The banks of the river Loire

[Patrice]

Some pictures of a game we had on October 25 and 26 at the "24 Heures du Jeu" games events in Theix (Brittany).
The ruleset was « Argad ! »

Two large tables (2 m x 4 m each) depicting the banks of the river Loire, on the borders between Brittany and Anjou, in the mid-14th century
(as usual the building are not models of the real places, but those that we could borrow from our players and friends).

The northern bank of the river, seen from the town of Ancenis:



 and seen from the middle of the river:



The southern bank seen from the walls of Châteauceaux:



The abbay of Saint-Florent-le-Vieil :





On Saturday it was a transport and smuggling game: the GM moved merchants and carts across the tables and across the river; the Breton officer and the Angevin officer players had to stop them and tax them; the abbot also moved trade goods from his abbay and also had some mysteries to resolve; another player was a young squire looking for fortune...

As the game progressed, tensions arose, a crime in the abbay, rumours of war etc.

On Sunday the war broke out (it was 1341 after all...) and the characters of the previous day had to take sides. Some troops belonging to the French army enter the table on the eastern side:



...some Breton troops march out of Châteauceaux to meet them
(and the merchants who still walk in the middle will soon have to go away):



The fight begins:



I hope I'll receive more pictures... but players are lazy.

[Anderson Collection]

Great set up really like the beach and the castle

[von Lucky]

Lovely looking game - so grand!

[warburton]

Very impressive!

[pocoloco]

Wonderful! 

[poulppy]

  wow great !

[Doug em4]

Looks a great game but I particularly like the scenario development. Would have been a fun game to participate in.

Doug

[Patrice]

Thanks guys.

Funny enough, the northern and the southern river banks were very different because they had been hastily made by different people (for this game we needed 4 metres of sandy bank on EACH side) ; one was polystyrene painted in sand colour, the other was polystyrene with real sand glued and a diluted paint wash on it to modify slightly the natural colour. But on the whole it looked good.

[Patrice]

Last Saturday we played two small games at the "Salon de la Maquette" (Miniature models event) in Lorient, Brittany. The table was 1,80 m x 2 m and the story followed the previous game (in 1341, at the beginning of the war of Succession of Brittany).



You can see French troops entering the top right corner of the table; they have been ordered to build a fortified camp on the other corner of the table (far left), and to secure communications between this camp and the sandy river banks, bottom right of the picture; but a small pro-English garrison in the small wooden tower opposes them, and the opinions of peasants and villagers in the countryside are uncertain.

During the first game, the French managed to occupy the far side of the river, and to build a camp in the left corner of the table; but their opponents prevented them from crossing the river.

During the second and following game, the French crossed the river (although their opponents did some diversions etc); they attacked in "wall of pavises" formation and won the day.

It was a rather simple scenario in two parts, and a small (by our standards) table, but still interesting for the players and for the public.

[The Dozing Dragon]

Reminded me of my summer hols near Argentat!