The Mystified On Tour :: Manchester 2012

In my review of last year’s performance in the Northern League I set out two aims for this year: stop losing heavily with our weaker armies and try to pick up more points when losing with our better armies.



It was Graham’s turn to choose the army and he chose the Early Russians.  Lots of average troops made this the “weakest” possible that we could field.  The only superior troops were one battle group of four undrilled knights.

With my aims in mind we approached the first round of the 2012 league season with some trepidation.  As you can see from the trophy above right we need not have worried.

Third place was our best showing by far and more importantly it got our 2012 Northern League season off to a flying start.  It also matches my best finish since April 2009 when I was playing DBMM.

Game #1 against Early Crown of Aragon 1336 (29-1 win)



Boy was this game a laugh! Alan Cole & Paul Carter started the day with their Class 1 army of superior knights and superior medium foot with offensive spear.  All the knights end up facing Graham who played a steady delaying action whilst I ruthlessly exploited the one gap Paul left me.

When Graham turned defence into attack the game was nearly over and the battle groups that he broke pushed us over the line for a big win.  As our Early Russian army is class 3, and it  beat a class 1 army, we gained 5 bonus points.

In case you don’t know the Northern League divide armies into three classes depending on how many restricted troop types they contain and there are bonus points for beating higher class armies.

If you have more than 200 points of Superior or Elite Troops and Inspired Commanders then the army is class 2.  Above 449 it is class 1.  Armies containing 16 battle groups are upgraded one class.

Game #2 against Anglo-Danish (19-6 loss)



Having reached the top table we found Mark Lewis and Phil Ashworth with lots and lots of heavy foot with offensive spear!

This was going to be  tough nut for us to crack.  I didn’t help much: I managed to roll three ones, twice in succession losing a base and breaking a battle group each time.  At odds of 1 in 216 for doing it once I consider myself unfortunate.

We were slowly ground down but managed to break through in a few places taking their camp but the average nature of our troops really told.  Mark & Phil won by taking our camp.

Nevertheless, we were pleased with this result as we broke a quarter of their army in line with our aim of not losing heavily with our weaker armies.

Prize Giving

This photo is a real rarity; not because we won something but because it has both Graham & I in the same photo!  Usually one of us is taking the pictures.