Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Stoke Challenge


There is a report on this year's Stoke Challenge over at Ancients on the Move
(click this link ... )

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

2009

This blog is currently dormant pending someone volunteering to edit/maintain it.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Britcon 2008


Britcon Results board

No. Name Opponent Score Total
Position Rnd 1 Rnd 2 Rnd 3 Rnd 4 Rnd 5 Rnd 6 Rnd 1 Rnd 2 Rnd 3 Rnd 4 Rnd 5 Rnd 6 Army
Armati
1 088 Steve Metheringham 34 62 178 40 89 62 32 27 27 8 27 24 145
2 062 Bill Wilson 40 88 34 89 178 88 32 5 32 28 32 8 137
3 089 Karsten Gould 178 34 40 62 88 40 27 27 27 4 5 26 116
4 040 Bruce Rollett 62 178 89 88 34 89 0 12 5 24 19 6 66
5 178 Craig Tannock 89 40 88 34 62 34 5 20 5 8 0 22 60
6 034 John Bradley 88 89 62 178 40 178 0 5 0 24 13 10 52

Stoke Challenge

Stoke Challenge Doubles

The Stoke Challenge was a day of locally popular games organised into a tournament format. Mark Fry (Armati League) and Jonathan Murphy (Stoke) had organised a Triumph of Cavalry 'one off' Armati Doubles event. There are very few Armati doubles events around, though the format has worked well with other rules sets, and multiplayer games 'at home' are commonplace.
Chris and I used the 'Triumph of Cavalry' period's jack of all trades army, the Abbassid Arabs, and finished a respectable somewhere in the middle - losing to Craddock and Murphy's Romans (which should have been Ghaznavid), and narrowly getting the better of Mark's Romano British (Arthur and all ...)... There were also 2 Tang Chinese one or two rules clarifications to resolve duringarmies. There were the day (as much because Armati players are too relaxed to have bothered reading the rulesproperly as resulting from different interpretations between local players and the League players ...) ... but no real complications with the format, or the extra generals and slightly bigger armies.

Roy Boss and Rodger Williams won using their Late Roman (Eastern) army, followed by (2nd) Mark Craddock and Jonathan Murphy - Late Roman (Western) - and (3rd) Mark Fry - Romano British.

Thanks to the Stoke organisers for a great day's wargaming. Here's some of those Romans.

Monday, August 11, 2008

2008

Armati GB News 2008

2007

Armati GB News 2007

2006

Armati GB News 2006

THE ARMATI GB LEAGUE - NEWSLETTER

November06, Send ideas, comments, criticisms to: Carl Luxford


What did you miss at Glasgow? Do you recognise these?

WAGS – The women who attended on Saturday & on Sunday evening? And you thought it was an all male affair?

JOKERS – Na! No Jokers attended but lots were played as a new concept arrived on the Armati GB scene!

MONO TRIP – Nothing to do with railways. Did you go vegan at Glasgow? 5 players did for one night!

PARLEMENT IN CRISIS – Not a Blair or Brown in sight as the New Zealand ‘Speaker’ called time on the game length & timekeeping debate!

SoA President denounces ‘Tyranny’ at Glasgow Parlement as clock watchers call time on his & others late arrivals! But did either side of this debate win?

What are the answers? You didn’t think I was going to tell you, did you?

Poor turnout from phoenix club as english visitors outnumber scots by 9 to 7. It’s only the presence of newcomer Graham Short [an Englishman resident in Scotland] and of Mark Grindlay, [well known ‘Kiwi’ resident of Scotland], that brings local numbers up to par! Is this a ‘Must try harder next year’ for the Phoenix club membership??

Bulgar army prize for 1st place is seen below and was donated by Neil Simpson whose participation was missed.

See website for larger version & 2nd view.

Glasgow Phil Rodgers trophy results

Here is Mike Lillie, receiving his 1st place prize, with 118 points, from weekend organiser, Craig Tannock.

Here is Craig presenting Bill Wilson with his 2nd place prize, on 114 points.

Here is 3rd placed Roy Boss with his prize, having achieved 108 points.

What yer mean the editor’s biased making the photo of the only Englishman in the top 3, the biggest photo! It’s just me poor photoshop editing skills, honest! In total18 players participated, with one new player Graham Short (below) achieving a healthy

73 points and finishing joint 11th only 24 points behind Steve Metheringham in 4th place. Well done Graham! Seen wearing his newcomers prize! I will load more photos of the terrain, players, and some army lists, on website shortly. Carl

THE PRE-SET GAMES AT GLASGOW

The following is a list of the games available for random selection during each of the five game rounds of the weekend at Glasgow, with 3 games on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.

Table1 Babylonian v Assyrian

Table2 Canaanite v NKEgyptian

Table3 Trojan v Sea Peoples

Table4 Cyrus v Artaxerxes

Table5 Early Roman v Tarantine Greek

Table6 Early Seleucid v Ptolemaic

Table7 Picts v Mid Imperial Romans

Table8 Phyrrus v Roman Republic

Table9 Arab Conquest v Maurikian Byzantine

Table10 Fatamid v Early Crusader

Table11 Hun v Patrician Romans

Table12 Parthian v Armenian

Table13 Scots v Anglo-Irish

Table14 Swiss v Imperial German

Table15 Early Samurai v Mongols

Table16 French v Condottierii

As usual, these games each had two pre-selected armies, (varying in points size, the biggest I played was 100 points per side, I think(?), on table 5), chosen by members of the Phoenix club, and the terrain and armies remained as set for the whole weekend. Each round a draw would be made, with one of the paired players selecting a table [using a numbered tally taken from a bag], then the tally would be tossed and caught with the face up revealing which army the player would use. No player could play the same game twice (this being different from Derby were the player would automatically take the army he didn’t play with previously).

The concept of a JOKER was included at the last minute!! From the second round onwards each player could veto a table selection once in the weekend by playing their JOKER, but before knowing which army they would play. Thus the draw process could be longer than usual, but this didn’t seem to irk anyone, aided by the comfortable surroundings, & the merriment as players ‘ummed’ and ‘aahed’ about their Joker made for extra fun!

Our base for the weekend were three conference or seminar rooms, along one corridor, on the first floor of the Novotel in Glasgow. There was a forth room used by Phoenix club to store their storage boxes etc. All were lockable and they were linked by a lounge area were the Phoenix club thoughtfully arranged for coffee, tea, hot water and biscuits to be laid on each day from breakfast time. Very welcome facility in deed. In addition each room had mineral water available. The lounge became our draw space and presentation area and at the end of the games on both Saturday and Sunday, our Parlement !! On Saturday we met to initially air views & finalise Sunday’s agenda, then on the Sunday it was debate & decision time. All much appreciated the chairing by Mark Grindlay although he had a touch job this year!

THE DECISIONS?

We agreed the tournament list for 2007, adding one new venue & weekend. This is Bournemouth on 3rd & 4th March, to be run as a scenario based weekend, organised by Peter Barham, Mark Fry and Roy Boss, the latter two providing all the figures (& terrain) to be used. NEXT NEWSLETTER WILL LIST ALL EVENTS & add more details about some decisions.

Despite some dissent, WARFLUTE armies have again been accepted for all weekends.

At Glasgow, 3, or was it 4, partners joined us for the Saturday meal out, an Indian meal, although there were also smaller gatherings on the Friday (Italian) and the Sunday evenings (vegan), and on latter Malcolm and his partner dropped by.

And as usual some beers and wine was partaken of, but in moderation! Honest.

Much debate, but not a lot of agreement, about game length, timed out games and late starters. Steve M. was charged with writing up a draw rule to be used at all weekends, based on that used at Derby and Glasgow. But Weekend Organisers were given authority to decide issues like game length, and any penalties for late starting players, and how to achieve some consistency of application of League ‘rules’ over the year.

There was concern about internet rows spoiling the image of Armati competition weekends and possibly driving newcomers away. All were asked to consider ‘internet etiquette’ and to adopt the ‘play nice’ philosophy advocated by Karsten! And Steve M! And me too! Honest! Carl smiling as he loses!

THE ARMATI GB LEAGUE - NEWSLETTER

’Beardie’ Derby Army= Numidians! (see below) a new low after WF mid Imperials!!

DERBY 2006, Send ideas, comments, criticisms to: Carl Luxford

CONGRATULATIONS TO PHIL STEELE, recently re-elected President of the Society of Ancients (after a gap of a few years) AND who won this years Derby Armati2 competition with 116 points. His first Armati GB League trophy, I believe. He is seen below receiving his Armati League plaque then his cup courtesy of Derby Wargames Club & their sponsors.

In second place came Vincent Auger, with 107 points. Bien accomplit, Monsieur! I think they both opted for Biblicals, mainly? Vincent is pictured below with his two trophies. He was one of three French players participating in this competition.

In third place, and a happier man this tournament [I hope? See picture below!], is Karsten Gould with 101 points, who played a mix of games, I believe. And crucially, my spies inform me, didn’t have to play any grumpy gamers from Scouseland!

I hope Karsten and others will agree that this weekend was a fun wargames event and the contestant aggro that crept in at Britcon was absent? See other players photos on the ArmatiUK website. (To be posted this week)

‘BEARDIE’ ARMY (=ugly to play with army list) AWARD? Well your nominations are welcomed but the editors choice goes to that famous Scot Graham the hat Bryson!! (Pictured below) He came 4th this weekend, with 99 points. WELL DONE on that score!

But HE selected and entered both Numidians and Campanians into this competition. Thus rumours abounded of Graham sabotaging others chances of coming ahead of him this weekend!

(Remember we had to play with armies randomly drawn, but he could only play once with his creations if unlucky enough to draw them!) The Numidians nearly won this award by a mile saved by the late success of Karsten Gould who managed the impossible, to win with it, scoring a famous 32-0 victory, and also to Roy Boss who also scored a famous 22-10 victory with the same ‘beardie’ Numidians, (pictured at top of newsletter), as deployed by Paul Murgatroyd.

WELL DONE THAT UMPIRE! Steve Metheringham (seen above in black teeshirt awarding trophies) managed what looked impossible when he promised to produce two tournaments alongside each other and combine their scoring. But HE DID IT and all present agreed it worked well with players opting to choose either Biblical armies for their games or Hellenistic & Punic armies for their games. For example my

preference was the latter and I played four games from these lists before agreeing to play one game from Biblicals for my last game, which I also enjoyed. Steve M. began the weekend seemingly dispirited by the prospect of doing another Derby and talking of taking this competition off the Armati GB League calendar for 2007. But at the end of the weekend he seemed as pleased as the rest of us by his efforts to produce a GREAT weekends gaming and I think he promised to do it all again next year? If you were there then please email Steve and let him know what you thought. Or if you can offer to help him prepare next years the go ahead and volunteer!

Also thanks to Karsten G. and Vincent A. who helped Steve with setting up the terrain, the result there was more likely to be space to move two wide units between the terrain pieces, although the photos on the ArmatiUK website shows that occasionally terrain ended quite close together (see table 2 with wood and RG village close together on one flank).

WELCOME to a new player, Tony Morley, from Lincolnshire. (pictured below left) Tony’s weekend was going reasonably well on Saturday for his first ever Armati2 competition, but Sunday was not a happy day for him. Hopefully he wont get too despondent by his end score and final position and will come to another weekend soon.

WELCOME BACK to a young player, Matthew Otter (pictured above right), not quite as young as when I first recall him playing with us over 4 years ago, who had not played nor read the new A2 version of the rules but nonetheless was a spirited player throughout. A far better player-general than his final score. So hopefully Matt wont leave it another 4 years before he comes back for another weekend, and hopefully somebody at Mansfield will lend him a set of rules to read too!

GLASGOW WEEKEND SOON!

Look out for news from Craig Tannock, of the Phoenix wargames club in Glasgow, about the next Armati GB League weekend on 25th & 26th November06! And if anybody is coming from Phil Steele’s neck of the woods, why don’t you persuade him to take a day off on the Friday 24th Nov so he can travel up leisurely and be there fresh and on time to defend his newly acquired pole position?!!

All the best, Carl (who hopefully hasn’t offended anyone with this newsletter, after my double whammy at and after Britcon!)