Another year, another report.

Got up at 6:00am, on the road by 7:15am. No navigational errors this time, so I arrived at the hotel well before 9:00, and over an hour before registration. Met James and various others.

And so it began. My standing army was the Inuit - 5 shooters (including the general), a cleric, a behemoth, a sneaker and two riders.

Game 1

I was on familiar territory here, as I got to use my standing army (the Inuit) and was facing Thomo who I have played a few times before. He even opted to use one of my armies (the Fishmen), so I had familiar opposition. Even the terrain was mine. I defended and his line advanced on mine. I managed to initially get the better of a shooter duel, but also got a rider around the flank covered by his shooters and rode a couple down. My non-shooter troops clashed with his spear line, losing the behemoth, and his general hung back which meant I had trouble working out how to get the sneaker to him. To cut a long story short, we clashed all along the line, and were eventually both 10AP down. The next element decided the game, I got it and scored a 38-10 victory.

Game 2

I got to use the Inuit again, and faced Ty Grover-Jones who elected to use a Wood Elf army. He defended. His spears, cleric general and some shooters made up a refused left, whilst he advanced some more shooters and a hero on his right to outflank me. I covered against this with a few shooters, and rushed everything else forward to attack his left. His flank move was slowed by the fact that it was a long way from his general, so in order to speed it up he decided to switch the general to the centre. To do this he had to cut through a patch of bad going but, unfortunately, came within range of one of my shooters. Being a cleric he had a -2 in bad going, and rolled a '1' to my '6'. Game over, and our armies hadn't even clashed yet. A 48-0 victory.

We carried the game on anyway, but we will gloss over the final result. Suffice to say there were a lot less elves on the table at the end than there were at the start.

Lunch (sausage and bacon baguette) and then onto ...

Game 3

I drew Richard Bodley Scott who was using his Goblin standing army. I decided that for this game I would stick to a pool army I was familiar with and used the Fishmen (who were my other choice for standing army). Richard defended, and laid a terrain of brush and steep hills. He set up with hordes and a hero covering the stronghold and shooters ready to occupy bad going on my left. I decided to push my shooters at his stronghold, hoping to drive the hordes back into it and get close enough that they couldn't reappear and cover it (can't reappear within 200p of an enemy element). The spears would cover against his shooters. My attack was reasonably successful, pushing the hordes back, but not as quickly as I hoped. His hero killed at least one shooter, but I was able to get him in the end. The hordes dies in droves but just kept coming back, of course. Meanwhile my spear line had turned through ninety degrees to counter his shooters, but his shooters had moved into the open. I pushed them back, but ended up with exposed flanks, and only some lucky die rolls prevented the death of my general. With everything still to play for we ran out of time, and recorded a 22-26 draw (in Richard's favour).

Game 4

Having played the elder Thompson in the first game of the day, I got to play the junior partner, Steven. Once again I got to use the Inuit, and he chose to use Brian Pierpoint's Witchmere Hunt, eight riders and four beasts. I defended, so the horse and hounds found themselves galloping across a terrain littered with ice boulders and impassable glaciers. I defended a hill and let him come to me. This he did, but only on one flank, and leaving his general's flank exposed. Not missing the opportunity I flanked his general and it was only a matter of time before he fell. I lost a single rider; 46-2 to me.

A good start to the tournament; three wins and a draw.

We had decided to go for the curry later this year, so we had a few hours when we were left to our own devices. I played a German board-game, the name of which escapes me, with the chaps from 'Behind The Lines'. It involved laying tiles to build medieval cities and road networks, scoring points based on their size. Good fun. We then ended up playing Old Maid and Beggar My Neighbour, for reasons which are not entirely clear, but which probably had something to do with the fact that Sebastian was in charge of the deck of cards.

Finally we left for the curry despite some minor problems with the taxi. A good meal which centred mainly around abusing James as I recall. Back to the hotel for a final drink to discover that those who had not gone for the curry had gone to bed. It was only midnight as well. By 1:00am only James, Sebastian and I were left, and it would have been off to bed, had James not lingered by the door to the room with the game tables in. Sebastian resisted, I didn't, and a 1:05am on Sunday morning I found myself setting up my Demonworld Elves against James's Space Crusaders. I stuffed him, but I think the fact that he was half-cut had more than a little to do with it. In bed by 1:30am.

Sunday.

Up at 7:00am knowing that I've got Brian Pierpoint in the first game of the day. Went for a walk and joined the others for breakfast; there was a better turnout of early breakfast people this year than last; well done!

On to the games.

Game 1

I had drawn Brian Pierpoint who was using his Slaves to Pleasure army, a menage of 25mm monster figures so old that I was at school when most of them were released. I decided to use Steve Price's Wood Elf army, and got to defend. My cunning plan revolved around some woods and hiding shooters in them, but I may as well not have bothered. With only 6 pips in the first five bounds I just sat and watched Brian manoeuvre in front of me and couldn't implement any sort of plan. The wood elves made a few futile attacks before, with a cry of 'I have not yet begun to fight!' their general was cut down. I salvaged some honour by killing precisely one of Brian's elements. 2-46, and my first defeat of the tournament.

Game 2

I got to use a pool army against Ian Walkley's Dwarves, and selected the Number 13 Alliance. A basic Chaos army with a mix of blades and warband with a hero, beast, flyer and magician thrown in. This was one of the most interesting games I played, with both of us having safe anchored lines probing cautiously towards each other trying to find weaknesses in the others' deployment. Despite having extra time to play due to Steve's wrestling with the computer we failed to bring it to a conclusion and lost one element each. A 24-24 draw. It should be pointed out that despite this virtually all elements engaged in close combat at least once, so it wasn't for want of trying to win.

Game 3

I now faced Colin Evans and used my Inuit for the last time that weekend. He chose Orcs, and I defended. The orcs split into two groups, one trying to probe through some bad going towards the stronghold and the other going for the centre of my army. This second group was obliged to move through a gap between some bad going and an impassable glacier. As it emerged the Inuit riders hit it in the flank, almost catching the orc general behind a recoiling behemoth. Whilst a few elements faced off on the opposite flank, this is where the main action took place, with the Inuit sleds and behemoth trying to get the orc blade general and more and more elements being sucked into the fight. Once again, however, time ran out, and a vicious little fight was declared a draw, 28-20 to me.

Game 4

For my last game I faced Andy Thomas and his Dad's Army. Since it was 25mm I decided to use Steve's Demon Knights of Kraal; knights, behemoth, hero and some blades. Not a subtle army. Opposing me were the Walmington-on-Sea platoon led by a hero, with a paladin, shooters, behemoth and some bicycle mounted riders. I defended and laid a terrain with minimal bad going then lined up in the centre. He lined up opposite, avoiding my blades and sending a flank march towards my stronghold. The demon knights are not an army for subtle plans and charged towards his line, refusing to calculate the odds. A couple of bounds of melee ensued; he lost a shooter, I lost a couple of knights. I went for broke and attacked his hero general one-to-one with my hero. With the factors one point in his favour this was not a good time to tempt fate, but I somehow pulled it off and killed his general. Owing to the death of another knight, though, we were now equal on losses. All I had to do was kill another of his elements and not lose any of mine. I did it, flanking his butcher's van behemoth just as his paladin and riders got within 1/2" of my stronghold. 42-6 to me.

This gave me third place overall, behind Brian and Richard Bodley Scott.

Then it was onto the prize-giving where I was amazed to find that my Fishmen had won best 15mm army. For something that was painted in a day with basically three colours and all figures having the same a paint scheme that's not bad. Obviously the minimalist approach works for some people. I also won some Warmaster undead in the raffle.

Back in the car, back home in a couple of hours and back to reality.

What army to use next year ... ?

Once again, thanks to Steve for all his work.