14th July, Cobridge TA Centre

Stoke Challenge 2013

It was good to be back at Stoke after a year off (more correctly, after a year where we had to miss it due to a calendar clash).   This is a friendly unpretentious event and we all enjoy the day out and hospitality.

I put on an Armati game as previously (the game has a solid following within the host club), this time repeating the English Civil War battle I did for the Pike & Shot Society last Colours (at Newbury Racecourse, from where you can see Donnington Castle, a landmark of the battle), and last week at COW ... the second battle of Newbury (1644) ...

It is quite a complex battle, but works well using Armati (and an adapted form of the ECW rules and stats in the otherwise superseded Advanced Armati): I think the best option by far for this period if you can get hold of the rules.

There is a detailed report on my ECW Battlesblog, but here are some highlights ...

(Newbury 1644: Manchester advances against the Eastern positions)

(Newbury 1644: Jacob Astley's troops defend Shaw village)

(Newbury 1644: across the Lambourne, the Royalist garrison defends Shaw House)

The battle was a tight one, and Manchester was able to push through Shaw right up to the hedge beyond which was the King and Royalist reserves.  Astley was defeated, but just short of the prize, Manchester's assault ran out of steam and his men had had enough.

At the western end of the battle, Cromwell did not press, and Waller and Skippon were beaten off Speen (Skippon falling in the melee), but Balfour was ab le to drive all the way up the southern water meadows, almost meeting up with Ludlow's horse who were similarly hacking their way in from the west.

(Newbury 1644: Balfour - bottom left - and Ludlow - right - squeezing out the last opposition south of the main Royalist position)

There were some excellent other demonstration games at the show ...

(an attractive Napoleonic game run by members of the host club)

(the Battle of Balaclava by the Stoke Wargames Group)

(a nicely detailed Rapid Fire desert game with the DAK streaming forward ...)

(this good looking 'Maurice' table was being run by the Derby show organisers, and seemed a very fluid and brisk game)

For ancients content I'm afraid you would have to look more to the tournament end of the hall where DBMM and FoG-AM were both well supported.

(ancients players with nicely turned-out armies battled away all day in the Challenge events)

Maybe you should consider taking an ancients game along next year?   It is certainly friendly event and welcomes games and groups.

The event also regularly raises a good sum the the Army Benevolent Fund.

17th September, Stoke on Trent

THE 2011 Stoke Challenge

The Stoke Challenge is an annual wargames event which raises money for Services charities (and so is a good thing). Originally just a one-day tournament, it has grown into a viable regional show.

One of the features over recent years has been an Armati Doubles competition, but this year, due to date juggling, not everyone could attend.

(adjacent to the Society stand: the Armati tables)

Nevertheless, we decided to go ahead and run a couple of Armati tables for those who could make it, a Hellenistic table by the locals, and a Romans v Goths table that I would provide.

(Red hit markers pile up behind the Romans as the Gothic cavalry pile in)

I was pleased to do this as I find commitments help get projects finished. I had 'cobbled together' some Goths for Britcon - but the army played quite well and looked like that long sought viable opponent for the Romans (who can be 'all conquering' in Armati)
(trayed up and ready to play: Phil's finished 'Goths of Totilla' armati army)

Inspired by this, I placed a small order of those new Lurkio figures to see what they were like. I suspect that without the commitment to field the troops for the Stoke Challenge, the new figures might still be on the work table ... experimented with ... based, even ... but not finished.

And viable they were ... winning both their games. In the afternoon 'Fire at Will' joined us for a sample game of Armati (and was one of the Gothic winners). He liked to think it was luck and some guidance from me (here) ... but in truth he advanced on the Romans with preparatory skirmishing, then put his faith in the cavalry, launching impetus charges with Totilla showing the way.

(splendid Lurkio Goths - mixed in with Gladiator and Chariot figures ... finished and in play)

Now I wouldn't say it will always work, but as a Gothic tactic it is fine. At Tadinae, Narses was so fearful of this tactic he dismounted the bulk of his army and 'dug in' (which suggest there was a real prospect it would work). The rest is history.

And the Lurkio figures are great. Just what I wanted.

(the Hellenistic table: Alexander against the Persians)

On the other table a Macedonian army took on a Later Achaemenid Persian force in an impressive encounter that eventually went the historical way.

As well as Dave Lanchester Books, Stafford Games and an interesting selection of smaller traders, there were a number of display tables and non-tournament games in progress ...

(a very inspiring 10mm WSS game at Stoke Challenge)

The main competitions this year were Flames of War and a well attended DBMM ...

(scenes from the Stoke DBMM Challenge)

It is also worth noting that in addition to the sponsored head shaving and other fund raising stunts, there was a raffle in which both I and Lance & Longbow stalwart Steve were winners. Yes, winners (and not the opposite of that, as some allege ...)

I passed the Victorian Sci Fi loot I won into Chris's eager hands (a generous bag of 28mm hokum ...) not my thing at all but its the thought that counts - and like all wargamers, I'm happy to be a winner.

I hope the Army Benevolent Fund did well - they deserve our support.

Stoke on Trent 25th July

The 2010 Stoke Challenge.

All change for the Stoke Challenge this year ...

After a couple of years just being a (welcome) midlands tournament day (DBMM, Armati Doubles, FOW etc.) ... this year we were treated to a (one day) wargames show ... trade stands, demonstration games, organised parking - even direction signs up on the approach roads (thumbs up for that, Stokies ... we've been lost round your streets before, so the signs brought a cheer to the Northants battlebus ..)..

I hope the traders did OK and will come back next year - it is hard to tell (I bought a few bits, including some wicked little Litko plastic explosions as markers for a game that has no place on Ancients on the Move ... but no book from DL .. that will have to wait til Britcon) ... Some nice plastics around, too, but sadly I didn't really have much time to shop.

Due to some prominent personalities having family commitments, the Armati Doubles Challenge really was a challenge this year ... just 4 teams, Stoke, Northants, Malmesbury and a Malmesbury/Northants combo (we might perhaps call them the 'Joker' team) ...

It was a BC themed event, and both Malmesbury and Northants took a highly fanciable 'Later Pontic' (the former taking extra light troops, the latter Scythed Chariots), Stoke took Fabian Roman, and the Jokers took Gallic. A brave if unwieldy choice.

I need not worry about modesty in giving results - I was half the Northants team, and we ran perpetual champions Roy and Rodge (Malmesbury) very close in a 1BP margin game where a dead general and an intiative roll settled it. Meanwhile the Jokers edged past Fabius (where delaying tactics lead to an indecisive game?). So the Jokers played Roy and Rodge in a final I could not see how they could win (and they didn't) ... while we could not force a decisive result out of the Fabians and lost a split result by 1BP (another dead general) ..

So Roy and Rodge retained their crown, with Mark and Will, the Jokers, as runners up. Oliver and Martin won the third place play off for Stoke, so Chris and I tucked the Northants team into the remaining slot.
Two good sociable games, very different in their own ways. Armati 100 point Doubles is a very good format, even if this (BC/Antiquity) isn't my favourite period for the game (all those non-key light troops and gamey mixed divisions ...)... Just a pity I don't seem much good at it.

Elsewhere, Brian Pierpoint (41 pts Romanian Frank) won the DBMM, followed in a very close finish by Jim Gibson (40 pts Navarrese) and Keith Nathan (40 pts Later Muslim Indian) ... Sorry I couldn't give it more coverage - I was in the other room playing Armati.

For a broader view of the event have a look at the Stoke Challenge Gallery

Great event, guys - a simple formula, but it works.

I hope to see you all next year.

Next week - the Society of Ancients Doubles Masters at Oxford.
Field of Glory Open 15mm.

Stoke, July 26th

The 2009 Stoke Challenge
A very fortunate weekend in many respects - a fantastic sunny Saturday at the Festival of History ... and an excellent rainy Sunday indoors at the Stoke Challenge ... Actually the M6 was horrible, but I'd much rather that than the weather be the other way round over the two days ...

The Stoke Challenge is the club's annual invitation wargames event, and this year again featured the two ancients challenges plus the planes and WW2 stuff. A well attended DBMM singles event, and the light-hearted 100 point Armati Doubles event.


I was up there playing Armati (well ancients, A2 Armati, anyway...) for the first time since Glasgow last year. The Stoke club were able to put up three home teams, and the Armati League took up the challenge with three teams of visitors. The six Triumph of Cavalry armies fielded were two Tang Chinese, an Andalusian, an Abbassid Arab, an Arab Conquest and a Sassanid Persian.

(Ghazi Warband from Chris Ager's Arab armies)

After two rounds of entertaining and quite tight battles, the Armati League teams mostly had won, the Stoke teams mostly not. My (Arab Conquest) team's first game went down to the last set of combats (both armies broke on 7 key unit losses, and we started the last turn with us -5, them -6 ... the crucial combat was between tired camels and tired Andalusian lancers - not panicked, both on FV4 and both already on 2 BP: so if the lancers lost, the game was over, if they won, the breaks were levelled and some more 50/50s would follow ... our camels shaded it) ... very close.

(lovely figures from the triumphant Abbassid army)

Mark's prize-giving mostly seemed to be about dead generals and stuff like that, but for what its worth, apparently the highest scoring team was the visitors' Roy Boss/Rodger Williams combo. Well done to them and their Abbassids.


Brian Pierpoint won the DBMM event, with Jim Gibson coming second. There is a full listing of the DBMM results here ....

Many thanks to the Stoke club and to the individual umpire/organisers: great job.

Stoke 20th July

The 2008 Stoke Challenge

Just a brief entry this time. The Stoke Challenge was a day of locally popular games organised into a tournament format: not a show as such, but some of the Shows North team were there, and we were flying the 'ancients' flag. Mark Fry (Armati League) and Jonathan Murphy (Stoke) had organised a Triumph of Cavalry 'one off' Armati Doubles event. There are very few Armati doubles events around, though the format has worked well with other rules sets, and multiplayer games 'at home' are commonplace. There was a little bit of jiggling on the day, as a result of which Mark played one of the armies single-handed, and there was an extra (and well-appointed) Roman Army in the mix (a Ghaznavid army having been left behind ... but that's another story ...)...

I was there to play in the Armati, but there was DBMM also, plus, out of our period, FoW and some Wings of War...(with some familiar faces ...)...

In the Armati event, Chris and I used the 'Triumph of Cavalry' period's jack of all trades army, the Abbassid Arabs, and finished a respectable somewhere in the middle - losing to Craddock and Murphy's Romans (which should have been Ghaznavid), and narrowly getting the better of Mark's Romano British (Arthur and all ...)... There were also 2 Tang Chinese armies. There were one or two rules clarifications to resolve during the day (as much because Armati players are too relaxed to have bothered reading the rules properly as resulting from different interpretations between local players and the League players ...) ... but no real complications with the format, or the extra generals and slightly bigger armies.

OK ... if you must know .... Roy Boss and Rodger Williams won using their Late Roman (Eastern) army, followed by (2nd) Mark Craddock and Jonathan Murphy - Late Roman (Western) - and (3rd) Mark Fry - Romano British.
Thanks to the Stoke organisers for a great day's wargaming. Here's some of those Romans.