Last night at the Canberra club, we played a 400 points game. The two

combatants were later Ming Chinese (Me) and Ariatharid Cappadocian

(Dean Bedlington). Ming the Merciless invaded in summer, after

traversing India and Persia.

The Ming invaded across an open plain, flanked on their right by

areas boggy ground, with steep hills towards the rear of the field on

the right.

The Ming army consisted of 3 commands, two wings of Ming Militia (8

BwX, 4 BdI, 2 ShI, 2 ArtI, 2 ArtO, 2LHS, 2CvI and the CvS general)

and a small central CinC commands of CvS, ShI and CvI. One Ming wing

also had a warwagon and dare-to-die troops (BdF and PsS) in its right

wing. The artillery was interspersed with the militia.

The Cappadocian army had four commands, two wings of KnI, CvO,

peltasts(AxO) and LHO, and two central commands, one a Greek hoplite

mercenary sub-general with some archers, and the CinC with some BwI,

Ax and KnI (i think).

The battle opened with the Cappadocian peltasts pushing forward

through the boggy ground on the Ming right. In the centre, the

Cappadocian mercenary pushed forward towards the awaiting Ming line.

On the Ming left, Cappadocian Lh and a line of Kn and Cv held back,

wary of the Ming wheel-barrow rocket launchers (ArtO).

The Ming's response was to advance on the right flank towards the

boggy ground, pushing up a line of BwX to the left of the boggy

ground, and the dare to die troops to engage the Cappadocian Greek

ally (the plan being to use the BdF quick-kill on the hoplites). As

it was, the hoplited engaged the dare to die troops which were

supported by BwX, the hoplites killing BwX and a BdF. The Cappadocian

left flank general (KnI) also threw himself on some BwX in support of

the hoplites, but bounced. In the middle, a general melee ensued. The

Greek sub-general and his troops rolled forward, killing BwX and the

odd CvS (by flanking) bringing the Ming CinC's small command to

demoralisation.

On the Ming right, the Cappadocian peltasts eventually left the boggy

ground and engaged a line of BdI and Sh, the peltasts coming off

worse.. next to them, at the edge of the bog there was a column of

Cappadocian KnI led a general that continually threw itself on BwX

and got bounced, until the sub-general broke through, and was

promptly cleaned up by the Ming CinC. (CvS General v KnI general

overlapped on both sides, in the CvS bound). That led to awful

command problems for the Cappadocian left flank which did little for

the rest of the game.

In the middle, the Greeks continued to push forward where they could

but were being broken up by the odd shot and CvS. IT was a very

confusing melee. Initially, the Greeks, well formed, carried all

before them, as they got more broken up, the remaining dare to die

BdF broke through the Greek line, a hoplite was wrapped and killed,

and losses mounted. There had been some archers in support of the

hoplites and these had engaged a shooting match with the BwX to

little affect.

On the Ming left, the Cappadocian horse (Kn, Cv) decided enough was

enough and it was time to close and charge the the Ming militia and

artillery. Unfortunately, some Cv and KnI went down to shooting. Even

though they then killed a number of BwX on contact, losses build up

over the next bound and they broke.  Cappadocian losses were too high

and the army broke.

Not to say that the Ming hadnt taken a bit of damage. The Ming had a

demoralised CinC command due to CvS losses and both wings had lost

substantial numbers of BwX and some Bd but were still a couple of

elements of demoralisation.

Comments:

- Dean had looked at the list and determined the CvS in the 'Book2'

list were probably KnI under DBMM. They looked pretty cool on the

field (Xyston armoured persians)

- The ability to switch high dice between an irreg CinC and a reg

SubGen seemed to play out well. The Greek mercenary on the

Cappadocian side had lots of pips and being reg, could use them

pretty effectively.

- The Cappadocians, at one stage, had their pip supply dry up badly,

which meant the Ming could do a little reforming and repositioning.

- Art did hardly anything at all

- KnI are pretty vulnerable, but cheap. Just need to keep KnI

generals out of the fray perhaps. The Cappadocian combat dice wasnt

that hot though. If a couple of Kn V BwX rolls had been a little

different then the Ming left flank would have collapsed quickly.

There were a few combats where the KnI and BwX rolled even, so noone

took the -1 for being I (Luckily for the BwX). A fight versus KnO

would have been more painful, versus KnS even more so.

- Ming, in this guise are very static.

- Who said SpO are rubbish..they cleaned out BwX quite well.

Certainly better value than SpI IMHO.

Very enjoyable