Sunday morning and fortified by a full English I arrived at
Foundry for the final days gaming, a big disappointment for us all was the fact that Dave Howes' Sunday
best did not fit him this time, but there is always a next time. It was a bit of a red letter day for me for
I was up against another Spartan army but this time commanded by the rules
author himself, Rob Broom.
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Captain Fantastic Dave Howes with his new suit. |
Obviously I was a bit anxious at playing Rob as I am by no means an
expert at the rules and many of the nuances I was only just learning thanks to
these weekends, although I normally forgot them on the way home. Our armies almost mirrored each other but I think I had the
edge in heavy armour, I was supposed to knock out Rob’s two most expensive
units, it was a long shot as after deployment his really expensive unit was in
a nice position on a hill. However I noticed I could possibly damage his left
and flank him just as my phalanx hit. I don’t know what objective Rob had but
he had two units at the foot of a ridge and two on it and they hardly moved at
all as I advanced into what was obviously some kind of cunning plan. I duly
managed to make a mess of his left flank protectors despite fighting through a
temple complex, however he did have a chance to rally, it was at this moment
the Gods looked my way and a Spartan phalanx ran for the rear, that I caught up
with it in the next turn and destroyed it put the Spartans on the back foot and
brought them off their hill. A turn or so later and it looked like plain
sailing, Rob had sorted out my left flank but slingers and cavalry were on the
way to protect it no longer being required on the right, I was actually
thinking like a general in this game, a tad late but there you go.
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Rob sits on his ridge while I sweep around his left with the good Hill Tribes. |
I needed the initiative to put the finishing touch to my
assault, Rob knew it and threw in an extra die, I couldn’t as I had none to
use, he threw snake eyes, I whooped with delight and allowed myself a small
jig, Rob sat dejected, I nonchalantly tossed my die on to the table, Rob and
several onlookers erupted, it was a one! The next three throws were tied and
eventually Rob achieved success. It was not enough to entice the Gods back to
his side, I got rid of another two phalanxes and his veteran Spartans knew
better than their commander and legged it at the very moment he needed them. I
hadn’t achieved my objective but neither had Rob, I had however destroyed most
of his army and felt I was at last getting the hang of these Greeks albeit a
bit late, score this time was 32/17 in my favour.
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Dave Toone before falling on his sword as my Romano-British beat him led by son Stewart. |
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Macedonians vs Spartans |
My last game was against Declan’s Macedonians and I have to
admit I thought my hoplite phalanxes stood a good chance against him as his
army looked a bit weak with only three phalanxes although they were well
supported with some tough light troops and cavalry, but I had a few of my own
and felt confident. My objective this time was to knock out 75% of the enemy, I
am not keen on the objectives and like only a few of them, Pitched Battle, Hold
the Centre or kill the top enemy units, these of course tend to favour the
armies I like to handle, the others favour cavalry or light armies who can
dodge around and either take your rally point out or retire off the board, I do
however play them and if you don’t like the chosen one you can change it, so
fair enough, I can live with that.
I had to deploy first and Declan deployed in order to get
his objective, I should have twigged but I didn’t, it looked like a good fight
for me, but it wasn’t to be a fight. It went pear shaped from the beginning, my
dice rolling was brutal, I threw almost continuous one’s for initiative winning
it only once, which as it turned out was only one of several disappointments
waiting in the wings for me. I had two Hill Tribes units one of which I put on
each flank, now one of them fought well and the other didn’t, but I couldn’t
make out which was which until the battle started, sure enough the useless one
was on my left which I rushed forward and got smacked by a wandering phalanx,
they only needed to hold and a heavy armoured hoplite unit would crash into the
enemy flank, instead the Tribes ran and so did the hoplites, unbelievable.
Meanwhile Declan was keeping his other phalanxes away from mine while his
cavalry and light troops destroyed my right, my die rolling in combat was dire,
I think even Declan felt sorry for me. Not sorry enough though to stop marching
his three units off the table and claiming victory, I had garnered a measly
three points for a final score of 39/3. Kudos to Declan, he took advantage of
my deployment, played for his objective and taught me a lesson in something
like three moves. This happened elsewhere during the two days to other people
so you do have to sit up and use the old grey matter.
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Declan ready to out general me. |
All the games finished fairly early on the Sunday so the
prize giving was done around 4.30 pm if I remember, it was still just light,
this is a fun part of the weekend as Phil takes a chance to jazz things up with
some very individual prizes. First of all though the two main prizes, overall
winner and best painted army, Ian Scovell romped through with four wins and a
whopping 224 points, Tony Rodwell received most of the votes for his Arab army
which was simply stunning. Jenny got one
for putting up with 16 guys over the weekend who simply treated her as one of
them, as indeed she was and an excellent wargamer, young Tom Poole (14) got a
well deserved prize for also putting up with a bunch of adults and playing some
great games. There is a specific prize for the worst act of generalship during
the weekend called the Tony Rodwell Prize, as there were no obvious examples
this time around I was the recipient of this prize seemingly for dancing jigs
and whooping at good dice throws and shaking my head furiously when things went
badly, while also plainly enjoying the weekend, I was well chuffed.
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Phil's lovely Thracians, just look at the cloaks. |
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More of Tony's Arabs. |
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Phil in a pose which is becoming more and more scary. |
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Dave and Tony slog it out. |
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Why a sheep for a rally point, because everyone flocks to it, geddit? |
So there you have it,
another great weekend and four good games despite the losses, I came 12
th
in the league table but I wouldn’t expect anything else and I don’t turn up to
come first, although maybe one day. There is an interim tournament near Swindon
in February (Dark Ages and Enemies of Rome) and the 4
th National at
Foundry at the beginning of May if any of this sparks an interest and you are
within shooting distance contact Phil or Dave with these numbers
here.
Well deserved prize George - you are always entertaining to watch play! Tom's prize for putting up with a bunch of adults...he's probably more mature than several of them... And thank you for your kind comments about my skills, although sadly lacking this weekend! Jen
ReplyDeleteI am sure you will make up for it in February Jenny, I am still smarting from seemingly being so rubbish as to require extra troops and being banished to the 'room of doom' for most of the weekend :)
DeleteThat suit!!? Everyone was probably a bit relieved that it didn't fit ;o)
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a good time.
See you in Feb and perhaps May.
Cheers
Matt
George,
ReplyDeleteThe tale of the three "1s" will live long in the memory :):)
I'm glad I was there to witness it.
Phil