Back in the Saddle.

 It has been a long time since  our last game at the pub, indeed it has been a long time since our last game. The  idea of remote gaming never appealed as I'm simply not that enamoured of the dice rolling to bother with the extra faffing about required. No games fanatic me - there has always been far more to this hobby that the mere gaming. If the dice rolling and counter pushing was all there was I wouldn't bother. It's not as if I was lying about doing nothing during the various lockdowns and boozer shuttings that I was desperate to roll dice.. had that been so then possibly my mental health would have been in jeopardy!

The Spartans - or wa it the Athenians - anyway Andrew's army 

The Athenians - or was it the Spartans- Shaun's army though of course they were all Shaun's armies.. 

General view of the terrain. 

2 views of the punch -up. 

 Happily that is not the case, so when the Tantobie Warfare And Tactical Society had the chance to re-activate its monthly meetings we  agreed - not least because of the lure of Landlady Jean's Beef Butties 

 However there was a snag - only 3 of us could make it due to other chaps having work commitments so we decided upon a 15mm Peloponnesian War encounter as Mechanical Shaun has more Hoplites than any sane man should have, so it was a piece of cake for him to provide Spartan and Athenian armies for the coming encounter. ( Ignorant games loonies please note, these are not mere gaming 'factions' but the armies of two Classical Greek City states. Read a book why don't you?.)

Tactica - being our usual go- to set for Ancients games- was the chosen rules set as it's style and mechanisms really do suit Classical Warfare. Nevertheless Gentle Reader you good Umpire will admit to being a tad 'ring-rusty' here so it took a while to get properly back into the saddle. The scenario was deliberately over simple for that reason.

Basically the scenario was built to get a Hoplite  slogging match  with 2 armies that were fairly evenly balanced. Differing only in detail. The idea was simply to get us back into the wargaming saddle after a lay off of 19 months.

Mostly it all came flooding back- especially after the application of throat lubrication in the form of Consett Brewery's fine light ale - lovely 'session beer'  not too heavy so easily quaffed brought all the wargamey stuff back into soft focus.

Oh and the game?  Shaun won the Hoplite grind by ranking his troops deeper - Theban style- 4 ranks deep on the table despite some early bother with Andrew's  peltasts. He had forgotten how effective they could be-  but in the event they were only a nuisance.

As usual a good time had by all and thanks as always to Landlady Jean  for looking after us.

 Next in the chair is Andrew with a Cold War Naval encounter ......