Ayton1: - 30th April ~ 2nd May 2021.

[Essex Boy]

Game Offered	When	Duration	Size	Players
Lace Hulk - Simon. Catacomb skirmish. Speak to Simon about available places	Saturday	Half day	2L,1S	Simon, Jeremy, Paul, Andy, Jamie, Ken, Brendan
Venitian Horror (GITS) - Paul. 19thC skirmish. 1 place left (see Paul if you want to try bribing the doorman)	Saturday	Half day	2L	Paul, Jeremy, Simon, John, Jamie
Fench & Indian War - The Tims. 54mm skirmish. All welcome	Saturday	All day	4L2S	Tim H, Tim W, Iain (am or pm)
18thC Game - Iain. 20mm LoA/WSS	Saturday	Half day	2L 1S	Iain, Andy, Dave, Gary, Buff, Brendan
Zulu! - Gary. Men Who Would Be Kings(?). 1 place left (see Gary if you want to try sneaking in the back door)	Saturday	Half day		Gary, Buff, John, Kerry(?), Purps
DBN - Mark (just on its way up the flag pole at the moment	Saturday	Half day		Mark, Purps
Call of Cthulhu - Phil. An evening game. At the 'hmmmm maybe' stage	Saturday evening			Phil, Simon, Jeremy, John, Paul, Purps
18thC game - Iain/Dave	Sunday	All day		Iain, Simon, John, Brendan, Kerry(?), Paul, Jeremy, Gary, Buff, Jamie, Purps, Andy, Dave
Rumble in the Jungle - The Tims. 54mm WWII skirmish. All welcome	Sunday	All day	4L2S	Tim H, Tim W

Saturday		Sunday
AM	PM	AM	PM
Hulk	Horror	Game	Game
Zulu	18thC	Game	Game
F&I	F&I	Game	Game
	DBN	Game	Game
		Game	Game
		Game	Game

Dave and I got together at the weekend to firm up our outline plans for Ayton 2020. This note explains the direction we’re taking.

1. The main theme for 2020, the 10th anniversary weekend, will be the 18th century, predominantly Europe, but naturally people can set their games further afield if they prefer. Dave and I will organise one or more ‘battle’ sized games which will use rules that deliver results within the time available. Army sizes will, to some extent, be capped so vast new armies are not required.
2. The 18th century game will be themed where possible, to fit into an overall ‘big picture’, but any campaign element is likely to be restricted to options given to commanders over the weekend or, perhaps, in the days just before Ayton. There won’t be a major map-based campaign element.
3. As with all previous Aytons, feel free to play something, anything, other than the main games. However, if you do, it will help Dave and me enormously if you would copy us in on your scenarios – see below.
4. We want to try something a bit different in that, by some mechanism to be worked out, the results from all ‘other’ games will feed into the 18th century battle games. For instance, an objective achieved may provide a modest benefit to one side or player in the main game. Hopefully, players will have a vested interest in the outcome of a game even if they are not participating.
5. Of course, there’s no reason why results from the 18th century battle games shouldn’t feed into the other games if that tickles your fancy.
6. This will all take some organising, so having some idea of scenarios before the Ayton weekend will be essential. Not massively before – but reasonable notice would be great.

Next steps.
Dave and I will organise the 18thC battle-type games, and there will be at least one game on each day. If you prefer to do something else, now would be a good time to propose it and look for players. You can do that on this thread and we’ll maintain a chart so people can see what’s what. There’s no need for games to last a full day, or be repeated/extended on day 2. If you have an idea for a half-day game that you want to run once, or more than once, over the 2 days, that’s great and will give people more opportunities to try different things.
Once all the proposals are in and we know the numbers (shall we say by the end of September?) we can start to firm up the plan.

For those playing the 18thC battle game(s)……
Basing and numbers of figures in a unit isn’t hugely relevant. If your foot units have a frontage in line of somewhere between about 180 and 360mm they will count as ‘average’ size. Cavalry units are similarly flexible – 12 to 16 figures in a line will be an average unit. If your units are huge, you can have them in double ranks of bases without penalty or make two units perhaps. One gun represents one battery (it can actually have two guns if people prefer, but with no greater effect).

Finally, can we keep this thread free of spurious stuff please so that it remains a useful quick reference. Other 2020 games will no doubt start their own threads (if they haven't already) but hopefully this thread will serve to pull everything together.

Ta

Dave and Iain

First edit (12.07.2020). Average size foot unit. Frontage now starts at 180mm. This may mean that the upper range needs to be reduced. It'll probably depend on how many really big units there are. EB

[goat major]

That all sounds jolly excellent fun and very sensible - well done chaps.

I’ll definitely like to play in the 18thC battle on at least Day 2 - it’s a must !

I have an idea for a maximum half-day game involving at most 4-5 players and a small figure count , but I’ll see if I survive my weekend away with Norm first before putting up more thoughts next week.

[Paul]

Sounds reasonable....I'd consider reducing the upper frontage limit of average units to 300mm...that would fit with most basing practices and rules currently being used.

[Norman D. Landings]

Finally, can we keep this thread free of spurious stuff please
[/quote]

I feel like I’m receiving some kind of cryptic coded message...

[levied troop]

Definitely in for tricornes on the Sunday - still debating Dixon’s 1688 (painted), WoSS (lots to paint) or AWI (half to paint).

[goat major]

So I have a proposal and will work up more detail on it if theres enough interest:

The concept is that a number of 18thC European skirmish groups are battling through some catacombs beneath a city/fort/whatever. This is part of a bigger siege or battle thats going on overhead. Perhaps some of them have landed in caves by boat and are trying to find a secret tunnel into the castle and others are defenders trying to stop them. All to be decided.

What none of them realised is that the catacombs are used by a secret group of crazy thuggee religious maniacal cultists who are now very annoyed and will be swarming with their sharp pointy weapons all over the intrepid groups of musketeers.

If this all sounds familiar then, yes, its 18thC Space Hulk. The rules will be derived from the Space Hulk rules with a number of tweaks for the period and some RPG/Frostgrave type things thrown in as well.

Number of players - probably 4/5 maximum. Length of time - half day maximum.

What would you need ? Nothing - but you would be (very) welcome to bring your own force. This would be about 6-12 18thC character figures(28mm). At least half would be normal musketeers but there will also be rules for specialists e.g. grenadiers, swashbucklers, blunderbusses etc. I'll provide the thuggee swarm (& 18thC forces for anyone who needs them) and the dungeon scenery.

If you're interested then let me know - don't worry about number of players for the moment - I'll try to work on getting it to work with however many people show interest.

Iain/Dave - hopefully this can be worked into the overall storyline in some way too ?

[Jeremy]

Simon, I'm definitely in for your game if it goes ahead. I have 20 or 30 Musketeer and Thug types I use for my 'En Garde!' games to contribute.
Iain, I would also like to play in the 18th C game on the Sunday.

[Essex Boy]

Cheers Chaps,

We're keeping an eye on the thread and updating the list constantly. We'll probably tag it onto the first entry in the next couple of days.

Iain

[goat major]

I should add that despite the space-hulkiness of my suggestion it won't have any fantasy or sci fi elements - all will be imagi-historical

[garyp]

I'd quite like to have a go at that if it fits with everything else Iain and Dave have in mind. I have 20 or 30 FIW types who would be good for that sort of thing