21st November, Tarrington

OK ... off to deepest Herefordshire for another round of the Society of Ancients UK DBA League - now in the 2015/16 season.

Actually, Tarrington is really quite accessible, being some 12 miles or so from the motorway (so just about dual carriageway/motorway all the way from my door) - so don't imagine it is the middle of nowhere when you see this event advertised next time: it is easy to get to and a great format.  Highly recommended - don't miss it.

The format is an open 'scramble' - you donate an army (any) to the pool.   You get to play against it in round 1 and with it in the final round.  In between, you play with and against a random army supplied by one of the other players.

I took Slave Revolt/Spartacus ...

(DBA Slave Revolt/Spartacus ... 15mm figures/mixed manufacturers)

Followers of this blog might recall I took a Marian Roman army to the English Open a few weeks back - with the back story that it was half of a pair that I had built for the Alton Pairs but then not been able to attend.

This is the other half of the pair ... the revolting slaves.   Bottled up in southern Italy with their camp in the fastness of Mount Vesuvius ...

... with Jean Simmons skinny dipping in a secluded pool ... (or so Stanley Kubrick would imagine it) ..

The army has 4 (fast) hordes, and I was interested to see how they would do over a sequence of games.

There were plenty of hordes in the army mix - and 2 cases (Aztec and Early Libyan) where they made up half the army ...

So ... The mix:  I/7a Early Libyan;  I/60b Early Achaemenid Persian (Cyrus);  I/60c Early Achaemenid Persian;  II/7 Later Achaemenid Persian;  II/40 Numidian;  II/45c Slave Revolt (Spartacus);  II/79 Early Russian;  II/34b Andalusian;  IV/55 Ottoman;  IV/63 Aztec;  IV/62 Northern Sung;  IV/80 Hussite  ...

My games ...

(Ottoman vs Slave Revolt)

(Andalusian vs Early Libyan)

(Later Achaemenid Persian vs Early Russian)

(Aztec vs Numidian)

(Early Libyan vs Early Achaemenid Persian)

(Slave Revolt vs Northern Sung)

A lot of generic/what ifs there ... not really hisotrical (nearest was probably Libyans vs Persians although wrong sort of Libyans perhaps .. ) but all of them intriguing challenges and plenty of opportunities for me to learn more about hordes!!!

Players supplied the terrain with the armies (and players drawing the army had to use the terrain - only and all - as provided) ... there was an option to provide larger boards but all I saw were standard 24" battlefields.

I quite liked ...

(those Aztecs and their pyramid ... ) ...

(the later Persians mostly made with the recently issued Westwind figures)

(didn't get to use these Hussites but thought they looked very good)

Well, I really enjoyed such a diverse series of games and with all that experience of hordes it was very pleasing to win my final game using my own army (and mostly employing the offensive power of the revolting slaves whilst the gladiators covered their flanks) ...

(victory to Spartacus and the revolting slaves)

Well done to the top three ... a good test and an enjoyable day ...

I won 2 of my 6 games and I think got one draw  ... so finished lower middle (slightly less successful than my army) ...  Then again, I did use both of the horde armies and the Aztecs, indeed, won the most challenging award (for the lowest scores) ... and I think I want one!

Thanks to Martin Myers for organising the event and thanks to all the players for a splendid set of nicely presented and interesting armies.

More on the SoA UK DBA League

Knuston Hall, Northamptonshire 2-4 July

Conference of Wargamers 2010(30 years of COW)
Week off/week on ... then COW arrives: another full weekend - well, the 'full' weekend. Friday through to Sunday afternoon ... a continual choice of games, workshops and discussions covering all periods and styles of wargame.

FRIDAY

First up, what has become a regular event these days, a battlefield walk or off-site visit somewhere in the East Midlands (and justifiably 'on the way' for those travelling in): this year, coinciding with the 550th anniversary, and a conference next week, a medieval choice - the Battle of Northampton.

Northampton - July 10 1460 - March, Warwick and Fauconberg (Yorkist) defeat Buckingham and the King (Lancastrian) through the treachery of Lord Grey of Ruthin (changing sides when the Yorkists attack). The Lancastrians are outnumbered 2, maybe 3, to 1, and choose to defend in a prepared artillery position just out side Northampton. The guns don't work due to the waterlogging of the position, and Grey helps the Yorkists into the fortification in his sector. It is a decisive victory and the last where the Yorkists professed any kind of loyalty to the king.

Northampton is one of those battles where we don't exactly know where it took place - just south (or south east) of the town, in the meadows near (or right next to) the river, between (though some feel not directly between) Delapre abbey and the Eleanor Cross on the London Road.


Somewhere under the appropriate meadows and golf fairways lies a medieval battlefield. We had a walk around, and an interesting series of explanations from Mike Elliott of the Battlefields Trust. I had not walked up to the cross to view the possibilities before (and I may have more to say after the upcoming conference).

This year's COW had a sad start due to the loss of the conference and movement's founder, Paddy Griffith, but a week before. He was celebrated, honoured and toasted, before people cheered up a bit - and got on with games both serious and silly in the spirit he had passed on to people ... and of which, even in the hour of his mourning, no doubt he would have approved.



The plenary game, on a beautiful Northamptonshire evening, played on Knuston's main lawn, was a 'live' multi-participation version of WD's 'World War One in Three Turns' (during which the participating bodies learned how to deal with the realities of the new warfare).

Of course it is all a bit simplistic, and, out on the lawn, more than a bit laughable ... but that is the point. To start the weekend by getting everyone mixing, to break a few rules about formality, and to reinforce the rule that there are no rules.

Amongst the fun games that followed, Graham Evans reprised 'The Elephant In The Room' which debuted for SoA at Campaign, earlier in the year (and which draws upon the Anno Domino combat system also featuring in this year's show game 'Greyhounds In The Slips').

I'll have to confess I didn't pursue an entirely ancient and medieval theme through the weekend - and so missed tantalising offerings such as 'Hastings - A View from the Shieldwall' - there was just too much going on. See Bob Cordery's blog, or my 20th century pages for a flavour ...

SATURDAY


'The Last Crusade' was Ian Drury's treatment of the 'Battle of Nicopolis'. Using a version of Richard Brooks' Middle Aged Spread that was tweaked to include horse archers, the battle was played on an array of squares with 15mm figures. You will need a membership of WD and a copy of the Nugget to get a full account of these rules, but activation is by square in a sequence determined by playing cards which also limit what the unit can do with that move.


D16s are used in dicing for hits, which can cause losses, disintegration or rout ... The horse archers are like clouds of annoyance getting in the way, clustering around enemies and such like. The 'owning' player doesn't exert a great deal of micro management over them, but the results were quite plausible. With a dramatis personae of newcomers, Ian was nonetheless able to steer through to a decisive outcome (and a convincingly historical one) in a couple of hours ...


'Spartacus' was another run of John Bassett's Slave Revolt game (see the London game reported previously) ... this was played as an After Dinner Game with more players and much less time. The results were admirable and excellent. With more players, and a brutal time regime, the Senate 'Committee Game' worked much better - a sense of urgency impacted on the players, I think, and there were many more decisions taken and a better type of argy-bargy (just what the designer wanted, I'd guess) ...

Meanwhile, back with the operational game (the Slave Revolt), in which, this time, I took no part at all, Spartacus and his gang really were running riot. They were taking on our ad hoc armies, defeating them and killing senators ... even the great Pompey Magnus somehow was toppled. That said, after a great battle of mutual annihilation, Rome was intact (but down to a few raw legions) but the remaining rebels and leaders were using their victory to leave her lands and head for freedom and homelands. Impoverished and depleted, the eternal city had survived a battering the match of Hannibal's.

By the late evening, Greyhounds In The Slips came out, the excellent WWI aerial combat game was into its nth rerun and John Curry was unboxing commercial wargames from yesteryear of the kind you usually only see on a James May nostalgia show.

SUNDAY

After a morning spent clashing with Tsarists on the Don (see elsewhere), after lunch we had another bash at Zama and my Double DBA scenario ... This was a great joy as Phil and Sue Barker came along, and did much of the legwork (explaining the game, expanding on tactics and outcomes etc.) pretty much leaving me to do the Zama bits.

Excellent. In this outing Hannibal made a really good go of the elephant attack, held up Masinissa's Numidians whilst getting right into the Roman reserves on the other flank. It was a tough battle, and resolved itself narrowly for Carthage in a slog out of the veterans. This is a theme to be explored further.
Elsewhere, the cardboard simulator had become an inflatable v-bomber attack with slapstick refuelling mechanisms, traitors had been shot at dawn, wind up toy tanks had crossed the trenches and award winning designers had showcased their latest designs. All in all, great weekend. Something to recover from and a lasting tribute to the inspiration and personality of its founder Paddy Griffith.


I understand places for next year's event are already disappearing.

Central London, 19th December

'Spartacus'
No, not the ballet.

Actually a very rewarding multiplayer role-playing and map game from the John Bassett stable. Followed by a very sociable evening afterwards as we relaxed in the run up to Christmas.

I managed to get a copy of Barry Strauss's book at a discount in the closing down sale at Borders in Tottenham Court Road - so tried to get in the spirit ahead of schedule (a good job it was only spirit I was looking for as facts are few and far between ... and Strauss as much obscures them as illuminates them ...)..

The game is part of a developing approach to representing the end of the Republic, and I anticipate further developments in the new year (indeed, I hope that if I don't spill all the beans now, John will be contributing an article for Slingshot in the fullness of time ....)..

Suffice to say, for now, that whilst not without areas that need more work, this game brought out the complexities of Roman politics rather well ... the difficulties of managing the really important agenda (protecting your interests and faction within the Senate) with the irritating one (having to be away from Rome to deal with a rebel or an over-mighty citizen) ... or the difficulties of an over-mighty citizen in turning raw military power into tangible political credit ....

I got myself badly beaten up in the opening battle against Spartacus (OK - no battle ... I got myself ambushed ... some Thracian thing going on was my final memory ...)... and scurried off not in disgrace to Rome but in desperation to my old chum Pompey who was on his way back from victory in Spain. As a consequence, I took over the role of Pompey and all the advantages of his veteran army (and all the ethical/political issues of the great commanders of the Late Republic). The immensely powerful and loyal army (no hyperbole in either case) is an interesting tool: it means you hold the ultimate sanction ... a military government or a Civil War you are bound to win - and almost automatic defeat for your opponents. It almost seems that precisely because you hold all the cards, the other factions will oppose you: however modest your demands. There is a human factor in this. It is an interesting conundrum, and one the game made me think about afresh.
--> -->An enjoyable and thought-provoking run in to Christmas, and a last bit of recruiting before the year end. Thanks for the invitation, John - I hope to be able to play in the next evolution, and, yet again, do please write it all up for Slingshot ...