Antonine’s Folly 2013

On the 28^th April we held the first of the Scottish Impetus tournaments of the year at the Falkirk Club’s venue in Grangemouth.  12 players took part in total, 9 from Falkirk and 3 from Dunfermline.  There were at least 4 new to Impetus tournaments but such is the easygoing nature of tournament wargaming up here none had any issues.

I organise this tournament and being a simple sort of chap I like to keep things straightforward.  The first round was done on the principle of historical matching and thereafter the Swiss chess system.  There had been a certain amount of discussion on the Impetus forum for and against the 2013 competition amendments so I decided we should stick to the 2012 version.  Then there was the matter of terrain.

To be frank I don’t like the Impetus tournament pick your own terrain system.  I think it gives veteran players, who ponder these things, an additional advantage over novices.  So I decided to go with fixed terrain.  I have an old book of maps done by tabletop games which I find works well.   There are 100 of them with each giving the option of close medium or open terrain.   I get a club member who is not taking part in the competition to roll, firstly a percentage dice to pick the map and then with a 25 % chance for open or close terrain and a 50% chance of medium.  On the day tables are allocated randomly.  To make it easier to avoid anyone playing on the same table twice we set up an extra board, so in this case 7 rather than 6.

So the tournament was held and, for the most part, much merriment ensued.  We have in our number the current world champion and he was expected to sweep the board as usual.  However going into the final round my luck had held (playing two novices) and I found myself a rather distant second to the great man himself, but nonetheless in with a chance.

Dax was using a Lithuanian army filled with javelin armed light cavalry which had earned him two 130 to 0 victories.  My cunning plan was to face him on the close terrain board and after 3 attempts to pick a table sure enough a rolled a 2 to choose the ‘table from hell’.  Stage 2 of the cunning plan was to split my force in 2.  I was worried that my infantry would prove too easy for Dax to pick off so I hid them in the right corner as far away from the action as possible.  Stage 3 of the cunning plan was to funnel my 4 units of impetuous knights, led by the general, around the hills and woods on the left, pin his cavalry against the terrain and if possible take his baggage.

How did it go?  Well I at least gave Dax a run for his money.   The terrain did hamper him significantly and I got pretty close to breaking his last line of defence and having a chance to take out the baggage as well.  In the centre my general got in some lusty bows against the Lithuanian C in C.  On the cohesion test Dax threw a 6 for his unit.  This then meant there was a threat to the general.  A throw of 10 or more on 2 dice could have been enough to win me the game but sadly that was not to be, and Dax finally ran out a 120 to 10 winner.  At least I had succeeded in taking some points from him!

As always I was more interested in playing than taking photos but I did manage to get one shot of all the players in the second round, so here goes.  The squeamish may wish to look away now …(just kidding guys)

 

Frazer v Dax, Yuan Chinese v Lithuanian

 

 

My Feudal English facing off against Marco's Eastern Romans

 

 

Marco surveys the scene

 

Richard C's Berbers v David's 100YW English

 

Russ's Patrician Roman's v Richard B's 100YW English

 

Chuck v John, both using British and Welsh Kingdoms (on table 2). For some reason I can't add the shotof the game between Doug's Samurai and Andy's Teutonics but there they are in the background.