Marlowe to Maidenhythe in print

I launched the digital version of this book, written by Robert Avery for use with the For King and Parliament rules back in March, and it's proved so popular that I've commissioned a physical print run, which is officially launched today. 

The 66 page book contains twelve free-standing fictional scenarios set around in the counties of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire during and shortly after the English Civil War. They tell the story of a series of clashes between Sir John Boulters (for the King) and Sir Christopher Grey (for Parliament). Each scenario contains a background briefing, separate briefings for each of the players, a deployment plan and orders of battle. The scenarios can be played individually or in sequence, as a campaign. Most of the characters and many of the units recur throughout the campaign, and a postscript describes what happens to them after the war. It's a whole lot of fun!

You can  find both the digital and physical version, here.  There are also some page images if you'd like a peek inside.

September To the Strongest! Tournaments

In these strange days there are but two face-to-face tournaments left standing this year, both in September:

Chalgrove Tournament “The Worlds” Saturday 4th September 2021

The Chalgrove Tournament AKA “the Worlds” is on 4th September at Chalgrove in Oxfordshire. If you come, you’ll get to play four games during the day, using 135 points armies from either of the current releases of the Army List eBooks.  We will be using Even Stronger v9 . It’s organised by Steve Dover and is always a great day’s gaming.

This year, Steve is applying a 0.5 point extra cost to lance-armed units and has reduced the costs of elephants, such that African Elephants cost 5 points and Indian Elephants cost 6. Escorted elephants cost double. Upgrading elephants to veteran will cost one point per “life” and downgrading elephants to raw will save 1 point per “life” 

It costs £10 to enter- if you think you can join us, email me at the address to the left and I’ll forward your details on to Steve.

London GT Tournament “The Nationals” Sunday 26th September 2021

For the convenience of those who are attending both Chalgrove and the London GT,  I’m changing the entry requirements for the GT such that they will correspond exactly to Steve’s amendments for Chalgrove, as above. This will mean that if your army is valid for the theme of the GT “Rome and Greece at War” you’ll be able to use it in both events, if you want. If you don’t have a suitable army for the GT but want to join us, then please let me know, I’ll lend you one- legionaries or pikes, perhaps.

You can bring any army from the following chapters of the Ancient Army List eBook:

• "Frogs around a Pond",
• "Kingdoms of the East",
• "Rise of Rome”,
• “Rome’s Empire”
• Any army valid between 300 BCE and 300 CE from “Across the Indus” or “Beyond the First Cataract”

The format is very similar to Chalgrove, four nail-biting games in a day on a Swiss system.

If you’ve not yet booked a ticket for the GT, please get an entry in ASAP, and bring a friend if you can. It is a great venue and we had a super time, two years ago when it last ran- I have never seen so many gamers in one place, gaming! It’s easy to get to, being near the North Circular, M1, M11 etc., good parking, light and airy, and even a bar! Oh- and it’s my Birthday weekend- I’ll bring cake. Hope to see you there!

I am preparing my most spectacular-ever tournament army for both events. Its nature is currently top-secret but I’ll show some images in a month or so. I am confident that no army quite like it will ever have graced the competition table…

New version of the TtS! Ancient Army List eBook published

I've just published an updated version of the Ancient  Army List eBook. I've brought this out a little early for the convenience of those who are attending the Roman/Greek-themed tournament at the end of September at the London GT (tickets still available, here).  If you aren't already coming, do come and join us! 

This latest release includes new Middle Carthaginian, Carthaginian Mercenary Revolt and Early Etruscan lists. There are also new Axumite, Blemmye/Beja, Nobatae and Christian Nubian lists in a new African “Beyond the First Cataract” chapter, grouped together with some existing but edited list (Early Nubian, Kushite and Later Kushite). I will be expanding this chapter further, in future releases. There are some unusual, colourful and little-known armies to be found, south of Aswan.

I've changed Ligurians from warband to javelinmen in several lists. Significant edits to the Achaemenid Persian, Neo-Babylonian and Pyrrhic lists, and minor edits to some other lists, but I don't think there's much that will throw people's competition plans out. I've also added some extra historical background material and more images. It's now a 297-page PDF contains 159 TtS! ancient army lists!

Above and below are sample pages from the Pyrrhic list.

If you've previously purchased it, you'll have received an email from me with it as an attachment, or a download link if you bought it via Wargames Vault. If you've not bought it yet, you can find it here.  I've also updated the Free Army list eBook.

The next version of the Ancient eBook will come out at the end of September, at the same time as the next release of the Medieval eBook (I've dropped back the publication date back a month so that it comes out after the tournament season, to avoid any confusion).

A big thanks to everyone who helped put the book together! I really hope you enjoy it.