ALTON ST. GEORGE’S DAY DBA, 23rd APRIL 2022

Yep, Medieval, and from Ireland (but Anglo- of that parish 😊).

No one brave enough to field the Medieval Irish with six psiloi……😳

Thank you to Martin and all for a grand day gaming.

I took King Penda of Mercia with Welsh allies and they were definitely competitive most of the day, but the fates were rarely with them.

First up against Arnaud’s Patsies, a rookie deployment error on my part allowed his legionaries to sally from his fort and bring the tally 2-1 in the Roman’s favour by the time they were dealt with.  The game split into three fronts.  In the woods to my front left, in the centre and my right turned by his fast mounted allies.  We were soon 3-3 and we both had chances to win…the Patricians were lucky first!

In the second game I had Peter Clair’s Normans, 6 knights, 3 blades, 3 bows.  Penda gave me plenty to think about, but when the crunch finally came, the match ups and luck gave a resounding 5g-0 victory to the Normans.

Next up Lindon’s 100YW English.  I defended and happily moved through a hamlet and spread out to the waterway on my left.  Meanwhile the enemy had piled around my right.  A brief glimpse of victory on that flank was dashed by a lack of PIPs.  Lindon efficiently made the most of every opportunity and left Penda on the losing side again.

Game 4 with Paddy Green’s Tudor Rebels…two heavy foot armies and no PIPs.  Penda and his Welsh allied warband moved around just enough to prevent a head on clash…0-0.

Game 5 against Colin’s Anglo-Irish.  Another splintered game around a central hamlet.  Slow going.  Irish auxilia and psiloi facing against Welsh warband and psiloi on the right…Penda wading through the woods on the Irish right flank and carving up bows.  The Irish knight general pursued into the hamlet, but managed to escape the ensuing onslaught. A close game, but 4-2 or 3 at the close in favour of the Irish.

Game 6, I used more war of the roses troops, with more bows and fewer blades than earlier.  A close fight between a river and a steep hill.  Ultimately the shallower depth of the blades continually having to redress with their bows and deal with pursuing, meant Penda’s more easily maintained cohesion gave Penda a close 4-3 victory.

I’ll have to scour the results sheets for that one…Mr Heath-Robinson has failed to deliver his steam driven file searching engine, so it’ll be DIY.

Meanwhile

PICS NOW ON FACEBOOK AND GROUPS.IO, for those keen to look.

Army performance:-
Anglo-Irish (Colin) DLWWWL
Viking Raider. LLLLWL
Anglo-Norman WLLLWW
EIR LLLLWL
Henry Tudor DLWDLL
Norman (Paul) WWWLWD
SRB Arthur DLWLLW
Patrician+SRB WWWWLL
HYW a (Lindon) WWWWLL
HYW a (Paddy) DWLWWW
Scots Common DDWWWD
Anglo-Irish (John) DWWLLW
Norman (John) LWLLWW
WotR DDLWLL
Mid. Anglo-Saxon+Welsh LLLDLW
M I R DWLWLW

Quick assessment…’knight heavy’ armies (eg both Normans, both HYW) seemed to do better than ‘infantry heavy’ armies (eg Vikings, H Tudor and Romans). Patrician + SRB ally also did well, though I don’t have a record of its composition.

I’ll have to dig out the paperwork…..🙃

Just to advise, I’m now trying to book an alternative venue for 15th April 2023….one for your diaries.

(This falls a week after the Easter weekend and a week before Salute)

Ha! While I admit my first match may have looked like a loss my 4-0 DRAW against Colin did in fact include a Horde as one of the four units, and is correctly marked as a draw for Colin but a Loss for me.

...Not that I'm proud of it. :/

But other than that, thank you for a great day and super efficient scoring, time keeping and overall organisation Martin!