ADLG: UK Rankings 2018 (*)

In August I wrote that my BHGS ranking had fallen to 122nd from the dizzying heights of 107th in May.  Well it appears that my currrent ranking has improved slightly:

ADLG: UK Rankings 2018 (*)

As usual after Britcon the BHGS have issued the UK Art de la Guerre (ADLG) rankings to mark the end of the "ranking year".

ADLG: Rankings & Survey Update (*)

This is the latest a series of posts about Art de la Guerre (ADLG) but only because I can't summon up the energy to get my camera out and photograph my latest painted units. As you can guess I don't really like photography.

ADLG: Northern League (Manchester, May 2018)

On a hot sunny Sunday, in the middle of a British bank holiday would you believe, I made my way to Eccles in Greater Manchester. I arrived so early that the hall was closed but I didn't have to wait too long and once inside I helped Geoff Pearson & Brian Pierpoint put the tables out and set up the chairs.

The plan for the day was to test my knowledge of Art de la Guerre (ADLG). I did this by taking a Timurid army made up of medium & heavy cavalry (with a couple of units of elephants to spice things up) to a medieval themed round! I expected most of the other armies to comprise heavy knights & foot so I knew I would be sorely tested and that I'd have to be nimble to get any sort of result.

Date	06 May 2018
Competition	Northern League 2nd Round
Venue	Manchester
Army	Timurids with Steppe Mongol Ally
Army list	List details
Army number	258
Army date	1471 AD
Results	Official results grid

After three games I finished 7th (or joint 6th?) of 16 with 144 points, enough to place me 9th overall after two rounds. The latter is a somewhat false position and I don't think I'll be challenging for a place come Christmas. However, last time out I finished 9th of 10 with 109 points so I feel I'm making some progress.

ADLG: UK Rankings 2017 (*)

To mark the end of the year the BHGS have just released the latest UK rankings.  What I'd forgotten was that my entry in the last round of the Northern League would earn me a national ranking!

Northern League - 2017 Review (*)

Doesn’t time fly? Once again it is time to review the state of the Northern League; the wargames competition scene in the North of England.

ADLG: Northern League (Manchester, Nov 2017)

It's been a while since I wrote a competition report. In fact it's over two years! My last report was in July 2015 for the Stoke Challenge.

I didn't realise it had been so long. Anyway, last Sunday I finally got myself organised and played in the final round of the Northern League ADLG competition. It did feel like jumping in at the deep end. Prior to Sunday I'd only played one other game of ADLG.

Even so I enjoyed the day and I'd like to thank all my opponents who put up with my stupid questions and total inability to work out even the most basic shooting and combat factors.

Date	05 November 2017
Competition	Northern League 5th Round
Venue	Manchester
Army	Ilkhanid Mongol with a Cilician Armenian Ally
Army list	List details
Army number	255
Army date	1260 AD
Results	Official results grid

This army was a favourite of mine when I used to play Field of Glory (FOG). The allied spear and knights add another dimension to a straight Mongol army. Although not exactly a killer army it offers both quality and maneuverability. For these games I took brilliant generals to allow me to exploit the latter and to compensate for the fact that I'm new to ADLG.

Northern League - 2016 Review (*)

Doesn’t time fly? Is it time to review the state of the Northern League, the competition scene in the North of England, once again? It appears so. This year the review is a touch late as the data's only just been released.

So Macho?

No not the Sinitta 1985 song but something completely different.

There’s been a flurry of forum posts about Field of Glory Renaissance (FOG R) this week and some good seems to have come from it. One of the posts asked if the format of competitions could be changed to improve overall attendance.

Smaller armies

I put in my two pennyworth. I supported the army classification system used in the Northern League. I also supported the idea of more games at 650 points on a 5’ by 3’ table. The benefits of 650 point games are:

• Games are quicker,
• The lower unit count means there are fewer draws,
• Armies are easier, and cheaper, to raise,
• Armies contain a bigger proportion of compulsory troops.

I wasn’t the only one supporting 650 point games. Tim Porter even suggested refocusing the rules on 650-700 points rather than 800-900.

Rules War :: Compilation Released (*)

This booklet collects a series of my blog posts together with an extract of an article I wrote for Miniature Wargames.  They share a theme: the popularity of rules for 15 mm wargames in the ancient, medieval & renaissance periods amongst competition wargamers.

Northern League - 2015 Review (*)

Doesn’t time fly?  Is it time to review the state of the Northern League, the competition scene in the North of England, once again?  It appears so.

Re-Mystified on Tour :: Stoke Challenge 2015

As you can see I did not come away empty handed from this year's Stoke Challenge.

Having said that I had a very mixed day. Best described as follows:/p>

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

Charles Dickens: A Tale Of Two Cities (1859)

My newly painted, and very recently completed, Safavid Persian army made their competitive début and were promptly and repeatedly trounced. If you are interested my army list is available to view. I scored a total of 5 points in three games! By far my worst competitive performance to date. Consistently rolling 1s in Field of Glory Renaissance is never a good idea.

Wargaming In 2015

I've been promising myself I'd write about my experiences of playing Field of Glory Renaissance (FOGR) over the last two years but my day job kept getting in the way.

The recent changes to VAT for ebooks and Corvus Belli's decision to suspend production of their 15 mm historical ranges ensured that I was propelled headlong into Christmas and kept busy until today.

After much thought I've decided to take a break from regular wargaming in 2015. "Shock horror" I hear you cry! Let me briefly explain why:

Re-Mystified On Tour - Northern League R5

Sunday, 07 December dawned bright and early as I headed for Walkden for the last round of the Northern League in 2014. As before I was looking forward to playing in the Field of Glory Renaissance (FOGR) competition.

I had decided to take a class three variant of my TYW Danish army. Effectively this meant one less battlegroup of heavily armoured, superior, pistol, pistol.

I managed 18 points over two games with one winning draw and a big loss. This brought my total to the year to 62 points in 6 games. Averaging ten points a games isn't too bad at all and it's an improvement on last year. Overall I was placed eighth out of nineteen for the year.

At this stage I'm not sure what I'll be doing next year but I will collect my thoughts and post my plans later this month.

Northern League - 2014 Review (*)

It's that time of year again! Time to review the state of the Northern League the competition scene in the North of England.

Re-Mystified on Tour :: Review

Whilst writing the previous post on my latest Northern League adventures it occurred to me to review all my competitive games of FOGR. I started playing at the beginning of 2013 so it's not that many. This is how I've done:

Competition	Northern League	Stoke Challenge
Points	800	650
Wins	2	1
Draws (Winning)	0	0
Draws (Losing)	3	2
Losses	3	3
Total	8	6
Average	0.25	0.17

At first sight it looks like I've got to get more practise in but what I really need to work on is converting the losing draws in to winning draws and picking up more points along the way. You can see this by looking at the total points scored and the average points per type of game:

Re-Mystified on Tour :: Halifax 2014

It was a good event!

On Sunday I took 800 points worth of Italian Wars French for two enthralling games of Field of Glory Renaissance (FOGR) in the third round of the 2014 Northern League.

The army was dated 1523. This turned out to be important because this season Northern League armies before 1570 have been given a boost by an alteration of the army classification system: they are allowed to drop a class. This is to encourage players to field earlier armies and go some way towards compensating for their poorer weapons and tactics when facing later armies.

My army contained just over 400 points of superior troops and would have been class 1 but now it dropped to class 2 with the incentive that they could gain 2 bonus points by beating higher class opponent. All I had to do was win a game!

Re-Mystified on Tour :: Stoke Challenge 2014

I've finally recovered from Sunday's 650 point Field of Glory Renaissance competition. The day was organised by Ray Boyles and Keith Spedding who worked well as an organising team and the day went quickly and smoothly.

Between games I got a chance to take some photos of the very well attended DBMM competition which gives you a flavour of the venue:

Speaking of flavours the smell from the canteen was awful and lasted all day. Yuck! Naturally, the only photo I got of the FOGR competition was between rounds:

As far as the games went I, or rather the Early Lithuanians, had a terrible, if enjoyable(!), day with only 15 points from a possible 75. Here are the reports:

Re-Mystified on Tour :: Walkden 2014

I'm sorry for the recent hiatus but the last 6-8 weeks have been hectic as it included the financial year end of my business and, as always, there was a lot of paperwork and financial analysis to be done.

Even so I managed to play in the first round of the 2014 Northern League on Sunday, 16 March. I decided to try my 1625 Danish TYW army once again. As always there was a welcoming and friendly atmosphere throughout:

The Re-Mystified On Tour :: Walkden 2013

Last Sunday saw my second visit to this year's Northern League competition. This time I took an Italian Wars French army from about 1523 which was very different from the highly mobile TYW Danish army I used in the spring.

I've been playing Field of Glory Renaissance (FOGR) for a full year now and felt I was ready to try a heavy foot army although I anticipated the games would be slow. I was proved right: neither of the games finished within the allotted time.

For this competition report, and all future tour reports, I've decided to switch styles and focus on recording just the key details and will try and avoid writing a narrative in the comments section. Interesting, blow by blow accounts are very hard to write. I'll leave that sort of thing to Tim Porter (aka The Madaxeman).