As I missed COW this year, I was very glad to get along to the Society of Ancients Conference and sample the delights of the new venue at Cranfield. I do like a conference, I can pretend I still work at a University. The conference officially starts on Saturday morning, but many people pitch up on Friday to get settled.
One of the society banners in the main hall.
It really is a great venue. A huge hall with excellent acoustics, a number of large rooms off to the sides, each with four smaller breakout rooms and a large lecture theatre at one end. Unlike many games venues, you can actually hear other people speak, even when the room is crammed with other people doing the same thing.
The SOA stall, with various games and back issues of Slingshot. There was also a moderately well stocked Bring and Buy and I picked up a few cheap books.
Various WD stalwarts were in attendance and before dinner on Saturday, Graham Evans introduced us to the delights of 'Kastles', a card laying siege wargame game. More of the game than a simulation but good fun anyway.
We also played John Bs 'Roman' dice game, supposedly played by Roman sailors but looking suspiciously like poker dice where you got accumulated types of warship or other booty from different dice combos. A nice way to while away some time in the bar anyway.
Richard Lockwood, the society president, opens the Friday evening session.
Ian Piper had left a number of sets of One Hour Ancients games lying around for people to try in some of the breakout rooms. These were pretty much the vanilla game although this one was a blend of the Ancients and Dark Ages set. I ended up facilitating a game for a couple of people who hadn't played it before.
It was the 'Unfortunate Oversight' scenario and ended up inevitably with a huge battle over the objective hill. Ian was using the 15 hit version and tracking losses with tiny dice embedded on the unit bases, which I found a little fiddly. It works for him though I guess. I did mention to him that I used the six hit variant but he hadn't heard of it, so perhaps I should bring that along next year.
By now the main hall was humming with people playing games, and it showed how great the acoustics in the venue were as it wasn't deafening at all.
Next morning the conference proper opened and we kicked off with Adrian Naylor looking at carvings on various monuments in Tunisia and what they may (or may not) tell us about Numidian and Carthaginian armour and shields. It was very interesting and I always enjoy looking at images of original artefacts. It is hilarious how many end up appearing directly as wargames figures, but I suppose they are the only sources we have.
Main takeaway - I can paint some of my Numidianss with elephant hide shields!
For the morning session I attended Richard Lockwoods story game session. I have actually played some narrative wargames before, but this one had considerably more structure than most. It was a Romans vs Britons game and the job of the players was to construct a narrative of the battle, structured into four phases - deployment, initial manouvres, the battle and final result.
We were playing both sides at once and each of us had secret objectives worth varying amounts of points. I had some 1 point ones involving various manouvres, a 2 point one which required me to put a named British unit onto a named terrain feature and my 3 point one was to ensure the Romans lost! These were very entertaining although it took a while for some players to figure out they were playing to their objectives, not the figures in front of them.
The Romans got their cavalry over the river early on and despite heavy losses at time, the Britons never really recovered. Despite my best efforts, the Britons lost dismally although I did score points for both getting the Roman commander to lead a charge as well as getting the Trinovantes onto a big hill.
That was very entertaining and original. The only thing it suffered from a bit was the usual issue of a one player at a time activation systems coupled with eight players - it took a while for your go to come around and it reduced the amount of influence you had on the outcome. It was very enjoyable though and a good group experience.
Ian Piper had left a much bigger One Hour Ancients game set up, "Revolting Spaniards" which was also using his version of OHW and lovely 3D printed 10mm figures. This was a large game with six complete OHW armies facing off. Ian ran it a couple of times during the conference.
All the main session games were played in the side rooms off the main hall, which were excellent. Comfortable, roomy and with good acoustics.
Meanwhile I ran around after lunch to get Hoplite set up before the afternoon session.
After Saturday lunch we had Duncan Head talking about his latest research and forthcoming book on the Persians. It sounds very good and will be worth purchasing when published.
And we also had Ian Piper talking about One Hour Wargames! A man after my own heart.
The assembled multitudes for Hoplite.
Although I was a bit dubious about attempting to play a solo game with six actual players, it all rattled along quite well. Dominion of the Spear worked very well for the combat resolution, although the players realised fairly rapidly that their best strategy on hoplite warfare was just to shove all their hoplites in the front line!
In playtesting the campaign had run for many, many turns with mainly the Spartans winning (3:1 so far). At SOAC the first Peleponnesian War lasted eight years as Sparta was defeated by a combination of battlefield losses and a revolt in the Pelepponese. The second only last six years as the Athenian blitzkrieg rolled lover Sparta! Oh well, that is dice dependant games for you.
The players seemed to enjoy themselves, but I think some of then were hoping for a rather longer session.
With some free time I went to go and observe Ians 'Revolting Spaniards' game which seemed to be fairly riotous. I'm not convinced about the melee system in the OHW Ancients set, as once units enter melee they are stuck until they win or rout. It may be realistic but it makes the game rather dull once everyone is committed. It is a set I need to revisit really, perhaps with a more period specific focus.
Richard was also running another session of his story game, this time with just four players. That produced quite a different dynamic as each player get two or even three chances to go in each phase.
The scheduled speaker before dinner couldn't make it, so Graham stepped into the breach with a fascinating talk about the Hanseatic League. I am now considerably enlightened as I only had the vaguest idea what it was about.
After the Society dinner at which our table drank the entire stock of Cranfield Malbec, cough, we retired to the atrium to play one of Matthew Hs huge pile of boardgames. This one was '1066 Tears to many mothers' by Hall or Nothing (?) games. Unsurprisingly it was about Hastings, and I was cast as William the Bastard. Must be my haircut.
A very interesting gamemodel where the buildup to Hastings and construction of the battle line was conducted by card plays onto various tracks which take you through the Normans recruiting their army, Fulford Gate, Stamford bridge, crossing the channel and finally the battle itself. This lot then pushed and shoved at each other in the actual battle deployed as three wings as you threw in (or lost) more support units. The combat reminded me of Table Battles although units accumulated hits in this rather than losing SP. Much the same effect I guess.
Bizarrely I ended up with very few actual units, but loads of second sons and bastards with their retinues and it was enough to collapse both of Harolds flanks despite a very shaky start for the Normans.
Sunday morning started with Matthew Bennetts talk about Bannockburn, also this years battle for the Society Battle Day.
He'd done a little layout of the possible deployment on the second day as the English were ambushed in the marsh at dawn, which was very helpful. There was a very interesting discussion about how to model key features of the battle, particularly the unknown state of the ground as the English had managed to pitch camp in a bog!
After that it was off to play one of John Bs big Ancients games. This time it was 'Alexander, heir of Achilles' covering the Granicus campaign. As usual played on a point to point map, this time Asia Minor on a tourist map of Turkey. Red is Persian control, Blue is Macedonian.
The game was rather enhanced by being issued red or blue colour sashes, while Prince Mithradites (Matthew H) appeared sporting a crown and magnificent false beard. Alexander (Richard) had to make do with a gold wreath.
The various Persian satraps had their forces deployed in their regional capitals while the Macedonians were in a big stack having just crossed the Hellespont. I was Kassandros, one of Alexanders cavalry commanders. My father was regent back in Greece.
We had to capture the three main supply bases in western Anatolia and clear the ports along the Aegean coast. My personal objectives were fairly straightforward and not too back stabby.
We stomped the first Persian army at Granicus while their fleet chased outs back to Greece. Each turn was a month and we had to take the objectives before winter (in November).
My wing. The units are rated for combat strength and resilience. The Macedonian Army was pretty good, but the Persians could opt to hide in their forts.
We captured a base in the centre and left Antigonus One Eye (John C) to guard it while the main army besieged Halikarnassos. The Persians sailed most of their remaining forces into the city, so we spent July, August and September besieging it as it was far too strong to attack the defences otherwise. October was our last chance at an assault before the autumn rains started.
And we ended up fighting a gigantic battle as the city was stormed. The first round didn't go brilliantly, but despite lots of commanders choosing to lead from the front, everyone survived. Rather to our horror, we were informed we could only fight one more round of combat.
This went rather better. Prince Mithradites was killed in the street fighting and the Persian Army reduced to a tiny rump. They retreated to the citadel and the rest of the city fell to the Macedonians, just in time too.
End game as the armies go into winter quarters. Although that was more a military game than Johns other more polmil offerings, it was still very interesting and well structured. It was actually very challenging marching across Anatolia having lost command of the sea and constantly worrying about our supply lines while also gathering enough force to deal with the Persian host. John had done an excellent job of modelling the relevant march routes and distances to make the campaign work.
After lunch a lot of people started to make a move, but I went to observe Adrian Naylors 'Wooden Walls', after Graham recommended it. Grid based trireme warfare, a period about which I am singularly ignorant.
I was rather impressed as it incorporated equipment, command and crew quality differences in simple but effective ways. I got a copy of the play sheet but Ian kindly offered to send me a full copy of the rules, so something I can try out with my cardboard galleys.
That was a great conference, very enjoyable, and I rather like the structured talks which involve all the attendees. It has quite a different vibe to COW, and different is good. I hope to be back next year.
