We had a great time at Fall In with several well-attended demo games of AW, MW, RW and NW. We also had our 25mm MW and 15mm AW tournaments. Plaques for first place in both tournaments were awarded by NASAMW and prizes were provided by Age of Glory, Brigade Games, T.A.P.S., Wargames, Renaissance Ink, David Smith, and SAGA Publishing.

The 25mm MW tourney had an interesting mix of armies and commanders as well as interested new players as co-commanders. A total of fourteen players sat down across from each other. We had ten armies, so four players sat in as co-commanders. My own army, Teutonic Knights were making their first outing in tournament play. Wayne and Kathy Ashcroft's daughter, Jeni, wanted to play so she took on the mantle of my division commander. This young lady proved to be a very aggressive and talented player!

Our first game was against Allen Kaplan's Medieval German Princes. Terrain layout was fairly standard with hills in both centers and to my right. There was a large woods on the right flank. Allen used 4-stand fully mailed cavalry units with generals attached, supported by three units of skirmish cavalry, some foot with bows and spearmen. This was to be a cavalry battle, pure and simple.

Allan first tried to turn out left flank with two large FMC units and two SC support units. Jeni pounded the SC and she then took care of one of the FMC units, forcing the other to call off the attack. On our right, I sent two SC units to around Allen's open flank. He ambushed the SC with archers shooting out of a woods and one unit turned and ran while the other ignored the attempt and moved into his rear.

The center units exchanged fire, but held their lines with spearmen in shieldwall. Meanwhile on our extreme right flank things were heating up. Allen's off board flank attack arrived - a FMC unit and a SC support unit. I'd actually planned for just such a situation and was waiting with a SC unit and two units of AC, one with a general.

The ensuing combats eventually told the tale as Allen's army reached breakpoint. A 5-1 victory for Jeni and myself. She managed to destroy the entire wing of the first army we faced and then proceeded to beat up on her father's army in our second round.

Wayne Ashcroft's 100 Year's War French were a very interesting bunch. The army consisted of 4 blocks of full plate infantry, actually dismounted French elite knights with axes! They were supported by FPC, a unit of longbowmen, a bombard and some crossbowmen. Terrain consisted of mostly hills in our center and left with woods to right and rocky ground on Wayne's right (our left) flank.

Wayne made a direct frontal assault on my own center consisting of crossbowmen, spearmen and the CinC with a unit of AC in reserve. Our plan was to hold the center until our flanking attacks could destroy the French army. This battle would be decided by whether or not our center could hold out long enough.

Jeni took our lone mercenary longbow unit and two unit so of AC and tried to turn the enemy right flank (our left) but the attack was stalled by the tough French. The center of the advancing French army was being hit continually by missile fire, but not hard enough. When Wayne did have to take a test for losing stands of FPI, the elites easily passed.

Meanwhile, the bombard wiped out a stand of my AC Crusading knights as I attempted to turn his other flank. Again, SC got into his rear and a unit of our SI set up shop in a small woods and began to fire at Wayne's bombard crew. The French FPI hit our own HI and pushed them back all along the line. Jeni threw her general and bodyguard into a French FPC unit and managed to push them back, securing our left flank. But our center was caving in. My CinC charged into the flank of one unit of FPI as it gave my spearmen their 3^rd pushback and this caused my foot to rout. A crossbow unit followed suit. Combined with two other units lost already, we were one unit away from breaking. Wayne had only lost one unit so far.

But as often happens in MW, the tides of war rapidly changed. First, a French FPC unit had enough and routed from Jeni's continued attack. This caused another unit to fail its morale as well. The battle settled down into a slugfest as combat after combat failed to bring the necessary one more unit loss to either of us that would decide the battle. A unit of our SC sat 3" away from an enemy crossbow unit. We had one general who was not involved in a close combat to give any orders. The SC were out of command range, so took two orders to get him out of there, otherwise they would have been shot to pieces and we would have lost.

Finally, it was the lowly SI archers who decided things. They put the fourth and final casualty on the bombard crew, removing it from the game and giving us a nail-biter of a 5-4 win. I hope that Jeni will be at the next tournament and if she is, I guarantee you that she will give her opponents a very tough time.

After our two rounds of play, Jeni and I had 10 points for 1^st place and Jeff Ball, with his Wars of the Roses army and division commanders Grant Forsythe in game one and Perry Gray in game two had 9 points for 2^nd place. Paul Schneider won the coveted Next to Last Place. Since Jeni had been instrumental in our victories, I awarded her the 1^st place prize, a $50.00 gift certificate from T.A.P.S. for Wargames. It will give her a good start on her first 25mm army!

The 15mm AW tournament was won by Silvio Marra, using Indian Kushar. He had a total of 8 points. He was awarded a gift certificate from Renaissance Ink and a subscription to SAGA. The surprise showing in the tournament was by first timer Conrad Campnest, who won both of his battles! Thanks to Steve DeLucas for running this one.

Other prizes awarded were Best Sportsman, won by Wayne Ashcroft and myself and Most Historical Army, won by my Teutonic Knights. Prizes for Best Sportsman prizes were from Age of Glory and NASAMW. The prize for Most Historical Army was a vignette of three stands of Foundry Vikings, beautifully painted and donated by David Smith.

This was the last tournament I'll be judging for a while as Rob Robertson is taking over the AW/MW tournament director position. I'll still be around to answer questions, etc. but the actual running of the tournaments will be up to Rob.