18 May 2024. Themed Tournament Berkshire

The hole left in the UK tournament cycle by the inability of PAWS to host their series of tournaments was partially filled this month by the (hopefully) inaugural Buckleberry Bound as Menacussecundus christened it (with reference to that 1960s bright blue cartoon dog with a deep southern US accent – did we have colour TV then…?). So, thank you Diades for your work in putting on this tournament and for smoothly running an innovative and fun gaming day in an excellent venue (apart from vehicular access). I’m not interested in scoring systems or score sheets, but I must apologise for my inability to complete the score sheet correctly after every single round!

The theme provided some old favourites from the army lists with lots of close formation foot and knights. The only exception being allnewstevie’s brave choice of Norse-Irish, with a 4Ax general. His low aggression, littoral terrain and lots of steep hills were not sufficient to halt the surge of the heavy hitters. In our game we both landed elements on the beach near our opponent’s camps! This provided action simultaneously from one side of the board to the other and command issues, with difficult hills in the middle of the board.

My heavy hitting Normans were a strong contender, particularly with the littoral Viking ally, but my tabletop generalship and die rolling were both not up to the task. In one game three elements were destroyed on ones consecutively. I didn’t see anything of the final between Harold and William, being busy with my final game, which was an enjoyable tussle, on a terrain filled board, against Italian Lombards. Few armies contained bad going troops, players understandably going for the knight and blade type options, and I felt that light troops were earning their pay in the games I saw. The benefits of cavalry’s extra speed or psiloi’s extra reach are magnified when everyone else is plodding along. I wanted to take a 7Hd element but was pleased I chose the psiloi instead.

It was good to see new players who I hope had a positive experience that will bring them back. Hopefully this event will run again next year by which time I will have recovered from driving along miles of single-track country lanes with oncoming locals impatiently rushing towards me.