8th September, British Legion Club, Derby

Northern Doubles (Field of Glory)

A slightly delayed report pending the scores in this friendly Sunday series.   The scores took a while to come up as the SoA team in the FoG-AM (that'd be me, then ...) messed up their score sheet in the first round.

We used my still quite successful Feudal Aragonese, and, after sorting things out, we came 2nd with a decisive win inside the time limit and a score draw (marginally against us).

This is the same army we won the Halifax round with in 2011, so it certainly seems to suit us, it wins over half its games and doesn't seem too badly affected by V2 syndrome.

Javelin armed skirmishers still seem hard done by (but they are cheap, which means an army without any 'poor' and with plenty of knights still tallies up with 16 units) ... but are not affected by the reduction of ranges - so they are relatively better off, now, compared with bows or slings.

The knights are armoured, not heavily armoured and benefit from a (V2) bonus of +1 MU, so move like cavalry.  This is a real improvement and makes the feel much better (these are Spanish Caballeros, not clumsy French tin cans*) ...

(Game One: vs Carthaginians)

Of course, who you play against will make a big difference ... against the popular big infantry hulks you are probably heading for a draw ... but at Derby - which is an open event - we got drawn, out of period, against a Carthaginian with plenty of horse and medium foot ... and, in period, against Italo-Norman.

(Game Two: vs Italo Norman)

We got lucky against a very game Carthaginian (getting lucky is a familiar theme amongst my tales of victory).   And it was a joy to to get a historical match against the Normans ... though the luck bug bit us back in the last turn there.   

The heavy cavalry are pretty much the same ... the Normans had more spearmen, whereas we had the advantage in javelin skirmishers.   As the spearmen come in big lumps, we also had a couple more units.

A very friendly 2 game/one day competition.   Might be our last year as i still don't expect to play much FoG next year ...

Thom Richardson won the DBMM, Chris Thorn from the Amey/Thorn Impalers, won the FoG Ancients.

Maws NDBML page

More Spanish v Norman eye candy...

(skirmishers go before the King of Aragon and his feudal host)

(Spanish reserves)

(Norman knights holding the left wing)

(densely-packed Norman spearmen)

(the Spanish attack)

(combat all down the line)

*not that French tin cans were clumsy, of course ... I was using the term for effect!

4th November, Manchester

Northern Doubles League - Round 5.

A quick return to playing Field of Glory for this event (before the trip to Glasgow's annual Armati event!)

This is a great series of events with a nice crowd.   I enjoy playing doubles, and two games of FoG suits me well enough for a wargames trip.   The League offers FoG-R and DBMM as well (and single entries are accepted - but shout around if you are short of a partner ... the social experience of the doubles game is best shared).

Chris and I took my trusty Late 12th Century Spanish and crossed our fingers that we would get some suitable opposition to charge into ...

(Spanish adventure: Game One)

Well, we struggled against the well-organised and practiced Han Chinese ... MFs with heavy weapons and portable obstacles which they pick up and drop down more easily than modern soldiers can do trenches and barbed wire (translate MFs anyway you like!).   A good-natured and challenging game in which we could make no progress at all.

(Spanish adventure: Game Two)

Our second game was against more plausible Euro/Mediterranean opposition: an Ottoman army which, despite its radio-controlled Janissaries, has some similarities with the Moslem armies that were historical foes for our Spanish.

This game didn't go at all well for quite some time, but after some sparkling die rolling by Chris (I wish I could say that every game ...)... we came close to a decisive win inside the distance.

Around the tables, there was a familiar array of old friends and the usual display of big and beautifully turned out wargames armies ...  Doubles events certainly fill up the table spaces.  I particularly liked ...

 (Assyrians vs Mycenneans ... a big battle)

(Romans bullying unarmoured natives ... don't they ever stop?)

And, presumably a big army swansong ... the biggest army I have ever seen used in a tournament ...

 

(Ruddock's huge Andalusian army swarms around the Swiss)

Those Andalusians would have made very good period opposition for us, but I'm sort of pleased we avoided being swamped by a swarm!   Anyway, I enjoyed the games we did get.

So, one 'getting nowhere' defeat and one 'nearly cracked it' lucky victory ... no trophies for us this time.  Others did better ..

Well done to the winners (some of whom are, shall we say, familiar? with the victor's rostrum) who were rewarded with trophies and a warm handshake from Colin Betts. 

NDBML Results Page

That's the last double game for me until Usk next year.  And the last FoG (time to rummage around for my Armati rule book) ... I'm beginning to look at Big Battle DBA, you know ...

2013 will be the last year for the Northern League under the current seamless management  (Betts/PearsonGoss) ... a big thankyou to them, and here's to giving them a good farewell turnout next year.

21st - 22nd January, Usk

Godendag 2012

Back on the road again after the short winter break. Short winter break? OK, it has felt like a good break courtesy of a family Christmas down at Dartmoor and hasn't felt like winter because the weather has been kind.
The Usk weekend is more an annual weekend away with old friends and toy soldiers than a 'competition' (but don't they all feel like that these days? - well, OK, let's leave Britcon out of the assessment then ... I'm talking about Doubles ... )...

Hats off to Field of Glory, though. I had long argued that the 'renaissance' period was a surprisingly poor relation to 'ancients' given the period's unique mix of pageantry and military innovation. Commonly thought of as covering the transition from the high Chivalry of the Italian Wars to the uniform coated regular armies at the start of the 17th Century - it is hard to see what doesn't appeal ...

(FoG-R ... adding artillery to the combination of Men-at-Arms and pike blocks)
FoG-R seems to haved tapped into this less exploited vein of military history, and at events like Godendag has attracted player numbers not at all typical of previous tournament offerings (say, DBR). At Godendag, FoG-AM (Ancient and Medieval) needed to combine its player numbers (20 teams) with DBM (12 teams) to keep 'ancients' ahead in popularity. FoG-R with 24 teams was the single most popular choice.

Astute mathematicians will have come to their own tally already :) ... Over 100 people playing Ancient to Renaissance wargames for a wet January weekend in south Wales ... indeed you can't doubt how healthy and appealing this sort of thing is.

(FoG-AM ... feudal and medieval splendour)

Choice of periods for the AM category gave us a free run at the medieval period and we picked with moist eye rather than a cynical mind, maybe. The good news about my old Feudal Spanish (7th edition and DBM veteran) Aragonese is that, resplendent in its 11th century FoG version, it has won its last 5 engagements (including a whole day of decisive bonus wins that earned it a pot in Halifax ...) ... The not so good news is that (only Armoured in FoG) it can easily get found out by heavily armoured troops (like most of the entrants you might expect in this event), and its principal skirmish weapon - the javelin or dart - needs careful handling (or a bit of luck, like we got in Halifax) to bring any advantage.

OK - that's a bit pompous: the risk is there will be plenty of troops who can outrun us, plenty of troops who can out fight us, plenty of troops who can outshoot us, and plenty of armies that will outnumber us. Feudal Aragonese have an endless will to fight but have top trumps in no department!

Day One hamstrung us. Because of date, we got drawn against one of two identical Xi Xia armies (of that sort that dismounts almost everything if it wants to). It did dismount (despite having an armour advantage), and using IC initiative, then turned the battlefield into a cabbage patch (further protecting its dismounted troops from any mounted threat).

(stiking close together: Spanish foot needing 5s and seeing off some Xi Xia cavalry)
It looked like a stalemate strategy, and despite our best efforts, turned out to be so - a marginal defeat by a point.

Sadly, the other Xi Xia (which was a pair who had split to even the draw, and had duplicated their army to do so) used the same tactic with the same results. That made them odds on to draw us in the next round. And they did. And out came the same cabbage patch and dismounts - and the same stalemate ensued.

Two perfectly good games of their sort. Less ambitious than I like, but the whole point of these events is to embrace challenges that are not always played your way.

I am a bit grumpy though, as the consequence of the Xi Xia split was that the same game/army was in the draw twice. And the procedure generally follows that you shouldn't get the same game twice. But we did. Perfectly good players but we didn't get our fair share of variety.

(game 2: Aragonese skirmishers push beyond the cabbage patch but the heavier troops have to go round or through)
Sunday morning brought us a Latin Greek conundrum ... did they have Catalan allies? If they didn't we were probably going to face overwhelming numbers of knights who were more heavily armoured than our own. If they did, we were probably going to be confronted by another cabbage patch (and another draw). As soon as the terrain process began it was clear that it was the cabbage patch.

Of course, I have no problem with Aragonese vs Catalans, but having used Latin Greek myself, I think it needs to fight in the open to get a big result. Unfortunately the terrain dice gave us another oversized compulsory piece slap in the middle of the table.

What are the chances of that I hear you ask ... well around 1:6 actually (they get middle/we can't shift it much) but like all long shots, it slowed up all of the first three games.

Players, of course, think about their own armies and look to manipulate the terrain system to gain an edge. A fault of the ex-WRG terrain system FoG continues with. I'd just say that - against an Aragonese army a third of which is javelin skirmisher - churning up the middle of the table with dodgy terrain is a good way not to get a result.

We did our best to take the game to the Latins and got the better of the score draw. Only 28 points from 3 games which start out 10-10 (down 10% after 11 hours wargaming) ...

(game 4: some splendidly turned out Frenchmen to fight)
Finally, against a French army that wanted to get at us, in Game 4, battle was joined across a relatively open field - and, despite their better armour and nasty looking Switzers, good prospects of a result.

Skirmishing against them was hard work and we took some initial shocks from the new technology of their hand gunners. We recovered and set about them with sticks and stones, chasing them off and creating the opportunity of getting at their heavier troops not all of who were top quality.

We managed to break the French pikes with javelin skirmishing, and got our knights into their unstaked English archers without taking critical damage (which is enough) - and by game end we had won a couple of uneven knight melees against the odds as well. Exciting game.

(the flower of feudal Spain battle it out - and those archers are not looking happy)
All told, we came up 1 attrition point short of routing the army (although I think we made a couple of mistakes towards the end which flattered the Aragonese) - nevertheless we got a pretty emphatic result that needed maybe one more turn to complete. Perhaps the others had been right to go for their cabbage patch games!

Thanks to all the players, back-slappers and comrades in arms. A very enjoyable visit to Usk as usual.

(FOG-R: those plucky Africans closing in)
Very nice also to see the Renaissance armies ... including an Aztec army originally painted by Lee from down the road, and Richard and Patrick's brave Africans also taking on metal armoured Europeans in FoG-R


I last played that Aztec army back at a Loughborough period Britcon (I think I was invading Mexico with a army of Hohenstauffen Sicilian adventurers if that makes any sense - which I suspect it won't) ... great paint job, plus imaginative baggage and a pyramid temple. Worth another look of course.

(Aztec Baggage from a DBM original)

Of the ancients categories, honours went to Dave Ruddock and Ian Stewart in the FoG-AM and to Dave Madigan and Chris Smith in the DBM.


Us? Oh, we came 9th out of 20 teams with 44 points in the end. Just ahead of the game, and with a handful of dead generals to crow about.

I will post a link to the results when I get the information.

FOG-AM
DBM

Some decisions to make about Burton Doubles

But hopefully we will see you at Vapnartak next week where I will be doing an Egyptian game with those pretty classic flats - but in an up-to-date twist, I'm trying them out for DBA and giving you a taste of the new version 3.

Don't forget to sign up with the Society of Ancients by the end of the month
SoA Memberships page

31st October, Leeds

Fiasco 2011

This time last year the shows team pretty much decided Fiasco was no longer sustainable. The move from Armley to Clarence Dock and the Armouries knocked our audience significantly, but, somehow The Royal Armouries is somewhere we thought we ought to be.

The move to Saviles Hall, supposedly 'at the Armouries', but the other side of the Plaza knocked our audience some more. And as, now, we are in a hall dedicated to a local legendary Leeds TV personality rather than the history of weapons and warfare, all connection seems to have been lost.

Of course this would be neither the time nor the place to have anything but praise for Sir Jimmy and the awesome contribution he made to local and national life. If anyone could fix it, Jim could, and may he rest in peace. Leeds has lost one its unique personalities. There was a condolence book in the foyer on what was just the very day following Sir Jimmy's final curtain - which was a nice touch.

(clicking on the image will bring up the bigger version)

So, even at Derby, at the start of the month, I was doubtful about the value of attending (there's a high cost to attending, no expected revenue with which to offset it, so an equation solely down to the audience justifying the expenditure). Then a couple of significant things happened.

An idea that had been emerging amongst the Gentlemen Pensioners came to fruition, and we needed to arrange a venue for the handing into my care of a classic flats collection ... and then Society member Rob (Scarab Miniatures) Broom offered to carry leaflets and samples alongside his War and Conquest game if we weren't already booked in (but would need to access some gear if he was to be able to) ...

(Early Medieval Spain: James Morris's El Cid collection - Rob's Fiasco show game)

Of course, I spied another option too, because (assuming Fiasco would have its quieter moments) I reckoned I could get a pretty comprehensive go at the game if I made Fiasco the venue for these collections and deliveries, and then sat with Rob as a willing volunteer.

(War and Conquest: the lighter armed Christians charge the Andalusian crossbowmen)

Result! And I have to say - it being a while since I played one of these Warhammer derived games - I quite enjoyed it. Rob gave me the choice of which side to play, and, obviously I chose the knights and charged home rolling excellent dice against his dodgy ones (so as the jaded amongst you will recognise, all the makings of an enjoyable game, whatever the quality of the underlying mechanisms!) ....

(Flats: a tray full of Egyptian chariots)

Anyway ... those flats ... David did some excellent photos and a quick summary on his wargames amateur blog (ancient flats) ... and as the collection has been dormant for a long time, I was happy to be nominated the new custodian on the basis that I will endeavour to get the collection used and back into battle.

There are 8 drawers of them, some painted nicely and ready to go ... mostly the more glamorous stuff (chariots, elephants and the like). A lot is partly finished and based up crudely, ready to play (that said, I remember basing in the early 70s and crude would cover it: aesthetics were different then) ... and then there is a heap of undercoated or part-painted stuff that has clearly never been in battle.


(Flats: elephants a-plenty ... and a tray full of .. err ... potential)

The good news is that there is sufficient Persian Wars content to put something together for next year's Society of Ancients BattleDay. That will tick 3 boxes for me (I'll deliver on the promise to get these figures back on the table; it'll settle what am doing for the BattleDay; and it'll give me an excuse to look again at Tony Bath's original ancients rules).

Hurrah! Not bad for just one outcome of my trip to Fiasco!
I will start up a 'specials' thread following this report in anticipation of next year's BattleDay - we'll have a look at flats, wargames rules and some of the issues that need sorting out before Plataea can be tackled.
(Lance & Longbow's New World DBA Participation table)

(6mm Gettysburg 'what if' presentation)

So, I spent most of the day playing the War & Conquest game with Rob ... but what about the rest of the show?

Well, famine and feast I guess. The trade turn out was OK and there was a fair chance you could get what you needed.

I had some items to discuss with Martin at Warbases and Kim at Monarch Books (so another two ticks) and there were quite a few second hand books around (if you are missing 'early wargamer favourites' Tony at ERM has a lot of treasures on his stand at the moment, and Dave Lanchester has his guilty pleasures ...)...

(Ilkley Lads' splendid Crusader Kingdom 'Battle of Harran' game)

(Harran: the Crusader infantry have second thoughts)

Figure shopping wasn't so good, and the display games were variable ... some good, but not dazzlingly aesthetic, Participation Games, and 2 truly spectacular 28mm Crusades games. Our own El Cid scenario and the James Roach/Ilkley Lads Battle of Harran.

(impressive WWI Aerial Combat game played on a blown up satellite photo, overlaid and printed as an advertising banner)

I'm told the Crusaders made a bit of a mess of things, and that they were mostly running away by the time my camera showed up. These sandy desertscapes certainly show off the toys well.

(Al Andalus: the best armoured of the Berber cavalry)

The El Cid collection was by James Morris, and will be familiar to WAB enthusiasts from his period supplement. Rob had scheduled Plataea again - right on message, of course - but then had engineered some packing failures so was better served by turning to the collection he had in transit from a photoshoot for the new book. Or some reasoning of that sort.

(Al Andalus: Spanish Caballeros from the collection of James Morris)

I won't 'review' the rules for you here on the basis of just one game. And anyway, the set up we used was more for visual delight than for scrutiny of the mechanisms ... there was no real space in which the Berbers could manoeuvre and get their superior flexibility and firepower to work (but I'd like to see more, which is positive).

(El Cid: the battle standard advances, vanguard to the clerics and their train of valuables)

The combat, shooting and morale follows line that will be familiar to Warhammer fans, which means if you like that sort of thing you are likely to get what you want. It also seems to work smoothly enough (well, Rob knows what he's doing on this ground), and the game had a good shape to it.

(Berber light horse)

Thanks, Rob for an entertaining tutorial (the samples from the book look good, too) ...

Will we be back next year? Time will tell. I thought 2010 would be it for us, so it shows how much I know. We will continue to support the event, but it may be through someone like Rob carrying membership forms and slingshot samples, rather than me driving up with a full exhibition team from the East Midlands.

(a final view of the colourful War & Conquest table at Fiasco 2011)

I'll be making the trip to Manchester next week to play in the Northern Doubles, Warfare, down South is a fortnight after ...

And I've suddenly realised that the week after that is the Glasgow Armati event ... then Pudsey ... then Stockport, Wargammer and Christmas.

Suddenly it's wall-to-wall shows again!

18th September, Halifax

Round 4 of the NDBML (Northern Doubles League)

Did I finish the Stoke Challenge report on a winning note? What a good link to the Halifax round of the Northern League.

Halifax is northern cloth town of imposing stone buildings set dramatically in West Yorkshire's rugged Pennines.

Surprisingly, I had never been to Halifax before. Less surprisingly, perhaps, we saw rather more of Halifax than we had intended as we navigated our way somewhat circuitously to the venue.

We got to Halifax on schedule but were grateful to our opponents in the Field of Glory event for indulging us not getting to the Belgrave Social Club on quite the same timing :) We had entered the Feudal Spanish army which had last seen action at Burton last year (and had had to scratch after 2 wins on the Saturday due to our cars getting iced in).

(DBMM action from the Halifax Doubles)

(Japanese and Chinese armies clash in the FoG event)

Fortunately, our closely fought and engaging game turned decisive within the allotted time frame, so nothing was lost by a late start. Our opponents had one of those mornings, so we ended up with a very big score.

(Aragonese crossbowmen tough it out against disrupted cataphract cavalry)
In the afternoon, our superior armoured knights came up against Central Asian average Lancer Cavalry. Just about their ideal opponents. I had a sense that we ought to be able to win the game, but again, some bad dice runs meant we did so by a big margin.

The implications hadn't occurred to me until our opponents graciously offered a handshake with the comment 'and you take our camp, which wins you the game and probably first place'. Hmmm ...

They were right, and although there is a handicapping system which might have boosted some of the other contenders, our 48 points out of 50 proved unassailable.

Back-to-back wins - with a good army - always ought to be within our reach, but, frankly, die rolls were what determined they should be such big wins.

As I said at the time, it just goes to prove that old saying about a monkey randomly being able to type the complete works of Shakespeare given an infinite amount of time.

It also just goes to show what a great series the Northern Doubles is.

Thanks, Colin and Geoff ...

And what a nice town Halifax is. If you are not convinced, I might add that beer was £1.65 a pint. Yes - you may like to read that again. It goes some way to explain why local wargamers moan about the price of a coffee at the Royal Armouries!

(waterways and sprawling BUAs: some attractive features from the DBMM tables I now miss)

I'll provide a link to the NDBML information page (MAWS/NDBML), but as you may be lazy, I'll download the picture you are bound to be after.

I usually get a snap of the winners at these events, but I was busy this time.

I very rarely publish my lists, but this one must be good as it has won its last 4 games and with commanders who are not atop those ranking thingies.

The list is actually Feudal Aragonese from Oath of Fealty, and we selected ...

TC Commander + 2 sub TCs and 1 French allied TC;

2BGs of 6 ave unprotected LF with javelin/Light Spear; 1 BG of 6 ave unprotected LF with slings and an allied French BG of 4 ave unprotected LF with bows; 3 BGs of ave unprotected LH with javelin/Light Spear;

1 BG of undrilled, protected, ave HF defensive spearmen; 1 BG of drilled, prote

cted, ave HF defensive spearmen and 1 BG of drilled, protected, ave MF with crossbow (both Military Orders).

3 BGs of undrilled, armoured, superior Knights; 1 BG of drilled, armoured, superior Knights (Military Orders); and 2 BGs of allied French undrilled, armoured, superior Knights. (16 Battle Groups, exactly 900 points)

There are many, many reasons why this might not be the perfect army, but it plays very well when it goes into action.

Followers of this blog will know we go to lots of places on our Shows North travels. Halifax is one of those places I think I rather like.

Next up? See you in Derby over the weekend.

(looking forward to Derby with the Society of Ancients)

In amongst the other events, there is a random armies Armati event (good luck, Will), but I will be forgoing that to run the Society stand whilst Graham entertains you with The Elephant In The Room.

We will also have the September issue of Slingshot, hot off the press (arrived here yesterday).

Those FoG Generals you all like