So,
You know when you are signed up for a competition, and you have no idea what to take? Well, the train to Element Games for a start! Great venue.
The theme was 1070-1500, European Medieval, which ruled out my 'go-to' list of Samurai, so I was left with three choices.
Tudors - dull, never going to win.
White Sheep Turkomen - seriously never going win.
Early Scots - also never going to win.
I went with the Early Scots in the end, as it was an utterly silly list that had no chance of getting anywhere near a win.
Oh how wrong could I be!!
My list:
So, 8 TuGs of short spear, shieldwall. Nothing special. In 8s, one unit of not very impressive cavalry, a useful unit of Norman Knights, a unit of hard hitting Vikings and two units of skirmishing cavalry.
What was I up against?
This slot, with Roger's People's Crusade due to join us on the Sunday,
Stephen Stead and his Frisians, lots of long spear, a nasty average swarm list, with many allied options. Any game against Lord Stead is always a hard but good fight.
I also ended up being one of the umpires as the 'Holy Trinity' of Si Hall, Alasdair or Richard could not make it. Eeeek!
The table was bare, really really open terrain! Eek!
I went deep, Stephen went long! Could I get through his line before he enveloped me?
His two allies and my ally both played ball. His knights and Danish allies were both headed towards my line, squeak!
His knights come piling forwards towards my line, this was going to hurt!
BRACE BRACE BRACE! The Danes approach, the knights pile in, and Stephen's long spears trudged through the woods.
My light horse fail to do their thing, get caught and destroyed. Oops! (0-1)
However, Stephen's knights were having a really bad day! Both his units would collapse under the weight of Scottish spears! (4-1)
That's a lot of my army looking greedily at a unit of crossbows and a unit of short spears! Wow, how did that happen?
Stephen's spears contact my heavy cavalry. This was touch and go, especially as his unit was much bigger than mine.
My Normans crash into Stephen's Danes, and look how good our dice were, all blanks!
And a pair of red and yellows from a flank charge basically finish off my cavalry (4-3). I did repay with a wound! Yay!
And look what happens when I try to get a flank in! Drat!
Normans decide cowardice is the better part of valour, especially when my second skirmishing cav disappeared (4-4)!
The maul develops, enveloping Stephen's Danes and another unit dissolves (6-3). Stephen cleverly withdrew his crossbows.
My centre punched through two units of his Danes as time ran out. (12-8, we both get two points for surviving).
Hell of a game, very close and I was already massively ahead of where I thought I was going to be.
Game 2: vs Pete Entwhistle's Swiss... Swiss... *GULP!*
Wall to wall superior pikes and halberds. Yeah, this was not going to be a win, but would be a LOT of fun, as Pete is another regular competition opponent and knew his way round the rules.
The table, and beers. Hopping Hare, very nice! I owe you Pete.
Lots of mountains. I went with rocky ground and hills, which Pete decided to anchor his flanks on.
Scouting cards, I'm 10% up! :)
Pete deployed wide, but that was still dangerous with his army, it was going to take a lot of effort to get through the middle.
Meanwhile, on the next door table, two Nikeophorian Byzantine armies were engaged in a Busby Berkley-esq dance routine!
The Swiss reformed as they advanced, taking up their dreaded keil which has no flanks. Four pike blocks, three halberds, some skirmishers. All well hard! I decided to risk a left hand cavalry sweep, seeing is I could pick up points before my foot disintegrated
It's getting closer to crunch time! My right hand foot looks like it would have to withstand a keil and a halberd block on their own. Good luck lads, you're Viking, if you die, you get to go to Valhalla, win-win really!
The masses approach. At least with all these mountains we won't get homesick! I shot off one base on Pete's skirmishers.
Two units of skirmishing cantabrian archers issue a notice of eviction on Pete's skirmishers! That was enough to see them off! (odds are 1in6 x 1in6 x 1in6 = LOTS) (1-0, and time for my traditional cry of "I got a point!")
CRUNCH! His pikes and my spears meet. The odds are ever in his favour, especially as he can swing in a unit of halberds into my my Viking's flanks, in fact, this was the second unit they had contacted this way! (1-2) Pete was about to roll up and annihilate my flank!
My Normans go for broke and slam into his halberds. 6 average Normans vs 4 superior bills, yeah... what could go right here!
Amazingly, we stood! My lighter spears are redeployed to deal with the enveloping bills, and Pete's pikes in the flank of my Vikings. (I was 1-4 down at this point)
It then got tense, and I forgot to take any more pictures! On the left, my Normans eventually got his halberds (4-6, but only after my two units of Viking spears had collapsed).
Then, Pete's cinc general died in combat to a lucky swing by a Viking huscarl! Pete's pikes, all badly battered, failed their Kill a Base Tests, seeing their lord die, and the result was a cascading fail of morale, under the shear weight of Scots swarm, collapsed, and his second unit of pikes and his flanking halberds also fled. Really lucky dice rolls won me this whole game! (15-6). Another brilliant game. Pete was hampered by small army and low break (4 vs my 6) but his army was really hard to beat)
Going into beers and curry I was on 27 out of a possible 30 points, no idea how this really happened. Had I , by mistake, found a viable list?
Beer were great, curry, no so. I spent a night with massive indigestion, thanks for the Renee, Ray!
Game 3: vy Stuart Tonge and his Nikeophorian Byzantines vs my indigestion and hangover.
Again, another NO CHANCE match up. An entirely mounted Byzantine force, with lots of superior cavalry and an ability to dance.
Sturat picking me up on one of my many rules mistakes. Thank you.
He out manouvered me, was better than me, a good player and a rock hard list too.
This is what 21 TuGs and three Sugs looks like, as the People's Crusade arrived on a nearby table! Thankfully I was not fighting this.
Led by a 'Divinely Inspired Goose'!
Meanwhile, Stuart was applying 'Chaos Throry' to my army. Dancing and dancing, but I was able to hold some of my line together.
Exceptionally good shooting rolls from my skirmishing, down-trodden cavalry vs heavily armoured catafracts!
My light horse, pinned to the edge of the table, and about to cost me points for running away, thankfully, it did not happen.
Stuart's four cavalry should have broken off from combat, tying me down, and shooting me away, but his commanders never had the cards. My superiors in the middle had seen the worst of this, as Stuart had played this superbly against them.
His cavalry vs my Normans, not a fight that would go well. My Normans and cavalry again would suffer against superior and well used enemies,
Catafracts and superior cavalry stare down my Vikings. I was going to suffer here too. This game was Stuart's to win!
Fortune favours the stupid, my Huscarls charge on black dice, trying to relieve the pressure on my other Vikings!
My Normans actually do some damage! However, their flank was dangerously exposed, and my cavalry were already toast.
Those poor cavalry of Stuart's cannot get a break off! Meanwhile, he closes on my Vikings on the right as I try to force through to his camp. Yeah, not happening!
My Normans hold on, but are taking hits. The Catafracts are chewing through my foot nicely.
And his flank charge arrives, squashing my Normans, but they did not got down without a fight (a wound and a half, assisted by shooting from my skirmishers). Stuart broke off his catafracts, leaving my Vikings hanging.
He piles into my foot on the left flank. I had finally broken his 4, but a superior 6 was a real challenge. I also caught and crushed his skirmishing horse archers that were flanking my Vikings.
My huscarls pile in again on the Catafracts, and it does not go well! But I did a few hits on the way out to Valhalla, leaving the heavy horses very brittle.
This was, strangely, the turning point of the game. My Normans were long gone, but an extremely lucky shot on Stuart's horse, causing multiple hits and breaking the unit of four that was on the left.
The short spear armed Scots caused one more wound on the next cavalry unit, the general died on the break too, causing two KaBs on the catafracts, which also shattered and broke, giving me a shock win of 15-6 which I honestly did not deserve.
Stuart honestly should have trounced me on that game, but it left me with 42 out of 45 points, and second place! With my list, in this period, should not be doing this well.
The last game was vs Jason, one of the elite players. This was the sort of match I usually get to in the first round, but due to Si Elliot, Alasdair Ade, and other strong players not being present, I had got lucky so far. It was simply a case of how much could I lose by, as Cid and Sam were submarining up from the lower ranks, plus Ray, who had been run over by Jason in round 3, was also a threat, could I hold a podium place?
The terrain did not fall my way. Very dense with broken ground that disorders my close order foot (basically, anything on foot in my army, so 9 tugs) and not cavalry (the whole of Jason's army).
My one success, I caught one of Jason's light horse with my foot! I GOT A POINT!
But, that was it, in scenes too graphic for polite viewers and in a brilliantly tense game, Jason took me apart in a masterclass of destruction. I forgot to take photos as I was so enjoying it. I had two of his units on the brink, but each time he pulled it out the bag. I was well and truly crushed. End result 1-15.
The results - that tonking by Jason knocked me clearly out of the running, but hell of a game!
| Jason Broomer | Ottoman | 60 |
| Laurence Donohoe | Later Lithuanian | 50 |
| Sam Street | Imperial German | 49 |
| Will Denham | Early Scots | 43 |
| Stuart Tonge | Nikephorian Byzantine | 39 |
| Ray Duggins | Hanseatic & Frisian | 39 |
| Matthew Poole | WoR Yorkist | 38 |
| Stephen Stead | Frisian | 36 |
| Peter Entwistle | Later Swiss | 32 |
| Bill Skinner | Medieval Polish | 32 |
| Jacques Wilputte | Albanian Principalities | 31 |
| Robin Spence | Norman | 30 |
| Geoff Pearson | Medieval Portuguese | 28 |
| Ian Crossby | Nikephorian Byzantine | 21 |
| Roger Whittam | Peoples Crusaders Sunday only | 8 |
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