Day 2

Day 2 dawned bright and clear - the venue is located next to the local

race course and Saturday had seen massive streams of punters passing,

the sound of race calls, etc.  Of course it was "Cup day" so 1/2 the

massive stream of punters passing were persons of the female persuasion

dressed in their "Cup Day" best.....so it wasn't all bad by any means :D

But Sunday was not a race meeting, so a quieter neighbourhood

beckoned....although the venue is over the road from Joint Forces HQ of

the NZ military so we should perhaps see if we can get a tour of some

war toys next time we use it.

So - on to game 3 vs Mark pickup's Hittites.

I'd been planning all night how to handle the Pk(F).  His Kn would be a

bit of a problem, but the rest of his army presented no great horrors -

some Cv(S) chariots, some Wb, a handful each of Bw(I) & Bd(F), Cv(O),

etc.

Terrain went down - a large wood protected the right/rear of the Hittite

position, and a couple of large gentle hills were also just in front of

their setup - good defensive terrain for the bad guys.

However I had bought "Guides" and "Flank attack" precisely for the

situation where someone relied upon such terrain to protect a flank so

sent my 3rd command on such a march, with the path through the wood

being entirely along the Hittite base edge.

And it all went downhill from there!! :/

Mark & I have known each other 30+ years....so of course he had an

Auxilia ambush in the wood and my Lh was promptly mugged when it arrived

on T2 - but it survived, and a dearth of PIPs on that flank for the

Syrian ally meant there was a standoff there until my command broke

later in the game....

So my flank attack arrived (on a 5) on T2 - I had thought that all the

Hittite cavalry-chariots were (O) - but alas the Syrian ally on this

flank was all (S) - so not the easy target I had anticipated.  My flank

marching command was Cv(S) & Lh(S), and the flank was constrained by the

wood and a vineyard on a gentle hill 4-5 element widths towards the

centre.

However my flank march attacked through the gap as the Skutatoi advanced

on the hill so it wasn't too bad.

Elsewhere the Hittite Kn mainly found themselves facing thin air - a

handful of Cv(S) to their front kept retiring (single element moves so

they kept facing the enemy), and my Cv & Kn got stuck into 1 command of

Pk(F).

The 2nd mistake I made was to attack with the Skutatoi uphill into the

2nd command of Pk(F) - an entirely unnecessary brain explosion.  He was

just in range from the bottom of the hill, but a recoil would have taken

him out - so to save a PIP I advanced a full 160p rather than staying

out of his move.  So unfortunately I got into a shoving match between

the Pk(F) and Skutatoi, with him counting as uphill in my bound - ouch!

:(

Things weren't going too badly tho - the Syrian ally threw poor PIPs a

few times and was being attacked in front and flank so was under

pressure, 1 command of Pk(F) was being slowly wiped out by Cv, and the

2nd was not actually killing me.

Then alas the flank march general got 6:2'ed by the Syrian general (with

an overlap) - his command soon broke, and the Cv delaying the Hittite Kn

got caught by the Cv(O) chariots - a chariot or 2 was killed, but 2

elements to 5 made it a bit of a struggle, and combined with other

casualties my 2nd command broke and the game with it.

10:15 loss (I'd killed 40% of the Hittites, broken 1 command of Pk(F)

and disheartened the other)

Other morning results saw the Irish lose a tight fight to Sparta, and

India beat Carthage (from memory...)

So round 4 - with only 6 people playing the last round was determined

mainly by who hadn't played yet.  I was in the middle of the pack and go

Al's Spartans.

A fairly straightforward game - Al anchored his hoplites on a difficult

hill on one flank and this base edge - a sensible setup against a

mounted army of course!  With his Irr Sp(O) out front of 2 commands

(each with 8 Sp(O)), Sp(S) columns behind, and a 3rd command of Sp(S)

supported by Reg Sp(O) in a long 2-deep line extending the front, and a

scattering of Ps & Cv between the 3 commands.  A column of Thracian

Ax(S) were placed to advance onto the hill protecting his flank..

However he rolled rotten PIPs for the 2 commands with Irr Sp at the

start & had to advance them, which put them well ahead of the Sp(S)

(mainly because Ps got in the way of the later), and both groups were

mobbed by the Byzantines - those facing the Skutatoi were wiped out

before those facing the Cv/Kn next to them.

With 8 ME's donated fairly quickly from each of 2 commands it only took

the loss of a couple of Sp(S) to break them - which took a bit longer

but was never really in doubt.

25-0, and suddenly I was on 64 points.

The Hittite/Africa combo had been leading at the start of the round,

with 59, but Africa got cleaned up 0-25 by India to let me take the

lead, while Carthage beat Ireland 22-3.

So the final results were:

1/ Mike Campbell, Nikephorian, 64 pts

2/ Mark Pickup & Brent Senior Partridge, Hittite/Horn of Africa, 59 pts

3/ Al Duncan, Classical Indian, 55 pts

4/ Andrew Crampton, Later Carthaginian, 52 pts

5/ Al Donald, Spartan, 37 pts

6/ John van den Hoeven, Medieval Irish, 33 pts

Thanks especially to Al Donald for travelling from Auckland & giving us

someone new to play :)