Festival of Pike, a small late medieval tournament

[the_iron_duke]

We are joined by the honourable Lord Pete of Stockwell to complete the ship's complement of swashbuckling adventurers.

As skipper of the schooner, I convey my apologies to the valiant Sir Martog who is unable to depart with us for a couple of weeks and so will have to catch the next ship. As the saying goes, the show must go on. So let us offer a toast of rum to our esteemed colleague and wish him well on his holiday (for tournament purposes he will be regarded as marooned on the island of Tahiti).

Meanwhile, the following items are on the agenda before the ship can pull anchor:

1) Confirmation of participation. I'll PM all participants so please PM back to me or post in this thread to confirm your participation in this voyage.

2) Randomising the unseeded players. There are only two of us, myself and fogman. Can one of the seeded players, perhaps the fine military administrator Lord Pete of Stockwell, flip a coin and PM the result to one or more other seeded players who'll act as witness. Then I'll call heads or tails and if I win I get the 8th place on the ranking (and first army choice) and if I lose I get 7th place (and second army choice).

3) The choosing of the armies. I hope this can go smoothly as it will require the competitors to all post to the thread in sequence with their army choice. So if people could be fairly prompt so this process doesn't drag on for days on end.

3) Drawing up the fixture list. I can do this with a random number generator, unless there are objections. I don't think the order in which one plays the other competitors really matters much so hopefully doing it this way will be uncontentious, but let me know if you have a better, more transparent way.

After that, it should hopefully be plain sailing. In the meantime, have a look at the army lists and see which army you might like. I've been looking at them for days and am still totally undecided.

[the_iron_duke]

I have been informed that a coin has been tossed. In the interests of fairness, I have used a random number generator to decide my choice for me and it has come out...tails.

[stockwellpete]

I have been informed that a coin has been tossed. In the interests of fairness, I have used a random number generator to decide my choice for me and it has come out...tails.

Sorry, it was heads as Eric can confirm.

[stockwellpete]

Question - is the Venetian Condotta army the inside Italy one, or the outside Italy one?

[the_iron_duke]

So, the provisional ship's company consists of six seeded knights and two unseeded men-at-arms. The provisional rankings are therefore like so (awaiting all participants' confirmation of participation and so may be subject to change):

1*- ericdoman1
2*- Turk1964
3*- Tiavals
4*- Fedem
5*- stockwellpete
6*- solly
7 - the_iron_duke
8 - fogman

* = seeded player

Question - is the Venetian Condotta army the inside Italy one, or the outside Italy one?

The Venetians are the inside Italy version with the Swiss allies. The outside Italy version has a measly four available pikemen.

[solly]

Yes Duke.
I confirm the partecipation.

To every players: CIAO !!!

[stockwellpete]

I have just received this reply from Eric by PM,

"Heads?"

(do keep up at the back!)

[the_iron_duke]

Ciao, solly! Ace Nimrod - sorry, ericdoman1 - has also confirmed his participation via PM.

[stockwellpete]

Just to be certain - I am in .

[FedeM]

Duke, did you received mi confirmation? If not. Here yu have it.
With a bottle of rum. Saveh? Yo-jo yo-jo...

[Tiavals]

Tally ho, I'm ready to go!

[Turk1964]

Im definetly a goer so lets get started. Pete good to see you have joined us

[martog]

As I bask in the sunshine, beneath the swaying palm trees, may I wish you all a safe journey, or is that tourney, aboard the good ship ...

[ericdoman1]

I don't mind using the Venetians inside Italy. Possibly with no Swiss at all!?

[the_iron_duke]

As I bask in the sunshine, beneath the swaying palm trees, may I wish you all a safe journey, or is that tourney, aboard the good ship ...

Thanks, Sir Martog. You will no doubt be teaching the locals the virtues of the knight's code of chivalry, while lounging on the beach in your suit of armour.

I don't mind using the Venetians inside Italy. Possibly with no Swiss at all!?

It is very noble of you to try and shield us from the full force of your brilliance, but rules is rules and I don't think it would be cricket to create a special exception for you. If you want to make it harder for yourself you could try playing while suspended upside down from the ceiling or while locked in a cage with savage bears.

fogman has confirmed his participation to me via PM so all contestants are now confirmed. This means the two group tables look like this:

Group A:

1*- ericdoman1
4*- Fedem
5*- stockwellpete
8 - fogman

Group B:

2*- Turk1964
3*- Tiavals
6*- solly
7 - the_iron_duke

So, armies are to be chosen in reversed ranking order which makes it:

First choice: 8 - fogman
Second choice: 7 - the_iron_duke
Third choice: 6*- solly
Fourth choice: 5*- stockwellpete
Fifth choice: 4*- Fedem
Sixth choice: 3*- Tiavals
Seventh choice: 2*- Turk1964
No choice: 1*- ericdoman1

[stockwellpete]

If you want to make it harder for yourself you could try playing while suspended upside down from the ceiling or while locked in a cage with savage bears.

Can we not make him do both at the same time?

[ericdoman1]

LOL

Well in my last few games agst the Duck, Peat Bog and Turkish Delight, haven't done particularly well.

Pete and T.I.D. I think this handicapping system is going a bit too far:)

[the_iron_duke]

fogman has made the first choice and PMed me to say he'd like to play as the Medieval Germans.

I have also made my choice. It was a tough decision as there's some interesting armies to choose from, but I decided in the end to go with the army I've played most out of the available armies. I will therefore follow in the footsteps of John Hawkwood and David Platt and offer my services to the Italians, becoming Condottiere to the Venetians.

As an aside, I'll keep a tournament summary in the opening post with the list of players/armies and the status of the group tables.

[the_iron_duke]

solly has PMed me requesting the Santa Hermandad Nueva Castilian army. Feel free to post your army choices in the thread!

[stockwellpete]

French Ordonnance later, please.