leagueofancients.org.au

[Brad]

The Argus
February 2010

THE LEAGUE OF ANCIENTS INCORPORATED IS MEETING SUNDAY, 21st FEBRUARY
AT CLUB TIVOLI, 291 DANDENONG ROAD, WINDSOR, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA.


In This Issue

CANCON 2010
Arcanacon XXVIII
Little Wars
Some Reviews by Richard Stubbs
Victorian DBR Championships
Other People’s Events
Old News
Appendix – Fliers for the Australian Historical Wargames Convention and Caesar’s Challenge

CANCON 2010

De Bellis Renationis

The renaissance competition at CANCON was once again organised by the Gentlemen Pensioner’s Group of the Canberra Games Society and the familiar set terrain, choose any army you like format awaited the six League members who made their way to the event. The defending champion Damian Pooley couldn’t make it, but Ian Poade entered now that the Warrior ancient competition at CANCON has gone the way of the dodo. Like some previous years we were more than half the competition as we met three opponents from the nation’s capital (Roger Mackay, Phil Clark and Ben Stewart), a player from the Blue Mountains of NSW (Guy Sheppard) and our regular Kiwi entrant, Keith McNelly.

The League’s winning streak continued for a twelfth year as Paul Garnham swept away the opposition with a Portuguese Colonial army assisted by some Indian Rajput allies. He managed 49 points out of a possible 50, losing only one of his commands in the five battles he played. It meant he didn’t need to play the last game as he had managed an unassailable lead and this was just as well as he had a 5.00pm flight booked on Monday, so would have needed to win quickly in the afternoon if he had lost one of his games. Paul’s victory also made him the South Pacific Champion.

Second place went to Jonathan Moore with his familiar New Model Army in the West Indies and third place went to Ian Poade and his English Civil War Royalists. This meant that League members had a clean sweep of the places as well as extending the winning streak. Michael Bornstein won the “Grumpy Award”, a mysterious prize that has no apparent criteria, so Chris Pooley and I were the only League members to leave empty handed.


The Captain-General’s Award for Sportmanship was given to Guy Sheppard. Roger Mackay, the principle organiser, won the Prince Rupert Award for having the most mounted elements pursue uncontrollably. Fittingly enough it was his English ally that managed this feat. It was a lone success (?) for Roger as his Scots Covenanters were comprehensively beaten in each engagement they fought and will earn a well deserved retirement!

I had anticipated that my Russian Conscript army would have a good chance against English Civil War or Thirty Years War armies and given that 6 of my 10 potential opponents had armies in this category I thought I would do well. Unfortunately I only played two of these (for two wins) and in most games my Sipahi generals decided that they would usually charge to their own destruction! I’d like to thank Jared Lynn and Jonathan Moore for lending me the figures I needed.

English Civil War Royalists were a popular choice with three armies entered and there were three late 17th century armies entered with Later Saxons, Later Minor German States and my Russians. Guy Sheppard brought along his Maori army, which consisted of only three troop types: fast blade warriors, inferior skirmishers and superior boats. Paul Garnham’s Portuguese Colonials were a more sophisticated version of this type of army as it had support from lancers, some artillery, shot, naval elements and even some bow to provide a greater degree of flexibility in meeting potential threats.

15mm Field of Glory

Field of Glory attracted approximately the same number of players as last year, although some were involved in the 25mm event that was held for the first time. Once again Shaun Drummond came across the Tasman and won the event, with the margin of victory much greater than last year’s single point. His compatriots, Mark Holland and Richard Stacey, were in a three-way tie for second place with the League’s own Michael Gray. Unfortunately for Michael both Richard and Mark relegated Michael to fourth under the count-back system. The organiser awarded second place to Mark over Richard as he had a better score after the penultimate round and he was the only player in the tournament who went close to beating Shaun Drummond, only going down 9-16 to Shaun in the last round. League players Michael George and Martin Morgan also finished in the top ten.

As Shaun, Mark and Richard swept the places it was no surprise to see that they won the South Pacific Shield for state based teams and also the team event. The team event combined players from both the 15mm and 25mm competitions and was based on results over the first four rounds, and had three players on each team. Richard Stubbs, Michael Gray and Mark Robins were unfortunate to miss out on the team prize by just a single point.

Unlike last year, when the cavalry based Ottomans and Middle Hungarians held sway, foot armies were in vogue and it was no coincidence that the successful New Zealanders decided to bring armies with a large number of battle groups (each having 17 to 19 in their forces). The “swarm” has finally arrived in Australia.

A number of prizes were also given for armies that had been painted by their user, with the three outstanding armies being:

Murray Evans (Arab Conquest)
Mark Holland (Principate Roman)
Stephen Ladányi (Early Medieval German)
Place Player Army Country/State Points

1 Shaun Drummond Dominate Roman New Zealand 130
2 Mark Holland Principate Roman New Zealand 98
3 Richard Stacey Early North African Dynasties New Zealand 98
4 Michael Gray* Carolingian Frankish Victoria 98
5 Jason Williams Aztecs NSW 89
6 Chris Burg Condotta Italian (Naples) ACT 88
7 Michael George* Alexandrian Macedonian Victoria 87
8 Tony McArthur Late Republican Roman NSW 85
8 Glen Noonan Yuan Chinese Queensland 85
10 Martin Morgan* Later Medieval German Victoria 84
11 Leigh Dunn Medieval Castilian ACT 83
12 Jason Dickie Late Republican Roman ACT 82
13 Aleksander Misic Later Serbian NSW 77
14 Stephen Hopkins Middle Plantagenet English NSW 75
14 Geoff Frost* Later Carthaginian Victoria 75
16 Mitchell Ortuondo Later Crusader NSW 73
17 Stephen Black Early Successor (Macedonian) NSW 72
17 Murray Evans Arab Conquest NSW 72
17 Shaun Breadner Seljuk Turk (Rum) NSW 72
20 Richard Stubbs* Early Achaemenid Persian Victoria 71
21 Ross Dawe Catalan Company South Australia 69
22 Nick Wade* Western Hunnic Victoria 66
23 Ian Nicholls Post Viking Scandinavian (Danish) NSW 62
24 Trevor Williams Late Republican Roman NSW 60
24 Steven Neate Principate Roman Victoria 60
24 Stephen Ladányi Early Medieval German New Zealand 60
27 John Rowley Dominate Roman Queensland 56
28 Gary Coughlan Early Scots-Irish NSW 55
29 Greg Traeger Late Heian to Muromachi Japanese NSW 54
30 Brett Kvisle Lydian NSW 53
31 Garry Koppes Principate Roman Northern Territory 51
32 Justin Swain Kushan NSW 48
32 Peter Braham English 100 Years War (Continental) NSW 48
34 Alex Filewood Kushan NSW 43
35 Gavin Bowman Warring States Chinese (Qin) Victoria 36
35 Andrew Waterson Early Pictish NSW 36
37 Ian Riley Later Carthaginian ACT 35
38 Brenton Searle Later Medieval Swedish ACT 31
39 Darryl Hills Early North African Dynasties NSW 21
40 Luke Riches Parthian ACT 19
41 Alan Kohn Late Republican Roman ACT 14
42 Peter Paddon Komnenan Byzantine NSW 8
43 Duncan Bolt Latin Greece ACT 6

* League of Ancients player


25mm Field of Glory

The 25mm event got off to a sad start when one of the players passed away just before the tournament. The tournament format was changed to a round robin and the scores below are the results of four games each. At least a Kiwi didn’t win this event, instead the top place went to Mark Robins who added to his already full trophy cabinet.

Place Player Army Points

1 Mark Robins* Dominate Roman 81
2 Paul Rattray Medieval German City Leagues 53
3 Mike Morgan Early Achaemenid Persian 48
4 Andrew Primrose Macedonian Successor (Lysimachos) 22
5 Geoff Crick Anglo Danish 21

* League of Ancients player

Arcanacon XXVIII

Umpire’s Report by Django Upton

Arcanacon XXVIII was a games convention held in Melbourne over the Australia Day weekend (January 23-26), 2010. This Flames of War tournament was one of many competitions at the convention and consisted of four 3 hour rounds, two rounds on each of Monday January 25 and Tuesday January 26 with the players using 2000 point Mid War armies with a Platoon of Mid War Monsters allowed.

The draw was by Swiss chess by accumulated generalship score with the best attempt made to match historical opponents. The organiser played to make up the numbers.

Missions played were Breakthrough, Fighting Withdrawal, Hold the line, and Cauldron.
Tables were Desert Hills, or Farmland so there were no special tables this year.

Generalship was scored as normal. Four Trophies were awarded and everyone who entered got a prize donated by Realm of Legends.

Results
Player Army Score Prizes
1 Kris Sundstrom Fallschirmjager 23 Winner
2 Django Upton Carri 18 (Bye Player)
3 Charles Watson Spanish Pioneer 17 Best Axis
4 Tyler Jefferson Canadian Armoured 15 Best Allied
5 Steven Dyckman Panzer 13
6 Keith Allilomou Panzer 12
7 Chris Jobson Bersaglieri 10
8 Alex Frang Panzer 4 Most Heroic

All games were played in friendly good spirit and a good time was had by all. I supplied some free (soft) drinks which were appreciated by the players especially due to the warm weather.
Kris was in good form only losing a single platoon in the entire tournament! He has won this tournament two years in a row so is clearly the man you have to beat to win FOW at Arcanacon!
Charles’ Spanish were an unusual choice and Tyler’s Canadians the only allied army but they both did very well.
The only player army to have a “Monster” in it was Alex’s unfortunate Panzers, however the bye army of Italian Carri with a platoon of Semovente 75/34, representing elements of the 135th “Ariete II” division in the defence of Rome in September 1943, won most of their bye games, only losing to Tyler’s Canadians in a tight result.
Historically the Italians were defeated by the 2nd Fallschirmjager division… which co-incidentally was the exact winning list in the tournament!

Information on Arcanacon can be found at http://www.arcanacon.org

Sponsored by:
The League of Ancients - www.leagueofancients.org.au (terrain)
Conquest - www.conquest.asn.au (gaming table tops)
Realm of Legends – www.realmoflegends.com.au (prizes)


Little Wars

Little Wars is on again this year at Club Tivoli on Sunday 23rd May, 2010.

The League committee has agreed to have a stand advertising the club for that day. The stand will need to be manned by club members through the day.
The times are from 9.30 – 4.00 in ½ hour “shifts”, although you can volunteer for an hour if you would like. I trust most members can spare 30 minutes of the day there.

It is a great way to advertise our activities and recruit players to our club. I envisage a “Kitchener” recruiting poster and lots of picture and details of periods we play. Please e-mail me on g dot frost at acecon dot com dot au if you can assist on the day.

Regards
Geoff Frost


Some Reviews by Richard Stubbs

All products reviewed were paid for by me and I don’t care about their companies one way or the other.

Field of Glory (FoG) – the computer game.

Available on the Slitherine web site , FoG is now a downloadable PC game. As such it is a turn based strategy game with similar mechanisms to the table top variety. The game plays quite well and comes with a host of “Romans versus” scenarios that are fun to play. The graphics are simple and the interface is easy to master.


This all makes it just OK, BUT when it comes to multi-player IT ROCKS! A lobby where you issue or accept challenges is provided and the simple graphics fade away as you play a turn based game via e-mail. Each move is short so you can play, send, then get back to your work J The fun of seeing your opponents move and plotting his downfall is huge.

The latest patch allows for the games to be locked up via a password. This means you can set up a game and your friend is who you will play . THIS means the League tourney can’t be far away J
I highly recommend its use for the e-mail games aspect in multi-player mode. Let me know when you get it so you can face doom at my hands! J

[ If any of you are members of the Society of Ancients then you’ll also see a review of the game by Chris Webber in the November 2009 issue of Slingshot – Ed ]

Gale Force Nine Hobby Scenics
The arrival of Flames of War gave us lots of new toys and opened our eyes to figure basing possibilities. As I returned to playing ancient wargames with FoG my older figure basing suddenly looked lack lustre. What to do? Rebase whole armies? Endure endless sculpting of basing?

A simpler solution is the range from Gale Force Nine. They have a selection of flocking that is different colours and sizes. The idea is you layer the stuff to create a theme. For example you grab your faded green painted base, spread PVA watered down 50/50 with an old brush, dip it in the very fine “Foundation Dirt Flock”, let it dry, add more PVA, sprinkle the slightly more coarse green spring flock, let it dry, then dab more PVA and apply the very coarse and colourful “Meadow Blend”.

The job’s done. No rebasing, your old troops are brand new and will now all roll 6 in melee.
The range has many variations from Industrial, snow, arid summer etc and there is a chart to get you started with suggested combinations. Well worth a look in order to simplify your basing.

“Mithridates the Great - Rome's Indomitable Enemy” by Philip Matyszak (Pen And Sword Publishing)

Short Review: Just buy it!

Longer Review: You may not know much about Mithridates, the last popular book on him was probably ‘He Died Old’ by Alfred Duggan. He is that dude who fought Rome and used scythed chariots. Mark Robins uses his army, so he must have something going on. All will be explained when you read this highly entertaining book.

The author has managed to write history from original sources and keep it flowing as if it’s a novel while not stepping too far into his own interpretation of the evidence. Good trick if you can do it and he has. The result is a great read that will leave you wanting to know more and will have you casually checking his army under FoG!

Better, if you don’t know anything about the period or Mithridates, you will still enjoy the book.
You need this book, this is the one you tell your partner to get you if you have a birthday soon.


Victorian DBR Championships

We’ve narrowed the theme this year to the armies of Asia, Africa and the Eastward European Expansion. While geographically limited, armies may be chosen from any time 1500 AD to 1700 AD. See the list below for eligible armies. Please note that Georgians aren’t Circassians! It may be the last DBR event before we make a change to Field of Glory Renaissance.

WHEN: Sundays 11th and 18th April 2010
WHERE: CLUB TIVOLI
291 Dandenong Rd
Windsor
Melways Reference – Map 58 G8
RULES: De Bellis Renationis 2.0
ARMIES: Armies are limited to 400 AP and must be specified in commands that won’t change during the tournament.
ROUNDS: There will be two rounds on each day.
TERRAIN: Terrain will be set by players as described in the rules.
PRIZES: Prizes will be awarded to the First, Second and Third as well as the Sir Beville Grenville Award for Sportsmanship.
ENTRY FEE: $10 per day. Make cheques or money orders payable to the League of Ancients Inc. Payment can be made on the day..
ENTRY: Army lists and entry fee should be provided by 4th April to:
Lyle Daymond
lyle dot daymond at bigpond dot com

Allowed Armies:

Ottoman Turk Tibetan West Sudanese
Anatolian Turkoman Circassian Tupi or Tapuya
Mamluk Egyptian Siberian Tribes West African Forest Peoples
White Sheep Turkoman Moghul East African Pagan
Safavid Persian Muslim Indian Arab
Ming Chinese Hindu Indian Zanj
Mongolian Maratha Somali
Jurchen Portuguese Colonial Abyssinian
Korean Sebastianic Portuguese Wadj
Japanese Maghrebi Alwa
Manchu and Ch’ing Chinese Taureg Funj Empire
Shaiqiya Siamese, Burmese or Khmer/Cambodian Polynesian or Melanesian
Indonesian or Malay Dutch Colonial Later Ottoman Turk
Vietnamese Sinhalese





All allied contingents chosen for any of these lists must include only compulsory troops and must have a 1/4 of the normal minima for each type and not exceed 1/3 of the maxima, or 1 element, whichever is greater.

European allies specified within army lists are allowed.

Other People’s Events

Caesar’s Challenge

It’s on again! The only Field of Glory event not run by the League of Ancients. It’s an opportunity to bring your Parthian horse archers, Roman swarms or other delights. See the attached flier for details.

Australian Historical Wargames Convention

Attached as an appendix to this month’s Argus is a flier for the Australian Historical Wargames Convention. I can personally vouch for the standard of McLaren Vale wines (I found Wirra Wirra winery to be particularly good) and the Fleureau Peninsula is a nice place for sightseeing. The convention seems to have a wide range of activities on offer. Apparently information has been posted on The Miniatures Page (TMP) some time ago, but we feel that any ambitious, inaugural attempt at starting a convention deserves as much publicity as possible.

Mal Wright provided the following information, if anyone would like to consider contributing to the event:
“At the recent meeting of the organisers of the AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL WARGAMES CONVENTION, it was moved that a gift bag will be given to each group or club that puts on a historical style wargame at the convention will receive a gift bag which will include a bottle of wine, fifty railway quality trees suitable for 10mm to 28mm wargaming and complimentary bags of potato chips. The gift bags will be issued to each table presented, so if a group puts on more than one game they will receive a gift bag for each. It is expected to include other items later.

Game organisers are urged to contact the organisers to register their games.

The convention will be held in the wonderful scenic Southern Vales region, South Australia. Plenty of accommodation is available in the area and lots of things for family entertainment. The district provides something for everyone with tourist sites for the family to enjoy while you are at the convention. Swimming beaches, penguins at Granite Island, bush-walks, animal sanctuaries, Goolwa Paddle Steamer museum, vintage aircraft flights, Victor Harbour are an easy drive from beautiful Adelaide city on excellent roads.
Good food will be available via the kitchen of the Italian Bocce club during the convention. The region also abounds with food stores of all kinds as well as the finest restaurants and wineries.

Our web site is up and running with more information being added very soon.”

Mal’s contact details are included in the flier.


World Individual Championship 2011 – Wellington, New Zealand

The Individual World Championship for this year has yet to be held in Athens, but that organisation of the 2011 event in New Zealand is starting to pick up momentum. Planned for 25-27 February in Wellington, the fliers being handed out at CANCON indicated that a wide range of events were planned including:
· Flames of War
· Field of Glory
· De Bellis Renationis
· De Bellis Multitudinus
· De Bellis Ma
· De Bellis Antiquitatis

A website has been started http://www.iwf2011.org and the contact is Stephen Ladányi who can be reached at zoltan at paradise dot net dot nz.

Keith McNelly (New Zealand DBR player) indicated that they were currently considering the number of tables required for the events. If you are thinking of going (even at this very early stage) then contact the organiser.

Old (but still important) News

2010 League Dates

Date Event Venue

21 February Club meeting Ballroom
21 March Club meeting Ballroom
11 April First day Victorian DBR Championships Ballroom
18 April Second day Victorian DBR Championships and Club meeting Ballroom
2 May First day Lionheart 2009 Ballroom
9 May Second day Lionheart 2009 Ballroom
16 May Club meeting Ballroom
5 June First day Victorian FOW Championships Sportshall and Dining Room
6 June Second day Victorian FOW Championships Sportshall and Dining Room
20 June Club meeting Ballroom
4 July First day ancient period doubles tournament Ballroom
11 July Second day ancient period doubles tournament Ballroom
18 July Club meeting Ballroom
15 August Club meeting and AGM Ballroom
19 September Club meeting Ballroom
16 October First day FOW tournament Sportshall and Dining Room
17 October Second day FOW tournament Sportshall and Dining Room
24 October Club meeting Ballroom
6 November First day Victorian Ancient Championships Sportshall and Dining Room
7 November Second day Victorian Ancient Championships Sportshall and Dining Room
21 November Club meeting Ballroom
12 December Club meeting Ballroom

Tidiness at Club Tivoli

While a committee member will usually be available to supervise the putting away of tables etc at the end of a meeting, all members should ensure that care is taken to place terrain away in the appropriate boxes and make sure that no League property is placed in the way of other cultural groups who also use the “attic”. If we are in the Sportshall, please refrain from placing anything on the snooker tables.
We need to keep good relations with the management at Club Tivoli and having respect for the other clubs at Club Tivoli is an important part of this approach.

League Web-site
The LOA website and forum are available at http://www.leagueofancients.org.au/.

Smoking at the League
League members are reminded that, in line with Victorian law, smoking is no longer permitted in Club Tivoli.

Disclaimer
The League of Ancients Inc is a non-profit wargames club meeting on the third Sunday of each month at Club Tivoli, 291 Dandenong Rd, Windsor, Melbourne, Australia. This edition of the Argus was edited by Lyle Daymond on behalf of the League. Opinions expressed in the Argus are not necessarily those of the club, or the Editor. The Editor reserves the right to accept, reject or edit materials submitted for publication. Submissions should be made by e-mail in MS Word, RTF or raw text formats to lyle dot daymond at bigpond dot com