Getting Back in Step

Sorry for those of you who have followed these bulletins in the past - there has been nothing up for ages.

Yes, the sheer volume of stuff to be done in the Autumn overwhelmed me ... just about got round to everywhere, but hardly had time to write about it. Actually, a lot of entries mounted up here - but as unpublished drafts (a picture missing here, the prize winner list there etc. etc.). All of these will get tidied up (and such is the mechanism of Blogger, they will fall into place behind this post in the order I started stacking them).

2009 has not got going well, with some family bereavements forcing everything else lower down the priorities list. Again, we pretty much got round everywhere and a review of the year so far will follow shortly. Then we will be back on track I hope.

The next event this year is the Birmingham Games Expo on Saturday/Sunday. Be great to see you there. We will be doing a bit of FoG, and would love you to join in.

Good things to come: ...

(Show Reports)
(Doubles Masters round up)
(Strategos)
(AMW)

Nottingham 25th-26th October

Warhammer World - Campaign Weekend
At the Games Workshop HQ, Nottingham ...

Many thanks to the Warhammer Historical team for inviting us along to the October ancients weekend. The main purpose was to call in and distribute some complimentary copies of the glossy new style Slingshot (to counter the half chance that we had somehow missed getting the message out!) - and to just get a feel for what goes on. For me, it was also the first time at Lenton since it got its medieval makeover. It can look a little unusual in pictures but I must say it does work. Many thanks to the punters. Yes, Mark has done a great job with Slingshot - thank you appreciating it and I do try to pass all the compliments on ...

There were two main themes to the WAB 'competition' going on ... the Punic Wars and the Normans in Britain, in addition to which there was some playtesting/sampling going on of the siege game variant. I say competition, but I must say the impression I got was that the competitive element was little more than a device to get people involved in a series of related games around the theme. That said, it looked like there were plenty of prizes being given away.I then noticed, over in the back corner, Rick Priestley and friends engaged over another group of tables playing Warmaster Ancients and got myself coached through another few turns. The Warmaster enthusiasts have given Society of Ancients events a lot of support of late - the BattleDay, the AGM - and the game is giving an extra dynamic to these events. So, a lot going on up here, and a very warm welcome for us. Sadly, I wasn't able to take up the offer of getting more involved this year (there was the Fiasco show to go to on Sunday in Leeds ...)... but I'm quite tempted to book in for one of these events and get some playing time in!

Portsmouth 19th October

The English DBA Open

Organised by PAWS, the Society of Ancients, Magister Militum and sponsor the annual English DBA Open. Representing SoA, I went down to help Phil Barker present the prizes. I organised my weekend well enough to stay for the day and get some games in, too. Mind you, compared to the team visiting from Italy, mine was a fairly modest expedition. Ciao, guys .... For an Italian view of the event, you could try (here ....).As well as a juniors section and a 25mm section, there were 24 players contesting the 15mm senior trophy. We played off in 4 pools of six players - so generating a 'round robin' of 5 games each ... before the top player from each pool went into a semi-final and final knock out phase. The games were scored on a 5-2-1-0 basis, the 5 being for a proper decisive game win within the time limit (anything else gaining the player 2, 1 or 0) ... so no question - the emphasis was on getting to grips and beating the enemy. After a refresher course (and defeat) very gamely offered by Richard Pulley, my second game was against Mr DBA himself, Phil Barker.No time pressure needed here, it turned out. Phil's army of over-eager Huns (they were being keen enough to ravage their way to the Horn of Africa!) deployed in a tight box ready to burst and overwhelm my sturdy Axumites ... however the 'Pips god' (if indeed it was not he whom I was playing!...) enabled the African warriors to close the ground rapidly (the power of the Ark of the Covenant or some such mumbo-jumbo ...). With one or two 'favourable' combats (mounted v Ps, mounted v Bw, skirmisher v elephant) and precious few Pips to do otherwise, Phil (unwisely, it would turn out) chose to bring about a general and mostly frontal engagement. He failed to win the 'quick kill' combats, and got stuck far to tight with the supporting combats against the warband. The Axumite riposte cut them to pieces. It was the dices, of course (and the clock ... and an opponent who knew well enough that evasion was his strength, but who wanted to gamble for a decisive win ...) ... but it prompted a run of Axumite luck that saw me through the remaining three games undefeated. Thanks Phil.

I also got to play against Ghaznevid, Byzantine and Korean armies - so quite a variety ... if mostly mounted ...


Some thoughts ..

I had managed to call in on the event last year, so determined to participate this year. It was a lot of fun. I have been in or around DBA since before it existed in its current format (I co-organised the Society of Ancients Conference for which Phil conceived the original quick, 12 element, game DBSA ... ), but have become pretty jaded with the DB system, particularly in its 3.1 version of DBM. Indeed, I don't think that game really works any more. So it was good to get back to basics, and to the version of the game not weighed down with grading factors, Pip swapping generals, fiendishly complicated spontaneous moves and bogus press forwards. And, frankly, to a version of the game where it doesn't take 31/2 hours to end up with a draw! In this game, cavalry armies are popular but infantry armies still work; there is no artificial imbalance imposed by regular/irregular; warband and similar 'quick kills' make reasonable sense in the context of the game - and the Pips system does seem to add to, rather than frustrate, the games intention of simulating ancient battle. In hindsight, it seems disappointing that the 'big ancients game' ended up following the DBM rather than Big Battle DBA route.

Some Africans ...

My choice of Axumite Abyssinian served me well enough. It's half Warband - but the option of the Elephant general, plus a Psiloi, 2 Bow, a Blade and a LH gives it some flexibility and some punch against horsemen. I decided to use it in order to get out what is effectively a retired DBM army ... it became almost unusable with what 3.1 did to (F) troops, especially Warband ... and is currently not even on the schedule as far as FoG lists are concerned.

All that aside, the Axumites are a great example of what historical wargames can do. I was introduced to these African armies by the series of articles Richard Young wrote for Slingshot. Those, and an awareness of the mythology of the Ark of the Covenant ending up in Ethiopia ... Our shared leisure interest has a unique way of blending an enthusiasm for collecting new toys and playing games with a fascination with military history - especially those intriguing bits that usually get left out. And so I found out more about the powerful Christian Kingdom of the Horn of Africa, its impressive material culture, its alliances with Constantinople and wars across the Red Sea against the Arabs and Sassanids.

Some Mumbo-Jumbo ...

Of course, we all like to take some liberties ... aside from the story of the Ark of the Covenant, the Ethiopian kingdom may also have a biblical connection to the lands of Sheba. The Sabean culture most obviously associated with of Solomon's royal visitor existed on both sides of the Red Sea, and Egyptian records of the land of Punt indicate African realms with female leaders - was the real Queen of Sheba one such? Would she have been Arab, Yemeni, Axumite?

Well, in wargames terms, her army would most likely have been Saba* - and the Queen of Sheba certainly predates the given dates for the Axumites by over 500 years. Did that stop me constructing the army around an Ark of the Covenant in the camp and an Elephant General which just happened to be ridden by a female leader? Well, given the dates, it obviously would have been a queen of Sheba, not the queen of Sheba - and a nod to an engaging tradition. Any excuse. A scantily-clad Queen of Sheba riding an elephant? That's what I meant by Mumbo-Jumbo!





* ... anyway Saba have no Elephants ... in fact nothing interesting for a queen to ride at all - why, even Arab tradition shows her riding a camel!

Siege Game - Project Update

Welcome to Jerusalem

The first decision that has been made has been to define 2" as the MU (effectively doubling all the distances). This is because everything in FoG happens (broadly) within 15 MUs - mostly the last 6 or 7 - so a game using a 1" MU is needlessly confined to a narrow band of the playing area.

I made up some additional personality figures ... Here is the governor of Jerusalem, Iftikhar ad-Duala ... He can be a Troop Commander (he will be useful within 4 MUs/8", but can't be everywhere at once).

Iftikhar ad-Duala, Fatimid governor of Jerusalem in 1099
(commander of the Turkish garrison)

The general aim, of course, is to get something with a plausible feel and look - but which allows us to use the game mechanisms to play out the historical events.

Schematic view of what the siege might have looked like (though only two towers are mentioned in the sources - one from the north and one from the south) ... this is from a series of drawings here ... (Peter Dennis)


Treat the siege engine as a transport or capability marker. Stack the figures, commanders etc. that represent the BG up behind it. Use it for the movement and combat position. A shooting gallery or belfry is a stand's worth of shooting (the tower might have more than one), the draw bridge is a stands worth of combat frontage.

The Tower makes its final move into contact in the impact phase, and fights one stand (against a single enemy stand). If the attackers win the combat, the attackers must make room for the fighting stand to be placed on the rampart, and an expansion from this is allowed in the movement phase (again, the defender must displace figures to permit this): pick stands up from the stack behind the engine, and place them in the developed combat position.

(click on the picture to see a bigger version)

This scene from a game we played at the Derby show illustrates and easy situation (there is plenty of space for the BG to debouch into ..).. The Tower is part of a BG of 6 assault troop stands (5 armoured HWs + some archers in the gallery). The unit has been successful in its impact and melee and has placed a stand in the fortress. Two further stands have expanded from this (and two are left in the stack behind the engine). The enemy have just broken, and the assault troops will measure their pursuit from their current position in the usual way (and the rest of the BG will join in behind them). This is fairly easy to do when the entry is into a bastion or similar (i.e. where there is space to put everyone into frontal contacts)...

Where wall walks only allow a single stand's depth, it is sensible to use the same system, but count side to side contact as it front to front. Again, if the attacker wins, an expansion must be made room for by the defender (this way, the assault parties can push their way out from a successful attack).

If they assaulters fail to win, they are not established on the wall. The defender can overlap them - they cannot expand or count as more than the single base. If they break, they rout away from engine/equipment at ground level. The defenders can pursue them - but are not obliged to (no test required). Any bases from either side that are not counted as fighters in the melee can be shot at in the usual way.

'Ownership' of equipment ..

Equipment - from ladders to siege towers - 'belong' to BGs. They can be parted in two ways. If the assault party is successful, the equipment can be left at the walls and the BG press on. If the enemy make unopposed contact with any such equipment that has no friends on it/in it/defending it, it is lost. Otherwise other BGs can make temporary use of it to enter the fortress etc. (apply some common sense and be prepared to put scenario notes in should there likely be complicated interactions). If the BG assaults but is routed, likewise it loses the equipment (normally, this means the equipment is destroyed, but scenario notes are useful ..)..

Here a BG approaches the walls with a Cat or Shed .. The whole BG .. 4 stands, the Cat and an attached commander have been placed on a movement tray. It helps the player treat it as an entity (and makes movement easy!) .. it is a BG, formed for an assault. It counts as 4 stands, it has a singles frontage ... it has a Cat with a ram and there is a commander present.

4th - 5th October Derby University

Old Glory World Championships



Thanks to the Derby chaps for their customary hospitality.

This year we were tucked around the corner a little - but managed to get to see just about everyone at some stage during the weekend.



On Saturday we had another run at Graham E's excellent Trebia set up - Hannibal's great victory replayed using the Neil Thomas @Ancient and Medieval Wargaming' battle rules.

Whilst on Sunday we returned to the Jerusalem theme and further developments in the Field of Glory siege game
Thanks to everyone who took part. See you all next year.

Farnborough 21st September

The Society of AncientsAGM & Games Day 2008



As Shows North, we get to go all over the UK (overseas, too, sometimes) representing the Society of Ancients at Shows, Competitions and Gatherings. I take my camera along to record what we do and to give readers here a flavour of the events.

Well, I also took my camera with me when I went down to the Society's AGM and Games Day.

Always a worthy event and - these days - an underrated day out. A really good range of games were, as usual, available for visitors to join in (or apologies, in my case, but stand near and discuss ...) - and so I do sympathise with the Committee's conundrum in trying to make the formula work for the 21st century: the idea of an ancients day out is a good one; the combination of games and talks is hard to better ... and if you wanted shopping you would get that, too, if more people came. Oh? The business meeting? Well, I get to chair that at the moment - so it must be good!

Actually, I'm sad the formula of the event has become something of an issue ... When I first attended a Society of Ancients AGM back in the 1970s, I didn't even attend the business meeting (I was greeted on the door by Charles Grant, bought some figures from Peter Gilder, attended a WRG rules forum with Phil Barker and then got an eye-opening demonstration from Steve Reed on how a 'master' could make a Seleucid army sing and dance). WRG 3rd edition if I recall (he said, pulling on his anorak!).

revived in a modern idiom - the Tony Bath rules used in a
(solid figure) game at this year's Society of Ancients AGM

All in all, back in the 70s, I found lots to do and a great mix. Attending the Business Meeting wouldn't even have crossed my mind: OK, I was a full member - but I was also a teenager still at school ... and wouldn't have imagined I would have anything to contribute. I did pop my head round the door, and remember it wasn't particularly well attended - it didn't look like I was missing much! Just as it should be, I'd have thought (just as it still is, really): how interesting is running the Society of Ancients going to be?

To my mind, the AGM Business Meeting always ought to be something of a minority interest - uncontroversial, and not why most people would join the Society; never likely to attract much more than the minimum it need to function unless some crisis beckons (like e.g. in 1987 ...).

another great opportunity at this year's AGM : a chance
to play the big version 'Roma Invicta' with the authors

The 1970s recollection would be my model for an AGM day, really ... a cracking good day out hosted by an organization so competently (transparently/invisibly) run that no-one would consider the business meeting particularly interesting or important. And so the day would be games, talks, demos etc. re-unions with old friends over a cappuccino, clusters of old soldiers planning grand (fanciful) wargames whilst propping up the bar.

Instead, even in a good year, we have the Secretary scurrying around cajoling members through the door to get a head count to satisfy a quorum. 17 times out of the last 20, the number has been exceeded, often comfortably so. But maybe only for quarter - third, maybe - was there anything (genuinely) important on the agenda. I have chaired some of those meetings, and have done so aware that some would like to chew the fat all afternoon, others would rather be elsewhere. Though all are welcome, some have come more out obligation than interest.

Focusing obsessively on something that isn't really that important, perhaps the Society risks creating what sports theorists would call 'success phobia' - A good mix in the right place confidently publicised would make a good day out with its own unique buzz. Formulate the whole event wrapped in the concern that the Business Meeting will be inquorate, and guess what happens?

Readers who know the SoA's business will know that this year the Committee had put forward a constitutional amendment to remove the formal need for a Business Meeting (AGM) with a quorum - so the event could concentrate less on the needs of the obligatory meeting, and more on the features that entertain the visitors and celebrate - and 'showcase' - what the Society does. It is one of those supreme ironies that the motion which would remove the need for a quorum couldn't be put because the meeting was inquorate!

The appended photos show a selection of games from this year's event: a great cross-section from the very venerable Tony Bath rules - though in a modern idiom (not played with flats) - to the most up to date (DBMM and a Medieval Warmaster fought over a very impressive layout)...

Elsewhere, Phil Sabin and Garrett Mills were taking volunteers through Roma Invicta, and the Armati enthusiasts had brought along a playtest set up featuring a number of rule variants currently being discussed on Yahoo's Armati group.

Matthew Bennett gave this year's Games Day talk - on Medieval Cavalry ... and what might be meant by that. An interesting presentation on the theme of the universal soldier which I hope will lead to a Slingshot article. And an interesting follow up to this year's Poitiers Battle Day: Poitiers, of course, where so many Men-at-Arms fought as infantry, but where - following my reading of Froissart, of course - some of the archers under the Captal de Buch seem to have fought as cavalry! Yes indeed, Matthew ... what does cavalry mean in a medieval context?

As well as the inevitable meeting and greeting, after the AGM itself, I sat in for a few intriguing turns of the 2nd Punic war as Hannibal Ravaged Italy inconclusively, chatted through the Warmaster activation mechanisms with Grant and Rick, then paid full attention to several bounds of DBMM.

Given the inquorate nature of the Business Meeting, we had been able informally to talk at some length about reviving the Championship .. watch Slingshot and the Society Yahoo group - the key will be always be using the wargame (in all its variety) to meet other members and fellow enthusiasts. Because - as I thought was obvious in Farnborough this year - the Society of Ancients is not about procedures and codicils, but about people and shared enthusiasm.

Well, that was my AGM and Games Day 2008. Thanks to everyone who took time out to attend - especially the game presenters and Matthew for the talk.

Wherever we confirm for next year's event, I hope to see you there.

Newbury Racecourse 13th - 14th September

Where have we been since Partizan?
Sorry to regular visitors for the uncharacteristic gap in posting - work and other issues have meant a few items have backed up a bit. Well here goes - lets get caught up...
Colours 2008
September always brings the prospect of a pleasant day out at Newbury Racecourse - now the long established home of Colours. It always seems to be a sunny day - and the big windows characteristic of these racecourse venues flood the exhibition spaces with light. Vapnartak is similar. Sometimes this is a disadvantage - especially if you are too near the windows ... but I, for one, would much prefer plenty of natural sunshine to the dismal corners one gets in some pokier spaces. Nice turn out this year, and plenty of good games around - photogenic too.

my 'postcard from colours'

Colours is a two day show, and we usually have the 'A team' - Philip Sabin with something from Strategos or Lost Battles and the impressive Eric Cruttenden 28mm collection (see the entry for Salute, e.g.) to give it shape and figure appeal - on saturday, with Shows North taking over on Sunday. This year, we had a bit of a manpower issue, so I went on both days ... manning the stand on Saturday, putting on Welcome to Jerusalem on the Sunday. A bit of a strain, time-wise, but a great weekend ... affording time both to meet people and work on the project. Most of the significant historians and wargames personality of the age were calling in on the Society stand on Saturday, so it was an interesting place to be all day (and if the promises I managed to extract on behalf of our august journal are redeemed, Slingshot will have some good reading coming up!).

Saturday


In a very impressive last minute revision, Philip Sabin presented a scaled up version of the new Society game - Roma Invicta ... 6' x 6' of relief map, with 10mm figures replacing the counters used in the standard game. The vast map was created, Phil tells me, following the 'artroom' tradition of fixing the sheet up on the wall, then painting in over an image projected onto it. The effect was them enhanced by building up the back to raise up the contours. Very impressive.

The game was virtually the same as that issued out earlier this year, just everything boosted up. Clearly the way to present a boardgame at a public show - and it attracted a lot of visitors and favourable comment. Good show, and a worthy variation on our usual displays, I think.


The map follows that issued with the game. Troop counters were
replaced with 10mm figures (1: 1,000 horsemen/2,000 foot)

Sunday
Sunday saw the Shows North team take over, and the up-dated 'Welcome to Jerusalem' game back up to full size. A quieter day, as usual, on the Sunday - but a good chance to play through what we had learnt from the Partizan experiment and put the full display together.

The key zone, of course, is the area around the walls, within range, through which the assault parties will move. The garrison needs space to move about inside the city - and some rules for doing this, too ... but outside, and beyond the range of the defenders, the space is very much decorative (and/or available for game components, charts etc.)... As the defenders aren't really going anywhere, there is very little point forming any assault parties up outside shooting range. And it is probably not that realistic either (although they would obviously move up from the camp or whatever, the point at which they would form up for combat would probably be as they come into range of shooters on the walls). This will need to be a deployment feature of any full 'siege system' for FoG. And probably in an ambush variant also (so that surprise attacks can be launched). More anon.

In 1099, of course, the surprise assault failed. The main attack centred on two mobile towers, one - under the control of Raymond of St Giles threatening the southern approaches - the other, featured in our game, attacking the north east corner. Raymond's tower was burnt by incendiaries, and abandonned. The northern attack was under the leadership of Godfrey de Bouillon. Although his tower was also on fire, it was close enough to the walls for the troops to gain the battlements. As in the game we played at Colours, the successor failure of the incendiary weapons will be critical to the outcome. History seems to give us a tantalising 50/50!


Will had taken Godfrey's role, and the tower -largely undamaged - duly gave forth its complement of assault troops. The results were not good for the wavering Fatimid defenders. They were put to the sword, and the Crusaders flooded into the city. Elsewhere, the ladder parties were struggling to get a foothold - but the collapses elsewhere undermined the resolve all round.

Many thanks to John Curry and Matthew Bennett for important contributions, and to the players for helping us move the project on.

Next time out will be at Derby.

See you there, I hope!