Alp Arslan in Helsinki - part 6, the end and reflections

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nikgaukroger
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Alp Arslan in Helsinki - part 6, the end and reflections

Post by nikgaukroger »

As Neil has already covered this - with the addition of photos - at: viewtopic.php?t=7116 there seems little point in me repeating what he said. Instead I'll just post a couple of reflections on the game from my point of view and some thoughts on the Seljuq Turks as an army.

As I mentioned in Neil thread the game was, from my side, dominated by the need not to lose as by doing so I was guaranteed the overall competition win. I'm glad Neil still found the game enjoyable but I must confess that I think it would have been even more so if I'd have had to go for it a bit more as we'd have had more combats that could have affected the overall outcome.

One interesting thing I noticed about my play in this game was that as I was now playing in a different mind set and style I actually made far more mistakes than I had in any of the other games and, ironically, despite pretty much wanting to avoid combat I found myself in more, and less favourable, combats than I probably would have otherwise :shock:

I think the lesson there is play your natural game as it will be your best chance whatever the circumstances - unless, that is, you are more strong minded about your game than I am.

So what about the army. Overall I found it really suits my gaming style and it is a very effective army. The initiative modifier of +4 helps as it usually means you are on the steppe with enough open space to operate the fluid horse archer tactics - and if anything beats you on initiative it usually means it is the sort of army that will also want reasonable amounts of open space so all is not lost there. Of course occasionally you'll end up in the wrong sort of terrain, however, the Seljuq is still pretty hard to beat unless it is very very crowded indeed.

However, despite the success I've now tried the version Terry used - Sultanate of Rum with the 4 base knight BG to give the army a bit of punch and something to keep things like legionarii honest. To get these I dropped a TC, cut the LF down to 2 BGs - and 8 of Bow and an 8 of Javelin, Light Spear - and dropped the Bedouin LH, all of which allowed me the points to get the knights as 4 Kn, Superior, Undrilled, Heavily Armoured, Lancers Swordsmen.

This army, which is of course led by Kilij Arslan II and dated 1176AD so as to be for the battle of Myriokephalon as opposed to Manzikert ( and is another Roman defeat :twisted: ), has now had a run out at Rampage and pleasingly won that competition :D It did this by beating Latin Greek and Wars of the Roses armies, getting the better of a Crown of Aragon army and drawing against a second Crown of Aragon army.

Of course with all this success for the Seljuqs it is now time to look for a different army 8)
Nik Gaukroger

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Post by hammy »

Perhaps it is time to find the anti Seljuk army ;)
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Post by babyshark »

Wow, Nik. Winning two competitions in a row is impressive. You are painting a big target on your back.

Marc
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Post by hammy »

It will all come crashing down at the weekend in the doubles ;) Or at least it could all come crashing down.
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Post by nikgaukroger »

Oh it most certainly will all come crashing down in Chester, especially with the army we're taking - but I'll blame Peter for that 8)
Nik Gaukroger

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Post by nikgaukroger »

hammy wrote:Perhaps it is time to find the anti Seljuk army ;)
No, the anti-anti-Seljuq list to try and stay a step ahead :twisted:
Nik Gaukroger

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If he does not, why humiliate him?" - Canon Sydney Smith

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Post by hammy »

FWIW there are a number of players who are all doing pretty well in various FoG tournaments of late,

Mr Gaukroger winning in Helsinki and at Rampage
Dave Handley winning at the Challenge, 2nd at the Leeds doubles and 4th in Oxford
Bruce Brown 2nd at the Challenge, 3rd in Leeds and 1st in Oxford
Martin Wilkinson 1st in the Manchester Northern League, 1st at Leeds and 2nd in Oxford
Yours truly 1st in Leeds, 2nd in Oxford, 2nd in the Manchester Northern League, 1st at the Derby Northern League 2nd at Games Expo and 4th in Helsinki.

It would be really good to get all of us together in one comp but I am not sure when that is likely to happen as Nik and I are runing Britcon and I am not sure when Martin will be playing next.
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Post by lawrenceg »

hammy wrote:FWIW there are a number of players who are all doing pretty well in various FoG tournaments of late,

Mr Gaukroger winning in Helsinki and at Rampage
Dave Handley winning at the Challenge, 2nd at the Leeds doubles and 4th in Oxford
Bruce Brown 2nd at the Challenge, 3rd in Leeds and 1st in Oxford
Martin Wilkinson 1st in the Manchester Northern League, 1st at Leeds and 2nd in Oxford
Yours truly 1st in Leeds, 2nd in Oxford, 2nd in the Manchester Northern League, 1st at the Derby Northern League 2nd at Games Expo and 4th in Helsinki.

It would be really good to get all of us together in one comp but I am not sure when that is likely to happen as Nik and I are runing Britcon and I am not sure when Martin will be playing next.
Oh well, we'll just have to rely on Glicko to estimate who is the top player :wink:
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Post by daleivan »

Just wanted to thank you for a great series of AARs. I enjoyed reading the saga of Alp Arslan and his Seljuks.

Congrats on your win, too.

Dale :D
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Post by hammy »

lawrenceg wrote:
hammy wrote:It would be really good to get all of us together in one comp but I am not sure when that is likely to happen as Nik and I are runing Britcon and I am not sure when Martin will be playing next.
Oh well, we'll just have to rely on Glicko to estimate who is the top player :wink:
Hmm, does that mean you are offereing to work out Foggo stats :twisted:
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Post by hazelbark »

hammy wrote:FWIW there are a number of players who are all doing pretty well in various FoG tournaments of late,
Yea but they are just a bunch of Brits, wait until you encounter Brad from Indiana State Penn and his invincible Poylbian tactics.

:roll:
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Post by nikgaukroger »

Will he be painting his next lot of Polybians in orange jump suits?
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Post by hammy »

hazelbark wrote:
hammy wrote:FWIW there are a number of players who are all doing pretty well in various FoG tournaments of late,
Yea but they are just a bunch of Brits, wait until you encounter Brad from Indiana State Penn and his invincible Poylbian tactics.

:roll:
Very true, I think that there are a number of French players comming to Britcon and from the past French performances they are likely to do well. In terms of non GB based players I have also noticed that Julian Lopez seems to be doing rather well in Spanish FoG tournaments.
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Post by lawrenceg »

hammy wrote:
lawrenceg wrote:
hammy wrote:It would be really good to get all of us together in one comp but I am not sure when that is likely to happen as Nik and I are runing Britcon and I am not sure when Martin will be playing next.
Oh well, we'll just have to rely on Glicko to estimate who is the top player :wink:
Hmm, does that mean you are offereing to work out Foggo stats :twisted:
I could look into it, but I'd need all the who-played-whom-with-what-result data in (preferably) tab or comma separated text, rather than the jpg files that are on the "Hall of Honour" (shouldn't that be the "Hall of Glory"?).
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Post by hammy »

lawrenceg wrote:
hammy wrote:Hmm, does that mean you are offereing to work out Foggo stats :twisted:
I could look into it, but I'd need all the who-played-whom-with-what-result data in (preferably) tab or comma separated text, rather than the jpg files that are on the "Hall of Honour" (shouldn't that be the "Hall of Glory"?).
At the moment the FoG rankings are being done using the old BHGS spreadsheets but there is a nice piece of code that has been developed by Toby Partridge which could well lead to a best of both worlds solution where you could get BHGS style rankings with all the advantages of things changing over time and also allow glicko style player vs player and army vs army stats to be generated.

Watch this space but don't hold your breath.
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Post by jlopez »

hammy wrote:
hazelbark wrote:
hammy wrote:FWIW there are a number of players who are all doing pretty well in various FoG tournaments of late,
Yea but they are just a bunch of Brits, wait until you encounter Brad from Indiana State Penn and his invincible Poylbian tactics.

:roll:
Very true, I think that there are a number of French players comming to Britcon and from the past French performances they are likely to do well. In terms of non GB based players I have also noticed that Julian Lopez seems to be doing rather well in Spanish FoG tournaments.
Good of you to say so. Here are my results since Spain switched to FoG last year. I only play at competitions as I have no wargamers living nearby so in all cases I'd never used the army before the competition (or since):

September 2007, Jaen: 1st (Latin Greece). Open competition
October 2007, Estella: 1st (Parthian). Open competition
March 2008, Vilches: 6th (Free Company) Open competition
May 2008, Zaragoza: 2nd (Bosporan) Rise of Rome + Immortal Fire.
June 2008, Alcoy: 1st (Medieval Portugese). Medieval pool: Storm of Arrows + Swords and Scimitars

Next events I'm attending:

July 2008, Segovia: Huns (open competition)
July 2008, Granada: Italian Condotta (Medieval pool)
October 2008, Jaen: Probably Mid-Republican Roman (Ancients pool)

Other Spanish players to keep an eye on are Carlos Serrano , Rafa Tortosa, Pedro J. Sanchez and J.M.Morillas.

Julian
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