Further to Rob and Thomas's report's, here's a worm's eye view (tenth out of 14)
of my progress at the 2009 Munster Open last weekend.
To comply with the competition theme (Book 2), I cobbled together a Southern
Dynasty Chinese army, using figures from my Early Tang collection, borrowing others and
painting up the rest. The army comprised:
C1 (27ME): Reg Kn (X) C-in-C, 2 x Reg Kn (X), 1 x Reg LH (F), 12 x Irr Wb (F), 6 x Irr Bd (F) and 6 Irr Ps (O)
C2 (27 ME): Reg Kn (X) Sub, 3 x Reg Kn (X), 2 x Reg LH (F), 8 x Irr Bd (I) and 8 x supt. Irr Ps (O)
C3 (24 ME): Reg Kn (F) Sub, 1 x Reg Kn (F), 1 x Irr El (O), 7 x Irr Bd (I), 6 xsupt. Irr Ps (O), 4 Irr Ax (O) and 2 x Irr Bw (I)
C4 (3ME): 6 x Reg Bg (I)
Total Army ME: 81
The basic idea was to use C1 as the main attacking command, supported by C2 and use
C3 as a defensive wing. The Warband and Bd (F) would be effective against most infantry
but conversely, are vulnerable to mounted. Default command control was to therefore give
this command top PIP priority so that it could be directed at suitable targets or
manouvered away from trouble as appropriate.
Game 1: vs Richard Aynesley (Mu-jung Hsien-pi)
I defended and got a nice defensive position with a ridge shaped gentle hill on
my left, a
rough hill on my right and an orchard on the far right. Aware that Richard's
army could
muster lots of nasty Kn (F) and DBEs of Cv (S)/(I) supported by plentiful LH, I
opted to
defend with two commands pending the arrival of a flank march by the third on my
right.
C2 was on the left with the gentle hill held by the Bd (I) with a supporting
rank of Ps (O),
with the Kn (X) and LH in reserve. C1's infantry held the rough hill on the
right with the Kn
(X) covering the defile between the two hills.
Richard deployed four commands each of appoximately 24-25 ME. On his right were
two
commands of Kn (F) and LH (F), in his centre was a command of Cv (S/I) and on
his left an
allied command of Ax (S), Ax (O) and Ps led by an inert general.
In keeping with his direct, in your face style of play, Richard immediately
attacked with the
main weight of his assault falling on C2's infantry on the hill. Uphill
advantage and
supporting Ps gave them a CCF of 6 against the Kn but it was not enough to
prevent the
Kn knocking several holes in the line. With masses of LH swarming around the
left, C2's
mounted did not have enough reserves to plug all the holes in the line and the
command
soon collapsed. The only consolation was a few extreme dice rolls which enabled
the Bd to
kill three elements of Kn (F) from one command before sucumbing - but alas it
was not
quite enough to dishearten the command.
The loss of C2 left C1 badly exposed and it looked very much like I was going to
be
annihilated in short order. However, supported by a lone Bd (F) to his right and
helped by
the fact that Kn (X) count superior against Cv, the C-in-C's element now proved
to be
exceptionally heroic (okay lucky then), holding up the end of the line and
shrugging off no
fewer than four flank locks, any one of which would have ended the game 23-2 in
Richard's favour had they come off. Ás it was, the C-in-C's mythic performance
won
enough time for the Wb (F) and remaining Bd (F) to do their stuff by breaking
Richard's
allied command. There was even time for C3 to arrive on his flank and make a run
at Mu-
jung baggage, but sadly good PIPS enabled them to keep ahead of my pursuing Kn
(F).
On his fifth attempt, Richard finally killed my C-in-C and broke my army for an
18-7 to
hom, but at least he had won time to get something out of the game.
Post Mortem
After just half an hour of play this game was looking very grim so from that
perspective
this was definitely a case of seven points gained rather than 18 lost. On
reflection, the
flank march was a mistake given that Richard's rapid assault made it unlikely
they would
ever be in a position to intervene in a meaningful way. Worse, it meant that C3
was absent
at a time when it was badly needed in the main line.
Game 2: vs David Houston (Ancient British)
Dave got the worst of both worlds in that he invaded, but also had to deploy
first. In his
centre, he deployed two commands of Wb (F) and Ps (O) side by side. To the left
of this
was a command of Cv (O) chariots, LH (O) and Ps (O). On his right was a similar
command,
from which a line of Ps defended a patch of rough going covering his Wb's
right.
I lined up C1, C3 and C2 from my right to left. This meant that C2's Kn (X) and
LH (O)
enjoyed a distinct edge over his right wing Cv and LH, with C2s Bd (I) covering
their inner
flank, ready to clear the rough. I used the advantage of deploying second to
maximise
match-up advantage, putting the Kn (F), Kn (X) and El (O) in the front rank,
supported by
Wb and Bd (F) on the right.
Because David's army was larger, he enjoyed strategic overlap on my right, so I
decided to
attack as quickly as possible with the aim of breaking his main line while
delaying his left
as long as possible with sacrificial Ps, Bd (F) and whatever reserves I could
scrape up.
The plan went reasonably well. As you might expect, the El and knights
demolished the
Wb facing them in the centre. On the right, I deployed Bd (F) in front of Wb
(F) in order to
clear away his front line of Ps (O) but of course this proved to be a mistake
when his Wb (F)
started attacking the Bd with my own Wb in the zone of death behind. Still I got
away with
it in that C1 fought long enough to contribute to the destruction of the British
centre right
command before itself collapsing. One point of note here is that with both sides
inflicing
ZoDs on each other, Wb v Wb fights are extremely bloody. With both sides
haemorrhaging
losses at a ferocious rate, the only question is who will bleed to death the
fastest.
Anyway, this left the game in the balance. Over on the left, C2's mounted
assault was
delayed pending the infantry's clearance of the rough but once this was
completed, the Kn
(X) and LH (F) proved very effective when they went, killing two Cv (O) and
sending three
LH fleeing off the table. A couple of bounds later, they caught up with and
killed the British
right wing sub-general to end the game at 18-7 to me.
Post-mortem
David is a Top DBM player but in fairness to him, he is new to DBMM so was on a
painful
learning curve. His biggest disadvantage was having minimal control of the
terrain yet
having to deploy first with the result that I could optimise match-ups and
better still, keep
my Bd (I) out of his Wb's way.
Game 3: vs William Coughlan (Later Carthaginian)
Like Hannibal, William's reputation preceded him so I was aware he would be
fielding
masses of (Zama period elephants) expendables that were simply salivating at the
propspect of squishing the large numbers of Wb, Bd (I) and Kn that made my army
such an
ideal target for them. Fortunately, my list also included 20 Ps (O), 4 Ax and 2
Bw (I), which
would hopefully be enough to cope with the threat.
I deployed first and placed C1's infantry in sanctuary from his expendables in a
large
marsh on my left, with the mounted in reserve behind. In the centre was a rough
hill on
which I deployed C3's Bd (I). The defile between the hill and marsh was covered
by Ps, with
C3 Ax, Bw and the El in a second line behind. C2's Ps formed a screen to the
right of the
hill, with the Bd (I), Kn (X) and LH in column reserve.
In spite of deploying second, William deployed his massive (45ME) main command
of Cv
(O), Sp (S), Wb (O), Cv (O) and Ps in a defensive corner position on his right.
In his centre
was the expendable command (eight elements) screened by a small LH command (15
ME).
This was a very cagey game for the first few bounds as I manouvered my reserves
back
and forth along my rear lines in a bid to avoid the expendables, in response to
which
William would redirect them back and forth in an effort to find the optimum
targets.
Eventually this dancing came to an end when two bounds of horrendous PIPs
(2,1,1) left his
expendables trundling on a course straight for the rough hill in my centre. With
these now
committed, I could be more agressive and accordingly advanced C1 on my left
while C2
advanced in columns on my right around the now exposed flank of his expendables
command.
William now sent Cv (O) up from his main command to take on C1 but faced with
superior
numbers and with Kn (X) bearing down on their flank, started taking casualties
so he
withdrew them. In the centre, C3's hitherto forgotten Bw had their moment of
glory when
they stepped up and shot dead a LH and two expendables, another of which died
attacking
a Bd (I). On my right, C2's LH got behind his line and succeeded in achieving
automatic
kills against two more expendables after hitting them in the rear.
William now commited his LH command to the aid of the expendables, but they were
outmatched by C3's Kn, El and Bw (I), resulting in the destruction of the
command. The
two ME penalty for seeing friends rout now kicked in against the expendable
command,
which also broke.
Time was now called after an unusually short (three hours) game, which was a
pity as I
would have fancied my chances had the game gone on but as it was, the score was
15-10
to me.
Post Mortem
In a tournament in which every other army seemed to be fielding expendables,
William
definitely led the way with no fewer than eight, so it was nice to have dealt
with them
successfully. I was surprised that he didn't support them more strongly with the
rest of his
army, but as he explained, he was as scared of what my Wb would do to his spears
as I
was about his expendables.
Game 4: vs Seamus McKenna (Patrician)
I defended again and had no terrain to hide in so I deployed back deep with C1
in the
centre, C3 on the left and C2 on the right with infantry to the front, mounted
in reserve
and Ps out on the flanks holding hills in the light troop deployment zones.
Seamus deployed a mainly infantry command (30 ME) comprising Bd and Ax,
supported
by Art, Ps and LH on his centre-right and right. On his centre-left and left
were two
commands (18 ME each) of Kn and LH (S). On his far right was a micro command of
Arab
LH.
As this meant his Kn and LH posed a nasty threat to C1 and C2's infantry, I
spent the early
part of the game forming a reserve line comprising mounted elements from all
three of my
commands (including C3's elephant, general and Kn (F) coming in from the left),
behind
the infantry and then advancing through these to take on his LH and Kn. The
result was a
epic and entertaining game as the two lines fought back and forth and each of us
suffered
our share of good and bad combat dice. I felt I was robbed of an initial
advantage when
not a single one of a series of favourable combats came off in my favour. As a
result
things swung in Seamus's favour, but just as it looked like he would overwhelm
me, he too
suffered from bad breaks.
To cut a long story short, I was the first to suffer when C3 broke after the
sub-general
sucumbed to an untimely 6-1 (I won't complain consdering how fortunate my C-in-C
had
been in game 1). As a result it looked like Seamus would win big, but then a
final
sequence of good combat results enabled me to break one of Seamus's mounted
commands, which thanks to the 2ME penalty also tipped the second mounted command
past break point. All this was just in time from my PoV because at this point C1
was
hanging by a thread (well 1 ME), which Seamus got without difficulty on his next
bound to
win the game, 15-10.
Post Mortem
In spite of getting the worst of it, this was a thoroughly enjoyable game
featuring a good
old fashioned, ferocious clash between opposing lines of mounted. Counting as
(I) against
Kn (F) puts Kn (X) at a disvantage in this situation, but they are compensated
by the fact
that they do not pursue. The biggest disappointment was the elephant, which
fluffed
several chances at 4-1 against opposing LH, and paid the penalty by eventually
getting
QK'd at 3-2.
Overall an excellent tournament with four enjoyable games played in great spirit
and
universally convivial opponents. Coming tenth out of 14 isn't very impressive,
but I
console myself with the thought that this was a very tight tournament in which
just nine
points separated the third to tenth placed players as the final placings below
illustrate. It's
also nice to know that although I wasn't at the races, I did influence who would
get top
spot by taking just enough points off Richard to give Rob a chance to overtake
him. Rob
definitely owes me a pint! Conversely, I am sure Richard is still cursing my
C-in-C for his
heroics.
A great tournament and special thanks to Richard and William for hosting.
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