Renaissance gaming in the Southland has been a little like the stock market - undergoing a downward correction lately. Apart from sporadic once off encounters regular Renaissance gaming has not been a feature of the local conventions. To try and reverse the trend, A Renaissance Tournament, sponsored by a local hobby shop, The Adventures Guild of Riverside, was held at the recent HMGS Pacific South-West convention "Miniwars The Spring Campaign" in Santa Ana, CA.
The Adventures Guild, which supplied the terrain and prizes, is owned and run by Chris Johnson and Steve Verdoliva, Both are experienced past participants in the renowned Burbank Renaissance and Steve is currently the president of the HMGS-PSW chapter. Their support was crucial and was much appreciated.
The tournament had two aims: to be enjoyed as far as possible by all participants and to be concluded in a timely manner. To achieve the first, objective the goal of "winning-at-all-costs" was downgraded, and the desirability of sportsmanlike behavior emphasized. This is after all our hobby not a career/life substitute, and we do want our opponents to keep coming back. Therefore the main prize was given for the most gentlemanly conduct. This was scored by confidential ballot of the players after each round. Each individual scored his opponent from 1 to 5 ("1" being : this guy may be the biggest jerk I have ever played in my life and "5" being: I would trust this guy with my life/money/girlfiend/Julia Roberts - nawww).
The results were completely unpredictable and quite fascinating. A ballot paper marked in large letters "Sportsmanship" was placed at each player's side in the course of a game. This served as a timely reminder of the major goal and did have an impact. There was only one serious rules argument (as opposed to clarifications) and that was resolved fairly quickly. Overall most disagreements were settled quickly and efficiently between the players themselves without the referee, yours truly, having to get involved.
Most of us like to sample different games at a convention - try out new periods or new rules. If a tournament runs over 2 days one is locked in to only that period and rule set. In addition daily or work commitments often mean players can only attend for one day. In the case of Miniwars; the Saturday usually has the most diverse offerings. Therefore it was decided to hold the Renaissance tournament on Sunday. The event would last a single day, 3 rounds in total. To further expedite playing time the terrain was preset. (Chris went to a lot of trouble to package each "board" individually with map included to show where the terrain pieces went.)
The boards were randomly allotted before the first round, after that players moved simply to the right, skipping any board they had previously played. In the end to avoid repetition we needed five set terrains for 3 pairs (6 players) over 3 rounds. My guess - no, I have not done the mathematics that one would need approximately 50% more boards than number of pairs participating to avoid anyone playing on the same board twice.
Further time saving was achieved by use of the 20 sided dice method for casualties. This save recording time and minimizes potential disputes over the accuracy of rosters. A large dividing board was provided for each table to allow both sides to set out simultaneously in secret. Where neither side was outscouted, the divider was removed when both were ready, and play began. When one side was outscouted, then the divider was similarly removed, but the successful scouting side had the option to redeploy any or all of his troops that he so wished.
In practice redeployment rarely involved more than 1 or 2 units and so in this situation also the game started almost as soon as the divider was removed. by these means it was possible to set a fairly late starting time (9:30 am) - which is often needed in the long commuting distances in L.A - and yet finish at a reasonable hour (5 pm). Each game was set for 2 1/4 hours (15 minutes setup, 2 hours play time) with 15 minutes and 30 minutes breaks between rounds. This timetable proved surprisingly easy to keep to. 2 hours actual play was quite adequate to achieve a clear cut result in all games.
The clear winner of the main prize, the Sportsmanship award, was Russell Wood. This he achieved in classic fashion. His first game was against a complete novice to the WRG rules whom he treated with consideration and tact - and was awarded a "5" in consequence by his opponent. (Incidentally as a house rule none of the other players - all well versed in WRG - could score anything greater than a marginal victory against the neophyte.)
In his last game Russell went down to disaster when some open order Cossack cavalry managed to overrun his guns. However he took his loss with such good grace that his opponent again awarded him maximum points. So despite a mixed day on the field of battle Russell went homeward with the approbation of his peers.
Someone did win the tournament but we won't mention any names ... ! The armies included a War of the Roses, An Imperialist (mainly Landschnechts), a Teutonic knights, a New Model and, the tournament winner, a mid Polish. One player had to leave early so I was actually able to participate in the Last round, using an Covenanter army. My opponent was the fearless Chris Vivo and his band of Rosey men (I can't recall whether they were Yorkist or Lancastrian). With a large mass of D troops I took advantage of the terrain, i.e... I tucked all my guys behind a diagonally running river leaving most of the board to Chris. He was forced to came after me as I blazed away with lots of muskets. Due to my incredible skill (my dice rolls were superb) and his incompetence (his dice rolls were rotten) - remember generalship is all in the wrist - I prevailed. Large horses and steel - clad men fell in heaps at the river line while the bowmen of England tried to get in close to support. All availth naught as they say in the cbronicles. Flesh and feathers were no good against lead shot even when fired by a bunch of weak-kneed kilt wearers. I squeezed out a marginal victory.
All seemed to enjoy themselves so the experience will be repeated at the next HMGS-PSW convention "Miniwars - the Fall Campaign" scheduled for November, location at the La Quinta Inn in La Palma. Again it will be a single day event, probably the Sunday. And yes, the main prize will be for sportsmanship.
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