Cardiff - 2017 | South East London Wargames Group

chrisr
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Cardiff - 2017 Dec 15, 2016 17:13:42 GMT

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Post by chrisr on Dec 15, 2016 17:13:42 GMT

With my continued participation in the knock-out stages of the club's competition pretty much ended, my thinking has turned to the doubles competition that I've entered with Bryan in January in Cardiff.

Once upon a time an annual pilgrimage to Wales, and in particular Usk, was key part of being a SELWG gamer. Each year up to a dozen of us would spend a long week-end there. Allegedly we were there to play 4 games of DBM or FOG doubles. But the reality was that the games in the evening (ranging from party games involving plastic zombies through to club competition games), the significant imbibing of alcohol, and the general badinage were the attractions.

Now Usk is no more, replaced this year by ADLG doubles at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. I think Bryan and I are the only participants from SELWG, although Ken may travel down to meet up with his long-suffering friend Andy and play DBM. (The long-suffering refers to Andy's experience as Ken's doubles partner, not as his friend!).

The choice of army was straightforward. Bryan has been enjoying using his Northern Dynasties. Despite losing to a 12 year old at the CLC Invitational last month he felt it still had possibilities. So we hunted out a partner for it. The result - Chiang. Never heard of it? Not surprised. I've rebased 24 swordsmen for the key Chiang troop type, Med Sword 2HW Armour. I've just received the remainder I need to paint.

On Friday, whilst others are frolicking around playing participation games, the serious wargamers amongst us (ie Bryan and I) will practising with the help of the Tanners.

More to follow....

Regards

C

denis
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Cardiff - 2017 Dec 15, 2016 18:29:44 GMT

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Post by denis on Dec 15, 2016 18:29:44 GMT

And while you, Bryan and Ken are in Cardiff, I shall be across the Bay in Penarth, combining my annual pilgrimage to the DBA Welsh Open with a weekend visiting an old - and probably long-suffering - friend.

My Parthians and their Sarmatian allies have done rather well for me in this year's ADLG competition, so I have decided to see how they do in in January under a different rule set.

chrisr
Junior Member

Posts: 83
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Cardiff - 2017 Dec 17, 2016 1:13:05 GMT

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Post by chrisr on Dec 17, 2016 1:13:05 GMT

Well the cavalry heavy Chinese and their allies (16 Cav and 6 Cats) found themselves facing an army that included 8 elephants, a wall of pike, and bow interspersed amongst the ellies. Pretty much the worst match up we could get.

So Bryan and I lost. But we learned a lot:-

1. Mediocre HI with 2HW aren't quite good enough to fight pike head on.
2. Medium Cav just can't ride down bow. HC with the extra +1 Protection can take a round of shooting and then go in. MC can't.
3. Ordinary commanders can't really exploit gaps. I got a cav behind Steve T's lines but a combination of the commander's lack of PIPs and command range meant I never had the chance to bring him into the back of Steve's units. Might think about dropping a LF to upgrade him to Competent.
4. A 6'x 4' board is 24 sq ft. A standard board for an ADLG game is 12 Sq ft. Even with larger terrain pieces there's a lot of open space.

I don't know what Steve and Luke's army size was but they must have been rocking by the end as well, which is encouraging given it was a poor match up for us.

C