ADLG: Northern League Round 2 (Manchester, 19 May 2024)

Introduction

Sunday, 19 May saw my first competitive outing of 2024. After the usual early start, and a trip up the M6, I arrived at Eccles for the second round of the 2024 Northern League.

With A Little Help

So far I only have one competition in my 2024 diary as the Northern League dates aren't out yet. It'll come as no surprise to regular readers that it's "The King in the North" weekend event at Haxby (York) in October. However, my attendance was in doubt until recently and thereby hangs a tale.

Northern League - 2023 Review (*)

It’s that time again: time to review the state of the Northern League (the wargames competition scene in the North of England).  In fact it's a little early this year as the organisers seem to be red hot this year.

ADLG: King In The North (York, 14 - 15 Oct 2023)

Introduction

For the second year running I attended this excellent competition. When the theme was announced I was relieved to see that my recently completed Arabs just sneaked into the "Vikings!" theme thanks to the Andalusian Arabs list (ADLG list 133).

As it turned out this was a very popular choice with three other players opting to pit Arabs against the even more popular Irish and Viking armies.

Travel

On Friday the 13th my wife and I set out for darkest Yorkshire in the pouring rain. To make matters more interesting it was the first long journey in our new car: new control layout and computer beeps a plenty. Three hours later the rain had stopped and we had reached our B&B in Haxby. We were staying in the same place as last year so finding it wasn't a problem.

ADLG: Northern League Round 4 (Manchester, 03 Sep 2023)

Introduction

Eccles is normally the venue for the 5th and final round in November and last year it was absolutely freezing. Thankfully, this year the second Eccles round was held on a beautiful sunny day in early September. I even decided to wear shorts!

I arrived nice an early, got a good parking spot and helped set up the tables before making the first of many cups of tea.

Tournament Preparation

I have a two-day competition in October: "The King in the North" held in Haxby, a small village outside York. As the day draws near I've begun getting things ready. To be honest I've been getting ready for a while now.

I've been surprised at just how much preparation is required so I thought I'd record what I've been up to. I suppose one of my former professional roles, as a project manager, is well to the fore in what follows.

ADLG: Northern League Round 2 (Manchester, 07 May 2023)

Introduction

It's fair to say I had to force myself to attend this round: I have a lot going on at the moment. Not least the residual upheaval surrounding my recent relocation.

When this year's themes were announced I thought I'd be able to field a new Arab army in this round. No chance: I've still got to finish the heavy cavalry. I had to borrow four bases of heavy cavalry from Gareth Jones: thanks Gareth.

Kevin Johnson at the day's organisational nerve centre. Thanks Kev.

I was surprised by how long it took me to get ready on Saturday. Nothing was in its usual place. I'd unpacked things in new places and everything took longer to find.

Of course I forgot a few things (play sheets etc) which was annoying. Then I ended up with one too many army lists (see below). To cap it all, I didn't realise that my camera wasn't set up properly until right at the end; so apologies for the quality of some of the photos.

The match to decide first place. Or was it?

Northern League - 2022 Review (*)

It’s that time again: time to review the state of the Northern League (the wargames competition scene in the North of England). I'm glad to say that this year I managed to participate in both the opening and final rounds.

ADLG: BHGS Year End UK Rankings (*)

I'm writing this during a break in the seemingly endless decorating and is about as close to wargaming as I'm going to get until the end of February.

ADLG: Northern League Round 5 (Manchester, 06 Nov 2022)

Introduction

Three weeks after my trip to York for "The King In The North", and three weeks closer to moving house, I ventured in to darkest Manchester for the final round of the 2022 Northern League. It was my last event before all my hobby stuff was packed away prior to the move.

A busy hall late in the day. DBMM on the left front and ADLG everywhere else.

I've played many a game at Eccles in the winter and Sunday was exactly what I expected: cold! I didn't take my padded gilet off all day. My feet got so cold I had to go for a walk between the second and final game just to warm them.

ADLG: King In The North (York, 15 - 16 Oct 2022)

This post is slightly longer than my normal competition posts so it's split into sections so you can skip any boring bits.

Background

As I noted last month we're trying to move house. Six weeks on and we're almost at the stage where we can think about dates. Please note the almost in the last sentence. In an attempt to escape the stress I decided to enter the "King in the North" ADLG competition organised by Macro Baroni ably assisted by Paul Dawson.

Marco & Paul (centre) discuss the coming day's games.

After entering I got cold feet. Why did I ever think entering my first two day competition, with no practice and little wargaming since July, was a stress free way to spend a weekend?

ADLG: Northern League (Leeds, 20 Mar 2022)

Sunday dawned bright and clear. I was up very early, for me at least, and met with Gareth Jones & Thrasyvoulos Drakoulis for the trip across the Pennines.

By the time we arrived at the Leeds Wargaming Club's excellent new premises (lucky people) I was almost awake and ready for the first game.

The first round of the Northern League had a medieval theme and I was taking my newly finished Muscovite Russian army for their first competition. The initial entrants are listed below but real life considerations meant that things were slightly different on the day:

Northern League - 2021 Review (*)

It’s that time again. Unlike last year when the League was cancelled, it's time to review the state of the Northern League (the wargames competition scene in the North of England). I'm glad to say that this year I managed to participate in the final (open) round.

ADLG: Rankings 2021 (*)

A really short post today to congratulate the top ten UK Art de la Guere (ADLG) players in 2021.  According to the BHGS they are:

ADLG: Northern League (Eccles, 07 Nov 2021)

My return to the Art de la Guerre (ADLG) competition circuit saw me travel once again to Eccles on a cold Sunday morning for the final round in the 2021 Northern League. My last competitive game was in Nov 2018!

I'd agreed to share the journey with Gareth Jones which added a welcome social aspect to the day. We had breakfast enroute and the post-mortem on the return journey was most enjoyable. All that was missing was a hour in the pub.

ADLG: Theme Boundaries

When I wrote my Art de la Guerre (ADLG) list search tools I contacted various people to ask their advice. I received lots of helpful comments and some requests for specific search methods.

However, one person asked why I was doing this as the armies in ADLG v4 are already split into rigorous periods. As ADLG author Hervé Caille explained:

"All lists in the Feudal period now include only medium knights. Heavy knights are only present in the Medieval period. The Dark Ages period has no knights. Changes in ADLG v4, May 2021"

I have since uncovered a slight problem with this. Not with the lists themselves but the way they are used as broad themes in competitions.

I Used To Be A Wargamer!

There's been something nagging me for quite some time. It's about my hobby. It's so troubling that I've written this post at least three times.

I enjoy painting toy soldiers. To be specific I like painting 15 mm figures for the ancient & medieval periods. It relaxes me and I like to think that, after years of practise and hundreds of figures, I've become proficient.

So what's the problem? It's this: all this painting has to have a purpose. I don't want to be a collector. I'd like to think that the units I've painted will see service on a table (one day). But as this year has gone on, I've become less and less certain this will happen.

Northern League - 2019 Review (*)

It’s that time again. Time to review the state of the Northern League; the wargames competition scene in the North of England. I'm sad to say that this year I did not participate in any of the rounds. Perhaps next year. Who knows?

Northern League - 2018 Review (*)

It’s that time again. Time to review the state of the Northern League; the wargames competition scene in the North of England. I suppose it is something of a landmark that the data below covers thirteen years of the League.

ADLG: Northern League (Manchester, Nov 2018)

My third foray on to the Art de la Guerre (ADLG) competition circuit saw me make another trip to Eccles on a cold Sunday morning.

Date	04 Nov 2018
Competition	Northern League 5th Round
Venue	Manchester
Army	Later Polish
Army list	List details
Army number	241
Army date	1401 AD
Results	Official results grid

As in the previous two competitions I was using a new army with a few troop types I'd never used before.  It promised a "sink or swim" competition.

Even so I had a plan.  I intended to hold the infantry command behind their fortifications forcing my opponent to choose between assaulting the infantry or, if they didn't want to do that, attacking both the impact cavalry & the impetuous knights if they wanted a victory.  It's fair to say it didn't work as I had my worst competition by far!

My army contained so many uncommon units that Mick Hood (the umpire & list checker) had decided to sit at the table next to me because he knew there'd be lots of questions. As it turned out this didn't happen until game three.

Read on for photos of my opponents, game details, and the results.