Well it’s over for another year and from all the feedback a tremendous success. This is the 4th annual Hordes of the Things tournament by Berkeley Vale Wargames Club and each year just gets better and better. The biggest and best plaudit is how congenial the atmosphere is; there are one or two moments but driving home Sunday evening listening to the latest new from Beslan it struck me that we are extremely lucky to do what we do amongst friends. If all you had to worry about that weekend was who your next opponent was then life is pretty good.
It is a 2 day event with 4 games each day, we use both 25/8mm and 15mm meaning no one feels they can’t come because they only have one scale to play with. This year we returned to the Tudor Arms Hotel in Shepherd’s Patch, Slimbridge as the Berkeley Arms Hotel is still out of commission. I think the Tudor Arms suits just fine with the only worry being the space but more on that later. We use the Skittle Alley at the back of the pub with easy access to the car park for moving stuff in and out and the Hotel has 12 rooms to cater for those staying overnight. There are other B&Bs locally if needed and it’s pleasing to see many come up on the Friday night to get settle in and have a beer and a chinwag. This year we retained out international status by having Gregory Privat come over from France.
Preparing for Berkeley generally now starts at the preceding Berkeley as people book their place for next year to ensure a place (more critical each year); I already have 5 people paid up for 2005 and the date is not even set yet. The biggest headache is numbers. I used to worry about too few, now I worry about too many and having to disappoint people. At one stage we had 44 interested people and I thought we’d have to use the upstairs dining room at the pub. Not ideal as it is away from the skittle alley and through the public bar. As it turned out we had 37 and the plan for catering with odd numbers worked well – loser of first game acts as the ghost player and plays the person waiting for their game. In the last round it worked even better with me being drawn against the ghost player meaning I could forgo the game (well, I gave myself a draw) and get on with admin. I’d asked people to reduce the number of pool armies they bring to help save space but it was still tight. Fortunately the weather was so good we had one table outside to accommodate 2 games in the fresh air each round.
It seems like the rule changes (shooters 200pace move & warband 300 pace move) were met with approval. Warband are perhaps still not worth having too many of but many reported they worked well in 4s and 6s. Shooters did not dominate and the one pool army that I saw with 12 of them only managed a draw in the hands of RBS.
The new scoring worked well in that it meant that right up until the last game 3 or 4 people were in with a chance and it came down to tie-break points. What the scoring failed to do was to prevent the traditional last round software glitch that mean the last round was done by hand once more. Thanks to Richard Crawley and Declan McHenry for helping generate the last round and final placings respectively.
We had two new entrants take the top slots this time but the Bodley Scotts gave them a good run for their money, for full results click on the results listing.
My games went as follow:
Game 1
25mm - My Romans (Hero general, 4 blades, 2 riders, 2 knights, behemoth) vs Ty Grover-Jones with Aliens
A new and welcome opponent for me, Ty is a gent to play. Ty defended and deployed some rough which was concern as I had no rough going troops. My plan was to avoid the rough and wait tand see what he did. Unfortunately for Ty bad pips prevented him from using his bad going troops to tie me in knots and there wasa path to the stronghold on the left flank. Although I lost the first combat rounds in the centre I rolled well enough not to be doubled and I was able to drag his beasts out of the rough going as they followed up. My knights and behemoth then made short work of the beasts whilst the Hero General and riders went for the Stronghold and took it first go. Nice one Centurion. 3(10) – 0(0) to me.
Game 2
25mm - My Romans vs Declan McHenry with Gallic Warband – 12 of them
I defended and laid down a hill, a fine Roman road and some rough which the warband the deployed around. My plan was to temp the warbound out with the blades then hit them with knights and behemoth in the flank, but that wasn’t necessary. A total gent to play, Declan used the Gauls in the spirit of the game and hurtled out of the rough and into my line of blades, only to lose combats, get double overlaps and lose 8AP of warband in one go. The next turn Declan won the combat against the riders but lost badly on the critical combat with blades and lost 2 more warband to lose the game. 3(12)-0(0) to me.
Lunch
Consisted of some fine cheese from France and the UK with Foie Gras washed down with some fine French wine.
Game 3
15mm – Warmaster Chaos army vs Benedict Sharrock with his Carpet People army
Benedict is always fun to play, his enthusiasm for the game is infectious. His army had 2 shooters, 2 warbands, behemoth, mage general, hero and 2 spear. Mine was pool army belonging to James Ewins with a hero general, aerial hero, 2 blades, 2 beasts, knight, 2 warband. Benedict defended and laid down the sort of items found in or under carpets, just much bigger. An impassable matchstick effectively split the board. For this game I came up with a cunning plan to risk the aerial hero, as bait so that the hero general would not be ensorcelled. My beasts swung around the right flank where Benedict only had the spears, as I could outpace them he had to send his hero to block the gap. Meanwhile my aerial hero flew off to threaten Benedict’s rear line. He was duly ensorcelled and in that time I advanced the blade on my left flank. A furtive move forward by the mage to get my hero general saw the knight chase the mage and almost recoil him into impassable. The mage backed off and the behemoth came up to help him. I advance taking out 2 shooters with my blades and then the 2 warband with my knight and warband. Now in trouble Benedict brought back the hero but my aerial hero escaped just in time and before he could re-group my blade took out the behemoth with the aerial hero in flank support. Game to me 3(12) – 0(0)
Game 4
28mm - My Romans vs Ian Notter and his Sable Riders (Hero, mage, knights, riders)
I defended and forgot to go for a river !! Terrain was the usual Roman road, bit of rough and gentle hill. We lined up (althought my hero general hid at the back) and moved forward, the mage be-spelled my behemoth and it ran away. I brought back up whilst re-dressing the line and it ran way again. It was running out of flee room so foolishly I brought up the hero general to take some of the heat…only for it to be bespelled and my lose the game. Bugger. Lost 0(0) – 3(4)
Evening session.
Joined in the BB Gloranthan game. 6 players a side with 12 armies!!. Must be a record. A most entertaining game with Seb umpiring and yelling at every one to get a move on. I used one of Simon’s lovely armies and helped hold the centre on Simon’s side. Declan was getting the better of my army when I went for the bespelling on his hero general, it worked and he became a guest in Pavis. A quick army morale check by Seb revealed that the Crimson Bat had eaten most of the enemy army before choking on a bison bone and that Simon’s team were the victors.
I then played Memoir ’44 with Seb, a great little board game that is very simple and quick. Ideally suited at that time of the day.
A brief foray into Zombies 4 (Zombie Dogs) saw me leave the table to go to the loo, only to return to find my figure and a large number of Zombie Dogs sharing the same tile. Oh trés witty ! Turns out it was late and it was time to pack up, but not before one final laugh for the night. Ahem.
Game 5
25mm - My Romans vs Paul Smith and his Marines - 2 heroes (Ripley & Hicks), 5 shooters including the general, dragon (dropship), 2 lurkers (sentinel guns) and a beast (Jonesy the cat), the Stronghold was the APC. All very nicely done and actually the matching pair to the Aliens in game 1.
Paul defended and spread some rough going but leaving gaps. I sent my riders right, blades left and knights, hero, behemoth in the centre. Paul sent his heroes after the riders and beast to the centre rough to halt my mounted. I assume Paul hadn’t planned on me sending the behemoth into the rough but then I’d forgotten the lurkers. I got an overlap by bringing a blade in too and Jonesy got sliced by my scythed chariot. Paul then rolled a ‘6’ and after much soul searching brought on the Dragon rather than use the lurkers. I brought my knights up assuming the riders were done for on the right. As it turned out they did remarkably well, holding out a turn so my hero general could arrive to dispatch the dragon. Also, they kept recoiling and eventually dragged Paul’s hero’s out of command radius. This gave me the time to bring up the behemoth to the right and along with the hero general take on his heroes. There was a heart stopping draw in a hero combat but the numbers were even so both mine and his survived.
Eventually the overlaps and hero vs hero told and I took them both. Game to me 3(14) – 0(0)
Game 6
25mm – My Romans vs Pete Duckworth and the Good Guys from LotR (Mage, Hero general, flyer, warband, riders)
This time I defended and remembered the river, but cocked up the rule and was the wrong side of it (I have it in my head rivers have an anti magic radius…they don’t). It was over in 2 goes as I had my Hero general bespelled again. Pete was almost as unfulfilled as I was but them’s the breaks. Lost 0(0) – 3(4)
Lunch
My wife and children as well as my father who was staying with us came and joined me for lunch. The children were captivated by some of the armies, Star Wars being a popular one with Callum.
Game 7
25mm – My Romans vs Gordon Malcolm with his Ancient army. I forget the exact name but it had behemoth general, 2 riders, cleric, water lurker, 2 shooters, 2 Blades, 2 warband.
I defended and used the Road, 2 bits of rough and hill. Gordon got the side with the hils but then came down off it. He also managed to get his behemoth lined opposite my knights. I tried to flank left with my riders and got Gordon to split his line. Got his shooters to his left and they kept to the rough and prevented my hero general swinging right. His behemoth then came up with cleric support and warbands. I had to sort out my right and was in trouble but just when Gordon need more than ‘1’ to be over me like a rash he got a ‘1’. I managed to regroup then crashed in on his left taking out a rider and 2 warband. Short of options Gordon attacked with his behemoth but my knight held out for a drawn combat. Next go I flanked his behemoth and got my hero in as another overlap, I won the combat and took out his general. Game to me 3(10) – 0(0)
Game 8
I was paired with the ghost player but after already having had 30minute delay whilst I had to do the last round by hand I elected no to wait for the first loser but gave myself a 1(10) – 1(10) draw. I might have lost, I might have won, but it made no difference to the top placings so I’m happy with it. It did mean I was able to count up all the various votes in time.
Conclusions
So, 6 games in 25mm and only 1 in 15mm, confirms Alan’s thoughts that 25mm predominated. The new crew all had 25s and some of the usual 15s had 25s too. Still, we coped. Perhaps next year will see more 25mm.
Once more thanks again to all those that provided prizes and assistance. We raised £120 pounds for charity after the raffle, entrance fees and costs were added up; a big thanks to Annie for selling the raffle tickets. After we tidied up Ian and I stayed for a beer in the sunshine and had an autopsy. He suggested we enquire about taking over the poolroom and back bar for more room. We had used the back bar any way for an odd game but the poolroom and back bar would mean another 12 players (6 games), and we could keep more doors open to let air through - it was very warm by sunday afternoon!! I mentioned it to Richard at the pub and we’ll discuss it. There may be a charge, but with more players we can cover that. Besides, the extra beer and food they make has some negotiating power… local boy Ian can handle that sordid side of the event :-).
That's it for this year, I have all the scores and results if people need to know. Just drop me an email Steve Price