Friday, November 23, 2012

4th November, Manchester

Northern Doubles League - Round 5.

A quick return to playing Field of Glory for this event (before the trip to Glasgow's annual Armati event!)

This is a great series of events with a nice crowd.   I enjoy playing doubles, and two games of FoG suits me well enough for a wargames trip.   The League offers FoG-R and DBMM as well (and single entries are accepted - but shout around if you are short of a partner ... the social experience of the doubles game is best shared).

Chris and I took my trusty Late 12th Century Spanish and crossed our fingers that we would get some suitable opposition to charge into ...

(Spanish adventure: Game One)

Well, we struggled against the well-organised and practiced Han Chinese ... MFs with heavy weapons and portable obstacles which they pick up and drop down more easily than modern soldiers can do trenches and barbed wire (translate MFs anyway you like!).   A good-natured and challenging game in which we could make no progress at all.

(Spanish adventure: Game Two)

Our second game was against more plausible Euro/Mediterranean opposition: an Ottoman army which, despite its radio-controlled Janissaries, has some similarities with the Moslem armies that were historical foes for our Spanish.

This game didn't go at all well for quite some time, but after some sparkling die rolling by Chris (I wish I could say that every game ...)... we came close to a decisive win inside the distance.


Around the tables, there was a familiar array of old friends and the usual display of big and beautifully turned out wargames armies ...  Doubles events certainly fill up the table spaces.  I particularly liked ...

 (Assyrians vs Mycenneans ... a big battle)

(Romans bullying unarmoured natives ... don't they ever stop?)

And, presumably a big army swansong ... the biggest army I have ever seen used in a tournament ...

(Ruddock's huge Andalusian army swarms around the Swiss)

Those Andalusians would have made very good period opposition for us, but I'm sort of pleased we avoided being swamped by a swarm!   Anyway, I enjoyed the games we did get.

So, one 'getting nowhere' defeat and one 'nearly cracked it' lucky victory ... no trophies for us this time.  Others did better ..

Well done to the winners (some of whom are, shall we say, familiar? with the victor's rostrum) who were rewarded with trophies and a warm handshake from Colin Betts. 


That's the last double game for me until Usk next year.  And the last FoG (time to rummage around for my Armati rule book) ... I'm beginning to look at Big Battle DBA, you know ...

2013 will be the last year for the Northern League under the current seamless management  (Betts/PearsonGoss) ... a big thankyou to them, and here's to giving them a good farewell turnout next year.




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