Dragon's Roar The Winter Warmer, Cardiff November 15th

5/11 I have posted timetable for the day below. PLEASE READ THE NOTE ABOUT CATERING FOR LUNCH. Cheers


*  A post has opened 7/10 below for names entered.

Hi all,

We're organising another fun and friendly tournament at the ever popular Firestorm venue on Saturday 15th November to try and end the year with a bang

The event format is the idea of a club member here Gareth Thomas and once again has a theme but with a difference...no need to bring any armies or terrain, all will be provided except for lucky dice!

The idea is 8 tables will be given 2 armies each to give a variety of historical match ups. Terrain will be preset and winners of the exploration roll can choose the table edge they want. There after  full tournament rules for 300pt 28mm games will apply. The tables are named after a battle just to give a bit of flavour and will not have a bearing on what you will be fighting over.

Players will move around from table to table as follows, 1st round will be a random draw for army/ table. For the 2nd and 3rd rounds it will be 1st v 2nd, 3rd v 4th etc as usual but wherever possible people will play on a different table with a different army each time - if a table has to be returned to then they'll play the other army. This will be decided by the organisers after the 1st round to give as much variety as possible.

So the idea ideally is everyone plays with a different army on a different table over the 3 games - a real test of your generalship!

The tables are as follows (not all may be used depending on numbers attending) :

1. Kadesh - New Kingdom Egyptian v Hittites

2. Marathon - Hoplite Greek v Early Achaemenid Persian

3. Hydaspes - Alexander the Great v Classical Indian

4. Pydna - Republican Roman v  Later Macedonian

5. Britannia - Early Imperial Roman v Ancient Brits

6. The battle for the Middle Kingdom - Song v Yuan Chinese

7. Towton - Wars of the Roses, York v Lancaster

8. Pavia - Italian Wars French v Spanish

So that's 1500BC to 1520 AD to fight over!

More details will follow as to times on the day etc but as numbers are definitely limited  for this one its first come first served.

Cheers

Brilliant idea ... Bevan did a version of this type of games day before in Abingdon and it worked really well. Ahhhh I cannot make that day though otherwise would be there? next time for me.

Like the sound of this a lot. Look forward to hearing how it goes.

This looks a great idea. Any chance of shifting it a week? It is the same weekend as Reading's "Warfare" and some players will have divided loyalties...

TD

Hi Tony,

Sorry, we knew there would be a clash but it's the best weekend for Gareth who is organising it and also Firestorm is relatively quiet that day. Mind you as Reading goes into a sunday as well that could be an excellent full weekend of wargaming lined up

Cheers

Here's the list of entrants so far, I'll update this post as numbers (hopefully!!) grow. As the number of tables is strictly limited don't hang around getting your name down, that's 6 tables gone already...

1.  Gareth Thomas
2. Ross Broadstock
3. Roger Calderbank
4. Jonathan O'Connell
5. Colin Brewer
6. Phil Sweeting
7. Gary Chapman
8. Mike Baldwin
9. Alastair Pinkney
10. Phil J
11. John G
12. Tony Dennis
13. Peter Dennis

I'll be reserve in the event of odd numbers so I can referee and open my chariot driving school on the day, you need theory and practical test passes to get your licence

Cheers

Hi Guys,

As discussed at Derby this sounds great fun.

Please count me in!

CB

Cheers Colin, your name is going on the list now.

If there is still space two more to join the fray...

Peter and Tony Dennis

There certainly is Tony, I'll get you on there now.

Cheers

Hi GG,

For travel planning purposes, can you confirm the event timetable? I'm assuming it will be the same as last time i.e. 10:00 - 10:30 start time.

TD

HiTony,

Yes the shop opens at 10 so same as before, I'll get a proper timetable up asap. Cheers

Here's the timetable for the day:

10 - 10.15 Registration
10.15 - 10.30 Allocate tables and explain how the tournament will work
10.30 - 12.15 Game 1
12.15 - 12.30 Scoring and prepare Game 2
12.30 - 13.00 Lunch PLEASE NOTE - with just 30mins and the café next door probably closed it may be an idea to bring your own lunch, sorry but catering is very iffy at Firestorm at the mo. There is still tea, coffee, bar and vending machine for nibbles on site though.
13.00 - 14.45 Game 2
14.45 - 15.00 Scoring and preparing Game 3
15.00 - 16.45 Game 3
16.45 + beer and medals

Cheers

On the day there were 10 of us. So the five battles were;

Egyptian v Hittites
Greeks v Persians
Alexander Empire v Classical Indians
Republican Romans v Later Macedonian Successors
Sung Chinese v Yuan Chinese

The tournament wasn't run the usual Swiss style. Instead, an initial draw determined the tables and opponents for each round, so that no-one played twice on the same table,. The terrain was fixed and the players chose, based on a coin toss, which army they'd play with on each table.

The scoring of each game was as normal, but to avoid an unequal match-up or two giving an easy victory to one of the players, we looked at the 3 scores for each army. They were reduced by the lowest score for that army (so the lowest score got 0) and those modified scores were totaled for each player to give a final result. The idea was to try to assess the comparative effect each player made to the army they were playing with.

So the final result was:

1st Gareth Thomas - 185 points
2nd Roger Calderbank - 165 points
3rd Colin Brewer - 147 points
4th Gary Chapman - 119 points
5th Phil Sweeting - 69 points
6th Phil Johansson - 34 points
7th Barrie Griffiths - 24 points
8th John Gallacher - 21 points
9th Peter Dennis - 1 point
10th Tony Dennis - 0 points

Thank you to all for making it an enjoyable day. Special thanks to all those who brought armies, and to Phil J and John G who are relatively new to Impetus but joined in with gusto.

RogerC

For anyone interested, here are a few thoughts on this format.

There were more draws than usual, probably because the armies were unfamiliar and everyone had to spend more time looking up values etc. Maybe we should have allowed more time per game.The most balanced was the Sung v Yuan, with one draw and a win for each side. The Romans and Successors also fought out a 'mutual destruction' game, suggesting that was fairly balanced as well. The least balanced was probably Alexander v Indians; the latter won twice and were leading in the third.

It was a good chance to play with unusual troops. The chariot game was popular, as were the Indian elephants. No-one knew what to do with the Sung Wagenburg. Fielding the Republican Romans as large units seemed to be more successful than the other form of line relief.

The scoring system worked OK, but perhaps could be improved. Interestingly, 'normal' Impetus scoring would have given the same result for the first five places, but would have moved the lower places around a bit.

RogerC

Thanks for the report back Roger sounds like it was fun. Very keen to have a go at something along these lines at some stage down the track.
Played in a Napoleonic comp once with set tables ...attacker - defender pre determined with additional points for objectives etc one of the best comps I ever participated in you really had to think.
Nicely done

My thanks to all the Cardiff gang and RogerC for organising an origional great days gaming. It was an entertaining day, getting to run 3 armies I had not tried before, luck of the dice and opponents generosity gave me the choice of army in each of the 3 games.

In round one I chose Classical Indian and had a great game against Alexandrian Maks. The game timed out into a draw, with a slight advantage to the Indians. The elephants were begining to work the flanks as the phalanx closed with the Indian foot. The game could have turned either way toward the end, both generals were engaged. Poros had been promoted to charismatic, always a sign that the dice gods are about to arrange his demise and an army rout!

In round two I chose Archaemenid Persian over the Greeks. This was another great game, the Persian horse found themselves trying to hold off the hoplite bulldozer, while the sparabara closed in on the flank to shoot them down. Time was called with both sides optomistic of a result.

In round three I tried my hand with Republican Romans against the Later Maks. Another exciting game, Rome trying to establish a flank advantage before the phalanx hit the legion. The final showdown between legion and phalanx had arrived, with the flanks unresolved, when time was called. So three draws, but great fun none-the-less.

Kudos to the folk who had provided the armies, they were all very well painted and a pleasure to use.

Observations, pros and cons. This was a great day's entertainment, a great effort by all concerned. It was a little difficult getting to understand the OB of each army. Each army had its list, but each in a different format. If a standard form could be devised it would help speed play in this style of competition.

The scoring system was devised by a Byzantine commitee working in a labyrinth
It is a good idea that the results of each army should be normalised, but the system may need some tweeking. But I would say that wouldent I?

Great day, thanks again.

TD