Anyway, to my games. My army was an Aitolian Hellenistic Greek. The C-in-C commanded all the Irr Sp (O), along with Art (O) and (X), Ps (O) and (I), and LH (O). The first Aitolian ally had lots of Ax (S), along with Ps and LH. The second Aitolian ally had a very small command of just Ps and LH. The Achaian ally had an all regular command including Kn (F) SBWs, LH, Pk, Art and Ps. The three large commands were all about 33 ME, while the small one was about 10. Total 108 ME. I had Unusual Weapons and Ambush as my two stratagems. Games were as follows:

Game 1 v Serbian Empire: I had a lot of trouble killing Kn (S). Even the incendiary pigs failed me. Thanks to the UW stratagem, and Kevan kindly placing his generals in the front rank, I had a shot at one of his sub-generals. But I missed. My Ax (S) overlapped one end of Kevan's Kn line, allowing me several flank and even rear hits on his Kn, but too few of them worked, and the Kn ground their way through the Auxilia. They also ground their way through the hoplites. I'd expected to be able to hold out for a draw, but in the five minutes before I called time, my C-in-C's command went from fine to broken, and the extra 2 ME losses were enough to break the Auxilia command. 2-23.

Game 2 v Later Carthaginian: I was, surprisingly, the invader. It didn't help me. In a large patch of scrub, the Ps of the Achaian and small Aitolian commands ((I) and (O) remember) destroyed an equivalent number of Ps (S), thanks to lucky dice rolling. Of course, the law of averages meant that my hoplites went down like a sack of spuds against the Irr Wb (O) and Reg Sp (O) of the Carthaginian centre. On my left the Achaian Pk took out the Carthaginian left wing of El (I) and Bd (F), while the Auxilia command chased the Carthaginian left wing of Cv (O) and LH (O) to little effect. The LH of the small command got swamped by Numidians, and the Achaian Kn (F) made little impression on Cv (O). But once they were surrounded and killed, the Achaian command collapsed and with it the army. 7-18.

Game 3 v Cilician Armenian: I was the defender, but got to deploy second.. A large vineyard covered my left flank, in which I hid the small command (except for its baggage, which sort of gave the game away). Facing them was a small Ilkhanid ally command of Cv (S) and LH (S). In the centre he had a force of Bw (O) screening some Kn (F), while his left wing was a mass of Sp (I) and a dismounted general. He had a large flank march of Kn (O) and LH (O) due to come in on my right. I therefore decided that I had to attack at high speed, a plan somewhat stymied by the Auxilia command being unreliable (it was on my right, facing the Sp (I)). So I pressed forward with the C-in-C and the Achaian allies alone. A single LH (F) held up the hoplites for about six bounds - even though it was double overlapped in my bound, I couldn't flee it. Things weren't helped by the C-in-C getting 1 or 2 for PIPs for about six bounds in a row, meaning I couldn't attempt to make the

 unreliable ally see sense. Chris sent a couple of LH (S) around the vineyard, killing the small command's baggage. But thanks to some lucky combat results (that is, risking combat with disheartened LH and Ps) I was able to break the Ilkhanids. Eventually I got the hoplites into Chris's Bw, but again I was unlucky in the important combats, and rarely managed to do more than recoil the Bw. Some Kn charged the hoplites, and they were far more successful, disheartening the C-in-C's command. I charged the Achaian Kn into some other Armenian Kn, but again luck was with Chris - Chris's Kn survived several combats when hit in the flank, while the Achaian ally and one of his Kn died in combats where only a 6-1 would do the job. Chris's flank march turned up in about the 10th bound, in time only to make my unreliable command reliable. 14-11.

Game 4 v Early Elamite: Once again the Auxilia command was unreliable, and once again the C-in-C rarely had more than 2 PIPs. The C-in-C on the left and the Achaian in the centre pushed forward as fast as possible, as Gerry's Pk (X)/(I), Bw (I) and some of his Kn (I) were skulking on his own table edge. Elamite Bw (I) shot down three Pk (O) and killed another in combat, thanks to a combination of my bad PIP dice and bad combat dice. Meanwhile, Gerry concentrated on massing Bw (I) and Kn (I) against the unreliable command, making it reliable just as I finally found three spare PIPs. I charged the Ax up a hill against the Bw (I), but had virtually no success, losing as many Ax as Gerry lost Bw (I). I usually won shooting contests in Gerry's turn, but not in mine, so was rarely able to supplement poor PIPs with pressing forward. The four Kn (I) who attacked the Ax (S) went straight them, breaking the Ax command just as a flank march arrived. The C-in-C's

 hoplites finally reached the Pk and Bw, but again rarely achieved much apart from pushing them back. On the other hand, two of Gerry's Ps were able to flank and destroy three of my Sp (O). The LH of my small command left the Ps behind and ran around Gerry's army to hunt baggage and lurking generals, with only limited success. I was at least fortunate that Gerry's second flank march often got low PIPs, meaning they fell short of reaching my baggage. 10-15.

All in all, I suppose the dice must have turned out roughly even for me - I had two unreliable commands out of 12 rolls, and I certainly won a lot of combats. The problem was that too often I won the unimportant ones and lost the important ones. Had the luck spread slightly differently, I could possibly have done a bit better.