This competition was held on the weekend of the 22nd to 23rd May 2004. Last year I was part of the winning Republic of Ireland team, however as I was late entering this year I thought I had been excluded from the Republic team so could take a fun army. However after entering my strange list I was placed on the team............. hmmm maybe we didn't want a repeat win anyway lads!!

The fun army I had decided to enter was Wars of the Roses, no thought involved other than having the lead and wanting to use it. Having chosen WOTR I felt it would be nice to use Scottish troops in Scotland so I went with Lancastrians with Scots Common allies. To add a small bit of the unexpected I mounted all the Scots pike on ponies with the intention of flank marching every time with the army.......... this is the list I took and pictures of each command:

Reg Kn(S) C-in-C, 2 Reg Kn(S), 1 Irr LH(O), 6 Irr Sp(I), 6 Irr Bg(I) - 10 ee

1 Reg Kn(O) Sub-General, 1 Reg Kn(I), 3 Reg Bd(O), 10 Reg Bw(S), 1 Irr LH(O) - 16 ee

1 Reg Kn(O) English Ally, 1 Reg Kn(I), 2 Reg Bd(O), 6 Reg Bw(S), 1 Irr LH(O), 2 Irr Bw(O) 13 ee

1 Irr Pk(I) Scots Mounted Ally-General, 1 Irr Kn(I), 14 Irr Pk(I) Mounted, 2 Irr Bg(I) Mobile - 16 ee

Small and imperfectly formed I reckon. I managed to get in two practice games with the army. The first against a Khitan Liao, we managed approx 20 turns and my flank march still didn't arrive - a 7 - 3 draw in my favour. The second game against a Later Carthaginian, all three Kn(S), yes that includes the C in C, and the two Kn(O) Generals were killed by Wb(F) and failed the following dice rolls for a 10-0 loss. Ah well at least the bad luck was out of the way and things couldn't get any worse, could they ?

Game One vs Des Middleton - Marian Romans

This was Des's first ever competition, and this was reflected in the composition of the army. His list was as follows:

C in C Reg Cv(O), 4 Irr Lh(O), 10 Reg Bd(O), 6 Reg Ps(O) - 18 ee

Sub General Reg Bd(O), 12 Reg Bd(O), 12 Reg Ps(S) - 19 ee

Sub General Reg Bd(O), 10 Reg Bd(O), 4 Reg Ax(O) - 15 ee

In addition he had some elements of TF. Des invaded and the only terrain of any significance was a BUA on a gentle hill which I placed in my right flank sector. I deployed with the Sub General on my left, C in C in the centre and Ally on the left (hiding behind the hill). The Scots were flank marching on the right, but failed to arrive. This was a recurring theme of the weekend. Des was very fair and came straight at me rather than staying in his defensive position. unfortunately this meant his flanks were hanging in the air. My C in C did manage to do his usual Kamikaze act but I survived the subsequent die roll. Even with a lack of pip swopping I managed to take his army down in the end for a 30-2 victory under BHGS scoring.

Game Two vs Niall Taylor - Northern Dynasties Chinese

So after my win on the friday evening I was now playing one of the better players with a much better army! On the list of competitors Niall was listed as using Later Hungarian, so when he turned out to be using the Chinese my well prepared plan had to be discarded :-) Niall's army was constructed as follows:

C in C Reg Kn(F), 6 Reg Kn(F), 3 Reg Lh(F), 5 Reg Bd(I), 5 Reg Ps(O) - 18.5 ee

Sub General Reg Kn(F), 6 Reg Kn(F), 7 Reg Lh(F), 4 Reg Bw(I), 1 Reg Ps(O) - 18.5 ee

Sub General Reg Kn(F), 10 Reg Sp(I), 9 Reg Ps(O), 6 Reg Lh(F) - 18.5 ee

We deployed and missed each other !!! The Scots were flank marching on my left but never arrived, are we spotting a pattern yet !! My English Ally General went on a wide flanking manoever, to little effect. Niall tried to take out my left flank and get behind my army, to little effect. After 3 1/2 hours of struggle we had both had chances for the win but had to content ourselves with the draw.

Game Three vs Brian Bull - Southern Dynasties Chinese

Now onto an irregular version of the army I had played that morning. This army was huge!! Brian is from Northern Ireland but is someone I had not played before at any competition over here, so that was a good thing. His army was structured as follows:

C in C Irr Kn(X), 2 Irr Kn(X), 1 Irr Cv(O), 2 Irr Lh(F), 6 Reg Bd(F), 3 Reg Ps(O), 3Bts(O), 1 Bts(S) - 15.5 ee

Sub General Irr Kn(F), 3 Irr Kn(F), 2 Irr Lh(F), 6 Reg Sp(I), 2 Reg Bw(I), 3 Reg Ps(O) - 15.5 ee

Sub General Irr Kn(F), 3 Irr Kn(F), 2 Irr Lh(F), 6 Reg Sp(I), 4 Reg Bw(I), 1 Reg Ps(O) - 16.5 ee

Ally General Irr Kn(X), 2 Irr Kn(X), 7 Irr Lh(F), 4 Irr Ax(O), 4 Irr Bw(I), 1 Irr Ps(O) - 15.5 ee

Brian invaded and placed a waterway on my left flank, angling towards me to narrow my deployment area. I placed a BUA on a gentle hill sticking into the waterway as a peninsula (some pattern here - Ed), my other terrain was three 0.5 equivalents of Rgo, one of which landed in the waterway and couldn't be placed, one on the base in my central sector and one on the base in Brian's central sector.

Brian deployed his commands in the order above from his right flank along. I deployed the C in C to the left - baggage in the BUA with the Sp(I) on the hill to protect against sea borne invasion, then my Sub General and the English ally in and around the Rgo on my base edge. The Scots were given another chance to redeem themselves and sent on a flank march on the right flank, they did arrive late on for although for all the good they did they could have tried to swim ashore through the waterway!!! Due to a lot of redeploying of Longbowmen, and some very cheesy "buttocks of death" shots courtesy of my Northern Border Staves, I managed to take out two Generals. Brian very unluckily failed the die rolls and I won. Sorry to do it that way Brian. No pictures I am afraid becaus eit was all to exciting !!

Game Four vs Dave Houston - Lydian

Dave is another Northern Irish player and my past teammate on the All Ireland teams at the International Team Challenge. However I hadn't played him since a mutual destruction draw in August 2001. Dave was using his highly competitive Lydian army, and if I thought that Brian's Chinese was a large army I was in for a shock here......

C in C in Chariot Irr Cv(O), 10 Irr Sp(I), 4 Irr Ax(S), 4 Irr Ax(O), 4 Irr Ps(S), 3 Irr Ps(O), 2 Irr Lh(F) - 24.5 ee

Ally General Irr Cv(O), 14 Irr Sp(O), 1 Irr Cv(O) - 16 ee

Sub General Irr Kn(F), 5 Irr Kn(F), 8 Irr Sp(I), 2 Irr Lh(O), 2 Irr Cv(O) Chariots, 1 Irr Ps(S) - 18.5 ee

Sub General Irr Kn(F), 4 Irr Kn(F), 6 Irr Ax(O), 9 Irr Ps(O&S) - 15.5 ee

In a break from tradition I flankmarched the Sub-General. In another break from tradition he threw the required 6 to arrive. Unfortunately Dave was flankmarching on the same side with a larger command!! Dave outplayed me, outflankmarched me and I died - nuff said !!

Game Five vs John Mason - Late Imperial Roman

John is one of the players from Dublin and his list was fairly standard LIR. It had blades, artillery on carts, auxilia, psiloi, knights and light horse, you can probably tell I have lost the list I wrote down! The game was the last of the weekend and really good fun !! I deliberately stopped flankmarching but demonstrating their continued reluctance to be part of my battles, both my allies were unreliable, and deployed in the centre of my line !!

This picture shows the two unreliable allies with John's Late Romans ignoring them !! Eventually they came back on line and I managed to get the victory in what was overall a very enjoyable game.

Summary

The Celtic Championship (Scottish Open) was an excellent competition which ran very smoothly. The Republic of Ireland Team came second on goal difference, thanks to Rob Brennan (who won the individual competition) and Tony Walsh. I hope my own efforts helped. Roll on next year in Belfast.

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