3rd War & Conquest Tournament Part 1

I thought I would be smart and set off at lunch time on Friday hoping to get to Grantham Premier Inn in daylight, I don't baulk at the cost when it comes to my comfort, I had no sooner hit the motorway than I ran into torrential rain and a sky that had come straight from Mordor, I therefore almost did drive all the way in semi darkness with high winds and rain to boot. Stewart and I settled into the bar and one by one most of the other players turned up, we slowly but surely annexed several tables and most of the chairs in the bar. As usual insults, exaggerated claims and past disasters were brought up in quick succession as we all preened ourselves for combat on the Saturday.

Tony, Rob, Ian, Stewart, Declan, Me, Jenny, Dan, Paul, Andy, Phil, Dave H, Tom, Reece, Adam, Dave T, Lawrence.

We arrived at Foundry early on Saturday morning helped unload the cars and had tea while Dave and Phil set up the tables, a pep talk by Phil followed and we were off.

My troops in the foreground with the Spartans in the distance.

  My first game was against Andy Duffel and his (or rather Phil's) Spartans, I was using Greek City States (again Phil's), I had fought Andy before and he likes to keep a unit in reserve, so I saw an opportunity again to quickly run forward, smash his front line and cruise to victory, simples. Before not too long he had destroyed or caused to run all my right flank units, cavalry, skirmishers and a Hill Tribes unit I had been hoping for great things from. The Hoplites clashed and I began to lose, if I remember correctly even my general died, my first game and defeat stared me in the face. As happens a lot in W&C the pendulum started to swing away from Andy and he found himself on the back foot unable to press his initial advantage as I clawed my way back into the game. The game was a fixed number of turns and as it looked like it was all over I left two units sitting when I should have moved them towards Andy's routers, this would have ensured Andy did not rally them and given us a draw, but I didn't so he won 26/21. A close game, the last time we fought it was 19/18 against, but I was pleased, I had almost turned things around and could at least blame my right flank for my woes.

The Spartans up close and dangerous.

 My second game was against Ian and his Carthaginians, I unexpectedly received reinforcements for being rubbish, a claim which my lawyers are perusing as we speak, I might add though that the reinforcements were a bunch of rabble with pointy sticks whom my hoplites refused to speak to. On to the game, the armies looked evenly matched but oh boy, was I wrong about that I am still a bit shell shocked. My plan was to hurl my phalanx straight at them and count on my heavy armour and combat ability which was impressive, again the Hill Tribes let me down on the right and again it went south, but Ian's cavalry could not get around me. The lines clashed and at first my boys drove the enemy back, things looked good, then in came Nellie the elephant, in the same charge as it destroyed a winning hoplite unit my other right flank one failed its morale and fled. The beast then swiftly did a pirouette and stomped my remaining two, again victorious units, the thing destroys your rank bonus, your push and shove bonus and it disorders you, I had one slim chance at the beginning of the game to send it crazy but failed. I was distraught and then in came the rabble to the rescue, the very last unit of my army to still be standing and they eventually finished off the wounded beast with their pointy sticks, they had also helped destroy an infantry unit, well done guys, I felt my honour had been restored.

Greeks to the left, Nellie on the right.

 Despite having suffered a catastrophe I did kill enough Carthaginians to get 26 points out of the game, the eventual score being 26/51.

My surviving line about to be rolled up.

My brave but doomed men, my eager 'rabble' behind about to hit the enemy in the rear.

 That was it for the day, overall I had had two good games albeit one was frustrating, but obviously not as frustrating as one competitor who wailed loudly, disbelief in the tenor of his voice, "beat by slaves with sticks!"

Four games in action.

A beautiful Viking cavalry unit Jenny received as a birthday present.

Arab cavalry on the loose, this army was superbly painted, a sin to lift any of them off the table.

There you go, the end of the first day apart from the highly enjoyable recrimination phase at the bar later that evening.