14th - 15th April, Witney

Society of Ancients Doubles Masters 2012

Again a one-off event, this years Doubles Masters went to the Oxfordshire market town of Witney ... very smart, in these days where the local MP is Prime Minister of the country (it was a little less polished in the early 60's when I was a village boy just down the road).   

There are very few vacant units in the prosperous town centre and more antique shops than pound shops ...

As last year, the masters was contested in Field of Glory and DBMM, and some spare space was allocated to an associated FoG-R event.   The DBMM was 500 points, themed 500BC to 476AD.  The FoG was 900 points themed 450BC to 200BC.

10 FoG teams and 8 DBMM teams played for the Alexander trophy (in addition to which there was a FoG-R event) ... 34 Ancients players (after the host team had to split owing to a 'no show')

(our Parthian/Median 900 point FoG army)

Chris and I had struggled to find a suitable (easy to use and reasonably authentic) army within the highly restrictive period theme - in the end we realised that we could put out a reasonably attractive Parthian army which complied with the time thread.

(DBMM) 

 

 (Field of Glory)

We had a very pleasant weekend - although it started fairly slowly with a bye in the first round (despite the organisers' best efforts to get an evened-up entry) .  Our second game was against a Warring States Han Chinese army, and on Sunday morning we faced eventual winners Nik and Dave who also had Parthians.

 

(Parthian heavy metal ... in round 3 we came up against this lot, ably played by Nik and Dave ...)

It isn't unusual for we four to meet up on a Sunday morning - indeed we faced Nik with the same army but a different partner at Burton with out Libyans (we won that one) -  but over the years they have had the edge on us ... they often go on to do well in the final placing and we generally achieve an undemonstrative mid-table.

This event was not unusual and after what felt like a fairly even game in which we one or two weaknesses the attrition points escalated in the last couple of turns (our army broke on the last phase of the last turn).

 

(several teams conspired to ensure this wasn't a 'pikefest')

The final game was no more than a skirmish against a Seleucid which put all its eggs into a flank march that took all game to turn up, meanwhile packed itself in behind a wall of bronze which we could not dent.

The presence of an IC meant our shooting never built into decisive collapses, and our reserve prefered to wait for the flankers rather than impale itself on a wall of undisrupted pikes.

We took no casualties and in so far as there was a result it was decided by a unit of stragglers lost on the march.

 

(some games were dominated by the infantry however)

David Fairhurst presented the prizes.  We had a small membership stand at the event and took some renewals - and, no Committee members being present, I was pleased thanked the organisers on behalf of the Society (as I would have done in former times).

Lawrence Greaves and Oren Taylor won the DBMM, and Dave Handley and Nik Sharp the FoG. With the higher overall score, Greaves and Taylor were made the new
Society of Ancients Doubles Champions.

(DBMM winners Greaves and Taylor - right - alongside FoG winners Sharp and Handley - with the higher overall score, Greaves and Taylor were awarded the Alexander trophy)

There is talk of changes to the formula here - possibly pairing armies in the original Doubles way ... variations to the points or table arrangement etc.   

Hopefully, the event will become 'open' again (or at least inclusive, like say Burton or Usk), rather than the recent trend towards highly restrictive periods which may not be of interest to members and enthusiasts.

Still, a lovely venue in a pretty town, good company plus two good games and a stalemate.  And the Alexander trophy goes to new winners.

Many thanks to the BHGS and Oxford club for organising and hosting the 2012 Doubles Masters.  I'm looking forward to next year - and if you have any great ideas for enhancing and improving the event, please feel free to air them (the forum is open) ...

Full scores and finishing positions can be found on the BHGS website in due course.

The Society of Ancients will be at Salute on saturday 21st April.

See you there, perhaps ..

3rd-4th September, Abingdon

The 2011 Society of Ancients Doubles Masters (DBMM and FoG)

A busy weekend started with a Saturday morning dash down to Abingdon for the Society sponsored Doubles Masters. The event also hosted a FoG-R tournament and a 'one day' AK47 bash, but the main events were the DBMM and FoG doubles the results of which would be combined to decide the Masters Champions.

Chris and I entered the FoG competition. As well as wanting to support events the Society sponsors by showing up and presenting prizes, it is nice to play as well - and Doubles is such a friendly and enjoyable format it is a pleasure to join in.

Given a very restricted choice of armies, we went with one we have tried before (and which, borrowing Patrick's splendid infantry, I can put together without too much trouble). There were plenty of other Byzantines, but no-one else took Nikephorians. Maybe that was a clue.

(nice shot of our camp - sadly there are too many Arabs in the picture!)

Although we seemed to make a good start against eventual 3rd placers Keith and Graham, we lost the game and didn't accumulate many points. We scored even fewer against Gordon and Richard's impressive Italo Normans ...

Rumour has it we fared a lot better on the Sunday when I was not able to be there until the prize-giving (actually, it is said we won a game in my absence ...) ... Great games all, and very enjoyable. The Byzantines are excellent in Armati, so perhaps I should mark the box up accordingly.

(a great shot of those Italo Normans: they swept onto us like a wave onto a Sicilian beach ... and we were quickly in too deep ...) ...

The AK47 competition was Saturday only, and it was nice to see Martin, Rob and the RFCM brigade so far north ... Hope you enjoyed it. Next year, maybe?

(AK47 event prizes distributed by David and Bob)

(Airstrike! The Nikephorians could have done with one of these: even the Normans would surely conceded the poa!)

Seasoned campaigners Terry Shaw and Simon Hall won the FoG event, with Mike Bennett and Colin Sharp taking the DBMM honours. Meshing all the scores, Terry and Simon took the coveted Alexander Trophy.

(prize winners at the 2011 Masters - nice Tee Shirt, Mike!)

DOUBLES MASTERS
1. Terry Shaw and Simon Hall (FoG)
2. Dave Handley and Nik Sharp (FoG)
3. Mike Bennett and Colin Sharp (DBMM)

For more comprehensive listings, please see the Results Press Release

Watch out for this event next year ... Doubles is a great and sociable way to play, and that Alexander trophy needs a good home. It could be yours.

Many thanks to Bob Medcraft and David Fairhurst for putting the event together - and all the players for making the event such an enjoyable venture.

Here are some more pictures...

Looking forward to next year.

Oxford (Wheatley Campus) 31st July - 1st August

The Society of Ancients Doubles Masters 2010


Originally set up as a 'series' of Doubles events around the country - indeed, Britain, by the time a Scottish round was added - the Doubles Masters been through a few years where some of the venues struggled to get a good turn out.

While lack of local organisers, lack of publicity, clashing with an increasingly busy programme of other events have all played their part, the solution applied this year was to focus the competition on a core, mid-year, event that has always worked and proved popular - the Oxford round (and 'home' venue for organiser David Fairhurst).

Although it is admittedly disappointing to lose the ambition of a nationwide series (and which thereby means everyone - UK at least - should have a Society sponsored event fairly near to them), this new strategy is, at least, reinforcing success - and Oxford is also a reasonably accessible venue (yes, it is south of Birmingham, but it does have good Motorway connections).

The Society of Ancients therefore actively sponsors the English DBA Open held in Portsmouth, the Northern DBA Cup held in Sheffield, Armati by the Sea (Bournemouth), Anderida Doubles (for which, after cancellation in Pevensey, there is, this year, a stand in event in Farnborough) which is FoG and DBM - and we award the 'sportsmanship' trophy at Britcon in Manchester. Adding Oxford for the Doubles Masters (also FoG) to that, we could get the net thrown wider ... but the spread of events and rules choices is not too bad. Of course there are numerous 'one off' donations we have made around the world, and the Championship is there for everyone to join in anywhere in the world (and we have entrants from as far from the Society's English HQ as New Zealand ...)..

Hopefully, this spread of events, rules choices, and locations will enable fellow members who enjoy wargames a fair chance of finding a Society of Ancients event they can enter, whilst enabling us to reach out to non-members and hopefully encourage them to join up.

(Hurly-burly ... how a typical Field of Glory game is resolved ...)

The event itself was an obvious success. We were at a new venue - the Wheatley campus of Oxford Brooke's University (about 5 minutes off the M40). Having just about squeezed everybody into Wolvercote Village Hall last year, the move to a bigger venue merited a full turn out.

To a FoG 900 point 15mm Doubles event (our bit) was added a Flames of War (Axis/Allied pairs) and FoG R singles options. Ancient and Modern Army Supplies/Donnington Miniatures joined us in sponsorship (See their website, here ...) and added some spending vouchers to the trophies and SoA goodie bags.

70 odd players entered, about half in the Doubles Masters. That was a good result, I thought: the venue was fully utilised but without the unpleasant intimacy we sometimes have 'enjoyed'. Chris joined me in the SoA team. We had a mixed bag of results but 4 very good games. I continue to enjoy Doubles as the more satisfying tournament format (whatever the rules) ... sociability clearly wins over competitiveness in a 'four hander' (and although FoG has its intricate corners, it is less fiddly and provocative than some of its predecessors).

Everyone seemed to be smiling, and the Umpires were seldom called (actually, I was sufficiently absorbed in my own games I'm not sure who the umpires were or if they were needed at all. I had a query about how disordering terrain applies ... so just asked a player on another table - and my opponent was happy with that 'second' opinion. That's Doubles, really).


(detail from the Ordonnance French army)
We could hardly have asked for more as opponents. We took Later Sicilian (an old favourite). Game one was against Ian Stewart and Jim Gibson with their French Ordonnance. Game two was also against French Ordonnance (doesn't matter how many times you throw Charles of Anjou out of Italy, his descendants will come back to haunt you I guess), this time Richard Bodley Scott and (Ancient and Modern proprietor) Damien Ranasinghe. Game three, happily still medieval, was against 100 Years War Continental (Kieth Pullen and Mike Urich) ... they would have needed to bring their stakes to fight against us. And our last game was against veteran Doubles combo Kieth Martin Smith and Wayne Dare. They had a Hellenistic army, so this was our only seriously out of period encounter.
We had losing draws in the first and last of those games; we got stuffed by Richard and Damien's pike-heavy Ordonnance in the second game (but we did sack their camp - that'll learn them!), and we returned that compliment to the English (who did not have any stakes) on the Sunday morning (except we didn't let them near our camp). All the games were closely fought and great fun - even when we were wiped out by the French it was through losing initially even combats, then failing more cohesion tests (said the steamrollered victim as he disappeared under the big wheel!).

We ticked all our player satisfaction boxes ... most of our games were in period, we sacked a camp (in fact, 2), killed a general and won a decisive victory (and, as it happens, not all in the same game!). We can't have been too far off a par result of course ... but both the score draws were against us.
(red markers mean routed, yellow fragmented, green disrupted - all the English units have one, and the Sicilian knights are pursuing long and hitting fresh troops)
In addition to the main results, we awarded a new prize - the Founders Prize - in recognition of the success of this long running event ... set up by Ian McNeil in 1992 (before the days of the BHGS) with support coming from Slingshot editor Paul Szusikiewicz (Paul and I played in that first year as 'team 14') ... with the event becoming the Society of Ancients Doubles Masters in 1993. By that token, next year will be the 20th campaign season.

Simon LeRay Meyer and Dave Saunders won the Founders Prize as comparative newcomers with a good approach to the game and a good looking Latin Greek army which fought bravely rather than grudgingly and provided plenty of entertainment.

Simon Hall and Terry Shaw won the Doubles Masters and the Alexander Trophy, Alastair Harley won the FoGR. Full details of the results will be posted on the BHGS 'Doubles' page shortly (here ... then follow the buttons) ...

Sadly, for Doubles, that's it til next year (but judging by this event, make sure you don't miss it in 2011) ... I'll have to see if I can get another game in the Northern Doubles before the year is out.

Tough call because of timetable clashes. I still have some further Championship games to play ... I am sitting out the competitions at Britcon this year (so, hopefully, no grumpy posts this year about wargaming at 8.15 am or missing out on that first glass of Rioja because someone insisted on playing the evening game at snail's pace ...) but have a Championship Challenge scheduled for the Friday. And there might be another slot, say 4 til 7 (plenty of time for Armati, or even DBA 'both ways') on the Saturday if anyone wants it ...
Claymore next, for shows, of course ... then Britcon, then a breather before The Other Partizan (5th September) and the Autumn schedule ...

Make the most of the summer ...

Derby 12th -13th December

Society of Ancients Doubles Masters 2009 Final
Now a Field of Glory event, this was the final round of this year's Society of Ancients Doubles Masters, and all to play for. A busy weekend, as, on Sunday we were also due to be at the 'Wargamer' show in Birmingham. Nevertheless, I managed to get a game in on the Saturday - partnering Lynda Fairhurst as her Scots took on the well-fancied Handley/Sharp Hungarians.

(Scots against Hungarians at Derby)

We lost - but narrowly. It was a tight and educational game - like all these, played in the best spirit ... In the end, Dave and Nick narrowly missed their shot at the title and the event was won by Wayne Dare and Kieth Martin Smith
That is, I think officially, the team was Graham Evans and Wayne Dare, with Kieth as first reserve. The combo won the Derby event, and that was enough to secure them the Alexander trophy for the year as Doubles Masters. More details on all the year's results can be found by following the 'Doubles' links on the BHGS website (here ...)

The Society's thanks go to the BHGS for organising this competition again, and especially to David Fairhurst who does the lion's share of it ...

Next year will see a major change to the Doubles, and a reduction to two larger events, one in England, one in Scotland. The English event will 31st July/1st August at Wheatley Campus just outside Oxford (again, details can be found on the BHGS website). We look forward to a great weekend.