LIMP in South Africa
Late Imperial Romans and the 2002 IWF World Championships
Background
Firstly a short background piece on the IWF Championships for those who aren’t aware of what they are about.
The IWF – International Wargames Federation – was set up to foster the wargaming hobby on an international basis. The Federation is made up of member organisations who affiliate to the IWF, such as the BHGS for the UK and the South African Wargames Union. As part their aims they organise the World Individual Championships which have been run in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Although initially the idea was for the competition to be run bi-annually it proved so popular that it is now run on an annual basis, and is open to any member of the organisations affiliated to the IWF. The venue of the championships is rotated amongst the member countries who host and organise the competition under the supervision of the IWF. The first 2 championships were held in South Africa followed by the 2000 and 2001 championships held in the UK, and ably organised by the BHGS with their usual efficiency. The 2002 championship returned to South Africa, in Durban, and in 2003 the US will be the hosts in New Orleans.
The Tour
After the end of the hugely successful 2001 championships in Epsom, JD McNeil of the BHGS organised a tour party of those who wanted to go to the following 2002 championships in Durban. By organising the flights, etc. and continually reminding us of what we needed to do and when to pay JD was a great help to those less organised of us (organising wargamers being akin to herding cats!). The party eventually consisted of: JD McNeil, Iain McNeil, Simon Hall, Graham Briggs, Lynn Briggs, Paul Robinson, Michelle Robinson, Terry Shaw, Alison Fordham, Graham Fordham, Greg Mann, Nik Gaukroger, Phil Steele, Stephen Finn, Dave Handley, Dave Madigan, E Young & two junior Madigans, Dave Fairhurst, James Hamilton, Mike Goss, Colin Betts, Chris Ager, Jonathan Crowe, Madeleine Hill, and Mick Whittaker. Indeed, such were the organisational skills that even Phil Steele made the flights on time.
This motley crew assembled at Heathrow at 4pm on 16th March and, via the bar, embarked on the 12+ hours of flying to Durban, during which Gregg Mann and Simon Hall indulged in a DBM game using Simon’s travel DBM set based on 6mm figures on magnetic bases and a 3’x2’ magnetic board!
South Africa itself was a wonderful experience all round, especially with the exchange rate at 17 Rand to the £ and beer being about 5 Rand, and that was hotel prices :-) It also made the trip more affordable as we all had to pay our own way.
We were met at the airport by Colin Webster of the South African Wargames Union and then whisked away by air-conditioned coach (which was at our disposal all week) to our hotel. There we could spend our first day in South Africa chilling out after the flight, getting freshened up (vital after a 12 hour flight) and getting acclimatized, i.e. sitting in the air-conditioned bar drinking the local beer.
After a days chilling we were then taken on a tour by Colin accompanied by a good number of South African wargamers who made us all feel more than welcome. First stop was Fort Mistake, so called we were assured because the British had built it in the wrong place, at which we stayed for 2 nights. Both nights involved some friendly games with the South African gamers on the tour, with Test Matches being played on the second night. It should also be noted that we continued the tour theme by drinking the bar dry (or very nearly) on both nights.
Not being ranked high enough I wasn't part of the UK Test Team for the games played at Fort Mistake, nor the "B" team who played the SA Juniors. However, there was a scratch DBR team put together to play the SA DBR players - this consisted on the 1 UK DBR player on tour and the 3 DBM players who had played DBR before, including me! The DBM Test Team just scraped a victory over the South African team whilst the "B" team soundly beat the juniors (IIRC 125-3 in IWF scoring), but most amusingly the scratch DBR team convincingly beat the SA DBR team 10-0, 9-1, 9-1 and 4-6, I got one of the 9-1s :-)
I think the highlight of the main test was "The McNeil Manoeuvre" where Iain McNeil (the then IWF World Champion) measured his opponents LH(F) move with a 5" stick declaring his troops to be safe from a flank attack and then promptly losing 4 Bd(O) and supporting Ps to the ensuing flank attack. This was closely followed by "The Briggs Gambit" where Graham Briggs looks at his opponents mainly Bw(I) army and then advances his Hsiung-Nu army of Kn(X), Ax(S) and Ax(O) straight towards them without wheeling, gets shot to pieces and killed in close combat and flees back also without deviating from a straight line. The game "as Barker intended" :-)
The next two days were taken up with visits to 4 battlefields of the Anglo-Boer and Zulu wars. These were Talana, Blood River, Rorkes Drift and Isandlawana. The last two were of special interest as we’ve all seen Zulu And Zulu Dawn and it was fascinating to see the actual battlefields first hand, and brought home the problems of fighting in such a hot country as South Africa. Isandlawana was especially poignant as the field is covered with small cairns of white painted stones where groups of British soldiers made their last stands and were killed.
After the battlefields we moved onto Hluhluwe (pronounced nothing like it looks) game park where we were accommodated in a top rated hotel and had the opportunity of an early morning game viewing – for which the wargamers had to get up at an unheard of 5.30am. Despite the ungodly hour most people took the opportunity and were rewarded with the sight of much of South Africa’s wildlife. After this it was back to Durban for the main event.
My Army
After last years outing with the Dynastic Bedouin (see Slingshot 219 for this army and my thoughts on armies in general) I returned to my natural “control freak” state and went for a regular army. I nearly went with the “Reigate standard” Patrician, however, I decided that I hadn’t enough practice with that style and so went for the more forgiving, but similar, Late Imperial Romans (hence, LIMP).
After 15 (yes, 15) different iterations I came up with the following for a general purpose list with which I’d be happy to take on pretty much any opponent:
C-in-C’s command:
General Reg Cv(O)
3 Clibanarii Reg Kn(X)
4 Equites Illyricani Reg LH(O)
2 Dromedarii Cameleers Reg LH(I)
6 Auxilia Palatina Reg Ax(S)
6 Auxilia Palatina supporting archers Reg Ps(O)
1 City Militia Irr Ax(I)
6 Baggage Irr Bg(I)
29 element, 20.0 element equivalents, break on 7.0 losses
Sub-General’s command:
General Reg Cv(O)
4 Equites Taifali, Sciri and Theodosiaci Reg Kn(F)
4 Equites Sagittarii Indigenae Reg LH(F)
6 Gothic foot Reg Ax(S)
6 Archers supporting Gothic foot Reg Ps(O)
1 Armed Peasants and Slaves Irr Hd(O)
22 elements, 18.5 element equivalents, break on 6.5 losses
Sub-General’s command:
General Reg Bd(O)
5 Legionarii Reg Bd(O)
6 Archers supporting Bd Reg Ps(O)
2 Bolt Shooters Reg Art(F)
4 Auxilia Palatina Sagittaria Reg Bw(O)
2 Equites Illyricani Reg LH(O)
2 Equites Sagittarii Reg LH(F)
22 elements, 19.0 element equivalents, break on 6.5 losses
I then drew up my second list designed to take on Bw armies (we understood these were common in SA) and massed heavy infantry armies, such as the popular Fanatic Berber, with whom list 1 would have difficulties:
C-in-C’s command:
General Reg Ax(S)
7 Auxilia Palatina Reg Ax(S)
8 Archers supporting Ax Reg Ps(O)
1 Bolt Shooter Reg Art(F)
3 Clibanarii Reg Kn(X)
2 Equites Illyricani Reg LH(O)
2 Dromedarii Cameleers Reg LH(I)
6 Baggage Irr Bg(I)
30 elements, 20.0 element equivalents, break on 7.0 losses
Sub General’s command:
General Reg Bd(O)
5 Legionarii Reg Bd(O)
6 Archers supporting Bd Reg Ps(O)
1 Bolt Shooter Reg Art(F)
3 Catafractarii Reg Kn(X)
4 Equites Illyricani Reg LH(O)
1 Equites Sagittarii Indigenae Reg LH(F)
1 Armed Peasants and Slaves Irr Hd(O)
22 elements, 18.5 element equivalents, break on 6.5 losses
Sub-General’s command:
General Reg Bd(O)
5 Legionarii Reg Bd(O)
6 Archers supporting Bd Reg Ps(O)
1 Skirmishers Reg Ps(S)
2 Equites Sagittarii Reg LH(F)
3 Equites Sagittarii Indigenae Reg LH(F)
4 City Militia Irr Ax(I)
2 Lusoriae Irr Bts(S)
22 elements, 18.5 element equivalents, break on 6.5 losses
The Battles
The IWF Championship itself was held in a hotel which, although it was air conditioned, got pretty hot and, as the room had a pool in it, quite humid. Not normal UK conditions at all :-)
Before the main IWF games I got one practice in against Matthew Strachan, one of the younger South Africans, who used a New Kingdom Egyptian. This allowed me to get a practice match in with the second list as I’d only managed one before we left. I can't remember much about this (not the beer, honest) apart from that he only really had 1 mounted wing and didn't support his Bw, which were Reg (I), with his Bd(F) and so they tended to get chopped up by my Bd(O) and shot by the Art(F). 10-0 to me anyway.
First game was against a Sicilian army run by Mervin Matthee, a very nice chap who apparently has a reputation for being lucky with silly attacks (Ps(I) into Kn(S) uphill for example). I decided on list 2 as I reckoned that as a South African he would have many Bw(I) whom my Bd and Kn(X) could chew up, and I was correct. He invaded along a Rd with steep hills which landed mainly on my base edge and extreme left flank thus leaving a mostly open battlefield. I went for RGo (scrub of course, so as to be camel friendly for my LH(I)) the most important piece of which landed on my right touching the table edge. I deployed the C-in-C opposite this with the other 2 commands extending my line left, the command with Kn(X) on the left. He deployed with mainly Bw(I) along his frontage facing my Bd, and only 3 Kn(O) and a couple of LH on his right. His C-in-C's command faced mine with Kn(O) and Kn(I) in 2 separate groups, general with the latter (?), and some Ax(O) and Ps(O) facing the RGo, but fewer and lower quality than mine. Not surprisingly I was quite happy with this. The battle went to plan. His LH got trapped by my more numerous LH after they strayed too far giving me, in effect, free elements. My Bd started to trudge forward towards his Bw who obligingly advanced towards me so speeding up the inevitable clash. My Ax got into the RGo but I couldn’t go out the other side due to his Kn. However, as he had not placed his C-in-C with his Irr Kn he had PIP problems and so couldn’t do too much. He advanced the DBE Kn(I) past the edge of the RGo. I felt obliged to point out at this point that this is a bad move as my Ax can hit their flank from in the RGo, turn them, force them to fight in the RGo with no recoil and the C-in-C behind them! He said "Oh I see" and makes a different move, however, he then does it the next move anyway! I killed the C-in-C but the command survives the dice roll. But after that it's mopping up really. The Bd hit the Bw(I) pretty much intact after no real shooting effects and cut them to pieces and I collect the rest of the elements from his C-in-C's command to break the army. 30-2 in the end (10-0 under the rules scoring system).
Second game was against a Grenadine army run by Andre Tonkin, who ended up finishing 3rd overall. As this is nearly all Bw(I) with some Sp, LH and Kn I go for List 2 again. I invade this time so I put down a river 12" in on my right on the basis that it will allow my Bts(S) to harass anything along it's edge. He chose 2 1½ FE scrub covered gentle hills which both landed on his side of the table in the wide open space, good Bw(I) platforms However, with my Art(F) I had the answer :-) He deployed Sp next to the Rv with some Bw across on the short side and a few LH in front and a couple of Kn behind. His other commands cover the hills with Bw and the gap between the hills with mainly LH and a few more Kn(O). I deployed, from my left, Bd command, Ax command then Bd command by the Rv with it's 2 Bts and a few LH across the Rv as well. My plan was simple - advance until the Art can shoot and then bombard him into coming out to play and then hit the Bw with whatever whilst attacking on the right. As in the first game his LH over commit and get eaten, although Andre is a better player than Mervin and gets some out of the way. The Bts go down the Rv and cause problems for his Bw by recoiling them into each other by shooting from their rear and he has to spend PIPs solving this problem. The Art shoot some Bw dead quickly and he sees he is forced to come down and play or keep losing elements without being able to reply. I send the Ax into him as soon as I can but take time breaking his center. However, Andre is intelligent about holding troops and causes me enough casualties through shooting to mean I have to be a bit careful about my C-in-C's command. I send the Bd in on the right when I have cleared his troops from supporting the flank of their Sp but I can't quite kill enough and the game finishes 20-12 (6-4) to me as time runs out. There was just too much to kill in an army with 3 commands that break on 9.5 each, although I was only 2 elements away at the end.
Last game Saturday and I drew my first UK player (by the competition rules we couldn't draw them in the first 2 games) - by "only" having 50 points (I was in 9th position at this stage) I missed all the top UK players and got Graham Fordham with his Early Achaemenid Persians. Well it was a Bw army so list 2 again and again I invaded. I chose no terrain and Graham selected 3 partially steep hills - 1 landed in my central sector and the other 2 landed on each of his flank sectors creating a good defensive position. I decided on a simple “route 1” approach with the C-in-C on the right and the other 2 commands extending the line 18" in pointing at where I hope his Bw will be, aiming to pretty much just walk forward. Graham obliged; although his list had pretty much minimum Bw, and it is deployed only about 6" in from the base edge. It was, however, where I wanted it - to my front. He covered his left with massed Hd uphill behind a steep slope, but on good going themselves, and his right had Ax in ambush behind the other hill - which was OK as I intended to refuse this wing somewhat anyway. Most of his Cv was also on this flank as well, but as these were (O) it could not really threaten me. He also had a Skythian ally (quite large as it turns out) on a flank march. So into the valley we went. Again the Art (F) were very useful as they can really hurt DBE (double based element) Bw at a very long distance, as Graham found out when I shot a DBE of Immortals off first attempt. Using the C-in-C's Ax I managed to cover the right of my Bd as they pushed past the right hand hill, and again I picked up stray LH who got isolated. It was a bit more difficult on my left as Graham had a lot more troops than me, but by careful skirmishing I got the Bd up to a point when they could attack the Bw. Importantly his flank march did not arrive until over 2.5 hours have elapsed, and when they did arrive all they got in a dash for my Bg was my 1 Hd. The game was decided in a very few combats when my Bd, including the Bd generals, got into close combat with his Immortals and Sparabara. Basically the DBE Bw whether Immortals or not disintegrated on contact, and in 2 or 3 combat bounds I'd broken his 2 largest commands and just win the game inside time. I lost 1 Ax, 1 Ps and 1 Hd. 32-0 (10-0). Overall I was very satisfied with the days work.
Sunday dawned and I find I have the pleasure of JD McNeil's Patricians, this is tough. It had to be list 1, but it was going to be difficult as he has more and better LH than me. I invaded and faced a tough decision. If I went for Rd + H(S) I'm sure I could force a draw out of this, however, with the points I had I was in with a good shout at a place if not a competition win, but the latter would need another 2 good results. So I took the risk and placed no terrain at this stage. As expected JD placed 4 tiny pieces of terrain to get an open field, so I placed a scrubby hill which conveniently landed on my left thus somewhat securing a flank. JD deployed pretty much across the table but I deployed mainly on the right. So again taking a calculated risk I pushed hard on my right hoping to be able to get an advantage whilst he redeployed a lot of his army. JD had poor PIPs and it nearly came off; as it was some of his LH were contacted very close to a small Wd in which he had Bw ambushed; but the angles were funny for him and he could have lost multiple elements if things went wrong. The game came down to a line of combats about 15 elements long of LH and Kn(F) - although some of his LH were (S), but at 2 vs 2 fights this doesn't necessarily count for too much. Unfortunately what he didn't have in PIPs JD had in combat and my losses mounted quite rapidly whilst his were modest. He broke my right hand command but I held him up with demoralized elements and a few troops from the next command so he was forced to try a bit of a disjointed attack on my left to win the game. This failed and he had to spend PIPs saving that command and my right managed to just hung on to the end with the army 1 element off breaking. 12-20 (4-6), which wasn't too bad considering the match up.
Sunday afternoon, after a bit of confusion (as the draw has to be re-done 3 times due to errors), and I found I was getting the full McNeil experience by drawing Iain McNeil – another (in fact identical) Patrician, oh joy! List 1 again, of course, and luckily I defended which gave me a chance to partly neutralize his LH superiority. I placed H(S), the important ones are 1 FE each in my left and right flank sectors. However, although I placed one parallel to the long table edge (the best way in this case) I place the one on my right at 90 degrees - this was to be important. I deployed with the C-in-C on the right, infantry in the center and Kn(F) command on the left. Iain deployed with LH up front and a block of 4 Kn(F) on either flank and Ax plus supporting Ps in each command. He attacked strongly against my right sending Ax + Ps around the H(S) whilst the Kn threatened the front of my command – I was caught in an L shape with a very vulnerable corner to defend. In the center he pushed Ax forward and held his right-hand command back. In the center we swapped 2 LH each but my Art were lucky and quickly shot dead 2 Ax(S), thanks to aggressive deployment of my Bw in support to get 4 vs 1 shots with the Art. His command looked vulnerable at this stage but he brought his right wing Kn up to help. Meanwhile on my right his Kn(F) hit my LH and Kn(X) although he had to commit a couple of LH(S) to support them against the Kn(X) to avoid flanking moves. He was successful with 2 Kn(F) who killed LH and a 3rd who pushed another back but the fourth is 6:1ed by a Catafract (both overlapped at this point) and it explodes. This was probably the key combat result as it now allowed me to break off the pushed back LH and hit the following up Kn(F) in the flank with the Kn(X) with another LH moving up into overlap. I won the ensuing combat taking out 2 Kn(F) and stalling his attack. I was now able to move onto the attack with my Ax over the hill and manage to collect the elements I need to break this command. His army was now vulnerable and he went into retreat mode pulling back all along the line. Unfortunately, I was in no formation to exploit this, having been fire fighting more than attacking up to now, and Iain is a very skilled player. The rest of the game ran out in desultory skirmishing. However, I have got a 20-12 (6-4) and 32-32 (10-10) vs. the McNeils on the day which for me is a good result.
This gave me 114 points overall and a very pleasing 5th place - my best competition result ever and at the world championships to boot :-)
Reflections
The whole experience was absolutely brilliant and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. The organisation by JD McNeil at the UK end and Colin Webster and the South African Wargames Union at their end was excellent, and a model of how to run this type of event. Despite the prestige of the title on offer – World Champion – all the games were conducted in the friendliest atmosphere and the umpire was hardly troubled.
Next year the IWF moves to New Orleans and, although I don’t think I’ll be able to make it, I would recommend any reader who in interested in a wargaming holiday to seriously consider it. And for any reader in a country that is not yet affiliated to the IWF get your national body to do so and join in the fun.
Finally, congratulations to Simon Hall for becoming World Champion for the second time, beating Terry Shaw, another former winner, in the top table game in the final round. Patriotic UK players may like to know that all 5 IWF Championships have been won by UK players, Simon Hall twice, Iain McNeil twice and Terry Shaw once.