As you can see from the pics, I'm not too worried about being a bit sloppy at this stage as all the colours will get used again, allowing me to do any necessary touch ups as I go.
"Weren't you in a wargames tournament on Sunday? How did it go? Any pics?"
You don't really want to know about that.
"Yes we do!"
I'm sure you don't really...
"WE DO!"
Well, if you insist...
1. I was
2. I didn't finish in the top 11
3. A few
There, will that do you?
"NO!"
Crap. OK then.
Sunday saw me getting up very early in order to set out very early to catch the first tube train out to West London for my lift to the tournament. Of course, in my bleary state after getting up so early, I reset my alarm clock ready for Monday. And switched it to "on". I only realised that when I was on the tube and it must have been going off at home. Apologies to my neighbours.
Anyway, I got to West London and was picked up by the Madaxeman (he of the blog and website). We then wended our way into the wilds beyond London towards Leighton Buzzard. We got there in reasonable time for the 9am start.
I should explain my cunning plan. With the restrictions on how many cavalry I could take and by the army list for Koreans I had two real choices - go for as many good troops as I could and have a smaller army or go for as many lower quality troops as possible. I opted for the latter and had a 19 BG army. Mostly in 8s and 10s. Which meant a whole lot of figures (and a correspondingly heavy bag to lug across London). What might have helped me out was actually sitting down and working out what was the most effective way to use and deploy them before going there. After all, 19 battle groups (almost all infantry, almost all 8s and 10s) takes up a lot of space.
My first game was against Keith who had brought Beninese with Dutch allies. I forgot to take pics of this game and made a complete hash of my deployment. Still, I got into combat reasonably quickly but kept having crap dice rolls (a lot of them would have been very good if the troops hadn't been Poor and having to reroll 6s!). I lost 12 points out of 19; Keith lost 2 points from 15, giving a final score of 5-15.
A short break, then onto the second game against Tom's Samurai - a historical match-up. For this game I made an incomplete hash of my deployment, which took a while to recover from (not aided by me co**ing up the sequence for moving units). Here are some pics:
Once again I was plagued with bad dice rolls (apart from that last pic - fragged Poor foot, down in melee against Elite steady Samurai cavalry managing to win 2:1 and disrupt them - the next round of melee didn't go quite so well...).
I lost 15 points from 19, Tom lost 0 from 13, giving a 3-17 loss for me. A fairly historical result for a historical match-up.
For the third game I was drawn against Dene's Mughals. Another big army, although not quite as large as mine (18 vs 19). My deployment wasn't quite such a hash this time, but still not brilliant. Some pics:
I forgot to take any more pics as the game got quite busy with both of us having so many units. The end result was me losing 11 points from 19 and Dene losing 0 from 18, giving another 5-15 loss for me.
You may have guessed from my earlier comment about not finishing in the top 11 that there might have only been 12 players. You will be pleased to know that your guess was right. Still, I had a long but enjoyable day of gaming.
So, how should I have deployed my troops for best effect? Well, I should have had all my "warrior" troops (the monks and Righteous Army) in the front rank as they were my best infantry, using the "poor" foot for rear support and to guard my flanks and rear. I should also have used the 10-pack conscript foot units ahead of the regular infantry as they could absorb more hits before auto-breaking. And perhaps have sent some of my troops on a flank march making it a bit easier to deploy in the central 4ft that infantry can be in. Oh, and not to have tried for as many crap troops as possible! My one big regret was that my arquebus units never actually managed to get into shooting range in any of the three games, so I might have been better off not taking them and opting for a 1593 list rather than 1598.
Good start on the heavies and glad you enjoyed the tourny, shame about the results though
ReplyDeleteIan
Excellent Cavalry additions I will enjoy watching them progress.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot beat the dice..... last game I played took me more than 3 hours before I could roll higher then a 3 on a d6! It was truly shocking! It that kind of dice rolling affects in in a comp then wave good bye to being placed anywhere but in the bottom 2. And then only if one player does not turn up!
You are certainly getting through a lot of horse flesh at the moment!
ReplyDeleteGreat start on the cav.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy tournaments as it's a way to get a lot of games in. Winning and Losing is really up to the dice gods. You certainly beat me as I played no games on the sunday!
Sounds like you enjoyed the tournament experience if not the results. And you seemed to have learned a few things from what transpired. And more good news. Die rolls do even out. There will be a tournament where you will be recognized as the most brilliant field commander ever when all your rolls will be spot on!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting.
Jerry
"Grumpy is good."
Steady work on the horse and as you said as long as you had fun!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it all about having fun in our hobby? And you enjoyed your day! So nothing bad happend! Great start on those cuirassiers!
ReplyDeletePS: painting 15 mm figures is fun to! The first three are done! ;-)
Greetings
Peter
And I bet you'll have these 18 painted before I finish off the the first 18 cavalry i started before your hassars were undercoated. Oh well onwards and upwards.
ReplyDeleteWhat rules do you play for Napoleonics? I assume these are Napoleonics. Is Field of Glory still a popular set of tournament rules in the U.K.. It never really caught on here but then again tournaments here for Organized ancients aren't organized at all except at 3 conventions a year.
ReplyDelete@ Ian - cheers! I went into the tourney expecting to end up in last place, so I wasn't disappointed :)
ReplyDelete@ Loki - thanks! Fun is the most important part of gaming :)
@ Clint - cheers! My dice do seem to have been rather unlucky since I stood in for a clubmate at Campaign - and his dice seem to have been "hot" since then... ;)
@ Michael A - thanks! I do seem to have been painting lots of cavalry over the last few months :)
@ Miles - cheers! I do enjoy tourneys, even though I don't consider myself a tournament player. They're a great way of getting to play against (and meet) different players than your usual crowd :)
@ Jerry - thanks! I didn't not enjoy my poor results as I was expecting them. I actually did like the fact that my army didn't get broken in any of the games, which was unusual for me! :)
@ Francis - cheers! Cavalry should be done by the end f the weekend :)
@ Peter - thanks! The hobby should be fun, even when you're losing :)
ps - nice work on your first 15s :)
@ Dannoc - cheers! I can slow down if you want...jk :)
@ Andrew - these are Seven Years War, not Napoleonics. I don't do Naps, so can't talk about rules for the period.
FoG and FoGR are still quite popular over here, but ADLG seems to be gaining converts from FoG and other ancients rules.
You know after I posted I realize I could see a larger picture of your Cuirassiers and saw the tricornes and slapped myself. Unfortunately no edit feature on the comments. What rules for 7YW do you use. I play Maurice and Might and Reason.
DeleteI am sorry if I sound like an idiot but at 52 the mind is not as sharp as it once was. What is ADLG? L'Art de la Guerre?
Andrew - for SYW we play King of the Battlefield at our club, but I am looking to try out Osprey's "Honours of War" at some point.
DeleteADLG is indeed l'Art de la Guerre, a set of rules from France that have been recently (last year or two) translated into English and seem to be gaining in popularity.
Thanks!
DeleteGreetings
Peter