Wow, wow and wow.

What a weekend of MM we have just had.

It all started with the All roads roustabout on Saturday. Or what I cal East meets West.

Dave's random draw gave me the Brilliant Attila leading the Huns of course. So 120 points of Huns CinC Reg LHS, 14 Irr LHS and 2 IrrCvO and 2 IrrBgF If memory serves.

It started with a 120 point game against Adrian's Gepids. Large wodge of KnF. I was wary but confident and determined to get first attack in with hopefully some flanking attacks.
Unfortunately Adrian's early pips let him down and he only managed to expand out 2 of his Knights. So 7 wide knights. I rolled high and was able to expand out much wider than that and move in to charge range.
The following turn the Huns swoorped in and for the loss of 1 Hun the gepids were destroyed in short order.
In terms of the game this meant for the next round Adrian became my sub general and both armies combined. At the same time Tim Eastern Roman was playing Dave Sassy persians and had made Dave his sub.

So now it was Tim vs Jim. Both armies deployed similary with 1 army behind the other.
Our plan was simple Adrian would ride through the huns and engage the Sassies straight ahead, the KnX looking like a good target. However a big throw from Dave saw the Sassies redeploy to their left flank behind some Roman infantry ready to ride through them.
In our bound the lucky dice :) was not so lucky and a 1 for the Gepids meant a straight ahead move and no wheel to keep the KnX as the target. The huns engaged the Roman foot with reasonable success but the following bounds saw the CvS Sassies supported by some Roman cav and a Nellie aiming at the gepid row with the General in it.

Gepids died horribly with barely a hun lost and the size of the Gepids took the Huns with them. At that point we obviously swore allegiance to the Eastern empire and both the Gepids and Huns were added to the Eastern empire now headed by Tim. By this time the Western empire alliance had united under Johnathan Crow to make for a now 4 player approx 500 points a side game on an 8ft by 4ft.
 The 2 groups of Generals went into a huddle and discussed what type of battle they wanted to fight. The 2 CinC's went alone to the table to dictate terrain, weather and what time of year the battle would take place in.
Then again we went to a deployment huddle. The recrimination started early as it was obvious from the battlefield that the enemy would being a mostly infantry army would deploy on a nice big hill and protect the flanks of such. At first we discussed the possible option of a flank march of my Huns but decided against such as we reckoned the extra width meant it would be to far to get to the main action and apart from that I did not want to, fortunately that idea was discarded.
We came up with what we thought the enemy would do and built our deployment around that. We thought the enemy large warband contingent would be on the hill with Mike P's spear on its Right flank and John H to the left with the Brilliant Western Romanto the left of John H to contest the bit of the battlefield that was broken up by some rough going. So with that in mind I was on our left with the Sassies to the right of me and the gepids to the right of that and of course our Roman commander to the right of that. We deployed first in that order.
The enemy then deployed warband on the hill with Mike P to his left not right and then John H and then no Romans. So we had mis-guessed the spear deployment.
We had the last council of war and hastily revised the plan.
The Gepids would go 5 wide 3 deep and charge straight up the hill supported to the left and right by Huns with me to take every opportunity to get behind them. The sassies were to redeploy to the right and support the right of the Hun contigent that was supporting the Gepid right and the Romans would take up a position to the right of the Sassies. From then on there was to be no talking to the other generals unless in base to base contact. That is hard you know and many times you would be using willpower to influence your allied generals to move to a position you wanted them to. Although Mike P was on his last warning and was threatedned with masking tape not only for his mouth but his oh so point gestures.:)

So to cut a long story short, the huns and the Gepids managed a co-ordinated attack on the hill but it was tough going and the Sassies failed completely to support the Hun and Gepid right which meant taking flank attacks from what was the enemy centre. However what started well as an attack that had pushed the warband over the crest of the hill suddenly floundered as the Huns and Gepid casualties mounted both becoming disheartened and Attila's brillaint stroke into a KnF failing miserably. at the same time though the news of John H breking and that the western Romans had abandoned them filtered through to the stout enemy defenders of the hill and their army broke just in the nick of time.

And hence the WOW. What a great day, what a rollercoaster of elation, dejection and finally relief.
In short we had a hoot although commiserations to the Western Romans as he did not get his toys onto the final battlefield. But with that said, thems the breaks when the dice gods don't smile upon you.
Everything was great the banter,the thrills and the spills.
Everyone played their part so thanks to all.

David Mather adds:

Dear Attila (you little scamp)

My orders were to move to the right and engage the Amoricans - i was unaware of any need to support the Huns whose reputation implied they needed little support anyway. (although they seemed to make heavy weather of those little ginger haired chaps in the pink blouses)

This incredibly complex manouevre (well complex for me)  I did with gusto until a rather large amount of Visgiothic mounted and some very keen foot threatened my right flank. - when and where i did engage the Amoricans I was met with stout resistance - 3 bounds to fail to kill a Ps(I) with a Kn(X) and overlap - which would have disheartened them. 3 draws - you couldn't make it up.

I clearly supported the Gepids by sending my arab allies (1 LH(O))to run pass interference across the front of the King of the Gepids - to avoid him emulating his Great Uncle Posthumous who had recently come off second best to an elephant
Believe its quite unusual for a Gepid King to talk about his exploits around the camp fire.

Shapur himself had tactically withdrawn to the hill when a doublely overlapped Visigothic knight broke through and had the affront to attack him - he duly fended him off once but not without some considerable impact to his digestive system and was keen to see proceedings concluded before he returned - 1 pip that turn thus made for a bit of a dilemma - and that 1 pip was used to put the elephant back in rather than ensure Shapurs continued survival.

Need I then remind you my little Hunnic friend that it was the Royal Sassanian elephant Nelly who delivered the final blow - one more knight needed - 5-3 up and a QK - looking good
John H rolls a 5 - needs a 4 for game
up comes the dice cup and the 6 is revealed -
a roar from the East that nearly shattered the windows

Some great moments - The Visigothic generals wild ride through the Amoricans, the look on Tims face at times as it was clear that it wasnt going exactly how he had envisaged it in his head.
Mikes frustration as he was threatened with Mr Mouth and Mr Hands shortly meeting Mr Masking Tape.

I think Jon Ss flank march was genious on his part - The Huns, Gepids, Visigoths and Anmoricans (mostly by the Visigioths) were all seriously savaged and would take time to recover - He had no casualties - and would easily strike good terms with his Eastern counterpart who had only lost some easten horse archers himself. In fact the whole Roman presence/performance in what has become known as the Battle of Adrianshillopposite looks seriously suspect from both sides.

Anyway Shapur was content with the loot and would easily afford a new pair of silk panteloons. Having shown sterling service in "conjunction" with the Romans he was confident of a senior management position in the new East -Rome wouldnt be an unreasonable reward  - and was looking forward to parading Nelly to her adoring fans - Nelly had disposed of 3 Gepid knights and the King of the Gepids in our first joint venture and the crucial Visigothic knight in our second and had become a local celebrity.

Must dash old chap Ive promised to entertain the western roman commander for Emperor Timothy -  Ill see if he wants a game of dice for some choice pieces of land and other possessions he had.

Kind Regards


Shapur King of Rome,Minister of Intrigue and owner of very nice new pair of silky purple panteloons.