Mick and Tim Go Mad in Wales
After 2 mismatched games on the first day (Beja and Hindu Indian - Cm, El, Bw (I) vs a 4 foot wide block of supported spearmen - as the Romans say, "lavebus pronto" - "early bath") we endured a tedious draw on Sunday morning against a Portugese and English army playing for 5 points - 1 hour 10 minutes before pip dice were rolled, all the Kn remaining dismounted and within 8" of the base edge all game, the English occupying a rough hill on a flank, maximum terrain - what else can you say.....but revenge was ours as we leapfrogged back to the top of the pile with a big win in round 4, whilst our erstwhile Portugese opponents of the morning fought out another bloodless 5-5 against a Neapolitan army who only needed to gain a draw to be placed above them (same points, bigger army, so even equal EE losses on both sides would give the game to the Neapolitans - who had worked this out! With no combat until 20 minutes to go, it was a proper condottieri battle! It's maybe not for me to say, but maybe the rules own method of sorting out tied games actually encourages this sort of negative play .....?
As RBS said himself whilst dishing out the prizes to us, "God was on the side of the Big Battalions". Unfortunately it also appeared to be a cruel and unforgiving God, and a God clearly not on the side of his own two children, who were our final opponents. The 10-0 score was achieved in under 2 hours against Central Asian Turks + Tibetans - potentially a dangerous opponent able to ride down the Rus spearmen frontally, and delay us substantially in the process. Unfortunately a dust storm descended whilst the Tibetans were beginning a march to one flank and the LH(S) screen had got beyond 12" of its supporting cavalry (and generals). With the game on the adjacent table also deploying a Games Workshop Hot Salty Desert, the crosswinds had a good 12 feet to pick up the desert sands, and the storm failed to clear as the Turks were pushed back remorselessly at spear point, some virtually over the edge of the table, and the rest over the top of the Tibetans (who were still marching sideways at the time....oh dear!).
Our eventual tournament-winning score was 35!!!
And now for a further installment in our occasional series, "Footnotes to History"
As a complete coincidence, the following suggested changes to the weather rules have appeared on RBS's website....
"Snow, rain or dust storm risk: Such weather starts when any bound's PIP dice average 5 or more, then ceases if in a later bound they average less than 3. Once ceased, it does not occur again.
[Note: This gives such weather approximately a 7% chance per bound of starting, and 23% chance per bound of stopping again. Note that although the chance of starting is affected by the number of commands, this hardly affects the chance of stopping at all. Note that "3 or less" while possibly less confusing, produces a chance of weather ceasing of approximately 34% per bound, which is probably too high.]. "
