Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[scott holder]

Fast Warrior

1) Todd Kaeser, Swiss, 20
2) Scott Holder, Alex Imp, 16
3) Matt Kollmer, Picts, 15
4) Ewan McNay, Sassanid, 13
5) Frank Gilson, Norse-Irish, 13
6) Sean Scott, Lysimachid, 8
7) Rich Kroupa, Free Company, 7
8) Bill Low/Chamis, Aztec, 2

Above reflects tie breaks using opponents combined record. The Bills, Chamis & Low, tag teamed on who played each round as the latter was still working on Friday.

Doubles, Italian Condotta Theme

1) Ewan McNay/Scott McDonald, IC – VI, 30.5
2) Dave Stier/Frank Gilson, Free Company, 19.5
3) Rich Kroupa/Scott Holder, HRI, 19.1
4) Dan Woyke/Matt Kollmer, HRI, 18.3
5) Dave Markowitz/Jake Kovel, Free Company, 16
6) Sean-Patrick Scott/Bill Chamis, IC-MI, 13.9
7) Bill Low/Matt Weinstock, IC-Neap, 8.9
8) Todd Kaeser/Rob Turnball, IC-FL, 7.2

Circus Maximus Winner/Survivor: Jevon Garrett

The key takeaway from the weekend was “Who needs Cold Wars anyway?” We had a blast and quite frankly, didn’t draw any less than if we’d been at a Cold Wars. Plus, we ate better, drank better (and probably more) and the vibe was far more chill than at Cold Wars.

On Tuesday, I flew (uneventfully) into Baltimore, picked up by Rich, spent the night at his place. This works because it provides scheduling flexibility, I get to have crab cakes for dinner, and I’m around to help Rich load terrain. On Wed, we leisurely headed up to CT, NYC traffic had its moments but really, not a bad drive. Bill wasn’t home (in office but also picking up Frank on the way home) but we knew that so headed up the road to Nod Hill Brewery. On Thu, we headed down to Norwalk to get tables and chairs from the rental place.

We then moved furniture around two of Bill’s living rooms (he has many) and the dining room so that we had four 8x5s. Rich and I then played Frank in a Doubles pickup game which helped us immensely in terms of rejiggering our Holy Roman Imperial list. The four of us then had dinner in Wilton.

People started showing up on Friday and as you can tell from the results, we had 8 players in Fast Warrior and like last time we ran this, everybody loved it. I’m still hoping that translates into “go home and play this with others” but if nothing else, it shows doing it on the Friday before Doubles works. At some point in the afternoon, Jevon got in. At some point, Bill went out and bought dinner…for Ewan to cook. I’d brought up a crap ton of wine, as did others so when Fast Warrior ended between 5:30-6, we were set.

Matt brought his 15mm Circus Maximus rig which we had first run after the Mini last year at Fall In. While Ewan dealt with dinner and everybody liberally imbibed, Matt and me got the Circus setup and had players fill out and roll for their team. Ten teams meant this would be an engaging race. Sure enough, Matt was barely into the straight stretch out of the starting block when I moved inside, whipped his driver who swerved into the spina wall. Race over before it started! I then let him run my chariot and I’d manage the rest of the chaos.

Entering the final curve, Todd was in the lead…until Ewan moved up next to him, whipped the driver which resulted in Todd’s driver being ungently yanked out of his chariot. I don’t do the dragged driver option in the game, it just slows things down so when you’re out, you’re out. Ewan was now in the lead…until Jevon came up, whipped his driver and pulled him out of the chariot. By this point there were only 4 chariots left and Matt’s team took out one (I think, it was chaos and a lot of red wine had flowed by then). Jevon won going away.

Doubles was great. We had a perfect mix of armies, I was really pleased at that. Typically Doubles day is a slog because the rounds are 4 hours but it never really felt that way, probably because the army sizes were somewhat reduced and simply the chill vibe of the “venue”.

Dan bought pizza between Rounds 2 and 3, that also might have helped us get thru Round 3…and wine.

On Sunday, we broke down everything, helped Bill get it all back into his van for return on Monday. Rich and I cruised back to Baltimore where I helped him unload and he took me to the airport. If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll know what a clusterfuck that process was.

None of this was possible without Bill hosting the event. Most of the people attending had been there before but not me. It was great. He housed me, Rich, Frank and Ewan. We took over the place and Bill handled it with aplomb. As I said earlier, if there’s no Cold Wars next year and Bill’s good with doing it again, I’m sure as hell good with doing it again.

Thanks to Matt for bringing down Circus Maximus. I even had a plaque made for the winner. It’s now gonna be a fixture. Can’t really do it at Hcon because of how the events/timing play out but we can do it again at Fall In.

Thanks to Rich, as always, for storing/hauling/making the terrain and being my airport shuttle service and hotel.

And thanks to everybody who attended and help make it a chill weekend.

scott

[Todd Kaeser]

I'll happily add a little AAR/insights from the wonderful weekend at Bill's.

1 - Bill is the ultimate host - amazing as usual and Bill is a real sport for hosting such a large BillCon.

2 - Circus Maximus was awesome and yes, I could have been a contender....

3 - Wine, coffee, and food were outstanding. Ewan makes a mean meal IMHO.

4 - Swiss were a blast in fast warrior. the LEHI made a huge difference. All 3 units fought every battle. My dice were so hot on day one. My up rolls with Swiss pike units routed opposing knights, longbowmen, elephants and pike. I played so poorly the next day and didn't roll better than +1 and usually -2 so....... rough day. I didn't support my units properly and when your opponents pass their waiver tests and you fail lots of yours the day goes badly.

5 - Being with friends makes a great weekend. Thanks for umping as usual Scott. I appreciate all of you.

Todd