With a small competiion of 6 ppl and 5 rounds w played a pre-drawn round
robin.
I took the Nikes -
CinC, 5 Cv(S), 6 Bw(X)/(O) DBE's
S-Gen, 5 Cv, 4 Irr Sp(O), 2 Irr Bd(O)
S-Gen, 4 Cv, 2 Irreg Ax(S), 2 Reg Ps(S)
S-Gen, 4 Reg Lh(S)
8 Bg, 8 TF
Game 1 vs Ivan Truong's Portuguese.
Ivan set up along his base edge with the English opposite my left flank,
hten some Kn(O) with associated infantry, hten hte CinC with all the
Kn(S), then another command of Kn (O) & some light infantry in a march
protecting his flank. There wre some Lc scattered among hte commands too.
I thought I'd try to attack both flanks so moved forwards to them,
wheeling my archers from the centre towards my right.
Ivan responded by sending hte Irr Kn out to the flanks too - so I
switched and tried to come back to the centre...it almost worked! :)
By the end of 4 hours I was among the English MAA (who had marched to
the centre along a road across Ivan's base edge - Ivan mande a lot of
use of roads to increase his manouvreability over the weekend) & had
killed a couple and had little between me & the baggage except a
scattering of LH & a general - I was within my move of the Bg.
Most of the Irr Kn were out of the flanks although 1 command had managed
to wheel around and was coming back in, and the Reg(S) ones had not
actually left but wer too far from hte CinC and short of PIPs to
redeploy & fight.
But time was up.....casualties were light - 1/10 each - so 13-12 to me
by virtue of being the invader.
Game 2 vs Andrew Bennett's Late Carthaginians
Benny had a Spanish ally, 1 command of mainly Sp + Ax, another of Cv,
and a 3rd with Numidians - both the later with 2 El each and also
including a fair number of Ax & Ps.
There was a lot of terrain on the table - a wood on his side of the
tagbe right in the middle (can you say ambushing Ax(S)??!!, another on
his base edge opposite my right, and a massive area of rocky ground
covering much of the left side.
The weather turnd out to be rain & mud, which remained for the whole
game. The mud didn't do anything, but hte rain was obviously a problem
for my archers.
I advanced my Skutatoi up to the wook figuring I'd force him to fight by
shooting, which duly occurred. My Aux & Ps also attacked hte wood &
with stunning dice rolls killed all their opponents over 2 or 3 turns.
The Skutatoi weren't quite so good & had to have a Cav bolster the line
when a gap appeared....but with the Cav there the Carthaginians backed
off deeper into the wood.
On my right Benny had bought his spearmen out from the flank protection
of the wood, and they and ht Varangians got stuck into each other -
however my Cv & the Bd proved a bit of advantage & the Africans and
Spanish soon found themselves broken. But ut hadn't been bloodless, nd
the reinfocements from the centre - 2 elephants - trampled many of the
Russians & some Cv(S) & in turn broke that command.
In hte centre Spanish & Gallic cavalry launched charge after charge onto
the Byzantine archers - but neither side was able ot gain an advantage.
Back on the left the remaining elephants and the Spanish ally had
advanced, and an epic struggle occured between them and hte Byzantine
cavalry and light horse - there were elephants lapped around, pursuing
forwards, Ax throwing themslves into the fray to cut out overlaps, etc.
Thre were casualties on both sides, and by the last move both the
remaining Carthaginian commands were disheartened...then hte Spanish
threw 1 more Ax into the fray to remove an overlap....but alas it rolled
a 1 and died!
And that put Benny's army 1/2 ME over 1/2 the army lost...the straw that
broke the back....and a hard fought 16-9 win to me - I'd lost 40% of my
army & 2 commands were neigh on broken or dishearten.
Kendall Blue's Medieval Germans were my morning opponent - facing my
left was the CinC as (Teutonic?) Kn(S) with a couple more Kn(S), 2 WWg &
some Lh & Cv, a Swiss pike block next to them, then a command of 4 WWg
with dismounted Kn Bd(S), and lastly another of Kn(I) with a Cv & Lh - 3
allies.
The Swiss were unreliable - apparently for the 3rd time in 3 games - but
in this one they did respond to prompting later in the game.
I learned quite a lot about WWg in this game - they were opposite the
Varangians & there was quite a tussle going on for a long time between them.
However the game was won and lost on the flanks - the German CinC had
terrible PIPs for several turns & couldn't get his Lh away from my Cv &
they were caught and duly slaucghtered in the approved fashion. The Kn
came in and fought hard for a while, killing a couple of Cv but 3 of
them vs 10 Cv wasn't really a winning proposition for him.
On the far right flank the Irr Kn(O) also often lacked PIPs and my Lh
command picked off 1 here, another there, the cavalry with the
Varangians also killed 1 and so it broke too - and that was that.
22-3 to me
My afternoon opponent was John Calnan with Ottomans, and I let this one
get away from me :/
John had a Serb ally & otherwise a fairly standard Ottoman army - lots
of Lh & Cv(O), a few Reg Cv(S), some Irreg Cv(S), Bw(S) and Bd (O), and
a singe Art(S) because he knew his club mates were bringing WWg! :)
Again I went for the flanks - my CinC lefthe Skutatoi a long way behind
and headed to the right flank where most of the Ottoman Lh were, plus I
flank marched on the left flank with the Varangians.
I had the command with my Ax on my left flank with the infantry in some
scrubby ground there, but I bought that cavalry into the centre, where
it opposed the Irr Sipahis.
On my right the game went according to plan - my better Lh & Cav was
handily defeating the Ottoman Lh & Cv(O) there
On hte left my flank march arrived...but I mad a grievous error here,
and dcided that the hill with Bd, Cv(S) & an Art(S) in front of it was
too tough - so marched the cav around back to the main battle - wher eit
failed to arrive in time ot do anything - had I attacked hte hill I
would have diverted the Ottomans - his Cv(S) from there proved decisive
in the centre later...
So - in the centre my Cv(S) broke through his, wityh a little help from
archery, but then I failed to break the command - miscalculating how
many ME's I needed I went for a Lh instead of lapping a Cv(S) - I killed
ht Lh, but it didn't break the command, and bought me closer to the
Regular Sipahis coming from the hill where htey were no longer needed to
oppose my flank march...oops!
The Janisaries were engaged vs my Ax & Skutatoi to hte left, and much
out of the main fight, although my flank marching Varangians had reached
them, but too late to make any difference.
In ht end I think John had 2 disheartned command and about 40% losses, I
had 1 broken and 30% losses, so 15-10 to me.
My last game was against Brett Breston-Thomas with the EAP using all the
fantas...errr...Cyrus's tricks! :)
Brett had obviously worked hard on how to use WWg(S) - lots of roads for
htem to march along quickly (although he didn't realise it was for 0
PIPs for their 1st march move......until I pointed it out!!)...and of
cours they hunted down my Bow at every availabl opportunity (since WWg
QK bow!)
Brett was coming 2nd about 7 pts behind me, but Ivan (3rd) quickly
demolished Kendall in his last game for the onloy 25-0 of hte comp, and
requiring me to get at least 14 pts to maintain top spot...so "just"
going for a draw wasn'treally an option!
I invaded Persia & they put down a couple of dunes - which ended up near
the middle of the table on Brett's side next to each other and
effectively blocking the right third of it for me...and of course being
hte obvious location for the Camels!
2 roads went from his stide more-or-less striaght to mine - 1 through
the dunes, the other down the other side of the table - but far enough
from the edge os a WWg could deploy on it!
A BUA along that 2nd road completed the relevant terrain.
I set up with my archers opposte the dunes - I wanted the WWg to be on
that road & then I planned to march away. I delayed my light infantry
and had my light cavalry in ambush behind a small hill well out on hte
left flank.
Brett dutifully put 2 WWg on the road through hte dunes, the other on
hte road on hte other flank, and 2 of his his scythed chariots also on
that road. The 3rd was on his base edge - obviously it was intended to
come into play much later in the game.
Between hte dunes and the BUA was a line of Bw(X)/(O), and in reserve 15
or 18 (?) Cv(O) & miscellaneous light troops arranged to face potential
flank marches.
T1 and the chariots came barreling down the road at 480p/march move - 2
such moves put them right in the face of the varangians! By hte dunes 2
WWg in column came down th road - at 400p/turn they were well on my side
of hte table immediately too.
From then the Scythed chariots killed both Varangian Bd befroe being
desptched by my light cavalry - the 3rd one killed a Sp later on too -
making this their best game of the competition!
I managed to kill 1 WWg(S) with Cv, but my archers couldn't run away
fast enough and the remaining one managed to kill a couple and failed to
be killed by more cavalry.
I sent my light infantry into hte BUA on my left - his line was beyond
it and his light troops there threatened my flank. Eventually my Sp &
Cav reached his line, with much fighting and shooting - a couple of
Cv(S) were shot down...1 got lapped by his Cv before my attack was
properly formed, and generally things wre not going well.....I lost the
varangian command broken (the casualties caused by the Exp did matter!),
and disheartened his CinC but couldn't "close the deal" despite a
furious attack in the last couple of turns.
so 15-10 to Brett, and Ivan leap frogged past us both to win! :)