The Fall In 2000 convention in Gettysburg was a great way to see some of the SAGA mob again, as well as meet some of the people I knew by name only up to that point in time. I do admit that playing three 3 1/2-hour games in one day can be a trifle tiring (especially when you miss lunch due to overtime play!). Nevertheless, I enjoyed every minute of it - despite having lost all three games!

Deploying my Khazars in the 15mm MW bash, I was clobbered in turn by Bruce Taylor's Crusaders (5-2), Perry Gray's Sicilian Hohenstauffen (5-2), and Ken Brate's Sicilian Normans (3-1). Aside from getting to know the rules a bit better, I also learned something very interesting about the effect of technological developments in history.

You will note that all three of my honorable opponents' armies could deploy fully mailed knights in wedge formation. And, in each of my battles, both my heavy cavalry and my infantry were tromped, stomped, bashed, battered, and driven back by wedges that were only half the size of my units, i.e., 2 FMC stands to my 4 HC stands. Although only one wedge (generaled by Ken) managed to effect a (gleeful!) breakthrough on my line in all of my three battles, I was clearly beaten in each case by the superior technological capability of the FMC wedge (with no slight on the superior generalship of my worthy opponents, of course). The best my heavy cavalry could do, either offensively or defensively, was to form conrois.

One of my experiments of the day was to deploy a bolt shooter on one flank to see what it effect it might have. After three battles, I can say with confidence that it ain't worth #&@!!^*!

After some consideration, I think it might be worth building another army with some real additional 'technological' punch for tournament usage. I'm now musing over all those veteran/trained elephants in the Ghaznavid O.B. . .

Lessons aside, the most humorous event in a great day of wargaming occurred when rolling for terrain in my third game. You should have seen the look on Ken's face when I placed an Arab village smack in the middle of where he had expected to deploy the center of his line! His comment was something on the order of, "What the heck am I supposed to do with a village in the middle of my line!?!?"

One last item: If there are any SAGA readers who live on the upper Delmarva Peninsula, please contact me at denmar@maryland.net. Mary and I will be moving to the Chestertown area on the Maryland Eastern Shore in late January 2001, and I'll be looking for wargamers in the area.

Response to: Death by Wedge