Slitherine

As someone who wasn't able to attend, here are a few thoughts that might help.

1) There isn't anything else on offer at the event. For events where travel and stay is required I normally come with people who play other things. Travelling and staying on my own makes the event expensive (especially somewhere like Oxford) and reduces the opportunities for social activity in the evenings, making the whole thing less attractive.

2) Event congestion. We had Derby at the start of October and we have Warfare in a couple of weeks time. Add in the BHGS Doubles (which I would have attended in preference due to being able to travel/stay with others) and the Northern League which is this weekend and it's just too close to too many other things.

Regarding Brendan's point about numbers dropping, this is something we've noticed. The principle cause appears to be the lure of a couple of shiny new sets of Ancients rules, ADLG and MeG which have been attracting players from other sets, including Fog R. I've done some analysis on the Britcon entries and for FoG R we dropped from 21 to 18 this year. However 7 Fog R regulars were playing ADLG or MeG which attracted 36 players between them. For comparison here are the changes in the other large 15mm historical periods (2015/2016)

DBMM 24/18
Fog A 25/24
Fog M 19/10

It looks like there's drift from all the other sets to ADLG and Meg but that from Fog R is not disproportional. It has however been the case that the doubles format has been shrinking across all rules set for some time. The BHGS used to have 5 rounds in their Ancients Doubles, now there's just one. The Northern League is now mostly singles and the West Country circuit has ceased to exist. Burton and Godendag have remained fairly consistent in numbers but these are very much one off events that attract a lot of people who don't enter other tournaments. There has also been some drift between periods at these events. That said, although most people seem happy with FoG R, it hasn't had any tweaks for a few years now and there my be scope for improvements based on what we've learnt over extended use. But that's a much larger subject and one that belongs in another discussion.

kevinj wrote:That said, although most people seem happy with FoG R, it hasn't had any tweaks for a few years now and there my be scope for improvements based on what we've learnt over extended use. But that's a much larger subject and one that belongs in another discussion.

I for one would be interested in a topic to see what you, and others, think they might be - and as mentioned elsewhere would be happy to look into making something official if that would be useful and possible.

i don't have any real problems with FOGR.. Just fancy playing ancients and MeG seems a good system to return to ancients..

I was looking for a change would be allowing warriors to count protected in enclosed fields as per pike and shot....

my main bleat is the amount of 50:50 rules being brought into competitions...

Further to Kevin's point about declining numbers, on the doubles front, Usk last January had just 14 pairs, down from 28 teams (in much worse weather) the year before; Badcon was down from 22 in 2015 to 20 (3 solos) in 2016; Devizes was down to 8 from 12 last year; and Abingdon (BHGS) has gone from 12 teams in 2014 and 8 in 2015, to just 2 (and being cancelled) this year. The Campaign (6) and Derby (8) team events seems to be the only ones to maintain numbers from last year.

In singles, Southern League went from 5 rounds in 2014, to just 1 last year (Oxford), with Way of the Warrior (Leighton Buzzard) and Italian Wars (Wessex) only (re-)appearing this year to join Oxford. Warfare is down from 24 last year to 20 this year (there may be last minute entries). Roll Call got the same total number of players 10 (15mm) + 10 (25mm) as it did last year - 14 (15mm) and 6 (25mm).

I for one think the rules could do with a spruce up. There would appear to have been many good ideas left on the cutting room floor with the 1st edition.
The balance between foot and mounted needs to be looked at.

Competitions have become predictable and so hold no enjoyment for those taking part, especially when you take into consideration the growing costs of staying away.

I would be careful what you read into the Warfare numbers, as I know a number would have prefreed to play LADG.

I have moved over to LADG as the rules are very simple and give a very enjoyable game. Games can be completed within two hours.

As regards events in the South West, the people who do the organizing, currently prefer playing LADG.

Don

donm2 wrote:I for one think the rules could do with a spruce up. There would appear to have been many good ideas left on the cutting room floor with the 1st edition.
The balance between foot and mounted needs to be looked at.

Competitions have become predictable and so hold no enjoyment for those taking part, especially when you take into consideration the growing costs of staying away.

Given that the rules have been out 6 (I think) years now I would think that a bit of a refresh would be useful. My experience is that those rules that have a long shelf life generally do get a spruce up every now and again and the changes help keep the interest going - some army list tweaks and changes are also usually a good thing in this respect as well.

IMO FoG:R has done pretty well to get this far with relatively few niggles, but some considered changes could well breathe new life into it.