On one Saturday in Rochester, Now York, a series of 15mm ancient wargames were played as a round to qualify one player for a North-American Society of Ancient and Medieval Wargamers (NASAMW) national tournament. The rules were Wargames Research Group (WRG) 7th edition with some interpretations as refereed by umpire Dave Stier. The seven players were, besides host Greg, Hauser with a newly painted, Seleucid army and myself with medieval Ethiopians (WRG List 101, Abyesinian), Bill Chamis (Norman Sicilians), Vic Fitzpatrick (Parthians), Javon Garrett (Ayyubid- Egyptians), Brian Lewis (Varangian Russ), and Sean Patrick Scott (Later Imperialist). Messers Fitzpatrick and Lewis had driven several hours from Canada to play, while Chamis had made an even longer trip from New York City.

There was time for three sets of games, played round robin under the NASAMW tournament scoring system. This was somewhat complicated, but is basically designed to encourage armies to come to grips, with, points both for margin of victory and for gross damage inflicted by either army on the other.

In the first two sets, the 7th player was credited, with a moderate-point bye, but in order to avoid sitting around for several hours, actually played a "friendly" game against Dave Stier, who had brought his dreaded Tibetans (a little like running into a buzzsaw). As I became very caught up in my games, I regret that I cannot report much about the others.

The tournament allowed for armies totalling 1500 points under the WRG cost system; The backbone of the Ethiopians were several units of light medium infantry (LMI) with javelin (JLS), some of them Irregular A fanatics, the rest average Irregular C morale. I also had two units of light infantry (LI), one with JLS and one with bows plus two units of light cavalry (LC) with JLS and good Irregular B morale, a small unit of heavy cavalry (HC) with, JLS, and a even smaller unit of extra heavy cavalry (EHC) with JLS. In other words, I was a short of long-range missile weapons, and, except for the cavalry, better off in dense terrain like woods and steep hills, although my Irregular A LMI were such fanaties that they might survive anywhere with good dice (Irregular A troops fail a waiver morale test in WRG only by rolling a 1 on a 6-sided die, and; in the WRG hand to hand combat melee system which uses a plus-minus random die method, Irregular A troops get an extra plus 2 in melee on any plus random die result.

My first opponent was Bill Chamis' Norman Sicilians with clouds of LI foot archers to screen his main striking force of Norman HC, who were armed with lance and able to fight--as only certain WRG armies can (not including the Ethiopians) in a special "wedge" fomation that improves their melee ability. He also sent a LC unit on a long flank march ('simulated' in WRG by having them arrive from off table on one side if the right die roll is made). When the enemy LC arrived, however, I peeled back my Sawayana Warmat (Carriers of Spears) LC unit, and routed the enemy.

The main action was when several of his Norman HC wedges piled into two of my crack Irr A LMI units, Takuela (The Jackals) and Sellus Hayle (The Trinity is my Strength). The dice varied, and the results differed dramatically; as Takuela routed its foes while Sollus Hayle was routed, ridden down, and destroyed. However, by throwing in my reserves, I was able to plug the gap and even rout one pursuing unit, while he was not quite able to do the same with Takuela. That, plus the LC win, gave me a moderate overall victory.

My next opponent was Brian Lewis. He surprised me right off with his choice of troops. The Varargian/Russ army list represents 9th-11th century AD Russis, and, instead of using blocks of tough but slow-moving Russ infantry; he fielded Varangians (Viking types suitable for dense terrain), a few Slav LMI also good in such terrain, and Pecheneg alliies -- typical nomads with numerous LC horse archers backed by a few HC.

Under the WRG terrain system in which players pick possible pieces and then dice for them, and where the choices show up, we ended with steep hills and woods clogging both the west and east flanks and a fairly small opening in the center. We each had only light forces in the west, but a fierce battle developed in the east woods that anchored the edge of the opening.

First, a unit of Varangian light heavy infantry (LHI), with 2-handed axes charged and beat back our Saqalt Irregular C LMI unit. I threw in my Wej Irreg C LMI unit to stop this, but he maneuvered a tiny unit of Varangian berserkers, Irregular A fanatics, to hit Wej in the flank, and, between the berserkers and the axemen, Wej was routed and destroyed. This in turn caused Saqalt to take and fail a waver test and fall to the intermediate bad morale state of "shaken." Saqalt retreated to a far corner of the woods and stayed out of the rest of the battle.

He also sent a 1-unit LC flank march around to the east, but I again peeled back Sawaryana LC to screen my flank.

Meanwhile, the rest of the enemy LI and LC had been sent forward through the opening to shoot. Although, there turned out to be too many to evade back with complete smoothness when my harassed LMI charged his only loss was one LI unit to Takuela and then Takuela was isolated, charged, and destroyed in turn. In WRG, one of the drawbacks of Irregular A units is that, under certain overall orders, it must charge at the first opportunity -- even if unsuitable, and he took advantage of this. However, when a Slav LMI unit emerged from west center woods and charged Sellus Hayle, there was an initial even exchange of casualties, then my HC unit charged the exposed Slav flank and destroyed the LMI. Still, after a few more turns, the Varagians emerged with a moderate victory.

The Third set of games was down to 4 players, and the plan was to have 1-2 and 3-4 in points play each other. This gave the bottom a longshot. The points were such that the winner of the 3-4 could win the overall tournament with a big win versus a draw or minor win of the 1-2 match. The two top finishers, Canadians Lewis and Fitzpatrick, ended facing each other with the 3-4 spots a tie between Jevon Garrett and myself.

Garret's Ayyubid Egyptians represented muslims of Crusades era: few HC, but numerous LC, LMI, and LI archers. His one Irr A LMI chase my LI screen off table (they evaded, but could never roll the required 5-6 to return). Otherwise, he shot at my troops, and evaded whenever I came close--except when his LC routed by LC and I failed a waiver test with Sawaryana Warmat. This in turn allowed him to maneuver against my flank, and it collapsed. After more turn, Jevon emerged with the maximum number of points.

Sadly, I don't know what happened in the 1-2 game...I left before it finished. The Parthians and Varangians/Russ had a difficult time coming to grips with each other as their terrain choices and dice had produced a (fordable) river running between them.