

"A lot of the guys got into it because of their interest in history."

For the Winter Cup, he used the Anglo-Dane army from 1030 who were led by the Danish King Canute the Great.

The matches included teams from Wairarapa, Wainuiomata and Hutt Valley.

Phil Gates, who lives across the road from Mr Kinzett in Greytown, was third.

Mr Cholewa only played on one of the Saturdays so wasn't placed.