Ayton 2016: Games for the Weekend

Speaking now as the umpire of the campaign, rather than as a roving reporter, I can tell you that the last few days have been incredibly busy, preparing for the weekend and collating the scores of emails coming my way from the nine players. It’s always interesting to discover who the really chatty ones are, and those who you worry might have died because you have heard nothing from them! Cats, herding… You get the picture.

But here we are and after the long journey from Hove to Ayton, my first job was to work out who had collided with whom, and where. As you can see from the map, there are two battlefields outlined.

The first, in the west, is in the Paady Pass. Here, the Altefritzenburgers and Whyeydians had retired their light troops from Ubbynedre to Ussinggoord, and then continued towards Paady. They were followed, about a day’s march behind, by the Medetian army, which had secured Riemannsborg and, of course, Ubbynedre. The Medetian commander, however, being a canny fellow, had spotted the possible trap between two forests southeast of Ussinggoord and instead ordered his column to follow the countour of the hills, sweeping north of the bosky area to Overhelm and then Laanem, hoping to move beyond there. For a while, this had the defenders fooled, but at last this flanking manoeuvre has been spotted and a large encounter will now take place, with the Medetians facing downslope towards Paady. Both sides have potential reinforcements arriving…

Meanwhile, as Ofteborg is reduced to a smouldering ruin by a freak howitzer shell (and I mean freak – a roll of 98 on a pair of percentage dice! Think of what happened in Almeida during the Peninsular War in 1810), the Dal Riatan ‘flying column’ of cavalry and guns has retreated all the way back down the Raabjorg Pass from Yderbrodning pursued – or so they imagined – by the hotly pursuing Aytonians, Cressians and Borschtians. However, these latter forces, impressive though they are, have commanders who take a, shall we say, more leisurely approach to war, and so are dawdling, unhurried, some three days march behind the Dal Riatans. thus it is that Brigadier MacDrum has been able to prepare a position to the southwest of Tieglhøp, flanked by two forested and hilly areas. He has support from the Schwitzian rebels and his Commander-in-Chief, who will be arriving with the army of St Paul as the battle commences. A contingent from Grenouisse is also available for his defence. This should be interesting, as the forces of Cress, Borscht and Aytonia arrive in that order. One again, there may be more arrivals later…

So, Saturday is primed for two cracking battles, both with plenty of exciting challenges for the commanders involved. Who will emerge victorious? Will the outcome lead to one enormous showdown on Sunday, or two different games? Either way, it should be fun, and I’ll do my best to keep you abreast with photos from the games – phone signal permitting, as there’s no wifi in Ayton village hall!