Another Dark Day for Men (well, Evil Men that is)

First, in something totally unrelated to the rest of this post, I must mention the fact that I had a pretty fabulous Christmas this year. The main part of this was due to the fact that my lovely wife had ten days in a row off and we got to spend plenty of time together. There were lots of very nice presents for everyone in our household and tonnes of good food, including the best Sloppy Joe's I've ever had. Now that the holiday season is over, it's back to some other fun things, like table top miniatures gaming.

The last battle I played in went quite well for me, with my mix of Uruk-hai and Evil men winning a pretty convincing victory over the forces of good. Our next game was going to be a refight using similar but slighted changed orders of battle.

Again, I was playing evil. I like playing evil in LOTR: WOTR but I'm not sure why. Maybe it'd because most of my own LOTR mini's are evil. I was notorious in high school for sticking to playing the good guys, especially the Federation in Star Fleet Battles and Ranger or some other Good character in D&D. The main difference between my forces from those in the last game was the addition of a Ringwraith, in this case Khamul the Easterling. He is a pretty expensive unit, so I lost two companies of Uruk-hai, and the remaining company was converted to crossbows, and lead by an Uruk-hai hero named Vrashku. The increase in points allowed Mark to expand his Ranger and Cavalry forces for the good side. You can see the respective forces in the pictures posted with this blog. You might notice that Mark had the weight of numbers on his side.

Mark says that he is slightly scared of magic users in WOTR, especially powerful ones like the Ringwraiths. They can cast up to three spells a turn and have all the other abilities of heroes, but only one point of Might. Khamul also has an ability called Essence Leech, which gives his formation a save against casualties and can cause those casualties to rebound onto a nearby enemy unit. As cool as he is, I'm not sure he's worth it in a small to medium game of WOTR, as he sucks up a lot of points and can leave you badly outnumbered.

We set up as usual, using the nice terrain mat Mark has plus his spiffy rocky outcroppings and trees. We faced each other as if we had entered along the long edge of the table, which meant in the first turn we would almost certainly be in arrow range of each other. You can see the initial deployments in one of the pictures.

I may be mixing up the first couple of turns here but you'll get the idea. Mark won the first Priority (initiative) roll and decided to let me go first. I hot footed my Uruk crossbows into some woods and advanced the rest of the army. Mark also advanced with his cavalry starting to sweep around both flanks. The first shooting phase was mediocre for me, taking out one Gondorian cavalryman. I did manage to use Khamul to Transfix one of the units of his cav, but in retrospect, I should have used the spells differently. His shooting phase was much more devastating than mine, with a lot of his stuff locking on to the troll. He managed to inflict two wounds on the Troll with his Avenger Bolt Thrower, which was then finished off by something like 36 shots from his Rangers. It was a terrible blow. The troll was one of the main reasons I won the last game and he was dead in the first turn. I should have used Khamul to cast Pall of Night on the bolt thrower and the Rangers, reducing their effectiveness, and I should have deployed the Troll closer to cover. He also took out some of my Uruk-hai crossbows with his formation of Gondor archers. Taking one company of anything is a mistake. The charge phase saw me blow my charge roll with my Haradrim against the Transfixed Gondor cav, so nothing happened there. I tried to charge his other unit of cav with my Haradrim foot but couldn't get close enough, and they counter charged with a Heroic charge, wiping them out but expending all of their Might in the process. The next turn saw the rest of my Uruk crossbows fall, despite the cover of the woods. They got charged in the woods, but could only fight with half their number. So, I was down to my three companies of Easterlings, including Khamul and some Haradrim Cav. I tried to limit my losses by fighting defensively, keeping the archers under palls of night to reduce their effectiveness and manoeuvring to get out of their line of sight. Faramir and his cav managed to charge the Easterlings from the rear but a combination of Essence Leech and two handed weapons destroyed the entire formation. The remaining Easterlings were whittled down by archery fire and then the other unit of cav hit them, finishing them off. The Haradrim cav, who I had kept largely intact by avoiding a headlong charge into the heart of the enemy forces, decided discretion was the better part of valour and hit the road.

Well, that battle went about as wrong as it could, other than the high point of taking out Faramir. I'm still getting used to magic so I have to work on picking the right spell for the right situation. The early Transfix would have been useful if I hadn't failed my charge roll. The Pall of Night might have been a better choice, and my troll may have survived to get under cover, or at least get into charge range. Also, taking Vrashku and his Talons was a mistake. If your going to use a Legendary unit, make sure you have at least three companies in the formation. We made one little mistake, in that when fighting from cover it's half the capacity of the terrain in terms of companies, not individual figures. This means my Uruks in the woods would have shot and fought at full strength. The Uruks were a point sink as was Khamul. The loss of the Troll, another points sink, was a nasty blow, and my forces never recovered after it was lost. I'm thinking in small to medium WOTR battles, numbers are important, and big points sinks, like a magic user, even a powerful one like Khamul, should be avoided. About half of his forces never actually engaged, with most of the damage being done through missile fire and cavalry. His big block of infantry in the centre didn't do a lot, except for a formation that took out the last of Vrashku's Uruks who were hiding in the woods.

Next time we play, I'm hoping to take an Isengard (lots of Uruk-hai lead by Saruman of the White Hand) themed force but I'm not sure who I'll be up against. There is a distinct chance of pointy eared bastards in the offing.

TTFN.

A Dark Day for Men

Mark came over for one of our ongoing Thursday games. This week it was Games Workshop's War of the Ring games, which I've posted about before. It's a mass combat game set in Tolkien's Middle Earth. Mark is great. He brings over all the figures, the terrain and the nice table covering. He also takes some great pictures to record the game. The miniatures we use are not the 28 mm ones from GW, but a larger scale that was put out in a collect able format. Apparently they are becoming increasingly rare and hard to get a hold of. Mark does a lot of conversion work on them to make different poses and looks from the originals. They look great. I have a pile of the 28 mm but they have to watch from the display case until Dave can bring over his gigantic horde of guys.

This week it was a mixed force of Evil, mostly from the Fallen Realms list with some Uruk-hai thrown in for good measure vs. Gondorians and Rangers. My force consisted of three companies of Easterlings with pikes (24 figs), three companies of Uruk-hai (24 figs), 2 companies of Haradrim archers (16 figs), 3 companies of Haradrim cavalry (6 figs), and a Troll. I also had a Haradrim captain and an Uruk-hai captain.

Mark had three two company formations of Warriors of Minas Tirith (16 figures each), two companies of Minas Tirith archers (16 figs), two companies or Rangers (16 figs), 4 companies of Knights of Minas Tirith (8 figs), and a bolt thrower. He also had Faramir and a Minas Tirith captain.

We set our forces on the long edge of my 6 foot dining room table. The table is only 2 1/2 feet wide which means we were going to be engaging each other tout suite. I set my Easterlings on the right flank, with the Uruk-hai taking the centre with my cavalry in between them. On the left were the Haradrim archers and the Troll.

Mark divided his cavalry between the two flanks, with two companies each. Farimir was with the left cav formation. On the left flank were the Rangers, with the centre having the three formations of Warriors and the bolt thrower. The far right flank was held by the two companies of archers.

The terrain conisted of two clumps of woods at either end of the battle field and some difficult terrain scattered across the centre.

Mark won the first turns initiative and asked me to move first. I had placed my captain with the archers. This allowed them to move "At the Double", which they were able to do, moving 12" instead of 6". All of the other formations trundled forward at their regular move with the Haradrim cav leading the way. Mark moved his Rangers forward, occupying the woods on his left flank. This increased the defence of his low D Rangers. Rangers and woods, two great things that go great together, well, most of the time. The rest of his units moved up, with his cav flanking. The next phase was shooting. My Haradrim captain called a Heroic Shoot. Normally archers that have moved full cannot shoot, but the Heroic Shoot overrides this. This gave me 18 shots at the Rangers, plus another 9 shots from the cav. Despite the defensive bonus given by the woods almost a full company of Rangers were cut down, some by poisoned arrows.

Mark returned fire with his archers and bolt thrower. The bolt thrower missed, and the archers did minimal casulaties. Nobody was in charge range so there was no fight phase.

I won initiative on the second turn and advanced my cav towards one of his warrior formations. My archers moved up slightly so they could still shoot, and everybody else advanced. In the shoot phase my archers finished off the Rangers in the woods, Mark's bolt thrower missed again and I don't think I took any other hits from his archers. My cav was planning on charging the infantry in front of them but Mark called a Heroic Charge, interrupting their attempt to charge by charging them with Faramir and his two companies of Knights. I was in turn able to charge the Knights with my Troll. The knights wiped out the Haradrim cav with Faramir using Epic Strike, and were then wailed on by the Troll, who scored 9 hits. This would normally take out the whole formation. Faramir used his Epic Sacrifice ability negating 6 of the hits but going down in the process. One Knight went down with him. His other unit of Knights had gotten within charge range of my Easterling unit and hit them in the flank, taking out a company, losing a couple of Knights in the process. Those Easterlings are tough dudes.

The next turn I won initiative and moved my Easterlings and Haradrim archers into the woods that were near them. This made them considerably less tempting targets for charges. My Uruk-hai moved up the centre putting themselves into a rather vulnerable position. Mark moved his one unit of Knights so they could charge the Uruks in the rear and after the Uruks charged a unit of warriors in the centre they were charged by another unit of warriors in their flank. Not good. My archers in the woods managed to get out and charge a unit of infantry. The Minas Tirith Captain called out the Uruk-hai captain in a Heroic Duel, but was defeated, leaving the Men leaderless. The Troll was in the thick of it as well. After being whittled down by a company of Minas Tirith archers my Easterling phalanx charged out of the woods to come to grips with the archers harassing them. The resulting fight phase saw casualties to the Uruk-hai, about 12 of them going down. I was expecting worse. The flanking formation of Haradrim and the Troll did there jobs, reducing the companies of Men considerably. The Easterlings managed to get there licks in on the archers, eventually destroying the formation after a couple of turns of combat, but being reduced to a single company.

The subsequent turns were a swirl of battle in the centre of the board. Mark's bolt thrower crew finally got their range and the Haradrim archers paid the price, going down in two turns. The troll laid about him with abandon and did some pretty serious damage. He managed to stay alive despite a couple of turns of fire from the bolt thrower, receiving two wounds but not going down. The remaining Easterlings moved across the board to get into the fray in the centre. I had bad luck on initiative over the last few turns but I was able to make some good moves, most importantly having the troll resist going after a unit that was disordered and instead charging another unit in the rear. The Troll was probably my most effective unit and after the bolt thrower failed to kill it, Mark conceded the game.

At the end of the game Mark had two companies of Men left, one of which was surrounded by my remaining Uruk-Hai, Easterlings, and the Troll and the bolt thrower. My troll was wounded and I had about a company and a half of Uruks and the one company of Easterlings. It could have gone either way and the victory was definitely Phyrric.

It was a great game and we got to use a lot of different rules and was probably one of the best tactical games I've played in some time. It was probably our smoothest game to date without a lot of rules discussion. Even when things were going bad the game was so much fun it didn't really matter. As I noted above, Mark took lots of pictures and I've posted the ones he sent me. Again, thank you to Mark for taking the time to come over, bring his stuff and giving me my gaming fix.

Weekend in the Big Smoke

Last weekend the family and I travelled to the city of Toronto for the weekend. The main reason we went was take care of Matthew's big birthday present from us. Eve works really hard for Greyhound and her boss had given her a pick of the Leafs seasons tickets a couple of months ago. We'd chosen the Saturday, Novemeber 21st game against the Washington Capitols. This was cool, because Matthew like Alexander Ovechkin. It was really hard to keep it a secret but we finally got to annouce it at Matthew's birthday party. We decided to make a weekend of it, with Eve booking a room for us at the Hilton Garden Inn on Peter Street, which has a special rate for Greyhound employees.

Early Saturday afternoon we drove over the the Greyhound terminal in Guelph and caught the bus into Toronto, disembarking at the Bay Street terminal. Elizabeth was really good on the trip, facisnated by being so high up and seeing all the traffic around us. She's ridden the bus before but this time seemed to be special for her. We caught the TTC from St. Patrick Station down to St. Andrew Station and walked a couple of blocks to the hotel.

The room we got at the Hilton was very nice, with two queen beds and later a crib for Elizabeth. It had a nice flat screen tv, a decent shower, and comfy matresses that were adjustable. After we got settled in we headed out for an early supper. Our originalintent had been to go to a restarunt called the Thai Princess, just down from the hotel. It didn't open until 5 pm so we wandered down King until we saw a Greek place called Penelope that was just opening. It was big place and being early made seating easy. We ordered saganaki as an appetizer. Saganaki is cheese that has been soaked in ouzo and is then lit on fire at your table. Opa! It is very yummy. Eve ordered calamari, Matthew had chicken souvlaki, and I had pork tenderloin done souvlaki style. We brought food for Elizabeth though she did try some potatoe. All the food was very good and the waitress was very nice in a motherly sort of way. For dessert I had a raspberry souffle with a chocolate centre which was good. Eve had something with pastry and custard which she shared with E. and Matthew had ice cream. After supper we walked back to the hotel and then Eve and Elizabeth went back up to the room. Matthew and I caught the street car to St. Andrew and the the subway to Union and we walked the rest of the way to the ACC.

We were there over an hour early but Matthew was quite excited so we went up to our seats. They were very nice, in the lower bowl of the arena overlooking the vistor's starting net. There was a handful of people in our section. We were approached by a waitress who had a tablet that she could punch in orders and have them delivered to our seats. She chated with Matthew and she could tell how excited he was. She was also one of the tallest women I've ever seen, easily 6' 5". She was standing one set of seats down and she towered over Matthew. We disn't want anything right away but later ordered a big bag of popcorn and some drinks. At one point the usher by our entrance handed the waitress a hockey puck which she brought up to Matthew. He was totally thrilled. It was an official Leafs puck with the NHL logo on one side and the Leafs logo on the other. Matthew clutched the puck for the whole game.

There were several pre-game events, including a Homecoming for several ex-Leaf players, including one guy who had played in the 1940's. The game itself started at 7:30 and was pretty fast paced but low scoring. The Caps struck first, with Ovechkin scoring part way through the first. The crowd was quite loud, with Matthew adding considerably to the volume of noise. He really gets into the game, yelling at the refs and the players and making extra noise when the Jumbotron called for it. I think he was going a bit hoarse towards the end. We munched through our popcorn and drank our drinks and had a very good time. During the first intermission there were a bunch of Timbits Hockey kids having fun on the ice, chasing the puck around and falling down a lot. IIRC the Leafs tied it up in the second, on a goal that bounced off Hagman's butt. The second intermission featured a race between a bunch of psychotic goalies. There was no scoring in the third and the game seemed relatively clean without too many penalties. At one point an entire row of seats up in the nosebleeds won flat screen TV's from LG, who was a sponser for that game.

The game went to overtime which resolved nothing so that was followed by a shoot out. Toskala, the Leafs goalie did a great job over the night and her really shone in the shoot out, including a great stop on Ovechkin, forcing him to shoot early. After all was said and done, the Leafs had won! I was glad because Matthew would have been heartbroken if they had of lost. We made our way back to Union via the PATH system and went back up to St. Andrew Station. We waited for a streetcar but then decided to walk the rest of the way back. Matthew was very happy, telling anyone who would listen about the game. We got back to the hotel around 10:30 and went up to the room. Elizabeth had fallen asleep and Eve was quitely watching TV when we got in. We stayed up a bit, telling her about the game and then hit the sack after putting Elizabeth in the rather nice crib provided. Unfortunately the Hotel was situated next to a rather noisy dance club playing a lot of very loud disco tunes. It made it hard to fall asleep and at one point Elizabeth woke up crying. I calmed her down and she went back to sleep but it wasn't easy. I'm not sure when they shut down because I eventually managed to sleep.

We actually managed to sleep in until about 9:00 am. We cleaned up and packed up intending to go out for some breakfast. Checkout wasn't until noon, but we left at around 11 am. We walked down to Queen Street looking for a breakfast place. After a few minutes walk we came across a place called Cafe Crepe. We got in fairly quickly despite the crowd and I had a lovely breakfast crepe with ham, swiss cheese, and mushrooms. Eve had a crepe with Nutella and fresh strawberries. Matthew's crepe had nutella and maple syrup. They were all very yummy.

After breakfast Matthew and I went back to the Bay terminal and dropped off our luggage in a locker. Eve and Elizabeth went off to find some art supplies,picking up some new nibs and brushes at an ancient art store call Guartzman's. We met up at one of the coolest stores in Toronto, The Silver Snail. The Silver Snail is a comic shop and action figure store and games store and so on. We wandered around for awhile looking at all the neat stuff. Eve bought a neat patch from Firefly with the nose art of the Serenity on it and Matthew picked up a pack of Heroscape figures. We then wandered through west on Queen St., checking out all the cool store fronts. Our destination was a new burger joint called Oh Boy! Burger. It was brand new and had gotten a positive review in The Star. It was really busy. There wasn't a huge amount of seating but Eve decided we should perserver and got in line while I hovered near a table that looked close to being done. In the end it worked out and I managed to get the table and the food came shortly afterward. While we were waiting the owner had to shut the doors as the place had hit capacity. They were also running low or out of a lot of things. The burger was well worth the wait, very savoury and made from high quality beef that came from near Guelph. We then headed back to the bus terminal, intending to catch the 4:30 pm, but catching the 3:30 in the nick of time. We had another nice trip back and got home and took it easy for the evening.

It was a wonderful weekend and Eve did a really great job of organizing everything for the trip. Nothing went majorly wrong and the Leafs managed to win one in an otherwise dismal season.

I think that's all for now. I'll write again when something interesting happens.

Death in the Apennines

Mark came over Thursday for another in our ongoing games of Axis and Allies. Lots of little tanks and men and just a bit of carnage. This time it was Germans vs. Italians. The scenario was set after the overthrow of Mussolini. The Germans had to neutralize the Italian Army, which had suddenly become a potentially hostile force. The Italians, despite a largely undeserved bad reputation, were brave fighters with some half decent equipment, though not a match for the latest German tech.

The scenario was a meeting engagement, fought over some slightly hilly country as was standard for most of Italy. The Germans had three Panzer IVH, including a command tank; 3 halftracks carrying 6 squads of troops including, IIRC, a couple of squads of fallschirmjäger (elite paratroopers), and a halftrack mounting a quad AA mount. The Italians had five tanks (3 Carro Armato M 14/41 and two M13/40) plus three self propelled guns, including a Semovente 90/53 and two Semovente 47/32 and some trucks carrying 6 squads of infantry including one of elite Blackshirts. The Italians also had some air support in the form of a fighter that could strafe ground targets.

I played the Germans in the first game. Things started out fairly well as I quickly rolled forward, though perhaps too quickly, negating the range advantage of the long 75mm guns. I managed to damage a couple of tanks and the 90/53 but failed to kill them. Mark did manage to get some air support which disrupted a halftrack. Not killing those units would come back to haunt me. I had sent two tanks down the left flank with the other tank and the half tracks down the right and the AA unit roughly in the middle. Mark advanced, ignoring some firing opportunities to bring his units into range. By separating the one tank I lost some of the tactical advantages of having a leader.

In the second turn he also got air support, but my AA unit managed to blast it out of the sky this time. Mark focused his fire on the German command tank, damaging it. He also managed to disrupt the other tanks which allowed him to get into flanking positions. His superior numbers came in quite handy and I was faced with a tank swarm and not enough guns to take them out. By getting into flanking positions he was able to take out the remaining German tanks which basically sealed my fate. I did take out some of the Italian SPG but it was too little too late.

We switched sides and played a second game. I concentrated my SPG and a couple of lighter tanks on right flank, and sent the others 3 up the left in a long flank. It was not a good day for the Italians. Where in my game the Germans managed to only disrupt or damage the Italian vehicles, Mark managed some solid kills over the game, including the big SPG. He did some very clever maneuvering and managed to pick off my tanks one at a time, including two by infantry close assault. My infantry didn't fair much better, deploying in ground that was too open and getting shot up. It was not well played by me and by trying to take the long flank my forces were far too dispersed. If my SPG's had of lasted longer things might have gone better.

I wonder how adaptle the A&A ruleset would be to using 1/285 scale mini's which I have a pile of, unfortunately mostly unpainted. It's certainly something to look into and might inspire me to get some of it painted.

Next time we play, it will probably be a War of the Ring game as he has a new unit of Easterlings he wants to see in action.

I've included a couple of pictures, one from each game IIRC.

Matthew's Birthday Party

Our son Matthew's birthday is the 12th of November. My wife actually went into labour just as Remembrance Day ceremonies were finishing up, which we were thankfully watching on the CBC.

This year the 12th fell on a Thursday which not the best day for a party, so we planned to have it on the following Sunday. We opened a box of presents from my mom on Thursday which included two neat toys from Megablocks, some good clothes, and a flying helicopter thing from Wowee. We took Matthew out for supper at the Stone Road Mall and he spent his birthday money (a $30 gift card for Sears plus $25 from his grandmother Harris). He used it to by a bunch of Lego Star Wars stuff, including Echo Base on Hoth and a couple of small Clone Trooper Walkers.

The SCA event and guests plus the Birthday made for a rather gruelling weekend. Eve's work on the scrolls on Thursday and Friday added to her level of exhaustion. I forgot to add in my previous blog that much of her layout work done on Thursday night was ruined when the cat knocked a cup of water onto the scrolls Friday evening, so she had to start from scratch.

Our guests departed at around 10:30 am Sunday morning. Eve went out to get our groceries and I started some mad, panicked cleaning. I had a heap of dishes to do and a bunch of general tiding up. I didn't know if any of the parents of the kids were staying and I wanted the place to look a bit more respectable. Matthew had invited 5 friends, four from school and a former neighbour of ours, Milan, who had moved to Kitchener. We sent out the invitations about two weeks before the party and Milan's mom got back to us right away saying he would be there. Two other parents got back to us the Friday before the party saying their kids would be there. We don't have a huge place so three kids plus Matthew is actually pretty reasonable.

The party was planned to run from 2 pm until 5 pm. Eve got back from groceries about 1:15 and then started to work on the cake. Matthew wanted a cake that looked like the NX-01 Enterprise from the recent series. Eve accomplished this in spades by carefully cutting cake pieces and assembling them (see pictures). It was then covered in blue icing and sprinkled with moons and stars.

For some reason Milan didn't come and we're still not sure why. I tried his mom's cell phone and home number but I didn't get any answer. (Update: It turns out Milan's uncle was taken ill and had to go into Emergency in Kitchener which is why Milan couldn't come. Milian's mom will drop off Matthew's present some time next week.) Anyways, two of his friends from school did come, Austyn and Nick. They had a lot of fun messing around with Matthew's toys and playing some games on our X-Box 360. We had lots of snacks and Kool-Aid Jammers and we also served pizza and cake. Matthew got a cool Hotwheels set with a car that changes colour depending on what temp water you put it into and a $25 gift card for Wal-Mart.

We also announced his big present. Eve managed to get two of the Greyhound season tickets to the Maple Leafs, so next Saturday Matthew and I will be watching the Leafs vs Caps from really nice seats. We're planning on taking the bus in Saturday morning as a family and staying at a hotel that has a company rate. We'll have an early dinner as a family then Matthew and I will head off to the game. We'll stay over and head back on Sunday. It should be fun and it would be nice if the Leafs could win for a change.

I think that's all for now. I may post something on our trip next week.

Kingdom A&S

This Saturday was the Kingdom of Ealdormere's Arts & Sciences Fair, held in New Hamburg Ontario, just outside Kitchener. We brought two students from U of G with us, a fellow fencer named Isaac Spinoza and one of the new kids, Eric. As usual we supplied him with garb for the day and he was very helpful and I think he had fun at the event. Baron Giovanni and Baroness Lucia of Skraeling Althing (Ottawa and area) along with their daughter were crashing with us. Lord Neyhart from Kingston was also staying with us.

The A&S Fair is where this year's annual A&S competition was held. It's an opportunity for people to show off the projects they've been working on over the last year or more and get feedback on them from others who might have knowledge to share. It is also the place where the A&S Pentathalon takes place. Pent is a judged competition where those wishing to compete enter five items covering at least three of the A&S categories. These items are judged by previous Pent winners and by the Queen of Ealdormere. The winner of Pent becomes the A&S Champion for the next year. People's entries can be Beginner Level, Intermediate Level or Advanced Level. My wife was a Pent winner several years ago, basing her entries around the Venetian ritual marriage with the sea. She entered a hand sewn Venetian over and under dress (in silk) based on a Durer sketch from 1495; a translation of a 16th c. Italian wedding banquet description, a pair of cork chopines (think monster platform shoes), a piece of tromp d'oeil illumination based on Venetian styles, and several cooked dishes from the feast. She put an incredible amount of effort into it and I remember many late nights leading up to A&S. The Pent entries later became the basis of an issue of the Complete Anachronist, an SCA wide publication.

This years entries were laid on tables arranged like booths at a fair. There certainly seemed to be a diversity of entries, though I was a bit too busy to get a good look at them, more on which later. There were six entries this year into Pent and Asa/Eve was there to do the pent judging aw well as go over the other entries. I had considered entering Pent this year but then something came up which caused me to postpone it to next year.

The reason I did not enter Pent this year is that the venue was chosen by the Preceptor of the Ealdormere Academy of Defence (EAOD) as a place for a number of Free Scholars to fight their Prize to advance to the next level, Provost. The EAOD is an organization within Ealdormere, basically a ranking system based on the London Masters of Defence of the 16th c. The ranks are Cadet, Scholar, Free Scholar, Provost and Dean. In order to enter the Academy or advance in rank, you must play a Prize. For Cadet you must fight 10 bouts against those of higher rank, winning at least 1/3rd of them and then fence 15 minutes against all comers. Each subsequent rank adds 10 more bouts. Free Scholar, Provost and Dean also have academic requirements involving research on things related to period swordplay or the culture of the time.
Each rank also had a coloured scarf associated with it. The head of the Academy is called the Preceptor, and the person in charge of vetting research projects is called the Proctor, who is currently me.

So, for my Provost prize I needed to fence 40 bouts, and then do the 15 minutes against all comers. Quite the test of endurance. In needed to win 14 bouts.

I have been a Free Scholar for at least 10 years, because there was only one person at the rank of Provost and he wasn't particularly active. Several other people were in the same boat as me. I had submitted my research project so long ago that I couldn't remember which of the many research projects I had done it was. Lady Jocelyne, the current Preceptor, decided to do something about this backlog and thus the Prize fights at A&S. There would be three Provost Prizors, who would fence each other, and to make things interesting, an outside fencer of excellent skill and repute would be asked to join in the fun. In this case it was the esteemed Don Giovanni di Fiamma from Trimaris (Florida). The Prizors were to be myself, THL Gaerth Cambell, THL Wilhelm Potruff, and, just to make things confusing, Baron Giovanni d'Enzias of Skraeling Althing. Don Giovanni also taught a very nice class on German longsword in the morning. Wilhelm unfortunately had to bow out due to illness in his family. His place was taken by Baron Hoskuld, who was quite agreeable to everyone involved. Together my opponents represented some of the best fencers in Ealdormere and in one case, one of the best in the Known World. Quite the challenge.

Before the Prize fights started I was approached by the Baron and Baroness of Ramshaven, who asked me if I would assume the duties of their Rapier Champion, as the current person could no longer fulfill their duties. I was most honoured and accepted the cloak and the buckler of office. Things would be made formal at Court that evening.

I had a quick lunch of a very tasty cheese and mushroom pie followed by a dessert that was evil incarnate. It consisted of a meringue shell, into which was poured a dollop of custard, some fresh whipped cream, cherry compote and sprinkled with poppy seeds. Evil I tell you, but tasty evil. The lunch counter actually ran all day and had a diversity of foods including miso soup an tempura.

Jocelyn had arranged that we be heralded into the list area, our accolades read out for all to hear. I had brought a banner, which I forgot to pull out, and some chocolate coins which were to be thrown to the crowd but when the time came I completely forgot about doing it. Maybe next time.

We each had to fence 10 bouts against our opponents, using each authorization (single rapier, non-rigid parry, rigid parry, dagger and case), twice. I fought some really wonderful bouts and had a tonne of fun. I started out of the gate fast, possibly too fast, and kept going almost without break. A nice Lady named Elanor was keeping score for me so I knew who I had to fight with what form and my wins and losses. In retrospect I should have checked with her earlier what my win/loss totals were, because I found towards the end I had only 11 wins with 6 bouts remaining. I'd have to win half of those bouts to complete my Prize and, alas, it was not to be. Perhaps if I had of checked earlier I would have played my last dozen or so bouts a bit more conservatively, but I was having a blast and was going at things even more aggressively than normal. I only got one more win, leaving me two short. My fellow Prizors did manage to make their totals. Wassail to THL Gareth and Baron Giovanni, newest Provosts of the EAOD!

I was disappointed in my showing, but I have no one to blame for that other than myself. I had promised, win or lose, to do the 15 minutes against all comers, a promise which I fulfilled. With the pressure off I think I gave better than I got during the endurance round. I even got in some cut & thrust bouts with Lord Mateo. Gaerth, who is a former student of mine, had some very kind words for me, and people were generally sympathetic. I believe I have the distinction of being the first person not to achieve their Prize the first attempt, though I'm not absolutely sure of that. The Prizes are designed to be a challenge, and at least I've proven that they are not a given. The two new Provost were presented their new scarves (green with blue trim) by His Majesty on the list field. I asked those assembled if they would join me at War of the Trilliums where I would attempt my Provost Prize again, and there was general agreement that this could be done. I've since been contacted by THL Wilhelm who said that he and Lord Lars would be looking at doing their Prize sometime in the spring. Lady Jocelyn will have my Prize published in The Tidings as is required by the EAOD charter. Lady Jocelyn did a great job of getting everything organized and has breathed life into what was a moribund organization. It was nice to see Their Majesties supporting us as well.

One result of the prize fight is that my legs are killing me, and I'm discovering lots of interesting point bruises, including a welt on my right bicep. Walking up stairs is no fun at all, but hopefully I'll recover quickly, at least by the time I fight my next Prize. Eric managed to get some good shots of the fencing including some video. Hopefully I can pick it up from him on Tuesday.

While I was off fencing my brains out Asa was kid wrangling and judging A&S entries. I finished up just in time for here to judge pent, so I chased Elizabeth around, which allowed to keep my legs warm. I was afraid if I sat down they would seize up on me all together. Matthew was having fun playing soccer indoors and running around the arena bleachers with his friends. I did have to make an emergency run to Sobeys to get diapers as we were nearly out but it was made easier by Gareth who gave me a ride. I also talked Eric's ear off, explaining the rank structure of the SCA and how awards worked and various other stories.

After the conclusion of the Pent judging, which took about an hour and a half, court was held. I was called up during Baronial court to accept the cloak and buckler from THL Vlad. I spent the rest of court behind Their Excellencies thrones. It was important we be there for another reason. Asa had spent the previous two night working until the wee hours to complete two scrolls for a couple who were receiving their Award of Orion. She produced two lovely scrolls based of two halves of a gold annular broach. She always does such a nice job of personalizing the language of an award scroll and the gold work was beautiful. The recipients seemed very happy with them. Also, Mistress Keja was put on vigil for the Order of the Laurel. The winner of Pentathalon was Lady Alais de Poitiers fron Skrael.

After court we packed up and headed home. Giovanni and Lucia were going to stay awhile longer, so we decided to grab something to eat when we got back into Guelph. We made the mistake of going to the Casey's near the University. It took far to long and when we got back to our building we were mortified to find our guests waiting for us in the lobby. Next time we'll try to coordinate things better and exchange cell numbers.

The next day was Matthew's birthday party, though his birthday had actually been on the 12th. I'll write about that anon, as it is late I must be to bed.

Crown Tournament

Saturday was Crown Tourney for the Kingdom of Ealdormere, the Society for Creative Anachronisim kingdom that covers a big chunk of Ontario. For those who are unfamiliar with how the SCA choses it's royalty, every six months an invitation only armoured combat tourney is held. Those invited are those who have expressed interest in fighting for the Crown and are usually some of the best fighters in Ealdormere. The centrepiece event of the Crown Tourney event is the tourney itself. Combatant's make an extra effort to spiff up their armour and the fighting is some the best you'll see on an SCA list.

We don't often attend Crown because, well, other than the Crown, there isn't much else happening. In order to keep the event focused, there usually aren't any other martial activities at the event. This time there were a some of items of business that needed to be taken care of and Crown was the event were this could be done. By the current rapier rules, as Kingdom Rapier Marshal, I'm required to teach the Rapier Marshal's Course at Crown, though I'm happy to teach it at other events. Also, I had some painted miniatures I needed to deliver to my friend Dave, an Eagle and Burhurdir the Hill Troll from GW's Lord of the Rings Line. The troll turned out really nicely and I was also quite happy with the Eagle. Eve also had done a scroll for a friend of ours, Mistress Nicolaa de Bracton, who was receiving her Award of the Scarlet Banner for her skill and service in archery. Eve was up until almost 5 am the previous night finishing the scroll. It was illuminated in a 13th c. style with Gothic calligraphy and it turned out very nicely. Finally, we were meeting with Kingdom and Baronial officials about the future of our local group, the Canton of Der Welfengau (DW).

Asa, I and a couple of others have been working to get the Canton more active, including recruiting at the U of G Club Days, holding regular meetings, hosting A&S Sundays, teaching classes etc. Our group seneschal (president) has not been active in these efforts, as her work duties often conflicted with meetings, but she did the important paperwork like file reports. Asa had agreed to be Exchequer (treasurer) and I had agreed to be Pursuivant, the person in charge of heraldic submissions from group members.

We headed out Saturday morning around 9 am and drove over to the University to pick up Harrison, one of the U of G students who has been attending meetings on campus. The event itself was in Oshawa, at a Polish banquet hall with some very nice grounds. It had rained in the morning but it had stopped early and the rest of the day was overcast and a bit nippy. We were all wearing wool so when we ventured outside at the event we were ok. Google said the event was a 1 hour 50 minute drive and we made it in an hour and 45 minutes as the traffic across the city was quite light. When we got there we signed in at troll, I delivered the mini's to Gunthar, Eve delivered the scroll to the Lady Rusalka and we went into the hall and claimed a table. The event was reasonably well attended but there was lots of room so it wasn't crowded. Eve and I spent a lot of the morning switching off chasing Elizabeth around. The tourney was being held outside the main hall in an open area that a nifty building overlooking it where the thrones were set up. Despite the chill there were a lot of people out watching the combatants and their consorts process onto the list. There were about 12 fighters in this years Crown list. I didn't watch much of the fighting myself but I heard it was a well fought, clean tourney. Matthew found some kids to play with and spent the day running around with them. Elizabeth was as cute as always and loved to run around in the hall and up onto the stage.

Eve was dressed in her Norse finery as was Elizabeth. Matthew was wearing a brown wool tunic and I was wearing my Elizabethan green wool doublet and slops with my nice black hat and a ruff. I also had a black velvet cloak with gold embroidery. The wool and cloak came in handy when we went outside. Harrison had a black wool tunic and my brown wool Norse coat which kept him warm.

Before the tourney finals, Eve met with the Kingdom Seneschal, the Kingdom Exchequer and several other officers about the future of our Canton. I was watching Elizabeth so I didn't attend. Eve laid out what we had been doing to revive the Canton and those attending were quite impressed. We had sufficient numbers and officers to keep the Canton going. At that point the Canton Seneschal announced she was resigning effective immediately which rather put a cramp in our plans as we cannot function without a seneschal. We've been given until Kingdom A&S in two weeks to sort things out. Hopefully we can find a seneschal and keep things going. We've worked pretty hard to get things going and the meeting ended on a real down note.

I did get to see the finals of the Crown Tourney, which featured The Honourable Lord Quilliam vs. Sir Wat of Sarum. The final was fought as a best of three rounds with three fights in each round, with Quilliam winning the first round, Sir Wat the second and Quilliam the third. Quilliam was now the Heir to the Throne of Ealdormere along with his Consort, Baroness Dagmar. In 6 months time he will be crowned King of Ealdormere, possibly our youngest King ever.

After the tournament ended we decided to head out early so we could get Matthew home in time to do some trick or treating. They had some stuff set up for the kids at the event but we had no idea when that was going to start. We'd brought all the bits of Matthew's costume just in case, and he wore them during the later part of the afternoon. He was Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars: Clone Wars animated series. Eve had made the costume herself by hand. The brown wool tunic, which she had made for him for the Althing event, turned out to be perfect as the undertunic for the costume. She made a sleeveless dark grey surcoat and a padded piece of scapular armour with shoulder pads to go over the tunic. He also borrowed a pair of my padded fencing gauntlets and had a belt and pouch to complete the outfit. We bought an Anakin light sabre at Zellers which he wielded with considerable zeal.

Because we headed out early we skipped feast and second court which meant that Eve didn't get to see her scroll handed out. We heard that it was well received though, and they had to scramble a bit to find someone to read it as it was in French and the recipient was also court herald.

We stopped off at Wimpy's in Ajax and had a nice supper. The waitresses were dressed up as salt and pepper shakers and enjoyed seeing us in our SCA garb. After another uneventful drive and dropping off Harrison we got home in time to take Matthew out trick or treating. Eve was exhausted and stayed home with Elizabeth while Matthew and I went out. The lightsabre was a handy source of illumination on our travels. There wasn't a huge number of people out but lots of houses were giving out stuff. We did a local cul-de-sac and a couple of streets, As I noted on my Facebook update, Matthew must have learned the Jedi Mind Trick judging from the amount of stuff he got. We've been enjoying some of it today along with a lot of taking it easy. We also enjoyed the extra hour of sleep this morning has we Fell Back. There is currently a roast in the oven crusted with Salish Alderwood salt which is filling the apartment with a wonderful smell.

I think that's all for now. Stay tuned for my next entry which will probably be after Kingdom A&S, where I fight my Provost Prize in the Ealdormere Academy of Defence.