[Argad] A 14th century tournament

[Patrice]

Last Sunday at festival Ramène tes Jeux, near Vannes (Brittany) we played a game taking place in the 1350s in the War of the Breton Succession. The main event in the scenario was a tournament (or, rather, a joust) during a truce. As often happens in Argad games, all players went a bit paranoid fearing that the truce could end abruptly; it did not, but there were some mysteries: a murdered squire, a knight mortally wounded in the joust, a poisoned peasant...







Many pictures (including the making of the scratch-built tribune) and the AAR (in French) are here:
http://euthanasor-wargamesetmodelisme.blogspot.com/2024/03/le-tournoi-de-ploermel.html

Some other pictures:
https://www.anargader.net/t3783-le-tournoi-de-ploermel-compte-rendu#34984

[OSHIROmodels]

Great fun 

[bluewillow]

Looks great

[FifteensAway]

Very cool stuff - especially given I am on a similar journey to creating a jousting setup in 15 mm.  Awaiting a couple of orders of figures to move it all forward, already have enough tents and castles, might add a few buildings.

In one of the photos, I do wonder how that "Chinese wharf rat"* made it to France, though!? 

From the varied photos, it looks like there was ground combat besides the tilting.  May I ask how the rules for the ground combat worked (assuming I am correct that there was), please?  And in English, I'm afraid my French is extremely limited, like two or three phrases at best.  And thank you!

* according to my late father, he saw wharf rats in China considerably bigger than a large house cat (he flew in and out during WWII as crew).

[Patrice]

Thanks. 

In one of the photos, I do wonder how that "Chinese wharf rat"* made it to France, though!?

Um, I don't think our rats are really as big as this one... It was one of these jokes that sometimes are on the gaming table for no gaming reason, usually such rats are a secondary objective for Dwarf players in our fantasy games.  And the old woman is a very old miniature (I don't know where from) obviously resembling the Snow White witch, she often appears in our medieval or Renaissance games as a NPC trying to sell apples (and/or informations) to everyone.

From the varied photos, it looks like there was ground combat besides the tilting.  May I ask how the rules for the ground combat worked (assuming I am correct that there was), please?

You mean real fighting, outside the jousts? There could have been, but there was not.
The dead squire was part of the plot, he was discovered dead on the morning; the GM may have secretly rolled dice to know if it was done without noise, I don't know. He probably secretly rolled dice for the health of the drunken peasants (who drank bad wine intended to poison one of the knigths) one of them died.
If a real fight had happened it would have been played with the generic Argad skirmish rules; but in this game there was no need even for the usual movement rules, the characters were allowed to go peacefully where they wanted without measuring distances (the rules would have applied if someone had tried to outrun someone else for any reason).

I'll publish a short PDF of this jousting adaptation made by the GM of this game (and I'll translate it in English) when I have the time, he agreed.

[FifteensAway]

Patrice, thank you for the reply.  It was photo "8 of 24" in the first link in the OP that had me wondering if there was ground combat.  I plan to include both ground combat and archery contests in my setup if I can make it work - archery targets probably being the toughest element to include from a modeling perspective in 15 mm.

And revisiting the photos, I think I will "steal" the idea of broken lances, that's pretty cool.

[Patrice]

It was photo "8 of 24" in the first link in the OP that had me wondering if there was ground combat. I plan to include both ground combat and archery contests in my setup if I can make it work - archery targets probably being the toughest element to include from a modeling perspective in 15 mm.

Ah, you mean a fight on foot between two knights. In this game the GM had decided that it would happen if two opponents had the same score after three jousts, or if both fell from their horse.
But it could as well be organised as a separate challenge as you say.



It was played with the usual, generic Argad rules: opponent is hit if the die result exceeds his class (or armour). Knights in full armour are “class 5, armour 5“ in the rules so you need to roll 6 to win. It's usually done with 1D6 but the GM had decided to use 2D6 and consider the best die (but double 6 = 7).
So that's just a simple die roll. The system could be more complicated if wished but the idea was that the jousts themselves should not last too long (some players feared it could become boring).

Archery targets are not so difficult to make at small scale if placed against a big heap of earth, it was often done.

[FifteensAway]

I am a HUGE (Huge-mungous, even*) fan of the simplest rules possible.  Have fun with the 'toys' not with the paperwork any more than is absolutely necessary!

*Huge-mungous: really a lot bigger than huge (just in case it doesn't translate well)