Firstly let me say that the entire competition was played in great

spirit and that I enjoyed all six games immensely regardless of the

final outcome. A big thanks to all my opponents.

Army List

Book 3, list 68,  1151 -1245, COOL, AG 2

CinC Irg Kn(o)                                    1

Nobles & Saxons Irg Kn(o)           6

Hospitaler Reg Kn(s)                       2

Croats Irg Cv(o)                                 1

Skirmishers Irg Lh(f)                        5

Sub Gen Irg Cv(s)                             1

Gentry Irg Cv(s)                                8

Skirmishers Irg Lh(f)                        5

Sub Gen Irg Cv(s)                             1

Sezeklers Irg Lh(s)                           12

Skirmishers Irg Lh(f)                        11

Army Baggage Irg Bge(f)               6

Scouting Stratagem

Game 1 : Invaded by Jeavon Hood and his early Visigoth. I deployed

first, left to right LH, Kn, Cv with Baggage behind the C. Jeavon

deployed CinC and one Sub general command with fortified baggage on

table and one off table. The off table command flank marched and failed

to arrive. I thrust across the table launching everything into the on

table commands breaking the sub general and disheartening the CinC to

win 25-0. Incredibly my only losses were one spent LH(f) which was self

inflicted as a Kn went sponno through it.( Should you get extra victory

point for inflicting all the casualties in a game including your own

????). So off to a good start on  Friday night.

Game 2 : Geoff Pearson and his early samurai. I owed this a drubbing for

them beating my middle franks 25-0 at the last round of the NDBML. I

invaded and Geoff deployed first I lost 2 elements of Lh in using my

scouting stratagem. I only deployed my Kn & Cv commands on table with

the Lh off table reserve which arrived with a 6 on my first pip dice and

I brought on in the right of my line adjacent a wood in my deployment

zone. Geoff came straight at me looking confident with his support Cv

following our last encounter. After a very bloody encounter I managed a

20- 5 victory over the Samurai.

Game 3 : Brian Pierpoint and his Teutonic order well 'ard geezers with

two 23-2 victories to their name. Again Hungary was invaded but good

news Brain threw 6 to my 2 for deployment dice and despite the fact that

we were both all mounted he had to deploy first. The dice gods clearly

like goulash. I deployed left to right LH, Cv. Kn commands with the plan

to assault his Kn(s) with the Cv and Lh flanking and getting into his

rear with some of the LH(f) from the Lh command and holding of his Kn

with my Kn command. I broke up his Kn(s) into groups by catching them in

an angled line but failed to kill enough of them over the game. However

my Kn broke his Kn(o) command but got disheartened in the process. Brian

Kn(s) broke my Cv command and the +2 tipped my Kn to breaking point.

Again quite a bloody game  resulting in an 18-7 victory for Brian. In

that last bound the game could have gone either way.

Game 4 : Donal Coughlan with Neo Babylonian  - more blood Reg Kn(s). I

invaded and deployed first. There was a strong wind from my left short

table edge(this was the only game I had where weather played a factor)

so I intended to march and wheel to my right so that the babies were

shooting into the teeth of the wind. I played like a complete "tube"

starting by deploying too far to my left and having most of my Lh trying

to get through some difficult going. Upshot was I just failed to break

one of Donal commands and he broke one of mine which took a disheartened

command over the edge with the +2 for the break. Result was a 23-2 win

for Donal .

Game 5 : Mike Pickering and His early Byzantines. I was on a downer

after the last two games and knowing that  Mikes army was regular with

squillions of LH(s) and Cv(s) I was anticipating a bloody outcome-

mainly my blood. Hungary invaded again -seems every Tom, Dick and

Belisarius fancied their chances at a bit of conquest. Fortunately the

deployment dice were 5 for the Byz's and 3 for us so being all mounted

took the -1 to ensure they deployed first. Mike had placed a river that

ran between the long table edges separating off my right hand third of

the table. The river was the only piece of terrain to play a part in the

game. Mike deployed first and as I viewed his army from left to right he

had small Reg Lh(s)[8?] and Moorish Lh command, CinC Cv(s) & Kn(f), Bd

with supporting Ps 1 Cv(s) and 1 Moorish Lh and 4(?) Ps(s) and over the

river another command with 8 Reg Lh(s). I deployed with Cv on the left

and Kn centre and Lh on the right. I debated whether  to put all my

Lh(s) over the river which was un-navigable to take head his smaller

command. In the end I kept all my troops on the one side of the river.

Mike moved first and advanced all along the line, his Lh flank command

having the higher dice (both had a 6) teleported down both my flanks. In

my bound I had to start lining the Lh(f) along the river bank and

stretching out with those of the Cv command who had low pips elsewhere I

advance forward with the Kn and Lh(s) with some LH(f) to face off his

Bd and CinC. Mike started the combats by attacking my Lh(f) on my left

Killing one and fleeing another whilst on the other flank Mike stretched

along the river bank . My next move saw the Lh(s) and supporting Lh(f)

hit the Bd and Ps(s) whilst the rest of the Lh(f) spread out to match

Mikes spreading of individual elements. The Kn engaged with the Cv(s)

and Kn(f) and sent the Cv(o) and Lh(f) to support the left flank as the

Cv had poor pips again and this stabilised this flank as I managed to

kill a Lh(s) and over the next couple of bounds managed to inflict

enough casualties to dishearten the command which started to pull off

the fight in the centre was a bit too and fro with minimal casualties

either side until Mike pulled back the Lh behind the Cv of the Bd

command which I the killed  along with a Ps(s) on the other side of the

Bd line to allow my Lh(s) into his rear in one bound this command went

from being Ok to shattered as I killed all the Bd including the sub

general and their supporting Ps to leave only the Moorish Lh and 2

Ps(s). Meanwhile on the river bank little happened until Mike brought 3

Lh(s) into the river to double over one of my Lh(f), as I was lining the

bank the combat factors were 0-0, the dice roll resulted in a 2-1 in my

favour and a dead Lh(s) as it had lost the combat in its bound. The Bd

breaking adding the +2 to Mikes disheartened command broke that and

coupled with other losses saw the army break. I had lost only 8 ME out

of 90 so 25-0 to Hungary.

Game 6 : I was siting with 80 points at this point and give the scores

with the leaders If I managed to achieve a final 25-0 win then I was

pretty much assured third place same as last year. Up come the drawn.

Well would you believe it Stuart Whigham and good old Johnny Turk (Cat's

actually but all these Turkish types look alike to us Hungarians).

Stuart and I are October club members and play each other regularly. In

a practice game when I had first decided to use this army  I had given

Johnny Turk a damned good thrashing so my confidence was fairly high,

but I also knew Stuart had not lost a game all weekend and that we

always had hard fought games with high casualties on both sides. I

invaded central Asia  and ended up with three large pieces of rough

terrain that pretty much determined where I could deploy as I had also

to deploy first. I knew Stuart would make a bee line for my Kn so I set

them in the centre 3 ranks deep with  the Lh on their left and Cv on the

right. Bang on plan Stuart deployed with all his Lh(s) facing my Lh and

Kn commands. So far my plan was working , the Kn and Lh would hold him

up while the Cv swept round and into his flank and roll him up. It did

not quite work like that that Cv never managed more than 2 pips a turn

and more usually only 1. Stuart true to form ploughed in and in a series

of exemplary bound instructed me in just how combat ought to be thrown.

In short order he brought my Kn and Lh commands to breaking point the

then broke one which took down the other. Stuart only lost 6 Me out of a

total of 76 so won 25 -0 to give him first place as the two top table

players who were ahead of ended up in 14-11 ensure they came 2nd & 3rd

respectively.

I ended up 8th overall and with some tremendous games to remember and

hope everyone else enjoyed themselves as much as I did - they all seemed

to be doing so.