Strategos: L'Art de la Guerre at the Richmond Open 2024

Trophy painted by Ren Westermeyer.

On 4 May 2024 I ran a L'Art de la Guerre Tournament at the 2024 Richmond Open.

It was a small,  3 round L'Art de la Guerre tournament. It was a semi-open format, 15mm scale, 200 points\ army lists. Any army from the Ancient, Classical, or Roman period lists in the 4th edition book ADLG book was permitted. 

The tournament was run in a round robin tournament, with 2 hour rounds. First round match ups were chosen at random, for the second and third round the opponents were chosen based on who won in the previous rounds, in order to determine a clear tournament winner.  The winner was determined by number of victories, draws, and defeats. The winner was given a trophy and earned the title "Strategos" of the Richmond Open 2024. 

1st Place / Strategos Walter Burgoyne [#55 Carthagnian] 2 wins, 1 draw

2nd Dutch Adams [#79 Classical Indian] 2 wins, 1 defeat

3rd Jeff Wiltrout [#59 Meroitic Kushite] 1 win, 2 draws

4th Michael Kelley [#109 Sassanid Persian] 1 win, 1 draw, 1 defeat

5th Paul Bellerive [#60 Classical Greek] 2 draws, 1 defeat

6th Lawrence (Alan) Wright [#39 Alexandrian Macedonian] 3 defeats

It was a fun, friendly little tournament, and I think everyone had a great time, and got three decent games of ADLG in. I will most likely run this tournament again next year, hopefully I'll get an odd number of entries so I can play as well. 😀

It has been described, tongue-in-cheek, as the "mean old man tournament" 😄, referencing  the relative age of most ADLG players but honestly, the players were all gentlemen, IMO. 

I award the Strategos trophy to Walt Burgoyne (L).

SAG in 2023

The club's newest member, he hasn't lost a game yet!

Aside from Warhammer Armies Project, Bolt Action & Konflict '47, and L'Art de la Guerre, the club saw many other games played in 2023. Kings of War remained popular with many players, and was the only game our de facto President Chuck would play. Several players began a Hametsu campaign after the games played earlier in the evening.  And Various Warhammer 40k knock-offs - 30K, Epic and another game with the initials LI I don't know the name of were played. There was even a Gunfighter's Paradise campaign started and a Halloween game of Silver Bayonet. And the clubs RPG branch had two regularly meeting 5th edition D&D games running. Many games not mentioned here were tried as well.

I haven't posted much this year, it didn't seem like many people cared. I'm going to try to post more often in 2024, but not "what we did this week" posts. Instead, I'm going to try to do army spot lights, in-depth game reports, tournament reports, and so forth. 

Warhammer Armies Project in 2023

 This year many members of our club started playing the Warhammers Armies Project, primarily out of dissatisfaction with the other fantasy miniature rules out there. 

So far, it has gone fairly well. We've had had well over a dozen games and six club members are playing and building armies. 

Paul's Undead Legion of Doom advances on James' Dogs of War.

James' Dogs of War face off against Jake's Chaos Warriors.

The Legion of Doom advancing on the Dog's of War!

Eric expresses disdain as his Cathay forces prepare to crush Paul's Legion of Doom.

The Legion of Doom, centered on Charon's Boat ( a Mortis Engine).

The Dogs of War playing with the Legion of Doom like the bones they are...

Ren looks on as his Empire troops come to grips with the Cathay forces...

Bolt Action & Konflict '47

We didn't play as much Bolt Action and Konflict '47 this year as last but we still played quite a bit. Much of it was at Your Hobby Place - Fredericksburg.

Below are pics of some of the games we played this year. 

L'Art de la Guerre in 2023

 I've decide to end the year with a series of posts on the various game we played at SAG this year. 

We once had a large contingent of L'Art de la Guerre players, we even sent a team to the the team nationals years ago. But most of the club has lost interest in the game sadly. 

I'm still very interested, and I worked to try and spark more interest but all I managed was a few games with other members humoring me. I also tried running a tournament at the Your Hobby Place - Fredericksburg, and it was a bust, just myself and two others showed. 

I haven't given up all hope but I'm not optimistic that ADLG will regain its previous spot at our club. Which is a real shame, it is one of my favorite games and periods. 

The sweet trophy I designed for the 
"Strategos 2023 tourney. Sadly it will
never get used now. 

#44 Pyrrhic Greeks versus #56 Numidians

#238 Medieval Germans versus another Medieval army.

#61 Hellenistic Greeks versus #56 Numidians

#44 Pyrrhic Greeks versus #77 Sarmatians

#146 "King Arthur" Post-Roman British versus Picts!

#238 Medieval Germans versus #221 Samurai.

Fearless Veteran, 2023

 Other Fearless Veteran tournaments are described here: 2017, 2021, and 2022.  

The 2023 SAG Fearless Veteran tournament was great fun! We didn't get as many players as we have in previous years but did get 4 participants, the minimum number needed for our small, friendly, club tournaments, we could have handled 8 players total. We had five players present, but since we had an odd number I sat out to just run the tournament.

This year the game was Black Powder, 2nd edition, 500 points, any Napoleonic Era Army (1780-1815). We played a three round round robin format. Each round was a different scenario, designed for the tournament. They were 1. Set Piece Battle 2. Meeting Engagement and 3. Annihilation (each pretty much fit its title). Players were provided the scenarios in advance and we ran some playtests in the weeks before. The winner was determined by the Win/Loss record, with the first tie breaker total victory points lost and the second tie breaker total victory points gained. It was designed to reward preservation of the player's own troops over destroying enemy troops.

As always, we were playing for the trophy, the winner's name on the Fearless Veteran plaque, and club bragging rights!

Ren maneuvers his Prussians against James in the Set Piece 
Battle scenario, round 1. 

On the left, Rob's French face Ken's Russians in the
Set Piece Battle scenario, round 1.

In the meeting Engagement scenario, Ren's Prussians fought Rob's
French while James' Austrians face Ken's Russians. 

Prussians versus French.

James maneuvers his Austrians against Rob's French
juggernaut in the Annihilation scenario, the final round. 

Ren contemplates the winning moves of Ken's Russians
in the final round.

The Prussians and Russians clash on the brown fields
of eastern Europe.

Final Standings

Rank, Player, List Nationality, Wins-Losses

4. James, Austrians, 0-3

3. Ren, Prussians, 1-2

2. Robert, French, 2-1

1. Ken, Russian, 3-0

No tie breakers needed.

Ken is our Fearless Veteran for the second time!

Ren awards Ken the Fearless Veteran 2023 trophy.
Ren had carefully hand panted the trophy himself. 

The 2023 trophy, & the wall plaque.

Fearless Veterans to date:

2016 - Ken Jacobson  (Flames of War, 3rd edition)

2017 - Wayne Wiltshire (Flames of War, 3rd edition)

2018 - Wayne Wiltshire (Flames of War, 3rd edition)

2021 - Michael Adkins (Kings of War, 2nd Edition)

2022 - Wayne Wiltshire (Bolt Action, 2nd Edition)

2023 - Ken Jacobson (Black Powder, 2nd Edition)

In 2024 the Fearless Veteran tournament is yet to be chosen!  Mortal Gods? Warhammer Armies Project? Blood & Plunder? We will see which games are most popular by the end of the summer!