Fruits of Our Labour and May 24 Weekend

This past weekend was held a really neat SCA event called Fruits of Our Labour, or FOOL, though there was nothing foolish at all about it.

The emphasis of the event was on classes that teach actual skills in one of the arts and sciences practiced in the SCA. This included a wide range of topics, everything from mead making to glass bead manufacture. A full list of class descriptions can be found here:

www.treheima.ca/fool/classes.html

This is a great idea as it gives people a chance to try all sorts of neat things in a pretty relaxed environment.

Our plan was to go for the Saturday of the event and spend the rest of the long weekend doing errands and stuff around the house. The site was about an hour away from our place, a scout camp called Camp Impessa. My wife had volunteered to do a class on how to construct award scrolls in the SCA and I had offered to run fencing for the day. When I first started checking the weather for the event at the beginning of the week Environment Canada was saying a mix of sun and cloud, but by the afternoon it was saying rain for Saturday and Sunday. This did not bode well for fencing, which would be taking place outside. Over the week this forecast remained pretty static though by Friday the rain was limited to Saturday. That's the day I planned on having my tourney, so still not good.

When we got up Saturday morning things seemed reasonably nice, but a quick check of the EC radar showed a large system moving up from the south. Dang! We loaded up the car with our stuff and the kids and headed out. My navigation was actually pretty decent for a change and we got to the site without a hitch. We did drive through multiple bands of rain. During the course of the drive, my dear wife, noticing my apprehension concerning the weather, said something extremely nice to me. She said that if the rain keeps up, we can always come back tomorrow. Thank you Eve!

The site was very nice, with a large central lodge, several outlying cabins and a lot of open space. There was also areas with fire pits, a large picnic shelter, an amphitheater and a network of trails. Several people had brought tents so they could stay the whole weekend and others had taken space in the cabins. It was spitting when we got there so we quickly moved into the lodge which was set up as a tavern and common area. There were lots of tables and chairs inside and some very comfy couches. The earlier spitting turned into full blown rain and my spirits sank. The event steward, Mistress Odette, was hopeful that the rain would end I would be able to have fencing that day, but my hopes were not high. In the mean time we set up comfortably in a corner of the lodge, including, thank goodness, the play yard for Elizabeth. It was very pleasant and there was even a merchant near us selling a range of excellent medieval books, a fact for which our wallets would pay dear.

During the day I wandered the site in between rain showers, usually tailing Elizabeth. I visited friends who were camping there and saw the production of leather water bottles based on period patterns and techniques. The rained and wet grass combined to soak through my shoes and two layers of stockings. I also spent time up in the lodge chatting with folks. They had some evilly comfortable couches there and I think I nodded off at one point. All in all a relaxing day, but not what I was hoping for. About mid day I went around and let fencers know that I would be running the tourney on Sunday, when the weather promised to be much nicer. I also managed to pick up a book on calligraphy for Eve and a castle book for Matthew from Evan Quicktounge, bookseller extraordinaire. Matthew spent his time drawing, playing with Lego and occasionally running around in the rain. Thankfully I packed extra tunics for him. We were hoping he could do some archery with his new bow but the weather was too bad and the person running archery was only going to be at the event for Saturday.

Eve's class went off wonderfully and she had a least 10 people in attendance. They decided to hold it upstairs in the lodge rather than in the rather poorly lit downstairs rooms. She had brought all sorts of suppl es for people to use including paper, inks, pens, markers, brushes, paints, pallets, water cups and basically everything you needed to do calligraphy and illumination. She also brought a bunch of books and examples of scrolls that she had done over the years. I think the class was a great success and I saw a number of wonderful scrolls produced. Hopefully it will encourage people to produce award scrolls, as there is a steady demand and not a huge number of active scribes to fill that demand.

We headed back home after Eve finished her class and feasted on pizza. We generally took it easy, knowing that Sunday was going to be another long day.

I had let people know I would be back on Sunday at around 11ish in order to give the family a chance to sleep in. The weather Sunday morning was much nicer than the day before, but I could feel the humidity as I repacked the car. We made our way back to the site, again without a hitch.

I decided to set up the list for the tourney near the picnic shelter, as two of the fencers, Baroness Eyrny and Lady Jocelyn were also running the leather bottle production class which was taking place in the shelter. This meant they could work and play at the same time. Jocelyn had kindly brought list posts as had Lord Matteo, so I was able to cordon off a pretty big space.

Now about the tourney. One thing that I have noticed about SCA fencing tourneys is that there is a limited number of parallels to what we do in period. There were Prize Fights, duels, and brawls but nothing that really matched up with the idea of a tournament involving rapiers. The rapier was more of a personal defence weapon, not one that people used in a formal setting unless it was something like a duel or a Prize. I had found one exception to this, and that was a form of German tournament called a Fechtschule. In Germany there were two main fencing groups, the Brotherhood of St. Mark known as the Marxbrudder, and the free fencers or Federfechters which loosely translates as the fencers of the feather. They met in competitions that were usually sponsored by a local Lord or fencing master. They occur ed on Sundays and took place at a tavern with the bouts being fought in the courtyard and the interior used as a first aid post for those involved in the Fechtschule. It was a festive occasion and a popular spectator sport. Fencers would issue challenges and bouts would be fought for a silver coin. To win a bout a fencer needed to inflict a bloody head wound on their opponent, as there was no question of who won.

My version would be similar but some changes were made. Originally I was going to have each side elect a captain who would decide who would fight which bout, but I ended up not doing this as I had a fairly small group of fencers. I also removed the head wounds only rule, though I may experiment with that in future. I had six fencers for the Fechtschule: Baroness Eyrny, Lady Jocelyn, Lady Findabhair, Lord Matteo, THL Gerrard and Lord Simone. Sides were created by picking tokens from a bag and the Marxbrudder fencers received a purple favour and the Federfechters a green one. I didn't realize it at the time but this was sort of a Babylon 5 reference. Check out the episode "Geometry of Shadows".

For the purse, I had a carved wooden box with 100 tokens in it and two mugs one marked with a green cloth and the other with a purple one. When one side or another won a bout a token went into the appropriate mug. The tournament format did not decide an individual winner, though this could probably be done by a separate tracking sheet. I did have two prizes for those I thought fought with the greatest courtesy and honour in the form of a couple of ornate rings from my collection.

Before the Fechtscule started I got to read a speech I had prepared, based on an extant one from a period Fechtschule. here is the text of the speech:

In honour of Their Most Gracious and Noble Majesties, I, the Honourable Lord Albrecht Stampfer, Free Scholar and Proctor of the Ealdormere Academy of Defence and Fencing Champion of the Barony of Ramshaven on whose lands we intend to play at fence, with the permission of the Steward of this event, have set up a free public Fechtschule, with all honourable weapons here in this place.

So then, let all good gentles who are here present and have learned the noble art of fence and are experienced in it, and who intend to bring joy and entertainment with due submission to the high born gentlemen and all the Ladies with their skill, come forward unhindered to fight for the established prize, to keep the fitting passage of arms according to the honourable ancient custom of fencing.

And I am minded and determined to keep myself unprejudiced towards all such good gentles, as befits an honour loving gentleman and Fee Scholar, and to guard and protect them against and in opposition to arrogance and impropriety.

Guard and protection is to be extended to each, as well as all the rest, and likewise I wish to request that if two of you bear hatred and envy towards one another you will not fight it out in the school.

The original speech can be found in The Secret History of the Sword by J. Christoph Amberger, which was also my main source of information on the Fechtschule.

One hundred bouts is a lot of fencing, especially for six people on a warm day, but the fencers present were real troopers, going through with all one hundred. I had made up a purple flag and a green flag so I could indicate which side won each bout. I can't recall the name of the Lady who helped out with the score keeping, but she was a Scots persona with plaid trews and a claymore over her back. Her help was greatly appreciated.

The bouts went through the afternoon and it was a close fought thing. There were frequent rest, water and bottle making breaks. At the end victory went to the Federfechters, consisting of Lord Simone, THL Gerrard, Lady Findabhair. I presented the rings to Lady Findabhair and Lord Simone. Simone had recently re-authorized and was his usually energetic and very skilled self, even fencing with me for awhile after the tourney was over. I'm hoping to run this type of tourney again some day hopefully with more fencers. I think everyone involved had fun and no one could complain about not getting to play enough :).

Just after the Fechtschule there was a Baronial Moot for Ramshaven. I managed to make it there,but only for the last bit as I had trouble finding where it was. I reminded people that the other Canton of Ramshaven, namely Der Welfengau, was still alive and there was a cheer. Eve, Devin, Isaac and I had worked quite hard to get things going again. I invited people to come visit us at our meetings on Tuesday nights.

While I was running the tourney Eve was looking after Elizabeth and she got in a couple of good runs around the site. Eventually she ran out of steam and took an extended nap in her play yard. Eve got to relax and do some sewing on her Tudor Cabriolet Dress as she calls it (it's convertible). Matthew got to play with a bunch of kids, fight in a woods boffer battle, throw sticks into a ravine, work a pole lathe to help make a wooden bowl, battled with Lego, played a game based on The Hobbit and generally expended a lot of energy. After Elizabeth woke from her nap we decided it would be a good time to go. I took Elizabeth for one more run while Eve packed up our stuff. I also got a chance to buy an interesting book I had been eyeing throughout the event on Special Operation During the Age of Chivalry. Before we could leave, Kol, the Baron of Ramshaven asked if I could stand with him in court as I was his fencing champion. He also mentioned that one of the pieces of business in court involved Eve.

I escorted the family over to the court site, lugging the play yard along in case we needed it and then I went back to the lodge to meet up with Their Excellencies. We processed over to the court behind Their Majesties, who had been at an event in the States the day before and had travelled all the way back to attend FOOL (yes, they rock!). The court was short but sweet. Eve was called up and received an Award from Their Excellencies, the Guidon de Sang, in recognition of her efforts in reviving Der Welfengau. Very cool!

The organizers of FOOL, Mistress Odette and Countess Rylan deserve major kudos. It is a great event and a great site. I'm looking forward to next year and have already volunteered to run fencing there next time around. Maybe I could also teach a class.

Finally we could head back home, stopping in Guelph for some last minute groceries. When we got back Eve and I whipped up some home made hamburgers which were great. I left the car unpacking for the next day. Unfortunately Matthew left his soccer ball at the site but hopefully we'll be able to recover it.

The next day was Victoria Day and we took it easy at home. I did some laundry and made Eve a Pinacolada and some of her favourite chip dip. We watched the first two Addams Family movies which I had got Eve for her birthday. They really are brilliantly funny in parts and Raul Julia is sorely missed. Eve then made some really wonderful steaks. We don't have a barbeque but she pan fried them to perfection and served them with corn on the cob and sauteed mushrooms. We followed up supper with some Black Forest cake. It was fantastic.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend, despite the gloomy beginning. Mark will be over on Thursday to play a game based on Babylon 5 (there's that show again) and I will blog again after that. Also, Eve's brother Joe is coming over for the weekend and Matthew and I are going to a Jays game.

Lady Mary Memorial Tourney

On this weekend was held the 23rd annual Lady Memorial Tourney in the Barony of Rising Waters in the Kingdom of Ealdormere. I've attended several Lady Mary Tourney's while I have been in the SCA, and they have all been great events.

Asa had done a scroll for the event, but didn't want to drag the kids out on what turned out to be a cold, windy and rainy day to a small site where they would be cooped up inside. I made arrangements with Baron Hoskuld and Baroness Eyrny to get a ride with them to the event. The family got up bright and early on Saturday morning and Asa drove the scroll and I to Their Excellencies place in Kitchener. It turns out they didn't want to drag their kids out on a cold, windy and rainy day to a small site where they would be cooped up inside either. Hoskuld decided to stay home with the kids while Eyrny and I went to the event.

The site itself was near the town of Welland, about half way between St. Catherines and Fort Erie in the far south of Ontario. The drive was about an hour and a half and we made it safely despite the high winds and the occasional downpour. The event was held at a place called Club Rheingold, a place with a definite German flavour to it, but not exactly Wagnerian. There was a large room for the days activities with a stage for the thrones. There were some smaller rooms that were used for changing and a bar and kitchen. If the weather had of been better some of the activities would have been held outside on the rather nice grounds of the club, but there were gale force winds combined with the occasional heavy shower and temperatures hovering around 10 degrees C, which did not make in conducive for armoured combat of fencing. Some brave archers and thrown weapons enthusisasts did venture outside so they could compete in their portion on the tourney. The wind must have made things interesting, especially for the archers. The first thing I did when I got to the site was deliver the scroll Asa had done to one of the signets.

Since the great outdoors were not really available to us, we had to play inside. This meant we had a rather small list area to play in. I estimate it was about 12 feet wide and maybe 30 feet long, rather like a modern fencing piest. Still, I glad we were able to get the space. There were about 12 fencers who had braved the journey to Lady Mary, including a couple of gentles from the Kingdom of Athelmarc to the south.

One of the really nice aspects of the Lady Mary Tourney is that, before the fighting, fencing, archery, thrown weapons or youth combat can begin there is a procession held before Their Majesties and Their Excellencies Rising Waters. The procession is held in order of SCA precedence, or in this case, reverse precedence. In the SCA you have a rank based on the awards and honours you have recieved in the Society. Your place in the Order of Precedence is determined by your rank. So, in this case, Royal Peers would be at the end of the line, and those who held an Award of Arms or no honours would be at the front. Often there would be couples, where one person was honouring the other, and the higher rank would determine where they were in line. I was in about the middle of the line holding a Grant of Arms equivalent award, The Order of Thorbjorn's Hammer. A herald would announce the name of each participant and who's honour they were fighting etc., for that day. They would then process up to Their Majesties and Excellencies and receive a carnation. After the procession was completed Their Majesties thanked those who were participating and the tourneys could then proceed.

Lord Tadc was Rapier Marshal in Charge for the event, and he ran a simple round robin style tourney with double kills being a loss for both people and no refights. I must say I was having an off day, only managing to win one or two bouts and double killing twice, once against the person who eventually won the tourney. I got hit hard a couple of times, once by one of the Athelmarc fencers, and once by Tadc, who managed to slide into me with two daggers extended. Ouch! I also got to play around with my longsword, but the small list made it difficult and I managed to pull down the list ropes a couple of times by hooking them with my sword's tip.

There was a three way tie at the end between Tadc and the two Athelmarcians, Baron Caleb and Lord Alexander. Final victory went to Baron Caleb. I spent the rest of the afternoon playing pick up bouts and teaching Alexander about Bolognese tradition of cut & thrust fencing. He appreciated the lessons and I'm hoping to send some more info to him.

Eyrny had to go to a work related conference and so arranged a ride back to their place in Kitchener for me with THL Catriona and her husband THL Daniel of Whitby. This worked out ok for me.

Several Ladies of the Court gave out favours to those they felt had fought particularly well or honrouably on the day or had provided great service to the event. Lord Raith and Lord Tadc both received favours.

After the fencing wrapped up the hall was cleared for Court. It was a fairly quick court as such things go. Their Excellencies Rising Waters gave out several awards to citizens of their Barony and then Their Majesties did the same. The AOA scroll Asa had done, which is based on The Book Of Durrow, and illuminated Irish manuscript, was given out to a Lady with an Irish persona. It included a gripping beast motif in red, black, gold and white. Here are some images of the scroll that was handed out:







A couple of fencers were given awards that day, including Lord Tadc, who received the Award of the Scarlet Banner and Lord Ronan who recieved his Award of Arms. One interesting part of the court was the announcement by the event Autocrat, that the power would be shut down in 10 minutes. A hydro pole had been partly knocked down just down the street from the site and the hydro people needed time to repair it. I'm sure this gave the person who was preparing the feast kittens. I'm not sure how things turned out as I left before feast. Their Majesties also declared a 10 minute break so folks could use the facilities before the power went out.

After court ended I got packed up and changed and said some goodbyes. As I mentioned earlier, my ride back had been arranged with Catriona and Daniel who are really nice people. They had a crew cab pickup truck and were nice enough to let me ride in the front. My only concern was the truck had no cap over the bed and I was worried about my stuff getting we. We had a couple of very brief periods of light rain on the way back but nothing got wet, thank goodness. It was nice chatting with them on the way back and Daniel is a very easy going guy, and not even wonky directions from their Tom Tom seemed to phase him. We stopped at a Tim Hortons on the way back which also had a Wendy's, KFC and Dairy Queen. A few minutes THL Bjarn stopped in followed by three of the fencers: Murighen, Ronan and Raith. We all ate together an chatted. Bjarn promised me that if he won crown tourney, one of the first things he would do would to learn fencing and authorize and he wanted me as his teacher. He mentioned that some of the things I had taught him in the past where still useful to him in armoured combat. I was quite honoured.

It turned out to be easier to for Daniel to drop me off at my place than take me to Kitchener and have Hoskuld drive me back. It was a bit of an adventure in Guelph because of all the construction but they got me home, for which I am greatly appreciative.

I'm not sure when I next be blogging. We are having an A&S Day at our place next Sunday and the following weekend is Fruits of Our Labour where I'll be running a tourney based on a 16th c. German Fechtschule.

Up Elve's Creek

Two posts in two days. Wow!

Mark came over today for another game of War of the Ring. It was essentially a re fight of the last battle we had with a few minor differences. Instead of taking the wood elf King, Mark went with Haldir, who, as we shall see, is pretty hot with a bow. This also gave him the points to buy another company of Elves, giving them two formations with two companies each. The terrain was also slightly different with a branch to the creek, one larger patch of forest and a few extra spots of difficult terrain. My forces were unchanged from the last game.

My account of the game will essentially be a description of the high (and low) points that occur ed, rather than a turn by turn account. A lot happened in the game and it would be difficult to relate it all.

My set up was different than last game, with Vrashku's Talons on the far left flank, followed by Saruman in a formation of two companies of Uruk-hai Phalanx, next to whom were a three company formation of Uruk-hai Warband. Within the forks of the creek was a four company formation of Orcs and a two company formation of Uruk-hai scouts with bows.

The big patch of forest was right in front of the Talon's and, I having won Priority for the first turn, moved them in at the double. The forest had a capacity of three, so they would be able to shoot at full strength. All of my other forces advanced as best they could. The amount of terrain made things interesting for manoeuvring. My first turns shooting went well, taking out almost a whole company of Rohan bowmen who were hiding in a nearby patch of woods. A lot of his cav was on my far right flank, but they did not move into an offensive position as they were worried about Vrashku and his crossbows. Mark's return fire killed some of the Uruk-hai scouts on my left flank who had moved to far to shoot. They were subsequently charged and wiped out by a unit of Rohan Royal Knights. I had advanced too far forward and they paid the price. That hurt and left a group of cav menacing my large Orc formation.

I decided to turn the orcs around to face the knights so they wouldn't be charged in the rear. This turned out to be a huge mistake as every bow in range shot them in their poorly protected rear, also wiping them out. The cav didn't even have to charge them. My right flank had effectively ceased to exist.

Back on the right things were a bit of a see saw. The Berserkers were acting as a meat shield for Saruman's Phalanx while he moved into spell casting postion. Despite this, some of the Elven archers were able to draw a bead on him and took down some pike Uruks, despite Saruman casting Aura of Blinding Light. The Rohan bowmen had wisely retreated behind the forest leaving me with no targets. The Elves had a special cloak rule which meant I could only shoot them at a range of 12" or less.

Mark's cavalry on the left were moving into position for their inevitable charges, but he found the crowded terrain somewhat limiting. Saruman had found a position with had both of his flanks covered by forest, which meant pretty much any charges would come from the front, and the pikes would negate any charge bonus. He tried to hammer one formation of Riders of Rohan, lead by Erkenbrand, first with Exsiccate boosted by Epic Ruination. I rolled quite well on the number of hits, but, as it was a friendly game, I reminded Mark that he could use Will of Iron to resist the spell effect, which he did. I then hit him with a Bolt of Fire, for which I rolled a 6 for spell effect which would have meant D6+3 strength 9 hits (!), but he spent another point of might and resisted the spell (Damn!). Finally, I tried to Immobilise the formation, but on the subsequent charge he managed to roll under his strength value and was able to make the charge. If Mark had not have used Will of Iron that formation would have been wiped out for sure. I think it was one of the deciding points of the game because that unit would cause me a lot of grief later on. At least I got him to burn off most of his might.

On the left, Vrasku's Talons, after much waffling on my part, had left cover to try for a shot at the elves, but could only bring one company to bear. The Troll Captain lumbered forward out of some woods suddenly menacing a lot of Mark's units. I had lost priority so called heroic shoots with both the Talon's and the Troll. Mark called an Epic Shot with Haldir, and won the roll to see who went first. He did three Epic Shots with Haldir which wiped out the Talons. We felt something was wrong with this and on reading over the rules we realized only one point of might could be expended per phase. So, the Talon's miraculously returned to the board. Instead, he used his single Epic Shot on the troll, which almost survived the onslaught of arrows, but Mark used Haldir's last point of might to bump a die roll, finishing the troll off. My return fire, despite expending a point of might to use Take Aim, only killed four elves, much to my chagrin. The Bersekers managed to charge the archers who had moved back into the woods and wiped them out to a man.

On the next turn the berserkers moved right right in front of a unit of Riders lead by Eomer. At first they were going to be a nasty speed bump, but I used Saruman's Overlord ability to allow them to do a heroic charge. Eomer also declared a heroic charge, but I won the die roll. Eomer's unit also failed it's courage check for being charged by a unit that caused terror, reducing their fight to zero. Eomer expended his last point of might for a heroic strike, but only managed to kill one berserker. The remaining four (some had been killed by archery fire in previous turns) must have been really pissed off. The rolled a "Carnage Unbound" on their special table which increased their strength to 10 and the rolled a five for their charge bonus. I also had a plus one on my attacks because of two handed weapons. This meant I had something like 12 dice, hitting on 2's. The attack took out six riders, and Eomer came very close to being taken out. On the next turn he would move to a larger unit of Riders.

Mark charged Saruman's Phalanx with the cav that had weathered the magic storm. Originally he wasn't going to because the pike negated the riders charge bonus but he realized he could call out Saruman in a heroic duel. Saruman only managed to roll a two for the duel and Mark rolled a six, giving him 4 rolls on the chart. This wiped out Saruman and all but five of the Phalanx who were then killed by the remaining Riders.

Over on the right, my large unit of Uruk warband had manoeuvred so their backs were to some forest. IIRC, every archer that Mark had in range of them shot at them, but because of their toughness and armour, no casulaties were sustained. A unit of Royal Knights charged them in their right flank but I called out their leader, Deowine in a Heroic Duel, which I managed to win, slaying him. The fight only killed one Uruk and the Knights were down to two companies and disordered. The large formation of Riders that Eomer had joined wheeled around and positioned themselves for a charge on the front of the Uruk warband. I called a heroic charge and managed to win the roll and charge them first, negating their charge bonus. The Knights charged me in the flank. After all was said and done, a few Uruks went down as well as some riders, but I still had two and a half companies remaining.

Back on the left, the Talon's had retreated back into the woods and were peppering elves with crossbow bolts. At that point we had to call it. Mark had the by far superior force remaining. His Royal Guard and and Militia hadn't even engaged anyone yet. I was certainly in better shape than the last game, but not by much.

I'm not sure what I would have done differently. I think the loss of the right flank was critical. I decided to turn the orcs around at the last minute, and I should have just advanced them at the double and kept their shields to the front. Also, I advanced the scouts two far forward and they got caught in the open. They died within sight of the forest they were trying to get to for cover. It may have also been wise to have Saruman move up faster as he only got in one good turn of spell casting.

The first few pictures above were taken with my new camera, but I used up the limited memory I had available by the middle of the game. I plan on fixing the memory issue with an 8 gig memory card as soon as possible. Mark sent me the last couple which were from later in the game.

Kingdom of Ealdormere Coronation

Last Saturday was Coronation in Ealdormere, the event where we crown our new King and Queen. It's handy to have a new set of Royalty every six months. If you don't like the current set, you just have to bide your time and they'll go away without all that messy Civil War stuff and lopping off heads.

Stepping up to the thrones were Princess Dagmar and Prince Quilliam. I've know Dagmar for some time and she is a very nice and talented person. I know less about Quilliam other than he seems to have a good head on his shoulders and is an amazing fighter. I'm looking forward to this reign.

The event itself took place at a campground near the city of Kingston (Greyfells in the SCA). The site has a large main building with three floors of space so there was plenty of room, even if the weather had not been absolutely gorgeous, which it was. There was also a duck pond near the building which had all sorts of interesting water fowl, including several different types of ducks and geese.

We headed out from Guelph on Friday morning for the drive to Gananoque which is where Eve's mom lives. The site is about a 30 minute drive from the site, which was very handy. We got to Gan and Eve's mom made us a nice roast chicken dinner with potatoes and mixed vegetables. It was very yummy.

Both Eve and I had projects to finish for the event. Eve had two awards scrolls to complete plus finishing work on her new gown and I had 50+ miniatures which needed to be based (have sand and static grass applied to them). I spent until about 1 am working on my stuff and Eve was up to 3. This seems to be par for the course for most events but at least it wasn't a two hour drive away.

We headed out with Elizabeth at around 9:30 am and got to the site just after it opened at 10 am. Being there early helped get us a great parking spot. Eve changed into her new dress, a Gothic era gown in a warm red-brown brocade with fur trim, and it looked fantastic. She would get several compliments on it during the course of the day. Eve made sure she got her scrolls delivered and I was on Elizabeth duty until the end of First Court. Elizabeth looked very sweet in her purple dress and we went outside almost immediately as the hall was rapidly filling up and was getting quite noisy. Elizabeth has a tonne of energy and it's fun trying to keep up with her. She liked to be near the duck pond and it was an interesting time keeping her dress clean. The geese could be a bit aggressive so I had to keep an eye on them. Sometimes I followed her, sometimes I lead her, and we went all over the site including the upper and lower parts of the hall. It was quite tiring but fun in its own sort of way. Court was quite long and I only caught bits of it as Elizabeth made her way through the Hall. I did get to see one of Eve's scrolls get given out and it looked really good, even at a distance, with the main motif in gold based on a piece of Norse era metal work and lettering in Runic.

Court ended at 1:30 and I switched off with Eve and headed over to the fencing list where things were starting to get going. There were about 15 fencers at the event, about twice as many as the RMIC probably expected. I got to see people I haven't seen in years like Gavin and his Lady, Estienne. We ran some authorizations, including a reauthorization for Lady Estienne who was back to fencing after about 10 years. I also reactivated Gavin as a Rapier Marshal and got Lord Daffyd started on the Rapier Marshal in Training process.

The tourney was a fun format, a round robin with a twist which the RMIC referred to as Fermat's Lst Tourney, as it employed three geometric shapes, a circle, a rectangle and a triangle. These shapes were marked out on the ground in rope and the idea was to keep at lest one foot in the shape. If you incapacitated your opponent you scored two points, and if you forced them out of the shape you scored one. The top winners for each shape would face off in the final. I did pretty well, but not well enough to be one of the final three, which were Lady Cristabell, THL Wilhelm, and Lord Daffyd. IIRC Wilhelm won first place and Cristabell and Daffyd tied for second. Lord Archibald was at the event and wanted to play Cut & Thrust with me and we had a lot of fun. I gave as good as I got, which pleased me as Archibald is a very good fencer and a lover of period fencing manuals and techniques. Wilhelm invited me to play at longsword, but we couldn't use C&T as he wasn't armoured for it. We, mostly, avoided doing any percussive cuts. All in all, it was a very pleasant afternoons fencing and I came out of it relatively unbruised. Thank heavens I remembered to put on my knee pads as Archibald did a beautiful stroke right across the side of my leg at knee level. It would have been right on bone but the knee pad absorbed most of it.

After the tourney was over I sought out Eve who was tired and needed to go back to Gan to rest. The only rest she'd had was taking Elizabeth on a trip into Kingston for some lunch and Elizabeth got to watch part of Wall-E on DVD. We said our goodbyes to some friends and headed out. Eve had wanted to stay for Second Court and see her other scroll given out, but was way to tired and we had run out of drinks of Elizabeth.

We drove back to Eve's mother's place and I volunteered to walk downtown and pick up a couple of orders of fries. The place we like to get them was closed but I found some really nice fries at a local pizza place. We had them along with hot chicken sandwiches and gravy. It was delicious, and I was ravenous by then as I hadn't had much for lunch. I spent the evening chatting with Bernita, Eve's mom, as Eve and Elizabeth crashed out. It was really fun to talk to her, and it was one of those neat meandering conversations touching on everything from Elizabethan naval tactics, to favourite SF writers, to silly TV shows. She enjoyed it because she doesn't get many opportunities to have an intellectual discussion except online and face to face is much more personal.

We all slept in the next day and after breakfast I tried to take Matthew to the local toy store, whose Sunday hours are apparently "By Chance", and we were out of luck. We did manage to get some neat Lego cars and a Hot Wheels car at a local department store. After we got back, I cut Bernita's front lawn, which had gotten a bit shaggy. It's the first time I'd pushed a mower in about 20 years as I've spent most of that time living in apartments. Next we packed up our stuff and headed back to Guelph. It was a good drive home, even when crossing the top of Toronto. We were glad to get home and the cats were happy to see us. I had a fun time at the event and in Gan. I think the next event I'll be at is called Fruits of Our Labour (FOOL) where I'll be running fencing for the day and Eve will be teaching. I'm also expecting Mark over tomorrow for a game of War of the Ring which I will hopefully write an entry on.

That's all for now.

The Eves of Mirkwood can be a Hazardous Place

After almost two months, Mark and I were finally able to get together to have a game of War of the Ring. It's been awhile because I simply haven't been healthy enough, or the kids weren't healthy enough for him to come over and I certainly didn't want him to get sick and pass the joy onto his family.

Now, Mark is very cool in that he brings all the stuff we need to play the game, including the miniatures and the terrain. This time he even brought the table, or at least the table top. He had got a big piece of particle board and cut it into three 2' x 4' sections. This gave us a total playing surface of 6' x 4' when laid on the 6' by 2 1/2' foot dining room table. This gave us, literally, room to maneuver, and his green terrain map fits it perfectly.

Again, I was playing the Uruk-hai. I had a good force lead by Saruman. There was a two company formation of Uruk phalanx, a three company Uruk Warband, Vrashku leading two companies of crossbows, an Isegard Troll Captain, a company of Beserkers, a two company formation of Uruk-hai Scouts, and a three company + formation of Orcs with swords and shields. After previous experience dealing with cavalry, I put Saruman in with the phalanx, whose pikes would negate charge bonuses.

Arrayed against me was a mix of Rohan units with one surprise, three companies of wood elves accompanied by their King, Thranduil. For the first time, Mark had brought a spell caster to the table, and some of the best archers in Middle Earth. There were three separate groups of Rohan cavalry, two of Riders and one of Knights, accompanied by Eomer, Deowine and and Erkenbrand. I think there were three or four companies in each formation. There were also two formations of Oathsworn Militia with two companies in each and two, two company formation of Militia archers.

The game this time was not a fight over some structures as were the previous two games, but a fight to the death near the edge of Mirkwood Forest. There were a number of patches of forest on the board and a creek which separated roughly 1/3 of the board from the rest. The creek counted as difficult terrain put was not impassable.

I set up along one map edge with the Orcs to my far right, on the far side of the creek, but close to the Troll captain who could support them with his greater movement and ability to at the double. To the Trolls left was the Uruk hai Phalanx with Saruman, too his left were Vrashku's Talons beside the Uruk-hai warband. At the far left were the two companies of Uruk-hai scouts with bows.

I can't remember exactly how Mark deployed, but the wood elves were near the centre, flanked by the militia and some cavalry with the other archers on the far left opposite the Uruk scouts. IIRC Mark won priority on the first turn but let me move first. All of my units advance. My plan was to use the terrain as much as possible to keep my units from being flanked by cavalry. My first mistake was advancing the troll into range of the wood elf archers.

Erkenbrand and his cavalry moved towards the Orcs on the far right and the other two cavalry units at the doubled towards the centre Uruk-hai warband. The Militia hung back and the archers moved towards a clump of woods. The wood elves advanced a short distance so they could shoot but were out of Saruman's spell range.

Arrows from the wood elves fell like rain onto the poor troll, but after all was said and done, only three struck home, generating a single roll on the Very Hard to Kill table. Whew, dodged a bullet (well, arrow) but Mark rolled a 6 on the table, which modified down to a 5 causing two wounds. He then expended a point of might to bump the roll up to a 6 killing my 150 point unit. That was not a good start to the game though it did set the tone for the afternoon. Mark forgot that he had given me priority which meant my units could charge his cavalry, taking away their charge bonus, so he was forced to expend a point of might to call a heroic charge against the orcs who also tried a heroic charge but lost the die roll and were hit by 4 companies of cavalry. He decided not to attack the Uruk-hai war band in the centre. During the fight phase, about one and a half companies of orcs died, taking down a couple of Erkenbrand's riders in the process. The orcs were also Disordered.

Next turn I won priority, advancing the scouts into some woods, and moving the Uruks into positions were it would be difficult to flank them with cavalry. Saruman also began casting spells, launching a bolt of fire at the Elves, taking out three of them, but failing his focus roll so no further spells could be cast. The poor orcs remained disordered and thus would be charged again next turn, but could not charge and only had one attack dice. Mark's Rohirim and Knights in the centre lined up for a charge against the Uruk warband. Vrasku managed to whittle down one of the approaching groups of cavalry, killing four riders. The berserkers moving up the middle caught a storm of arrows from the wood elves, reducing their numbers by three. Mark was forced to declare a heroic charge so he could come to grips with the Uruk-hai warband, but I won the roll off and charged one unit of cav, in turn being charged by the other. At least I got rid of some of his charge bonus. The fight phase saw most of a company or uruk-hai warband die, for the loss of one horseman of Mark's, and the Uruks were disordered.

Mark won priority on the next turn, slowly advancing his wood elves and the militia began to advance as well but there wasn't a lot of movement on either side. Thranduil cast Natures Wrath on the Talon's killing a couple of them and cast Entanglement on the berserkers, severely limiting their advance towards a group of Rohan archers. Saruman countered with Exsicate against the wood elves boosted by Epic Ruination. Mark quickly expended a point of might, his last one, to try to block the spell and succeeded, saving himself a pile of potential damage. I followed up with bolt of fire taking out a few more elves but failing to Transfix them with my third spell. The wood elves and militia concentrated fire on the Talons killing some more crossbows, and their return fire plus that of the scouts killed another rider. My last remaining company of Orcs was charged by Erkenbrand and the two centre formations of cav charged the Uruks in the centre. He called out the Uruk captain in an Epic Duel, also using Epic Strike, getting eight rolls on the heroic duel table which killed the captain and 6 other Uruks. The follow on charges reduced the formation to one company. The last company of orcs on the right fell to Erkenbrand's charge.

The next turn saw Mark win priority again, and again there wasn't much movement, other than Erkenbrand wheeling around to join the fight in the centre and the militia slowly advancing. Vrashku's unit was hit by Nature's Wrath again plus shooting from the elves, reducing them to a single company. The berserkers were entangled again, plodding desperately towards a target, any target.

The lat few turns are a bit hazy for me, but what basically happened is Mark focused his spell and missile fire on the Talon's, wiping them out. The Uruk-hai warband in the centre was reduced to a single company. The Uruk-hai phalanx advanced part way across the creek and Saruman pounded the elves with spells, but got caught on the next term by Nature's Wrath which was enhanced by the creek. It really messed up that formation and Mark turned all of his cavalry towards Saruman and the phalanx. The scouts in the woods managed to shoot down the last two riders in one of the Rohirim formation as they turned to attack Saruman but then Saruman and the phalanx were destroyed by archery from the elves and the remaining cavalry. The berserkers survived but never made it into combat after being entangled three turns in a row. At the end of the game I was left with the scout archers minus a couple of dead, one company of Uruk-hai warband, and a half company of berserkers. I think Mark lost a full company of elves, one full formation of cavalry and a couple of other companies of cavalry. All in all not a good day for the forces of the White Hand. I think for the next game we are planning a re-fight, but there may be some variations in the forces.

Tactically, I did some good things. I used the terrain well to avoid being flanked by cav, something that has pain in the butt for me in previous game. I also tried to limit the huge charge bonus that cavalry gets, sometimes successfully. Still, in the end, it was a pretty crushing defeat, with Saruman fleeing from the board. The Elves were very effective at shooting, and Thranduil did some effective spell casting. He also had two units of Rohan militia that essentially did nothing in the game, not that they had to. Oh well, the forces of the White Hand will return, and it will be a dark day for men and elves.

Winter War

Well, it's been over a month since my last blog entry. Not much of interest has happened in that time, well at least things that would be of interest to someone who reads blogs. The Illness Fairy has visited our household on a number of occasions and I wish she would just go away.

At least now I have something interesting to blog about. Last Saturday was the SCA event known as Winter War, held in London, Ontario which is known in the SCA as the Shire of Trinovantia Nova (Trinovanti being an old name for the area where London, England currently is).

Our original intent was for the entire family to go. I had several responsibilities for the day plus I wanted to fence, which meant Eve/Asa would have been stuck looking after the kids in a less than controlled environment. She had also had a business trip to Calgary during the week and all the running around had left her quite tired. I decided that it would be best if I went on my own and managed to arrange a ride with a friend, Susan, known in the SCA as Magistra Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester, who was coming from Ajax. She would swing by and pick me up at 9 am Saturday morning. This worked out well as she had things to drop off to me and she needed to pick up a set of throwing spears that Eve had brought back from Ohio. I told Eve about what I had done and she was relieved that she could stay home. She had two scrolls to complete for the event and this usually meant a late Friday night which would add to her fatigue.

It turned out to be a late night for me as well, as I needed to paint a bunch of miniatures for Dave in this case 16 High Elves, 8 Warriors of Numenor, and 2 Knights of Minas Tirith. I got all the painting done but didn't have time to base them. I figured I'd hang onto them and get the basing done and it would be one less thing for them to move, and Susan agreed that this was a Good Thing.

Nicolaa picked me up Saturday morning at 9 am. She had another passenger, an Eoforwician named Anneke. Because of the small car, a Honda Fit, I did a minimum pack, though I was amazed by how much stuff I could fit into a Fabricland cloth bag. I wore my fencing garb which helped to reduce the stuff I was carrying. We got to the site shortly after 10 am and I began to work on discharging the various tasks I had to get done. I dropped off my gear at the fencing list and went looking for someone I could drop the scrolls Asa had done off to. I eventually ran into Lady Kersteken, the Kingdom Signet, who was happy to take them off my hands, commenting on how awesome Asa was. During this time I was also able to drop of a bottle of Coke to Nicolaa, to whom I am apprenticed to in the SCA. It's always good to keep your Laurel happy.

The morning part of the event was taken up with a Kingdom Moot which I didn't attend. I hung around the fencing list talking to my friend Yoshi and getting ready for the fencing tourneys. After the moot ended fencing could start. Tadc was the Rapier Marshal in Charge. The first tourney would be a single elimination doubles tourney. I paired off with Baroness Eyrny and we did quite well, being one of the three final pairings with no losses. After a quick round robin settled nothing, they put all six of us on the list and , IIRC, we were eliminated second which meant we finished in second place.

The first tourney was followed by a lunch break during which I held a Kingdom Rapier Moot. Various things were discussed, like melee rules, gorgets, and the use of mail armour. It was well attended and I think people came away with some good info.

Following the Moot, we returned to the Fencing List, where I was to discharge my third task of the day. Lady Jocelyn, Preceptor of the Ealdormere Academy of Defence, could not attended the event, so she asked me to organize the three Prize fights that had been requested for the day. There was a Cadet prize and two Scholar Prizes. Luckily I had sufficient Cadets and Scholars to make them work and they went off without a hitch, with all three Prizors meeting the requirements for advancement in rank.

I then tracked down Lady Liadin, who was selling a type of special paper for doing scrolls. Asa wanted some so I made sure I got it. Liadin was nice enough to throw in some samples of smaller pieces for free. Yay! Another task completed!

There was one final tourney, also in a doubles format, but round robin this time. It also had the extra twist that each pairing was "chained" together, having to hold onto the end of a cloak. I paired off with Duke Sir Roak, who paid me a great compliment. He said he was surprised that a fencer of my caliber still needed a partner. It was a fun tourney and I think my team ended in second place with two losses. At one point in the tourney I was killed but Roak was still alive. I knelt down to show I was dead and Roak fenced from behind me, using me as a meat shield. At some point he managed to wrap the cloak around my helmet and nearly pulled my head off. After the tourney ended, I stripped off my fencing under armour and replaced it with a fresh shirt, but kept my doublet and slops.

At some point Nicolaa had told me that there were feast spots available and she signed me up. I did manage to pack a small amount of feast gear so a least I was prepared for that. It turned out to be an excellent feast and an amazing deal for $12. I sat with Nicolaa and Anneke. The feast was broken up into two parts or "removes". The first had a late winter theme, with lots of preserved foods and things that kept, like cheese and shortbread. The centre piece was a roast pork loin which was really, really good. The second remove had an early spring theme, with fresh salad, fresh bread with honey butter and the main dish being roast lamb. I've never been a big fan of lamb, but this one was very good. It also had a pear dish with spices that was awesome.

Feast was followed by Court. Their Majesties gave out a number of awards during the evening, including one of the AOA scrolls that Asa had done. He was a fellow fencer from the March of St. Martins and I was sitting beside him when he got called up. He was very impressed and thought the scroll was beautiful. The person who she had done the second scroll for wasn't there, having left the site early. It appeared that a lot of people left early and about four or five scrolls were not handed out. Oh well, that's what you get for skipping court. The members of the Order of Thorbjorn's Hammer were called up and a new member was inducted into our ranks.

We headed out shortly after court concluded and Nicolaa dropped me off at my place were we exchanged stuff. She was able to get the spears into her car after some struggle.

Sunday was Matthew's Karate Tourney in Maryhill, just outside of Guelph. Eve dropped us off and went grocery shopping with Elizabeth. Matthew was entered in the Forms competition and I also bought him a spot in a padded swords tourney. It was a long day. They did weapons first, and Matthew's club did well, one woman getting a first place. Then it was forms. Matthew did very well, despite illness keeping him out of karate for almost a week and a half, placing third in forms. After a very long wait, which included more forms followed by sparing, Matthew got to do the sword thing. He got third place but was a bit disappointed. I think he needs more practice and then I think he'll be a terror with one of those foam swords.

That's all for now. I'll blog again when something interesting happens.

A Close Run Thing in Rohan

The month of February has arrived and it was time for a refight of the last game of War of the Ring Mark and I had played. Again, it would be Isengard, lead by Saruman of the White Hand against Rohan, lead by Eomer. Last time I won a narrow victory.

The forces were exactly the same as before but Mark chose to divide up his companies into a slightly different configuration of formations. He broke his archers into two groups and rearranged his cavalry into three formations. This would make his force more flexible and less vulnerable to certain spells.

I kept my forces the same, assigning Saruman to the Uruk-hai Warband and the Captain to the Phalanx. Vrashku and his crossbows were on the far right flank, Saruman and the warband were in the centre with the Troll and Berserkers slightly his right, the Phalanx was to his left and the Sappers were on the far left. The phalanx was a bit further over this time, lined up to try and take one of the three buildings that were the objectives of the game. The big difference in Mark’s deployment was putting an archer unit close to each flank.

I won Priority for the first turn and At the Doubled what units I could. The Vrashku advanced with two companies up and one back, coming into range of the archers on their flank. The warband and the phalanx both made their rolls but because of the restrictive terrain could not move up as far as they would like. Next time I think I’ll just go through the terrain rather than try to go around it, as it will help maintain my formation and only slow me down slightly. I ended out of spell range of all of Mark’s units, not a bad trick for a narrow table. I tried to cast Dark Fury on Saruman’s formation but failed the spell roll and chose not to expend a point of Might to bump it up. I did use Saruman’s Overlord ability to allow the Sappers to do a Heroic Move, giving them 18” of movement, placing them beside one of the objective buildings. I should have moved them into the building for the extra defence. Mark managed to At the Double two of his three cavalry formations and set them up for a double charge on the Warband with Saruman. My clever move of the game, which I had been thinking about since the last game, was to at the double the Troll Captain into the centre building, which I did.

For shooting, things initially went quite well for me. Vrashku called a heroic shoot and unloaded on the archers across from him. Hitting on 5’s and 6’s he did 11 hits to the formation. One more would have killed it so he expended a point of might to eliminate it completely by boosting one of his die rolls. Vrashku was down to one might but had killed an entire formation. Mark’s archers on the other flank shot up the Sapper unit, unfortunately doing four hits and killing it. There was an earth shattering kaboom, but no units were affected by it when I rolled 6” for the blast radius. Dang! It did make us realize that we goofed last game and they should have actually blown up much earlier. He also softened up Saruman’s formation with some thrown weapons and horse archery.

In the charge phase I was hoping Saruman’s Voice ability would prevent him from being charged, but this failed. In order not get charged by both units I chose to charge the closest one. Mark declared a heroic charge for both formations, which I countered with one of my own. I won the first roll but not the second. I’m not sure we played that right but I’ll have to do some rule checking. By charging the one cav formation I left myself open for an attack from the rear by the other cav. Mark also declared a heroic duel with both Erkenbrand and Eomer. Eomer also called an Epic strike, raising his fight to 10. I maxed out my dice roll and Eomer did well, beating me by 5, giving him that many rolls on the Heroic Duel chart. He rolled 6’s on three of them killing Saruman outright and doing a number of hits to the actual formation.

The rest of the fight phase saw the rest of the formation annihilated by the remaining cavalry attacks. Mark, being the nice guy that he is, decided we should do a reset and let me try it differently. This was most generous of him. For the refight I decided not to charge his cav but let myself be charged. This eliminated the attack to the rear as he could only get to my flank, but his one formation would get its lance bonus and both formations would have their charge bonus. Again Saruman’s Voice failed to beguile the Rohirim into not attacking. Again, he called heroic duels, and Saruman survived the fight with Eomer but was killed off by Erkenbrand, doing even more casualties to the formation and again the rest of the formation being wiped out by follow on attacks. So, either way, Saruman was very damn dead without having got a single spell off. That was a serious blow to my moral. In retrospect I should have had more units closer to him guarding his flanks. It may have also been wise to place him with the phalanx formation as that would have eliminated the cavalry charge bonus. Taking off 6 dice per Cav Company charging might have been worth the slightly lower defence. Having units prepared to hit his cav in the flanks, like the berserkers, would have been a good idea as well. So, one of my most valuable units was gone. Mark played it masterfully, using his heroes to eliminate my hero. It did cost him a fortune in might to do, but he’d essentially torn the heart out of my force. I perhaps should have gone second, as Mark would have moved into casting range allowing me to soften up some of his units before they hit me, or perhaps Immobilize one of them.

I still had an effective fighting force, and it was time to focus on the objectives. Mark won Priority for turn 2, and manoeuvred his cavalry for a strike at Vrashku’s Talons, seeking revenge for his dead archers. He also wanted to get away from the troll in the building. A block of his infantry and the Three Hunters moved up the centre. I moved the Talon’s into a position across the corner of the board which would prevent them from being flanked. I moved the Phalanx up, managing to get one company into the building. We play it that you can temporary split up formations to occupy terrain. The berserkers moved so their backs were to some woods to prevent rear attacks from the nearby cav. The troll moved out of the building so he could charge the Rohan knights close to him.

Mark shot up the Talon’s using horse archery and thrown weapons, and the archers on the far flank managed to get some solid hits on the company of Uruks in the building. I focused my crossbow fire on Deowine’s unit of 3 companies of Rohirim, but with something like 18 rolls, only managed to eliminate a single company (4 hits total). The troll threw a rock at some cav but did not get enough hits to eliminate a knight.

The charge phase saw two units of Rohan cavalry plow into Vrashku, eliminating two companies in the fight phase which was a better result then I’d expected. He also charged the troll, failing to do any hits for the loss of knight. The Three Hunters charged the berserkers in the flank, killing 6 of the eight guys in the formation. That hurt. My special teams, except the troll, were sucking.

Mark won Priority for turn three (was it really only turn three?). He moved a block of Royal Guard infantry towards the building occupied by the Uruk phalanx and occupied the building on my right flank with some oathsworn infantry. I moved the troll back into the centre building and another company of Uruks into the left flank building. The last two berserkers retreated into some woods. On the shoot phase the last of the Talon’s went down under a hail of bow fire and thrown spears. The troll managed to bring down a Knight with a rock. The archers did nothing to the Uruks in the building they occupied. The Royal Guard charged the Uruks in the building but came off the worst for it, taking two casualties for nothing in return. They were proving a tough nut to crack. The Three Hunters charged the Troll in the central building managing to inflict two wounds on him after expending a bunch of might, but he was still alive.

On turn four Mark again won Priority and wheeled his riders back across the table. Basically he was going to throw everything he had at Uruks in the building. Time was almost up and despite being badly bloodied, I still held two of the buildings. A combination of archery and fighting eliminated the Uruks in the building. I attempted to charge the Three Hunters in the flank with my two berserkers to reduce the number of attacks on the troll, but their charge failed. After a mighty expenditure of Might, the troll went down. The Three Hunters started the game with 8 Might and used it all. I was able to get the last company of Uruks into the building after winning Priority on turn five and they held out for the last turn of the game.

A lot of my problems were caused by my set up. I really should have done more to protect Saruman. Again, Mark played his assault on the Master of the White Hand very, very well but as noted above, there are things I could have done to minimize the damage. Despite the big loss early on, I fought my forces as well as I could and things came down to the wire. Mark manoeuvred his cavalry brilliantly, exploiting their advantage of rapid movement, but also discovered they’re not of much help when you want to occupy a building. The Troll Captain certainly proved his worth. In the building he had a defence of 10 making it very difficult to hurt him. I think I played the first game better tactically, and If I had of repeated some of the things I did there this game would have gone much better for me.

Until next time, TTFN.