The Pine Wood of Tevar demo game, Partizan 5th Sept 2010

Here are the pics I took during James Morris' demo game 'The Pine Wood of Tevar' at Partizan yesterday. Apologies for the quality of some of the pics, but I was struggling to find a few moments to snap away in between chatting to the myriad of interested gamers (so many that in fact we only played the game once all day!!!!) and rolling some dice. So, if you nclick on a pic and it's a wee bit blurred, I'm sorry. Also, these humble pics don't really do the game justice. James' magnificent terrain and brilliant eye for how to arrange it (note the way the wooded slopes pull the eye onto the rockty outcrop and the perfect position of the camp on the other side...brilliant!!) simply loked stunning, as it was a table of about 10 x 6 feet!!

The pics tell the story of the game as we played it until I lost the will to take any more pics!
Below, view down the Catalan battleline just before my Andalusian allied cavalry failed the first of 3 failed allies tests (yup...three ones in a a row!!!)

El Cid's force mooch out of the camp to meet the onslaught...little suspecting the Count of Barcelona's devious ruse...

View from the Catalan right flank - Christian Jinetes, led by a newly-painted hero...

The Count of Barcelona and his personal retinue and army standard...

The other half of the Catalan panzer division!!!!

Close-up of El Cid's personal retinue (yes...a Copplestone Charlton Heston...note the faberoony banner. (BTW...El Cid...WS7!!! 4 attacks...veteran...ugh...!!! We later agreed that WS7 was too much and that he should be WS6 instead, with all other stats remaining as usual.) This unit is veteran too...sigh...

El Cid's Andalusian allies...no failed allies tests here, no siree...

El Cid's Christian jinetes...led by a veteran character (all El Cid's characters were veterans)

El Cid's camp...just look at those brilliantly painted tents and the myriad of 'stuff' to make the camp look mega cool!!

What's this??!! Sneaky catalans on the ridge behind the Cid's lines...Crossbows and archers, no less! We also had spearmen attacking out of the wood on El Cid's right flank...(cue evil laughter...)

El Cid's army from above...

The crossbowmens' view of the battlefield..."Hey, amigos...El Cid has NO IDEA that we are here...!!!"

View from behind the Catalan lines...look at that panorama towards the ridge...stunning!!

Another of El Cid's nasty characters...

El Cid's best mate, Alvar Fanez...he had a rough time of it later on...shame!!!

Another view of that brilliant El Cid retinue...awesome painting!!

Turn 1: General Catalan advance (we got first turn automatically...) My allies top left are still debating whether to join in. On my right flank, I attempt to draw El Cid's Andalusian nobles into a charge...This continued with charges and feigned flights over a few turns...

Turn 4: After messing about for 3 turns (actually, we were 'jockeying for position' with our caballeros), James caved and advanced into range (Andy Mctaggart had told me earlier that he would if I waited long enough...it's true..he did!! ;-) ) So I charged my 'panzer division' into El Cid's 'Tiger division'...

Close up of the main event. The Cid challenges the Count...he stoopidly accepts and, despite charging and going first, causes no wounds and receives one! Overall, it's a drawn combat, even with the muso roll-off!

In this combat, Alvar Fanez challenged my character and slaughtered him despite going second!! Killed outright!! However, this incensed the Catalan caballeros, who kicked major arese and ran the El Cid unit down, capturing Fanez in the process!! Hoorah!!! Yes, we were using the 'Ransom' rules from the El Cid book...

The end of turn 5: The Count is wounded a second time and his caballeros seem to be armed with rubber swords!!! We flee, but get away! We decide that, new rules notwithstanding, army standards are NOT captured unless the bearer is killed (or captured)

Those pesky Andalusian nobles use their special move to get on my flank...so I charged them..and bounced, reduced to 5 or less...bye bye jinetes....even with a flippin' character in there...sigh...

The Count has rallied and been caught in a charge. He declines the inevitable challenge and flees twice more before eventually being caught and captured. His army standard who accepted the challenge was killed outright...

This is better!!! On my left, a combination of bowfire, crossbows and (eventually) Andalusian jinetes causes the El Cid jineters to be in a spot of bother!! We slaughtered them with caballeros and the character fled only to be peppered with about 4000 crossbow bolts...ouch...

Earlier, my peones had stood off a unit of dismounted knights, chaisng and slaughtering them to a man. The gallant caballeros thenm turned and finished off El Cid's archers and crossbowmen, capturing the camp in a final glorious charge, just before the Count was captured!!

So, game over! A Winning draw for El Cid, as he had fulfilled the main objective - kill or capture the opposing general - difficult for the catalans with El Cid being as hard as he was, hence the decision to tone him down a notch!! However, the Cid had actually lost more men than the Count and had lost his camp with all its accumulated loot, so no shame in that at all!!

As I hope you can sense from this narrative, I loved every second of it! A brilliant game on the best terrain I've ever played on with a great opponent! It was my first show demo and I loved it!!

Thanks to all who came to look and to chat and to tell us how great it looked. We really appreciated the interest.

Watch out for a full article and scenario in Wargames Illustrated soon with better pics of course!!!

Now, I have to paint some more models ready for October at Warhammer World. More info about my army choice and the new models shortly...

Thanks for reading!!

Andy