Chalgrove 2022

Here are a few (clickable) images from the games I played yesterday at the Chalgrove "Worlds" - apologies if you've seen some already on Facebook. Above is game 1 vs. Sid Bennett's newly painted and very pretty Samnites. Sid's javelin-chucking Samnites out all too many of my nellies, I think I had just two units left at the end- he was well ahead on points. Always great to play Sid, he's really knowledgeable about the rules.

A quick note on my Classical Indian army- my objective was to maximise the number of elephants on the table, so I picked eight small units and represented each with two models, for a total of 16 pachyderms. I suppose I could have fitted even more elephants in the baggage- perhaps an idea for a future outing!

Here's game two against Kurt from Belgium. Kurt had a splendid army of Teutonic knights, including militant nuns. I began the game supremely confident that my nellies would trample the knights, but it was not to be. Even though my save was excellent (in some cases 3+ vs mounted, on one occasion, when uphill, 2+ !!), on the rare occasions I failed a save, the subsequent rampages often killed several additional units. This army is very much a "glass hammer." Kurt was ahead on points at the end. Below is a shot of the "thin grey line" resisting the charges of the knights.

Here's the last photo I took, of Andy Powell and his Crusaders, mid-game. On the left I managed to squish the mounted Crusader knights. Eventually I took out most of the foot knights in the centre, too, but I lost a fair number of nellies along the way and failed to win outright.

Unfortunately I forgot to photograph my final game against Tony Horobin's (left, photo taken after the end of the game so unfortunately, none of his minis) Middle Imperial Romans, which is a great, pity as it was very a friendly game which I won, with seconds to spare, just before the end of the tournament.

The tournament was won by Peter Ryding (again!) with a Timurid army, very well done to him. He practices very hard for the tournament. I ended up right in the middle of the field. Unfortunately I don't have all the scores but I think Alex and Kurt from Belgium came second and third.

Steve Dover, with help from chums Simon Purchon, Peter Ryding and John (? sorry can't recall surname) did a fantastic job setting up and running the tournament, huge thanks to them. Below is a photo of all those participants who hadn't legged it by the time we got around to taking the group photo.

 Finally, we have two more tournament coming up later this year:

The first is the TtS! Opens, part of the BHGS Historical Teams event at the Lee Valley Leisure Centre in north London on Saturday 15th October. Like Chalgrove, there are four games in one day. You can use any army list from the Ancient Army List eBook. You can book this here. The ticket also gets you entry to SELWG which is in the same venue on the Sunday, a great show where I'll be running a participation game - Second Mantinea - which features Epaminondas and the Theban mega phalanx.

The last tournament will be at Warfare at the Farnborough International Exhibition & Conference Centre on Saturday 12th or Sunday 13th November (we haven't decided which day yet). If you think you'd like to come to this one, please email me and I'll forward to the organiser.

I hope to see you at one event or t'other!

Chalgrove 2021 - The Cheesy Indians in action!

At Chalgrove I completely failed to take any photos of my Indians from the front. Howard Litton has very kindly sent me some images from the game we played. Howard has a lovely Aventine Miniatures Polybian Roman army (once mine, some minis painted by David Imrie IIRC). That's me, by the way.

Here's a side-on view. I massed my elephants mostly in the middle of the line, Howard had to veteran quincunx on the left of his line with veteran velites in support,  and lots of scruffy filler on the right, including an African elephant who (below) looked somewhat lonely as he was facing 8 much superior units of Indian elephants totalling 16 models

Above, Howard had lots of javelinmen- both massed light infantry and formed ones. The Aventine Oscans looked particularly effective. Below, both armies began a steady advance in line. Below, frustratingly, my left stubbornly refused to advance. 

Below, frustratingly, my left stubbornly refused to advance. This was a pity as I'd spotted an opportunity to cut off and potentially kill Howard's Numidians, but they got away. :-(

After this, alas, the photos peter out. What happened in the game was that Howard advanced with the veterans on his left, and fell back with his right, so fast that I couldn't catch up by the end of the game. This did, however, give me an opportunity to get onto the wing of one of his quincunxes with my elephants. Unfortunately time ran out before we could see whether I could kill his quincunx before his other quincunx killed my longbowmen. 

Above- an uncomfortable tactical position for this quincunx. 

Thanks so much to Howard for the game and for the photos!

PS the last photo demonstrates why I developed my wobbly-edged bases- they blend into the cloth rather better than do the straight lines of traditional bases.

Chalgrove 2021 - Cheesy Indians

Here's a quick pic of the army I took to the To the Strongest! Worlds at Chalgrove, yesterday. It's an Indian army, with most of the minis painted by Dan Toone, Shaun McTague and myself, with basing help from Ian Notter. It's not quite finished but you get the drift- later I'll take some closeups.

It's a most unusual army which I built to maximise the number of elephants I could put on the table (16), just for the fun of seeing what it looked like and experiencing how it might work. To achieve this I represented eight small units of elephants each with two elephant models. I think I probably had more elephant models in this one army than have been used in all of the previous Chalgrove tournaments, added together. Tim described it was a cheesy army, on account of all the one hit elephants, so I've named the senior general King Mutar Paneer and the various princely subordinates after other spicy cheese and vegetable dishes.

Due to nightmare travel problems I missed the first game but arrived shortly after the start of the second, and Steve Dover very kindly agreed to play me. He had a Spartacus army with masses of mobs and skirmishers- it was huge. At the start I shot his army up but I had trouble breaking the three hit units- my elephants "bounced" and then one rampaged, carrying off a second one and a general. It ended in a draw with Steve slightly ahead on points. Alas I took no photos!

My second game was against Howard Litton with his (formerly my) Polybian Romans, it was super to see both him and them again. We just weren't fast enough to reach a conclusion- I squeaked narrowly ahead on points in the final round. 

I had a sense that I might have won in another few turns - but with this army there's no degree of certainty, it's almost as dangerous to itself as it is to the enemy.

My third and final game was against old chum Tony Horobin. He had Pechenegs- they rode up and shot at me, I shot back at them and before the archers duel was complete we ran out of time. This was an odd game as I kept my elephants in reserve because they were vulnerable to shooting and not fast enough to catch his light horse- they barely moved. Tony almost took my camp, though, attacking uphill, over fortifications, from a wood with cavalry! Again, it was a draw but I was a little ahead on points.

I found the Cheesy Indians to be a really interesting army to use- powerful but extremely fragile- a single failed save can lead to a casade of rampaging nellies. I don't think it's a tournament winner but it stood up well enough, and I'll have another outing at the London GT tournament on September 25th- the tickets have sold out but if you email me I might be able to fit you in, especially if we have a cancellation.

Congratulations to Peter Ryding who won with a Marian Roman army. Huge thanks to Steve Dover and the South Oxfordshire Generals for running the event and keeping the teas coming, it was, as ever, a great deal of fun and so good to catch up with so many friends after such a long Covid-related interval. I know Steve's already looking at ideas for 2022...

Simon's tournament army II

Above are the rump of my new Indian army for Chalgrove/London GT, excluding the elephants, now partially based. Three units of longbows, one of javelins, compulsory rubbish cavalry and golem (actually the camp ;-)  ). Mostly painted by Shaun McTague and Dan Toone, with finishing and basing by me. Some of these are just about to go off to chum Ian for flocking.

Below are the skirmishing archers and the chariots, still lacking crews but otherwise mostly there.

Not shown yet are the (numerous) elephants which are mostly complete, except they need additional crewmen and snagging.

So I'm really pleased with progress- it's looking good to have everything complete in time for the Chalgrove tournament on 4th September (and the second tournament at the London GT on the 26th). If you fancy coming along, we have space in each but we'd need army lists for Chalgrove in the next few days.

Simon's tournament army

With just over three weeks to Chalgrove I find myself desperately finishing and basing minis for my army. This year I'm bringing Classical Indians; the army of King Matar of Paneer (so-named because Tim, who reviews the army lists, describes my entry as "cheesy"!).

Here are the minis other than the formed archers and elephants (which will feature in future posts).

...and here's a closeup (below) of the as yet partially-based javelinmen.

I'll take proper pics later on; it will be a most unusual force.... Most of these minis are from the Miniature Company and Vendel and were painted by Dan Toone, but Shaun McT is painting reinforcements. I've highlighted all the minis and am painting most of the shields.

The remaining work is mostly in the longbowmen, who are mostly painted but not yet based, and the elephants and chariots who still lack some crewmen, also the camp. Then it'll be a mad rush to base, grout and flock.

To recap, this year's tournaments are:- 

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 . Organised by Steve Dover, it is always a great day’s gaming.

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

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

This year's GT has a theme of “Rome and Greece at War." If you don’t have a suitable 135 point 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 has a bar!

I hope to see you at one or t'other tournament!

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…

Chalgrove 2020

Here's a shot of Chalgrove- setting up for the 2020 World Championships! The players are staggering in from their dawn vigil in the car park. Apologies in advance- I was very distracted and took painfully few photos.

My game one- versus Sid Bennett. I groaned as I realised Sid had a pike army; one of four in the tournament, deadly opponents for my knights. And he had elephants, too.

My knights successfully avoided Sid's pikes but had a lot of difficulty with his elephants. He beat me, but only by a few medals.

Game two- alas no photos! I get terribly focussed on the game and forgot. I played Gary Stark with his Imperial Seleucids. Again, pikes and elephants. This time it went a lot better. From memory, I clobbered both wings whilst largely avoiding the pikes in the centre.

Game three- Garry Chapman and his Swiss. In three games, I'd met 75% of the pike armies in the competition. This was a really interesting one, as it was the first time I'd encountered the Swiss since writing the  Swiss Keil rules in the last "Even Stronger", which enables Swiss to fight to the flank. I was able to pick off most of the Swiss light troops and capture the camp with a flank march. This left me short of four victory medals, so I needed to kill a pike block. In the end I managed it, by dint of attacking a Keil from three sides with almost my entire army and playing a lot of lucky cards! Garry struggled to pin my manoeuvrable knights down.

I found the current Keil rule to be poorly worded and possibly a little overpowered- I'll revise it in the next Even Stronger. It was a very good-natured and enjoyable game though; a bit like the battle of Grandison, without the Swiss reinforcements arriving.

Two decisive victories threw me into the path of Jan de Neve, near the top of the leader table. By this point, I was fully expecting to meet the final pike army in the event (another Swiss), but instead Jan had the doppleganger of my own army- Later Italian Condottieri (Venetian). He had more knights, whereas I had heavier knights and more heroes.

This was a cracking game. It started with me losing three or four units in the first two turns, and I was, indeed, on the back foot throughout the game, but somehow managed to end up slightly ahead at the end. I think Jan and I are very evenly-matched players.

Alas I don't have any photos of the presentations and can't even remember who won what, except that Peter Ryding won first place with his Komnenon Byzantines (which had outmanoeuvred me in Cardiff). He's a cracking player! I believe Simon Purchon came second with his dreadful Sassanids and Tim Thompson came third with his Normans. Tony Horobin took the Dead Elephant award, with his Marian Romans 

I'll see whether I can get some more photos and the names of those who won the other prices. It was a splendid day, many thanks to Steve Dover and the South Oxfordshire Generals for hosting, and to Tim Thompson for checking all of the army lists.

Packing for Chalgrove

Tomorrow it is the 2020 To the Strongest! World Championships at Chalgrove, and here is much-sought-after Dead Elephant award! I am very much looking forward to catching up with all my chums, crushing their armies and hearing the lamentations of their women. ;-)

Chalgrove is coming!

The date of the sixth annual To the Strongest! World Championships is 22nd February 2020 - please put it in your diary - and it will, again, be held in Chalgrove Village Hall, Oxfordshire (OX44 7TE). 

For those who haven't yet been to the TtS! Worlds, it is the largest 28mm ancient/medieval big-battle tournament in the world, with 40 or more players expected to participate in the one-day event. We hope to make 2020 the biggest Chalgrove, yet.

The rules used will be the v1.1a To the Strongest!, along with the Even Stronger V8 supplement. Battles will be fought on 6' x 4' tables on a 12 x 8 box 6" grid. Armies will be 28mm and 130 points; any of the 215+ official TtS! army lists are permitted. If you don't have a suitable army, mail me, we may be able to lend you one. 

Four rounds of battles will be fought in the familiar round-robin format. The first round will feature pre-set terrain and the second, third and fourth rounds will use pre-set terrain if both players are happy, otherwise terrain will be placed as in the rulebook. 

The final tournament ranking will be determined by the total of how many medals you take in a battle, how many you have left and with a bonus applied if you won, outright. It's a good-natured competition, not taken too seriously by most of the competitors.

There will be a £11 entry fee, payable in advance or on the day. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate and biscuits will be provided, and lunch can be ordered in. There will be prizes for the winner, runner ups, good sportsmanship, best army+camp+terrain and other prizes at the whim of the organisers - not to omit the traditional dead elephant award for the player with the lowest score.

To secure a place, please email Steve at  steve.dover@3dsystems.com if you haven't already done so! 

We are now officially open to receive army lists! Please mail your list to tim.thompson9 at btinternet.com. The closing date for list submissions is 10th February, but we are very keen to avoid a late rush.

Any questions please mail me at simonmiller60 at gmail.com

We very much hope to see you there!

The 2019 To the Strongest Worlds! Part III

Swiss civil war at Chalgrove

I thought people might enjoy some modest stats on the tournament!

List of the competing armies, in alphabetic order
Almoravid Berber
Caesarian Roman
Classical Indian
Early Crusaders
Early Feudal Spanish
Eumenid Successor
2 x Feudal English
Hunnic
HYW English
2 x Imperial Seleucid
Italo-Norman
Late Achaemenid
Late Romans (Western)
2 x Later Carthaginian
Later Italian Condottiere (Milanese)
2 x Later Italian Condottiere (Venetian)
Later Medieval German
2 x Middle Imperial Roman
Mongol
Mongol Conquest
2 x Parthian
Polybian Romans
2 x Principate Roman
2 x Romano-British
Sultanate of Rum
2 x Swiss
2 x Tang Chinese
3 x Teutonic Knights
Viking
Wars of the Roses - Yorkist Pretender

Armies by type
10 Infantry armies (four or fewer hits-worth of mounted)
8 Cavalry armies (four of fewer hits-worth of foot)
24 "Mixed" armies- (the rest)

I have a few observations:-

• The majority of armies are mixed.
• Knights seem to be the new nomads- for the first time, there's a high proportion of armies drawn from the High and Later Medieval lists. This might be, in part, because I posted lots of pictures of my own knights in the lead up to the event.
• Also first Parthian armies I've seen- probably due to the improvement to Cataphracts.

Scores on the Doors!

And finally, here are the top five armies- I think all five are "mixed":-

1st place   Chris Winter         Imperial Seleucid                              586.4 points

2nd place  Gareth Purchon Principate Romans                              580.2

3rd place   Colin Hoare         Later Italian Condottiere (Venetian)    570.0

4th place   Simon Miller (!) Later Italian Condottiere (Milanese)   552.2

5th place   Peter Anderson Late Achaemenid                              540.3

• The winning army, Chris Winter's, was one of the few to include elephants, as screens, which he describes as his "ablative shield."  :-)  He reasons that elephants are stomping good value in a knight-rich environment.
• I fought Gareth Purchon in the final round- a bruising draw - golly, Principate Romans are tough! The original TtS! army, and still one of the best.
• I only briefly saw Colin's army- the cousin of my own- lots of lovely red flags fluttering.
• I was astonished to be placed fourth- had a lot of luck. I really, really, like knights!
• I played Peter in a tough game but was hugely lucky when four of his units failed their morale tests and ran away!

The event was generously sponsored by Keith of Aventine Miniatures. I ended up with one of the prizes, and have invested it (and more) in some lovely Huns, including this super baggage element

"Knight Fever" at the London Games Tourney

Should you wish to scratch your post-Chalgrove TtS! itch, or enter your first tournament, we are now taking bookings for a large Medieval-themed TtS! tournament as part of the huge London Games Tourney in Edmonton, London on Sunday 15th September. London GT is a huge event for the Warhammer 40K/LOTR crowd, with quite a sizeable historical contingent present, representing the various ancient rule sets. 

Knight armies are cheap and easy to build in these days of Perry and Fireforge plastics! If you don't have a suitable Medieval army (one from any of the three Medieval books), I (or someone else) might be able to lend you one- I plan to base a couple or three up. I'm also writing additional lists, currently Later Polish and I plan to add Lithuanian, Hussite and Spanish and hopefully more in the next month or so.

The details can be found at Knight Fever Details. You can book your place at Knight Fever Bookings- I already have, it was really easy! Hope to see you there!

The 2019 To the Strongest Worlds! Part II

Connor Truby I think, vs. Peter Ryding?

 Here are the balance of the photos that I've been given from Saturday's To the Strongest! Worlds.

Gareth Purchon vs. Barry Lee. I fought Garreth, later in the day, a tough and resilient opponent!

  

Peter Ryding, right, vs. ? Looks like a  nice compact line with a refused flank guard. I'd hazard that Peter outscouted his opponent and decided to kill one flank.

Roger Calderbank Tang vs. Alex Meyers with Imperial Seleucids

Rachel Winter vs. Simon Purchon

My own light cavalry crossbowmen- did invaluable service. It's really important to be able to disorder some opponents before committing the knights. They died to a man in the last game.

Me vs.Peter Anderson's LAter Acaemenids. An enjoyable game, with several reverses of fortune- I got lucky!

I think that's Howard Litton's Polybian Roman army (ex mine). I think Howard came second overall, which is remarkable in only his second tournament. Howard came all the way from the Isle of Arran. Sorry, I can't make out the opponent. 

We had the hall pretty much filled this year- might need to apply some creative thinking next year.

I really liked Jimmy Carter's vintage Swiss army. I covet a Swiss army of my own...

So the Worlds are over, almost 12 months to wait for the next one! :-(

On the upside, though, I can announce that bookings have just opened for a new one-day tournament, "Knight Fever", as part of the London Games Tourney on Sunday September 15th. This will be purely for armies form the three Medieval Books- if you don't have an army, but want to come, please mail me- or spend £60 with those nice Perry brothers and you'll be sorted in no time! Details are here- it's a Chalgrove-style event, it'll be fixed terrain for round 1 and optional terrain placement thereafter.  Apparently there are plenty of places and lots of free parking. This is where you can book.

The 2019 To the Strongest Worlds! Part I

On Saturday, we enjoyed a fabulous day of gaming at this years To the Strongest! World Championships, hosted by the South Oxfordshire Generals, in Chalgrove. This year we had 41 players who played an incredible total of 80 games between them, most are in the group photo, above. That's Steve Dover in the front who organised it, with help from myself, Tim Thompson and the South Oxfordshire Generals.

Here are some photos of the games, in no particular order, that have kindly been sent to me by Jason Collis, Jimmy Carter and Tim Thompson (along with a few of my own). All photos will enlarge if clicked. Apologies if I missed your name or got it wrong!

Lunchtme- the weather was glorious!

A pensive Andrew Brentnall, who went on, with great good humour, to win the Dead Elephant award.

That's me in the subtle shirt, attacking Gary Chapman's Swiss. Frontally. With knights. It could have gone worse than it did...

Shaun Jewitt- 100 Years War English. What a neatly laid out table! 

John Sharman and Khan Baz scanning the rules!

Rachel Winter- beat me last year, I gather she did well this year, too, but have no details yet.

This is a Civil War between two Later Italian Condotta Venetian armies. Small World! Must be Jan de Neve, and Colin Hoare. There were three Italian Condotta armies, including mine; this year knights are the new nomads!

Parthians, perhaps Peter Ryding's, vs. Romano British, perhaps Nick Abbott's?

That's all for now. Tomorrow I'll post the balance of the photos- lots more in-action shots! The rules used were, of course, To the Strongest v1.1a rules, with the Even Stronger v.7c amendments and 130 point armies. Later this week, we'll post a list of the armies..