Armati Nationals - Glasgow 2003 -

The previous year had seen English Competitors expressing concern that being in Scotland would mean being surrounded by men in kilts, something which obviously unnerved them. Promises were made that this would not be the case, only to be broken when a Scottish wedding party occupied the hotel - kilts everywhere! Rather than tempt fate, the organisers for 2003 decided instead to emphasise the difference, and the first round of the first day saw the players split into Scots (and Kiwi) vs Sassenachs.

Clearly unnerved, the English players immediately began procrastinating in front of the telly, apparently some form of ancient pagan omen-seeking ritual was being played out in Sydney. While it may be thought that it is more traditional for entrails to be displayed and fatted calves to be sacrificed, these particular English sought divine provenance from the gods of rugby.

Having satisfied themselves that the omens were good, the first round was allowed to begin. Sadly, the sassenach gods prooved the stronger, with a final tally of England 9 : Scotland 2

One of the newer features of the 2003 Armati Nationals was the de-seeding of the first days games. Players had noticed that they always seemed to be drawing the same opponents, and while this made sense for the second day when an overall winner was required, it was agreed to de-seed the first days play in order to give everyone a chance at playing each other. In addition, one of the games - the Sea Peoples game - was 'jiggled' a bit into a scenario depicting the disorder of an opposed landing, and the Seljuks v Mongols was increased from 30pts to 40pts to break up the fragility of these two 'horse-archer-armies'.

After the first days play, the early leaders were Steve Metheringham, Craig Tannock, Phil Steele, Bill Wilson, Roy Boss and Neil Grant. The Sunday saw the introduction of a modified Swiss Chess system, and a rapid reversal of fortunes (nothing to do with the events of the Saturday night, of course), and the final was a straight fight between Roy and last years winner Bill. Early Achaemenid Persians vs Scythian was the battle, which gave Bill a theoretical advantage, as the Scythians had won three of the four games that weekend. This game was fully documented in a Society of Ancients 'Slingshot' issue, as an example of how Armati plays. Many of the Society's key members have appeared at recent Armati tournaments, and we encourage all those interested in Ancient wargaming and Ancient military history to subscribe to Slingshot.

Bill's Scythian shooting let him down, and Roy Boss was declared the winner of the tournament, and was duly presented with the Phil Rodgers Trophy for 2003.

Historical Matchups 2003

• Sea Peoples v New Kingdom Egyptian
• Early Achaemenid Persian v Scythian
• Sicillian Greek v Early Carthaginian
• Cyrus v Artaxerxes
• Antigonus v Seleucus
• Trajanic Roman (core) v Trajanic Roman (naval)
• Ostrogoths v Late Roman
• Picts v Caledonii
• Seljuks v Mongols
• Medieval Italian (Fettuchi) v Medieval Italian (Martini)
• Scots v English
• Poles v Hungarians