The Barons' War Grand Melee tournament

On Sunday the 24th of November Chris K and I attended the Barons' War Grand Melee held at Firestorm Games in Cardiff. We travelled up the day before, which was a good thing. as fate would have it, we drove straight into Storm Bert which was affecting South Wales particularly badly! What should have been a two hour journey from Devon became a four plus hour 'adventure' through wind and rain.

After an excellent meet up with some fellow players in Monmouth on the Saturday evening, we arrived at Firestorm Games at slightly after 9.15am on the Sunday. Thankfully we weren't the only people who were late and despite the weather, gaming soon commenced! For those unfamiliar with the Barons War rules, it is a simple and elegant system covering the Norman conquest, through the Crusades up to the 13th century. It has the potential to cover the whole Medieval period, and I hear more supplements may be in the pipeline.

The game system itself is two step (hit, save) and uses D10s throughout. Each side consists of several units of different infantry or cavalry types. Units are activated alternately, which is marked by a token. Units which have not been activated can react to an attack, choosing to fight back, brace themselves or in some instances run away. There are plenty of options; the weapons each unit can take have different effects, rounded off with a list of a few special rules which can be taken by units and commanders.

Mark Vance, the tournament organiser, had designed four clever scenarios in which a balanced force list would do well. 'One trick pony' lists, however, might be good for one scenario but would struggle with the rest. These scenarios would test our generalship to the full! Mark had also introduced some limitations to the army lists, such as limiting the amount that could be spent on bows and crossbows.

Mark had also provided all the scenery, making up several unique tables, each with themed and challenging scenery. Each table had a good mixture of open areas, cover and buildings. 

Game 1 was a capture the objectives game. Three separate objectives were placed on the table. One of each of the objectives was near our deployment zone, while a third was in the middle of the table. I had a fun game with Colin, but I was just able to grab the middle objective which gave me the win.  

Game 2 involved capturing a character. Whoever controlled the character at the end of the game won. As the character was a lady and I was facing a force of Templars, I suggested we were fighting for the hand of the lady. The Templars would like to see her in a convent (and any lands she owned added to the estates of the church). I, of course, wanted to save her from this fate ... and marry her to my Lord's cousin! This was a fun game, I grabbed her early on and 'escorted' her to safety. 

The game was close, with a nearly invulnerable group of mounted Templars on barded steeds causing mayhem. I managed to distract them with my peasants and held onto the lady until the game ended. Another win to me! PHEW! 

Game 3, stop the messenger! One side had to move a message off the opponent's table edge. I lost the dice roll, so I had to stop the messenger. But which unit was it in? There were three tokens, only one of which had the message. I guessed correctly that it was with his commander's group but was unable to stop him from breaking through to my table edge. A close run game, played very well by my opponent Sam.

Game 4, kill them all! This was a simple scenario, whoever killed the most won, and I was facing some scary Vikings! My tactic was simple - keep the Norsemen at range and concentrate my forces against the rest. My opponent Jamie was a charming guy, who won best Sportsman. I managed to almost wipe out Jamie's force to a norseman. 

Winning the Best Painted Army award was my friend Chris King. Not bad for an army of contrast Normans!

To my surprise, I won second place. While I'd lost one game, we had been asked to keep track of the kinights and serjeants we'd killed during the games, scoring points for each. The last game against the Vikings had won it for me, as each of the hirdmen and berserkers counted, scoring me a whopping 44 bonus points at the end.

In conclusion, we had great fun! All the players were very good fun to play and every game was enjoyable. Our sincere thanks to Mark Vance for running the games and to Andy Hobday for sponsoring the event and for writing a very cool rule set.

If you are interested in the Baron's War rules, do check out their Facebook group.