Where to begin?
Stooge-sponsored “Long Pointy Things” (4 pike minimum in army) saw 18 players on the nite before the Con officially started! The two Aussies (Greg Kelleher and Mark Brandon-Baker {The Fosters Brothers}) were also there but got stuck in the huge Convention pre-registration line so couldn’t play. The winner was Jim Dundorf (last year’s NICT champ) with Selucid (II/19d), narrowly beating Jason Bostwick with Early Sumerian (I/1) {FIRST ARMY in the BOOK!!!}
Jason, Stooge Larry, and Jim
Thursday morning was Jeff Caruso’s “Fortune’s Darlings” –the Barbarian Invasion of the LI Roman Empire. We had a pile of gamers for this huge slug-fest! I ran Alans against Tony Aguilar and Larry Chaban, who both were pansy Romans. Tony’s general fell to my sword, but his second-in-command rejoined the fray in a short while as we were much closer to the Roman edge of the table. The combination of two armies against me were my ultimate undoing as my flank support never materialized (Frank!!!! <G>). See Frank’s blog for a more detailed report here.
Thursday nite was the ever-popular “Midnite Madness” hosted by the Diceman. 20 gamers were whittled down to the two finalists: Father and Son Dave and Jason Bostwick. (Nubians for Dave vs Later Crusaders for Jason). The Bostwicki wimped at at 2:30am but promised to finish at home. They played the next weekend and the old guy won <G>.
OK…couple hours of sleep then Big Battle Teams!! Team Stooge fielded II/20c Ptolemaic. We lost our first match to John Brown and Marcus Erlandson (Draco-Arachnid Alliance – II/32 Later Carthage) basically cause I screwed up the commands. A psiloi who should have supported the aux was put in the next command by mistake. Aux vs Ellys without support is bad! John and Marcus eventually ended up in the finals vs The Two Davids. We ended up fifth in the field at the end of the day. The Two Davids reigned supreme on points after the final match was undecided in time.
Rifleman Diceman with the Nock gun!
Rifleman Harris (Jason Salkey) from "Sharpe's Rifles"
I LOVE Sharpe’s Rifles!! Jason Salkey (right) visited the US with “The Sharpe Experience”… a display of uniforms, real artifacts, and weapons and equipment used in the television series that made Sean Bean a name.
I got to heft Sjt Harper’s Nock gun! 7 barrels of pistol ammo bore, 17 lbs or so in weight! Fire from the hip only! It was designed for naval boarding actions originally, but it’s just too cool to ignore! The flag behind us is, of course, the proud South Essex…SHARPE’s REGIMENT!!
Jason obliged with autographs and a lot of good stories about the filming of the series in the Crimea and Portugal.
Friday evening saw “Fortunes Favorites III: A Summer in Provence”, another mega battle with the Triumvirate (Jeff Caruso, The Diceman, and an absent Mike Porter <what kind of excuse is an Ordination, anyway? What’s more important?? <G>>) versus a pack of wild Gauls hired by the Senate faction of Larry Chaban and company. In a real bloodbath, the true Romani were victorious and carried the field. Quite nobly, I actually attacked a lone psiloi of one command to break an army after Terence McPartland did all the main work! In true Patrician style I claimed the glory, but I did reward his generalship with 2/3 of the booty. I had T shirts made for the Triumviri, thus:
Diceman, Jeff and Mike...Triumviri
Fortune Favors the Bold!
Vegemitorix' Camp about to be attacked!
To the right is the Gaullic camp of Vegemitorix (Greg K.), about to be stormed by the forces of Ursis Iuniores (nephew Steve Baier from Arizona). Steve has some booty already in his column…look at the gold!
To be continued……
