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Historicon 2017 Results and AAR
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 2:49 pm    Post subject: Historicon 2017 Results and AAR

NICT

1) Todd Kaeser, Tepanec, 42.2
2) Rich Kroupa, Kushan, 38.4
3) Derek Downs, NKE, 37.7
4) Bill Low, Tepenec, 37.5
5) Ewan McNay, HYWE, 37
6) Greg Hauser, Ghaznavid, 34.8
7) Jake Kovel, Early Polish, 33.7
8) Dan Woyke, Sultanate of Lodi, 33.3
9) Sean Scott, Italian Condotta, 31.8
10) Robert Turnball, Seleucid, 30.4
11) Mark Stone, Shang Chinese, 28.9
12) Jamie White, Zulu, 25.2
13) Phil Gardocki, Anglo-Irish, 22.8
14) Jevon Garrett, Elamite, 16.6
15) Scott McDonald, Seleucid, 14.8
16) Rick Parrish*, Midianite, 12.6

*Alex Stone played Rick's 5th round running weighted NKE.

Bronze Age Theme

1) Ewan McNay, Elamite (Early Dynastic), 13
2) Rob Turnball, Early Dynastic Sumerian, 13
3) Scott Holder, Akkadian, 12
4) Larry Daum, Anatolian States, 11
5) Dan Woyke, Sea Peoples, 10
6) Derek Downs, NKE, 9
7) Rich Kroupa, Early Hebrew, 8
8) Todd Kaeser, Early Libyan, 8
9) Greg Hauser, Midianite, 8
10) Mike Kelly, Midianite, 8
11) Sean Scott, Mycenaean Greek, 7
12) Alex Stone, NKE, 5
13) Mark Stone, Makkan, 4
14) Jevon Garrett, Elamite (Middle), 4
15) Bill Low, Mitanni, 4
16) Rick Parrish, Midianite, 4

(Scores reflect the tie breaker, in this case opponent's cumulative scores. We didn't run this thru the spreadsheet, not unusual)

Greg Hauser will be painting a "something" for the NICT winner like he does every year.

Best Camp (EVER!): Rich Kroupa

Sportsman: Jevon Garrett
Sportsman Nominees: Sean Scott, Todd Kaeser, Larry Daum

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 6:49 pm    Post subject:

939.6 miles in 13 hours and 10 minutes. That’s the time it took me to blow home on Sunday. It’s almost identical to the time it takes me to blow home from the Host…which we’ll be returning to, apparently, in 2018. It’s good in that maybe, just maybe, the people in that area (I’m looking at you Marc Cribbs and Jim Bisigani) and points east, will attend. It’s bad in that when I put on my Tournament Coordinator hat for HMGS, I have far less room and flexibility in Lampeter than I do at the Fredericksburg Convention Center. It’s bad because there’s no Wegman’s next door and believe me, that’s a big draw. Finally it’s bad because we’re losing our great end of day “hang” site, the lobby of the Hampton. Years ago I remember staying with Bill Low across Highway 30 at the Continental. It has this big outdoor section behind the building and thus hidden from Rt 30. It was very much a working class “weekend getaway” place for young families and I loved the vibe. It would be a great end-of-day “hang” except if it’s moronically hot/humid. And the likelihood of that in July is, well, high. Still, I think we’ll figure out something when going back to the Host.

That’s still not official although everybody associated with the show made it clear it was a done deal. The main thing preventing a formal announcement was no date had been determined. I hope they change the date to the 4th weekend in July the way it had been for 20 years. I know we have at least one player, Dave Markowitz, who can’t attend when it’s the 3rd weekend the way it’s been for several years.

I did my usual drive partway back on Tuesday, stopping at what passes for a ‘burb in Charleston WV. I actually mapped out a 6 mile run thru this burb on Wednesday morning, then I popped into the agency office I work for (we’re in every state) to see one of my counterparts on Wednesday, then meandered my way thru various backroads of Albemarle, Orange, Louisa and Spotsylvania counties enroute to the convention center. No beer order this year, I just checked in, then started unloading stuff and doing preliminary paperwork for Thursday’s NICT rounds.

Like we’ve done for the last couple of Cold Wars and Hcons, me and Rich Kroupa get a pickup game in the night before things start. He schleps down most of the terrain (I bring some out with me as well), we lay out the mats so they get some time to flatten, and then we setup a game. This was a Bronze Age theme game using our weighted armies, he running Early Hebrew, me running Akkadian (#10). This game is important to both of us because we have fun but we also get to shake off the accumulated rust (and much accumulates given how little any of us get to play between shows) and work out the kinks in our respective armies. I didn’t make any changes in mine but learned quite a bit about how I should be deploying it. For example, I never used my 4h HCh/Reg LMI detachments against Rich, big mistake. They are critical to beating up just about anything they can catch in this Theme and thus, I knew how to better employ them on Friday. It was also clear how I needed to organize the commands and the “pods”, in this case each pod consisting of the aforementioned HCh/LMI unit, a 2E 4H LCh unit (the great Sumerian Straddle Cars) and a 12E barbarian blob.

We had 16 people playing on Thursday, actually 18 counting me and Larry Daum. Larry couldn’t play on Saturday and I really didn’t want to make a cut in the NICT so we kept an even number in that tournament and he and I played our respective NICT lists (he Neo-Assyrian Empire, me Early Byzantine) in one game while everybody else played Rounds 1-2. We had 20 “unique” players this year, down from 26 last Hcon but then we had the Novaks playing (they didn’t make Hcon at all this year) and the Richardson clan up from FL.

I deliberately didn’t make a cut because it’s not as if players in the proverbial “lower half” of the bracket wouldn’t be playing each other on Saturday if they remained in the mix. I told everybody up front that I’d likely be doing that and even if we had a single player drop, I’d find somebody (most likely me) to simply play in that player’s slot and keeping his score going forward. Post-NICT reaction was that everybody did like playing the 5 rounds and that this year’s winner, Todd, wouldn’t have made the cut the way I was doing it in the past (he had 4 pts after the first two rounds). Going forward, I like the idea of a 5 round NICT even if we have more players next year. What I liked is that we had sort of what I expect each year, the usual suspects sprinting out with a couple of 5-x rounds on Thursday. Sure enough, Bill, Ewan and Derek had 10 pts while Greg had 8. Things changed around a lot on Saturday as players struggled to come out with definitive victories. Going into the final round, Bill and Ewan were just a tenth of a point apart with Derek and Todd rounding out the top 4. Todd beat Derek 5-2 while Bill and Ewan fought to a 2-2 draw. The result was Todd winning in much the same way he won with 15mm Aztecs decades ago.

For two years running now, Rich Kroupa has come in 2nd (up from the pack, he was in 8th place going into the final round) running Kushan. It was funny, when I placed the Round 5 cards on the table and he saw that he was playing Rob Turnball, he looked at me and said “Rob must have fallen on hard times if we’re playing”. Heh heh, the then proceeded to clobber Rob. Because of the numbers and my decision ahead of time to not make a cut, I had a 2nd place plaque for the NICT. That too was a good idea.

For the 3rd year running, I’ve kept the Thu NICT tables nominally open and the Sat tables viciously cluttered. At least for next year, I have no intention of changing that approach. I liked the fact we had a rather eclectic NICT mix this year although the Theme drove that to some extent. Mark Stone asked me at the Saturday night “hang” about what I was hoping to accomplish with this approach. I waxed philosophical for a bit, the only thing he agreed with was the visual display reasoning but I had one thought later that will resonate with Mark if not with the rest of you. Mark talked Thursday night about how race directors for trail ultramarathons (in case some of you don’t know it, both Mark and I run ultramarathons) have this tendency to want to put their specific “imprint” on their race. The same applies here. It’s possible that after next year I might want to open up the tables for a year just to see what people decide to bring. But for next year, expect the Saturday tables to be cluttered and prep accordingly.

This leads into another observation: cluttered terrain and the biggest and best painted armies in tournament world means that people take notice. I had several former 7th players who are over playing ADLG tell me that “you guys put on the best looking tournies”. Okay, it doesn’t get us any new players but it does make a statement and that overall visual demonstration has long been a goal of mine.

The Bronze Age Theme was the best theme ever. Okay I’m biased but we had a decent variety of armies and appear to have gotten the weighting right. I had people kvetch about the presence of Midianites and will admit that historically, at least in their double-ridden camels guise, appear after the cutoff date for the theme, 1000 BC. But I also knew there were at least 2 25mm Midianite armies out there that otherwise never get played. Then I learned that Rick Parrish built Midianites just for this. Look at the results, it’s not as if they dominated and as a result, we had 3 players. Rick ended up playing both of the other Midianite armies. Nobody sympathized. :P

Todd umped the Theme…and played because Bill talked Mark’s son Alex into playing. We couldn’t do the Themes as we do without Bill’s seemingly limitless supply of armies. He handed Alex a ready-to-go 1681pt NKE list. Todd and I played each other in the final round which meant we could take turns answering questions without slowing down our game too much.

Obviously I loved the Theme. I’ve been looking forward to this since the day I decided with would be Bronze Age and not some “greater Biblical Warrior” theme since that meant I’d bring my Sumerians/Akkadians. I painted this army of now long-out-of-print Garrison/SKT figures for another 7th player in DC back in the late 90s. He sold it to another guy in the area a couple of years later. I found out about that and then traded him a 15mm Viking army as I’d fallen in love with the clunky figures when painting it. I know I played it on one chariot theme close to 20 years ago but that was it. I had to round out the lead collection and alas, the only Sumerian figures made these days are 28mm so they had to do.

Even better, I got in a total of 6 Theme games: 1 pickup vs Rich as mentioned, the three actual Theme games, then a pickup against Alex Saturday morning and another against Bill Chamis Saturday evening. I played 7 games over the weekend which is the most I’ve ever played at any Hcon. The “highlight” was the incredible dice I had against Todd running Early Libyans Friday night. I had one HTH where I did 12 CPF to one of his barbarian infantry blocks, another where I did 8 CPF and another where I did 6 CPF. The latter was one of those combats where you have virtually identical units (in our case 12E loose order Irr foot fronted by Irr A) hit and each side rolls up, on our case we both rolled up a total of 3 (I think). The units then stood there tired, disordered and both eventually died.

The visuals on the Theme were fantastic. Yeah, some of our late Medieval stuff can look equally impressive but there’s still something about chariots that just capture the casual viewer’s imagination. This leads into what Rich Kroupa did. The weighting meant he brought the Arc as a sacred standard. As he put it “if I bought more units, I wouldn’t know where to put em.”. Then, his camp was a rocky mound with a small tree aflame…complete with a figure on his knees looking up at the…burning…bush. The crowning achievement was that Rich had LED lighting and a replacement supply of batteries for the thing. Best. Camp. Ever. We had people coming by our Wednesday night game and they were just blown away by that. Then they look across the table at the clunky Sumerian Battle Carts and the compliments flowed. It was that way the entire weekend.

Todd produced an NKE camp for Derek: workers building a section of a pyramid. It was complete with single figures of mummies, topless women, etc., done by Greg Hauser, I assume as part of his generous prize support for Derek winning the NICT last year. Great camp…just not illuminated burning bush level.

I’ve told Bill since, I could do this Theme every year and most likely never get tired of it.

Jevon got 4 Sportsman nominations, I think that’s a record. I also think I forgot to list one nomination. I remember getting it, then telling myself to go write that down. In the intervening 10-20 seconds I forgot.

Rules wise, the inevitable “I’ve conveniently overlooked any gap issues until I want to prevent my opponent from doing something” questions cropped up as the weekend went on. A couple of years back I said at first such questions amused me, then became irritating. Now they simply piss me off from the git go because I rule on it and then the player who brings up the gap issue feels the need to debate me despite my edict that gaps are always going to be a bit hazy and need to be “curated” (that’s Bill’s term and is very appropriate). Thus, I don’t want any debate on it and such debate simply adds fuel to my already grumpy nature and reaction to gap questions in the first place. Stop it all of you.

The only question I couldn’t answer came in all games, the pickup between me and Bill Chamis. It had to do with breakthrough moves. I’ll most likely recount that in a separate post because I still don’t have an answer. I did take a picture of it so me, Bill and Frank can discuss via eleventy hundered emails later this month.

I blew thru the Dealers Room and as usual, didn’t buy anything. Bob Rossi of C&R Miniatures (now the US distributor for Essex) took ill and wasn’t able to attend so there went my one shopping goal. The Flea Market provided me with some dirt cheap Star Wars X-Wing models complete with cards and stands (look on my Facebook page as to how I’m modifying those stands to make that visual experience far more dynamic).

I’ll have Fall In stuff up sometime in August. Look for me to try and playtest a couple of concepts that have surfaced related to next year’s Dogs Of War theme, specifically changes in D class missile fire. I might also let weighted armies from previous themes play at their weighted size, meaning if Marc Cribbs wants to show up with 1920 pts of Mountain Indians for Saturday’s 1600 pt open, he might just be able to do that.

Finally, our Saturday night “hang”:

Hcon 1

scott

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 6:50 pm    Post subject:

It's very satisfying to see my son finish ahead of me in the Theme Tournament. That certainly feels like at least one member of the next generation coming more fully into the fold.
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 7:01 pm    Post subject:

I'm hoping Alex comes back regularly.

When I paired him with Phil Saturday night, I actually screwed up in that Phil had already played "Player #4" already. I had a helluva time with the last 4 players trying to avoid that. I told Phil that Alex would be using a weighted NKE army and Phil's reply was "give him more points". Heh heh, it wouldn't have mattered because Phil went on an embarrassingly good die rolling spree.

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 17, 2017 11:32 pm    Post subject:

A lengthier AAR, while things are still relatively fresh in my mind.

Thursday:
A big thanks to Scott MacDonald who met Alex and me in Reston to give us a lift down to Historicon. Not having to rent a car this time definitely helped the budget.

Game 1 - Derek, New Kingdom Egyptian. This is a list I've looked at dozens of times and never seen it as even remotely viable for open tournament play. I'm a pretty crafty list wizard, but Derek is in a class by himself for finding a way to turn this particular batch of lead into gold. It should have been a close match: both armies have a lot of shooting. I have better mounted, but Derek has better foot. Both armies have 20+ total units. About midway through I felt like I was making some headway, particularly in on the left flank and in the center, where I was starting to draw some blood. But I also noticed that Derek was in a very cheerful and forgiving mood, a sure sign that he was unconcerned about the outcome. Sure enough, late in the game my right began to unravel badly, his foot pounced, and before I knew it I had a command under retirement. 5-2 to Derek.

Game 2 - Jamie White, Zulu. This is a pretty tough matchup for me. My army features a lot of shooting (200+ shooters), and his army is highly resistant to shooting. My army is also rather slow, with only the light chariots moving faster than 120p. At the same time, I'm a tough nut for him to crack. Chariots aren't very worried about his HTW foot, and the game settles into a bit of a grind with me trying to pin and punch where I can make him stand, and him trying to dodge and sting where I've left him an opening. Neither of us leaves much of an opening to the other, but we each draw some blood. 2-2.

Friday:
A big thanks to Scott Holder and Bill Low for pulling together the lead that enabled me to pay in the Theme. Also thanks to Scott for being a good sport and letting me bring elephants into a chariot-oriented theme, despite some hesitation. He needn't have worried.

Makkan is a pretty solid list in period. You get a bunch of foot that starts out as Irr C LMI JLS, and can be variously upgraded to B, or to Regular, or to Reg B, and can add shields, and add 2HCW. Lots of flexibility there. The ally contingent gives you some 4 horse light chariots, which are handy, and 4 elephants, albeit not very good ones (Irr C, driver with JLS).

The biggest problem is playing an army you are completely unfamiliar with against a bunch of other armies you are completely unfamiliar with. But most everyone else has the same problem, so fair is fair.

Game 1 - Rob Turnball, Early Dynastic Sumerian

The rust shows. On Bound 2 I have set up what I think is a very good attack: my Irr Bs going into a unit of Robs heavy chariots. Even if I lose, the fight is taking place next to a woods that I control, so his ability to support a potentially overextended unit are limited. Alas, I overlook that in order to set up my charge I have moved forward just enough to have an enemy unit farther down the line behind my flank. I cannot be impetuous, must take the charge at the halt, and things go downhill badly from there. When the unit routs, my first two waver tests -- with eager Bs -- are both 1s. The next couple of hours are drawing out the inevitable consequences of my blunder. 5-1 for Rob.

Game 2 - Greg Hauser, Midianite. Recognizing that my elephants are going to be useless against the staggering amount of bow fire he has, I send one of them on a flank march on my left flank. Between my left flank and center I have some sturdy foot units hunkered down in the shadow of a pyramid, where they are relatively protected from shooting. The frontage from the pyramid to table edge promises to be hotly contested. Elsewhere I'm dodging, skirmishing, and platooning my troops as best I can to hold up in the face of Greg's shooting. Fortunately my elephants arrive on Bound 2 with a roll of 5 for the flank march, enabling me to put them exactly behind Greg's advancing right flank. This disorders one unit, and creates a traffic jam for him. He ends up having to fight me hand to hand with a camel unit that is at a significant disadvantage. Alas, I cannot roll dice well enough to get a decisive result, and I cannot get Greg to fail a waver for disordered while disordered. I do eventually get a routed and shaken unit on this front, but not before Greg's shooting wears me down on the right. I have a couple of units break under the pressure, I fail a couple of wavers, and a command goes into retirement thus stalling my remaining counter-attack possibilities. 4-1 Greg.

Game 3 - Jevon Garrett, Elamite. Maybe the most fun I had in any game all weekend. The table is relatively open, with a major water feature along my left flank. There's a woods in the rear zone on my right flank. I'm concerned about the woods blocking my chariots' ability to evade, and I'm concerned about exposing my elephants to all that Elamite bow fire. I quickly go through a chain of reasoning like this:
* I need to flank march both elephant units.
* But I can't flank march on the major water flank.
* So the only way to flank march both elephant units is to flank march the whole command.
* Also, with only one flank viable for flank marching, Jevon is likely to flank march something, so I need to flank march more points than he will.
* And, if we're both flank marching on the same flank, the odds of my flank march arriving go up considerably.

So away goes the ally general, all my elephants, and all my light chariots. Sure enough, on Bound 2 Jevon's flank march dices a successful arrival, but it's just a single unit of 48 MI archers. It's bounced into his rear zone disordered, and I come on the next bound. On my left I am steadily refusing and giving ground. The end result of this is an amazing diagonal battle line that stretches all the way from my left rear corner to Jevon's left rear corner, with pretty vigorous action all up and down the line. Lots of shooting, lots of charges, lots of evades. Jevon has me outnumbered badly on my left, but his big block of archers is just in deep trouble trying to face an entire command, and the rest of his flank on that side has no choice but to yield ground.

In the end there's a fair amount of blood and a good time had by both of us. We both killed over 350 points of troops. Final result 2-2.

I'll post more on my Saturday games, and some final thoughts, when I have time later.
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 7:43 am    Post subject:

Thanks to Mark for posting this...I'm hopeful to read more, posted by additional folks as well!
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:47 am    Post subject:

Mark's post reminds me of a couple of things.

Thanks to Derek for use of his assorted Egyptian "terrain" features. They're models, a pyramid, a sphinx, an obelisk and an 8" tall statue of Annubis. Todd brilliantly just put the pyramid on the table and said "it's impassible and blocks LOS". The sphinx he setup with some of my pillars as part of a village terrain feature. The statue of Annubis sat on one of the small islands in the major water features Rich created. We had a fair number of compliments for those little flourishes on the table.

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 2:13 pm    Post subject:

AAR, continued:

Saturday:

Game 1 - Rich Kroupa, Kushan. I have played Rich many times over the years, and he really is the perfect opponent. Always a gentleman and a good sport, yet also a very skilled player. And his figures always look great. This year he did a fantastic job of designing his list, turning a "B" list into a serious competitor. And for those concerned about clutter on the table, I'll just point out that Rich's army has zero capacity to fight in bad terrain, and Rich did just fine, finishing in 2nd place.

Rich has double my scouting points, but not triple. Despite that, when we dice he has to put down a command first. This turns out to be crucial, because it enables me to set up my opposing command lined up exactly the way I want it. The critical part is the center of his front line which consists of a 2 model elephant unit, a 16 figure block of MI LTS,Sh, and another 2 model elephant unit (Rich's CinC). Against these six elements' frontage I have:
* a 3 model skirmishing heavy chariot unit (1 wide, 3 deep) with LI B on the base, lined up against one elephant.
* 16 Reg B LMI B in column, lined up against the other elephant in that unit.
* 16 Reg B LMI 2HCT, Sh in column, lined up against half his LTS unit.
* Another such 2HCT unit, lined up against the other half.
* Another LMI B unit, lined up against his CinC's elephant.
* Another skirmishing heavy chariot unit, lined up against the other elephant in the CinC's unit.

This is an enormous points expenditure for me, probably more than double the points that Rich has, even with his CinC there. But I know that everything I have is better than everything he has. You doubt me? Listen carefully.

To the left of this I have a 48 figure unit of MI B, and there's a big woods a ways in front of them that keeps his cav from messing with them. Another such unit covers the remainder of my flank, also well protected by the woods. My right consists of light chariots and light infantry, and here Rich has the greater points commitment, with a good amount of LC, some EHC, and his big block of medium camels. This is complicated by my having to deploy in front of a brush that I cannot move chariots through, so I dont' have a lot of fall back room.

We go at it. On my my left, nothing happens. Rich has no ability to tangle with the big archer blocks, given that he can't easily get his SHC past the woods. On my right I'm fighting a losing battle. I want to delay and skirmish back, buying time for the center to develop, but being pinned against the brush with my chariots forces me to be aggressive. I take a couple of low odds charges with my light chariots to try and buy some maneuvering room, but it doesn't go well. I put up a scrappy fight, but over the course of about 4 bounds things gradually become unglued.

The center is a thing of beauty though. My 2HCT guys charge his LTS guys, and though at contact we're about even, I'm Reg B and he's Irreg C, so the dice are very slightly in my favor. One of my units is recoiled, but the other locks with his LTS, meaning my recoiled guys can now charge into the overlaping LTS element next bound with good odds of success. They do, and now Rich is the one recoiling, and disordered at that. Meanwhile I shoot one of his elephant units for 2 CPF, but he passes his waver, and I roll down big against his CinC, so no waver involved. He charges in both places.

What he doesn't expect is that I am also charging him with my heavy chariots. And my evading LMI archers are both Reg B, and both pass their wavers. While the chariot units both lose, Rich discovers he is barely doing a CPF. And next bound I have both 16 figure LMI B units support shooting in, and also a good portion of one of my 48 figure MI B units. Alas, a bound of bad shooting roles delays things, but the following bound I do enough support shooting into the elephant unit on my left that even the paltry casualties done by my chariot crew is twice as many, and with support I do 3CPF and then some. The elephant unit routs, and the LTS unit shakes.

Rich has brought up his SHC (elephant proof of course) to support his center, but this doesn't help him much. My bowfire is dense enough and widespread enough that even his SHC have to be careful, and the heavy chariots I've held in reserve are very well matched against his SHC. And Rich has one of his SHC in the wrong place when his elephants break, resulting in an elephant burst through attempt.

The extra bound or two of poor shooting on my part has cost me though. I've lost 2 light chariot units, some supporting LI, and my subgeneral is facing camels and EHC pretty much on his own. That command is on the verge of going into retirement.

As the dust settles, Rich's entire center collapses: both elephant uniits and the LTS unit are gone, and an SHC unit. And I have one chance to save my right, when my 2HCT guys get to charge into the flank of his medium camels with good chances to rout them. Alas, he rolls up 2 with a support shot from a nearby LI unit behind my flank, and I roll down on the melee. The camels live, and my command goes into retirement.

The end result is a very bloody 3-3, that was nearly a 4-3 or 5-3 for me. That would have changed the rest of Saturday substantially. No matter. It was a ferocious, well fought melee against a gracious opponent. I couldn't ask for more.
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 4:52 pm    Post subject:

AAR, continued:

Saturday, continued:

Game 2 - Jevon Garrett, Elamite. Once again I'm paired with Jevon, and -- ironically -- on a very similar table with a minor water feature down my left flank. Shang, however, is a much better army than Makkan. Shooting is one of the big Shang threats, but Elamite puts out comparable shooting, and the Elamite heavy chariots are not particularly vulnerable to shooting. My heavy chariots maybe have a slight advantage over his in hand to hand (LTS and JLS for the crew instead of just bow), but it is slight. And his generals' chariots, with LMI detachments that fight behind, will beat my chariots. So I'm not going to win this as a straight up brawl.

I do, however, have a substantial advantage in light troops. I have more LI than he does. I have 4 horse light chariots to his 2 horse light chariots. And my light chariots will dominate his LC in hand to hand combat. This gives me an opportunity to play an aggressive lights game on my open right flank (the one away from the water feature). And something I often do -- learned from Dave Stier -- is to mix some dense shooting in with my lights. So I send one of my LMI Bow units to accompany my light chariots.

In the center and left I do a lot of refusing, evading, and countering. On my right I push hard. I get the desired result. I make most of my counters, and I shoot up Jevon's LC to disorder, and then close with it again to apply more shooting while it's in a must rally situation. The LC unit is eventually chased off the table, and and now I've turned his flank. I believe he had an LMI unit shake when charged, and from the his whole flank crumbles pretty fast without him making measurable headway anywhere else. 5-1 for me.

Game 3 - Sean Scott, Italian Condotta. Sean has been playing this list for years, and refining it over and over. I still think it's not a great list, but Sean has it tuned to its maximum performance, and he plays it very well since he is so practiced with it.

He only has 3 units of SHK (the minimum), and instead relies on the Swiss ally with those three big pike/2HCT units to supply his main shock power. There is a bit of LI and LC to provide some scouting and a light screen, but the bulk of his line troops are loose order crossbowmen -- 96 of them all together. They are a mix of 24 figure units that are shielded LMI, and 16 figure units that are LHI with 2HCT in addition to crossbow.

Our problem is that our table has 9 hills on it, each with a substantial steep section. We also have a woods and a couple of brush pieces for a total of 12 terrain pieces. In 3 years of playing on Scott's cluttered tables this was the first time that I really felt the densitiy of terrain went overboard to the point where it hampered and slowed down both players.

My strategy is very simple. I can easily hold the whole table's frontage, and Sean cannot. So I will delay him in the center, and envelope both flanks. I put my 96 figures of MI B on the left flank with a little bit of chariot escort, and I put my light chariots on the right flank, bulked up with some chariots and LMI. In the center I have LMI 2HCT standing atop a steep hill, with a chariot reserve behind waiting to see which way Sean commits.

Sean comes barreling straight down the middle with the Swiss, and so I swing my chariot reserves out to either flank. On my left his LC is getting shot to pieces, but it evades back far enough to stay out of trouble. On my right his lights gradually yield ground, but his loose order foot is well positioned on top of a hill.

And the going is just slow. Picking your way around steep hills takes time. I need several bounds of careful maneuver to swing a heavy chariot unit out past a woods that I do not want to get pinned against. My MI Bow are slow to chase down his LC. Sean is having similar problems. He is attacking on a narrow frontage and has to be careful not to hang a flank as he advances. And it is not a given that he can beat my 2HCT charging up a steep hill into them. We are both trying to play aggressively, but the terrain is really slowing us down, as is the need to play carefully and deliberately given the challenges that each terrain piece poses.

As we near the end of the time limit I counter away my 2HCT guys defending the center, and he has nothing that can catch them. I finally get my charge set up against his uneasy LMI on the hill, but he passes his waver. I have one LC unit chased off the table, and another 4 figure LI unit that I rout, but that's it. And Sean hasn't been able to rout or shake anything. 1-0 for the Shang.

Final thoughts:

In 5 games I had one big loss to Derek, one big win over Jevon, and a bunch of drawish games that ranged from tedious and bloodless to rousing and hard fought. I'm not going to worry much about losing big to Derek; I think we've all had that experience. Otherwise, looking over this year and last, I find that the Shang are a highly durable list that is tough to beat. It also offers a range of threats that can create opportunities for a big win. The biggest negatives are that it is somewhat terrain dependent, and that chariot attacks take time to develop. But I would happily play the list again. Having played it the last two years, however, I'm probably going to change things up for 2018. There are two lists at the other end of our period that I have my eye on.

Initially I was hesitant about Fredericksburg as a venue. But I've been 3 years in a row, and I really like it. The several adjacent hotels are better than anything in Lancaster, and Wegman's is the perfect food and beverage solution. I'm resolved to returning to Lancaster for next year, but less than thrilled about it.

The gaming was great, but by far the big draw for me is the opportunity to socialize with a great bunch of guys that I've now known for 30+ years. Those evenings gathered around the table in the Hampton Inn are priceless.
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PostPosted: Tue Jul 18, 2017 5:12 pm    Post subject: Italian Condotta vs. Anglo-Irish in this Battle Report

Live, from Fredricksburg, Virginia!

From the first round of the the 2017 NICT Tournament at Historicon
It's Italian Condotta vs. Anglo-Irish in this battle report.

https://philonancients.blogspot.com/2017/07/round-1-of-the-2017-warrior-nict.html

Enjoy

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Ewan McNay
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 2:44 pm    Post subject: AAR 1 - Thursday

2017 Historicon AAR

I turned forty-mumble on July 14, in the middle of Historicon. We had excellent rosé champagne, good cheese, meats, and bread (for which especial thanks to Jevon, an act of great kindness and friendship!). Splendid friends. And I even won the Theme tournament held that day. Truly, my cup runneth over.

[Those of you who know me will suspect sarcasm. It's absent. Simply an hour or two of joy. Thanks, y'all: Bill Low gets the lead billing for providing not only lead but also transport, but the Warrior crowd is one that I deeply enjoy being part of.]

Oh, gaming?

NICT - 1: Rick Parrish, Midianite.

Scott did pairings with a 'whom have you not previously played?' approach. Rick identified me, and was given the dunes table for the bravery of bringing camels - also camels, and some camels. I ran HYW English this year: a new army for me, very different from anything I have run in the past decade. This was entirely because two of the above-mentioned Warrior friends - Todd Kaeser and Matt Kollmer - had painted me two units of SHK as a gift, and I figured that I should use them! So: massed foot longbow and seven units of SHK/HK, only 5 scouting points, and an option - that I took every game - to buy either wagon laager or ditches for forward deployment.

The laager was key in this game. I refused my left flank and much of the centre - towards the dunes - with both 6E laager sections manned by Reg D LMI LB. That's a very tough obstacle for irregular MCm to approach. Rick's centre was mostly devoid of LI, and he really had no way to force the issues with camels - he could not come up in skirmish because he moved after me, so would need to end within 160 p. Which means starting within 200. Which means he would already have taken one LB shot the previous turn. One unit did get caught, in fact, and an up roll meant that it took 2 CPF and promptly shook. So the game would be fought in the 2' space on my right.

My minimal LI bravely advanced, got plastered, and recalled never to be seen again; the LI S, Sh unit did yeoman - literally! - service in absorbing fire. Across the frontage I am alternating SHK and LB, with 2 units of K dismounted as SHI to absorb fire. In the advance to contact, I am able to get close enough without being shot down that two units of Rick's camels are relying on counters to move back from 40p facing SHK. They both fail, as does the third unit between them. Both get caught in the subsequent charge, but with an evading shot and disorder I am still not routing the 6E units on contact - until one SHK unit rolls +2, and now that *is* a rout. With a C-class army, the couple of subsequent failed waver tests are not unexpected. Rick has made it to my baseline on the left and centre but no real prospects of making headway. A challenging battle on both sides but made much, much easier for me by the failed counters. If Rick makes all of those, things go downhill fast for my army.

NICT - 2: Rob Turnball, Seleucid.

Not what I wanted to face. [To be honest, it's not clear what in the field I *do* want to face. Maybe Derek's NKE? We'll get to that.] This game I went with ditches rather than laager: Seleucid are not a shooting army, and a defended obstacle counting as higher sounds helpful. Terrain funnels us into a maybe 9E gap on my right and a larger central stretch; I have one ditch in each. Rob sets up the vast majority of his army in the right-hand gap and notes that he plans to take the ditch from me; it's going to be a short game either way, I suspect. Hypaspists are pretty much ideal troops to try to force the ditch, for sure; we start by my 2E Reg D LI LB unit rolling short on an evade in front of the RH ditch and being caught by said hypaspists. Happily (?) they explode the LI on the spot, so no option to pursue over the ditch. So, bound 2 (possibly 3, but I think 2) Rob has two LMI units in a slight traffic jam caused by conforming to the LI, two 8E pike blocks, and a 3E elephant unit all converging on the ditch, which is defended by a mix of LMI LB (in skirmish) and two LHI 2HCW, LB units (not in skirmish). I'm confident about holding but not certain! The right-hand flank of the ditch beside the table edge has a 1E gap protected by SHI facing a pike unit; the left-hand flank is not as protected but has a couple more LB units moving up. That's where Rob decides that he needs to force the issue: the El unit moves up to prepare an attempted case II flank charge on some of the ditch-manning LHI. That brings him within range of the approaching LB units, and he'll certainly take a very large support shot, but in fact I roll +2 in prep and cause 3 cpf. Rob makes the reasonable decision that if he needs to force the issue here, he needs to take the waver test; failing means that the elephants do not charge and instead rout when charged the following turn, which basically rolls up the bulk of the Seleucid army. A victory for field obstacles!

OK, 10 points from Thursday. No cut this year; that is both sensible and very important...
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 4:01 pm    Post subject:

Good stuff, Ewan. Keep it coming.

You've bought the English very differently from how I've seen Frank and Dave Stier do it, but I see the appeal. Obstacles give you the luxury of not worrying so much about frontage coverage, and that many knight units means you really can afford to draft a unit or two into other duty as dismounted guys.
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 5:11 pm    Post subject: AAR 2 - Fri part 1

Friday, as well as being my birthday, was the Bronze Age theme tournament. One of my favourite parts of Themes is list analysis and selection: the circumscribed and usually-uncommon set of lists makes for interesting decisions. In this Theme, there were several possible approaches, and all of them would be seen. Barbarian foot was one option. Dan Woyke brought what I decided was the best choice for this approach, Sea Peoples: high-morale LHI with 1HCW, JLS, Sh. (Anatolian States would be my second choice, also very solid, and I think that there were two of those - no, I am wrong, only one but also a Mycenean which was *also* on my 'possibles' list). If they get to charge, there's essentially nothing in the Theme that can fight them successfully. I expected to see several versions of barbarians, either as a whole army or as significant chunks, and that drove my eventual decision. Well, that and lead - Greeks for example would have required very specific figures that I didn't have access to, ditto Makkan.

A second option was massed close foot. I didn't really consider this strongly: it's not especially good in period, it loses to barbarians, and it's slow.

A third would be bowfire. Several armies getting massed either close or loose foot bows; alternatively, late Elamites with 3-bow heavy chariots in skirmish. That was an attractive possibility - the foot bow not so much, as I expected that to struggle against both HCh and Irr LMI. Midianites are an outlier here as ever: a one-trick pony - er, camel - and one that I thought likely to be less useful in a cavalry-poor Theme. The best of this class of lists was clearly NKE - I was very surprised to see it both retain the special Guard rules and also get a +5%. I commented to Bill in email during list analysis that I expected Derek to bring that - score one for me Smile.

Lastly, an option that it turned out no-one else went for: massed light chariots. To have a real shot these have to be 4hLCh, and there was one list that allowed for far more of these than any other: Early Elamite. That had some OK support troops including 2 elephants - which did nothing all Theme! A compulsory 12E of IrrC MI B was a negative, but made a useful flank march unit and the army is big enough not to need that on table. The Melluhan Ally didn't have any egregious minima - although the MI 2HCW, JLS, Sh never made it to combat all day - and in general my list seemed easy to construct. In theory combined arms - some close foot, two 12E IrrA-fronted LMI in a very point-efficient manner (only 3E shielded), regular LI (a definite plus to the list), and a total of 6E HCh but 14 4hLCh that I expected to be winning games for me by charging opposing LMI. Would have been better if the LCh were regular... o well.

Theme - 1: Mike Kelly, Midianite. Mike has always had poor luck against me, and so it proved here. This was an army that I feared playing; neither my chariots (which could not skirmish!) not really my foot was resilient to bowfire. As it happened, I caught a break. Mike set up with the camels in 2-unit pods, supported by LI, and on both flanks I was in danger of being blown away. My right was delaying OK, but the bulk on my army was on my centre-left taking advantage of a hill, and that was also Mike's CinC command. The sequence that ended the game very early - maybe bound 2? - was this: Mike's CinC camels in skirmish had to evade when charged by heavy chariots coming through a gap in my line. They roll short but do not get caught; my HCh recall. However, rolling short means that they're within 160p of an LMI JLS unit. This moves up to 40p; then Mike fails his counter and the LMI roll up in shooting to do 2CPF to the camels. That's an unpleasant event for Mike's CinC. He opts to charge rather than waver, hoping not to rout on contact, but that hope is in vain and he proceeds to fail almost every waver check. Game over in less than an hour. Which to be honest is just what I needed after the prior evening's red wine selection and long chat into the night. I got lucky; now I get to have coffee.
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 5:41 pm    Post subject:

Lemme interject here. Another "type" of army is essentially what Rob and I brought. In fact, Bill observed that Ewan's Theme list was essentially "souped up Sumerians" and note we placed 1-2-3.

The two "inherently Sumerian" lists took different approaches because of

a) Troop Availability
b) Weighting
c) Playing Style

Rob played List 1 and I played List 10 and we had frequent discussions at Cold Wars and a few email exchanges about our respective approaches. Think of them as the "hybrid approach" that depended not on shooting but on attacking around stolid masses of close order foot.

Trade offs in the each list are noteworthy:

a) #1 got more weighted points than #10.
b) #1 got far more HCh than #10.
c) #10 got rear rank MI B that could mix with spearmen.

Similarities are:

a) Number of 4h LCh
b) Number of Bodyguard

Rob decided that his main strike elements would be the crapton of 4h HCh. The ones with sub-generals could be particularly brutal because of the Bodyguard detachment.

I decided that my main strike elements would be a far smaller number of such units, in fact just 3 and all would be of the sub-general/detachment variety *and* three 12E barbarian foot mobs (I think Rob only had 2). Moreover, each of my close order foot units had more staying power because they consisted of 8E of Spearmen (front rank with Sh) and a rear rank of bow. That was deliberate.

My attack pods consisted of a 2E 4h LCh unit, a 2E 4h HCh unit (sub-general), 12E LMI JLS (front rank Irr A with Sh). In the same command but not part of the strike force were a 9E MI (3E LTS, Sh, 3E LTS, 3E B) unit and 6E LI. The idea was to send the LCh in first, usually to opposing LMI catching it standing, then follow up with either or both the LMI and HCh.

What I found is that either the LCh unit did too well and pushed back the LMI it hit (I want it to break thru) or bounced because it was too easy for opposing Irr A when rolling up to inflict 10CPF. Still, I found that these pods made for easy deployment even if I was deploying second (which I almost always did with each command pairing), consisted of tons of troops and enabled me to cover much of the table.

If I happened to engage a shooting army, which I kinda did with Jevon's flavor of Elamites, I'd simply work my attack pods up in support of those 9E MI units who would absorb the fire. Even against Jevon, when one of my LCh too 60+ from a shot, my reaction was "it's only 6CPF".

Basically, the army wasn't designed to shoot but to withstand all but the most brutal shooting while moving forward to engage the enemy and cover plenty of frontage so that "unit fiends" like Derek who just love their 25+ units on the table, would be constrained in their swarming approach. You can't swarm my Akkadians from the front and it was damn hard to find a flank on em.

One side note: Larry's Anatolian States list is deceptively good in this theme.

scott

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PostPosted: Thu Jul 20, 2017 5:47 pm    Post subject: AAR 3 - rest of Fri

Theme - 2: Dan Woyke, Sea Peoples. Caffeinated, I am in a much better state. And so is the army: this is the matchup I had designed it for. Dan has a wrinkle that I had not anticipated: two units of the LHI are equipped with fighting transport (which had been the subject of much rules discussion on Weds and Thurs, with the conclusion being that a second rank of foot behind deployed troop-carrying wagons *does* get to fight). Otherwise it is the expected large blocks of LHI. Terrain is - as in every game this weekend - a very present factor: a couple of large woods, some hills, although not the impassable swamp-like blobs found on a couple of tables. For once I am significantly wider than my opponent, but none of my close foot really wants to risk tangling with any of Dan's troops, so that limits my flexibility. Plan A basically works, though not quite as expected. The first combat of note, my LCh charge, Dan passes waver - ok, fine. But then he rolls down in combat and the chariots roll up: suddenly I am recoiling him disordered rather than breaking off. That wasn't the plan, but it works: I eventually explode that unit and the combination of a gap in Dan's line plus a couple of failed waver tests is enough.

Theme - 3: Rob Turnball (again), Sumerian. Rob's too good for me to relish playing him when he's out for revenge, and the army matchup is not great. It's better in reality than on paper - Rob has gone for minimal close foot, many chariots (mostly heavy) and a couple of LMI chunks. My chariots are very slightly better than his, with LTS; my close foot is better than his, especially the Melluhan unit. Early on Rob decides to fight an Elamite HCh general head-on with a unit of his LCh: his argument is that athough it's in my favour, my risk is higher with the general involved. Maybe, but an IrrB general is unlikely to roll down: Rob routs out but passes all three wavers, two with uneasy D troops, and there's not much follow-up possible: I convert into a unit of LI but that's mostly in a wood and when it recoils, I can't follow-up. That's pretty much the only significant event on the centre-right. On the far left flank I win a similar chariot battle eventually - at contact we lock and both become markedly ineffective. I have an adjacent LMI unit, though, where Rob has only LI: to save the chariot for a while he feeds a couple of LI units to the LMI. Eventually the LI all die and my MI bow block arrives behind Rob's chariot unit, so it dies but no-one sees it and it's the last bound in any case. Both flanks are a win for me, then: I am probably up a couple of hundred points to nothing.

The big action is in the centre. Rob does a good job of avoiding any favourable matchups on my part, and he charges an IrrA-fronted LMI block at a spear unit plus my LMI; my LMI is simultaneously charging both him and a Sumerian spear unit. So almost identical on the two sides: Rob's LMI are 4-wide whereas mine are 3-wide so a slight advantage to me on a per-frontage basis, but very slim. Rob's LMI roll +3, +5 for the front - ooops. Then, so do mine. So the two close spear blocks get shellshocked and rout while the LMI sit looking proud of themselves. Rob's wider frontage means that he is on 11 cpf vs my 9, and two turns later that means that he explodes where I don't; so far soo good. Alas, Rob continues to pass every single waver test but I fail a couple, and that brings the game back to level - 3-3 at the end, and we're tied at 13. Surveying the adjacent tables suggests that Dan and Mike have had good games, which is a plus for me in this situation, and so it proves: I'm ahead on tie-break to win the tournament. Go light chariots!
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