Strategy Dordrecht 2019, 10th edition

Strategy Dordrecht 2019, 10th edition

This year it was the 10th annual edition of my tournament "Strategy Dordrecht".

It grew out of a need for more tournaments here in the Netherlands when around 2009 there where only three in our country: at the Ducosim convention, wich was held four times a year Albert used to organise small tournaments aimed at beginners (300-500 points) and at the Spelkwartier Arnhem (now called De Dobbelsteen) they held a regional championship "The Golden Balrog" once a year. Both still exist by the way.

Anno 2019 things have changed, particulary the last two years more tournaments have been held in The Netherlands. The Rotterdam White Scars have been organising tournaments and several newcomers like Larry's tournament and the ones Ronny has been organising in Leiden's Tafelridder.

The thing is it seems the playerbase hasn't really been growing since the inception of the new rules of our glorious game...

Many familiair faces, some newcomers but the same amount of people who leave sadly enough.

All this and some unfortunate private reasons here and there that the attendance of Strategy Dordrecht 2019 wasn't up to par, wich was 24-26, attendants this year.

Although this meant i was a wee bit less motivated i ran the tournament anyway since it was a lustrum!

Everybody got party hats (and a tournament point to earn if they wore it all day long) and there was cake offcourse.

Party hat bonanza!

Due to a last minute no show i had to play at my own tournament because i couldn't arrange a reserve player this year. I had to do this once several years ago and then i fielded 100 points less to assure i didn't win my own tournament. That wasn't really satisfactory so i decided to field a full 600 points Rohan force (Strategy is a 600 points tournament). I didn't wanted to win my own tournament because i think that's somewhat unfair due to the fact that i am also the judge and i chose the scenario's.

Playing at your own tournament is quite a pickle if you're somewhat competitive like i am...

Anyway let's get on with it!

The first round i played Michiel with his high elven force lead by Glorfindel and the sons of Elrond.

The scenario was "A clash by moonlight" wich meant that shooting had a range of 12" but had a +1 to wound.

I fielded an all mounted Rohan Eored with Theoden & Eomer leading Rohirrim and some Royal guards.

 The deployment

On two fronts i was challenging the elves to a shootout. I had more bows and maneuverability but elves tend to have better shooting skills.

Disaster struck as Glorfindel charged Theoden and slew the king of Rohan!

Michiel, elvenmaster

I was winning the shootout and lured the elves out of the woodland. Glorfindel was charging towards my lines (without his horse) and Elladan & Elrohir doing the same on my right flank.

The latter's forces where decimated by bowfire and subsequently charged by Rohirrim

Glorfindel meant business fighting my horsemen

Hi here!

 

Elladan & Elrohir in trouble

In the end most of the elven army fell, brought back to 25% it was a 6-0 victory for Rohan.

Michiel is a regular at my tournament, even won BPA the second edition years ago, and it was fun to finally play against him. We had laughs and good times.

Round two i faced a debutant in Dordrecht, Alex with his Mordor force lead by Gothmog and reinforced by a dreadful Mordor catapult with a troll and severed heads.

The scenario was "Capture and control": five objectives to well... capture and control.

Alex, general of Mordor

Our deployment

I feared the catapult because i fielded an all mounted force and i had some bad experiences with siege weapons.

My fear was proven right when in the second turn i lost three Rohirrim due to a dead on hit on one and two more ran off in fear of the severed heads.

I wanted to take out the catapult asap and in the centre i was threathened by Gothmog. Luckely i managed to shoot his warg quite fast.

Wargless Gothmog struggling to keep the objective

Meanwhile Eomer was charging the objective on my right flank as the catapult was being attacked by Theoden and my main force.

Eomer was rather succesful

Theoden managed to break through the densive bottleneck and took out the catapult whle the troll killed some of the Rohirrim

In the end Rohan controlled three objectives and Mordor just one and it was a 7-2 victory on my behalf.

Alex played well i think, maybe he should have focused on the objectives more than keeping me from the catapult.

We had a good time and it was a pleasant encounter.

Cake!

Here are some photo's from another match; Teun vs Ronny.

In this match both fellbeast where annihalated!

After the cake the third and final round of the tournament began. I decided to take myself out of the equation and didn't play for the win. Instead i had a battle with the nestor of the day so we could have an "old geeks showdown".

Dick-Jan, my worthy opponent

DJ, fielded his trusty dwarven force consisting of a variety of well armoured bearded ones lead by Durin himself.

We played "Contest of champions" wich meant only kills by ones leader scored victory points. And Durin with his mighty axe and D9 was somewhat scary i reckoned.

The set-up

I stubbornly tried to pull-off the same shooty stunt i did before but gainst the superior armour of the dwarvenkind it didn't really make a dent (pun intended)

Because this obviously didn't work i tried the gung-ho Theoden kill-steal approach. Wich worked rather well and got me a 2-0 lead.

After the bold attack i returned to panzy mode and avoided the dwarfs as much as possible even killing of a rare dwarf with a potshot here and there

I took full advantage of my maneuverability versus the somewhat slow and small action radius of my opponent and forced them into a cornerned position

Taking some risk so Durin also got a kill

This seemed to be worth it as Theoden, king of Rohan teamed up with Eomer, marshall of the Riddermark and wreaked havoc amongst the dwarven lines

On the other side of the encirclement Durin was kept busey. Some Rohirrim fell but overall it seemed an healthy trade-off in my perspective

Dwarves in a pickle

Durin, lord of Moria even got charged by my dynamic duo

This crappy photo depicts the epic battle that ensued.

Durin fell at the hands of Eomer...

This heroic stand of the last three dwarves was the end of it 

We had a jolly good game as the old chaps we are. It's always a pleasure to play Dick-Jan, who is a very good sport.

After all this wargaming violence it was time for the awards ceremony of the 10th annual Strategy Dordrecht.

First the Best Painted Army (BPA) was announced. For the first time only two armies got votes and most of those votes went, well deserved, to the magnificently painted Fellowship army of Niek.

Niek's "Breaking of the Fellowhip" army thematically set up next to an Amon-Hen scenery piece

BPA 2019 winner Niek van Waveren

(the prize was a, since 2005 OOP, metal orc archer)

And finally tensions rose as the overall winner was declared.

Jeroen Felix was the winner of Strategy Dordrecht 2019 with his "Return of the King" army with Aragorn, offcourse leading the Army of the Dead from Dunharg

Jeroen managed to win BPA once (or twice?) in the past and now got the other trophy as well! Chapeau!

Well, i was somewhat less motivated this time due to a lower attendance and soe very late cancellations but we managed to make it as "gezellig" (yes you, google that) as always.

Wich is rather splendid and the primary goal for me as the TO.

I would like to thank all participants for making it a fun day and maybe untill next year.