Chin Chinese v Alexandrian Imperial

OK. Round one. there were a lot of armies I did not fancy facing. These included
all of the Hellenistic ones as they did a lot of what my Chin did only better.
Therefore you can imagine my joy at facing an Alexandrian Imperial death
machine. Interestingly, John Saunders, my opponent has recently been suffering
from a serious eye problem himself (get well soon John, by the way), so you
could say that it was a bit like the "blind playing the blind" :-)

I've already posted my list. From memory, John's Alexandrian went something like
this…

Command 1
Reg Kn(F) C-in-C
Reg Kn(F) x 6
Irr LH(O) x 6
Irr LH(F) x 2
Irr Ax(S) x 4
Irr Bge (I) x 2
ME30

Command 2
Reg Pk(O) Sub-General
Reg Pk(O) x 15
Irr El(O) x 4
Irr Ps(O) x 4
Irr Ps(S) x 2
Bge (I) x 2
ME32

Command 3
Irr El(O) Indian Ally-General
Irr El(O) x 2
Irr Cv(I) x 1
Irr Cv(S) x 2
Irr Bd(I) x 1
Irr Bw(O) x 4
ME18

Not content with conquering most of the know world, Alexander decided to invade
China.

John chose little in the way of terrain (one low hill and a rough going), while
I chose enough to effectively block off my left flank with a couple of roughs
and a village. This was vital as my Chin's biggest weakness was its flanks.

When it came to deployment I had to make some hard choices. I did not relish the
ideas of my Kn(O) getting hunted down by 7 El(O). Nor did I fancy getting
outflanked and turned on the open side of the table by a possible, completely
mounted command (and potentially led by a brilliant general). So, I chose to
flank march with my Irr Pk(F) command on my open right flank. This was clearly
high risk as it was my largest command. However, I was afraid that John might
also attempt to flank march himself. Therefore, to ensure that any potential
Macedonian flank march was beaten back onto the table, I went with my 34 element
command. This also meant that my mobile Reg Pk(F) were all on table at the start
allowing me the best possibility to manoeuvre and hold up the Macedonians while
I waited for the flank march to arrive.

John deployed his Indian allies on his Right flank adjacent to the rough going
and village. Facing them I deployed my Sub-general, his 3 Kn(O) and also his
commands 6 Ps(O). John's Pike and Elephant command form his centre. This was
faced off by my Sub generals 12 Reg Pk(F) alone; clearly they were going to have
to put in some overtime… On John's left flank (the open side) he deployed his
Kn, LH and Ax command which was faced off by my C-in-Cs command which had
deployed deep with the Ps(O) in the flank sector and the Kn(O) held far back as
a reserve.

Clearly, realising that a flank march was in the offing John opted to advance as
quickly as possible with the intent to overwhelm me before help could arrive.
Fortunately, he managed to roll a 2 with the Indian's, so at least they were in
the game. Unfortunately, they then rolled a 1 or 2 for most of the battle. They
did however manage to give my Kn(O) a bit of a scare with several volleys from
their Bw(O). The Indian commands sluggishness was rather fortunate for me as I
figured that the C-in-C and the flank march command would need the most PIPs so
I asked my Sub-General to hold off 2 enemy commands with the lowest PIP
dice…very risky and not really advised!

In the centre in the early rounds the Macedonian centre command led by the El(O)
slowly advanced towards my Pk(F) who could do little else but stand there and
hope that help would come in time…

The Macedonian cavalry flank advance far more rapidly to try and turn my C-in-Cs
command quickly with his LH. Fortunately, with the highest PIP dice and an all
Reg command, my C-in-C was able to march his Kn(O) into the flank zone with Ps
support and face off the Macedonian. LH.

By Round 3 things were shaping up to be a bit of a struggle for the Chin with
the whole Macedonian army threatening to overwhelm my 2 on-table commands.
However, as luck will have it, on turn 3, I rolled a 6 with the flank march
(clearly timed to perfection and totally played for…).

With the imminent arrival of a whole new bunch of rather irate Chinese, John
engaged with his Cavalry command and the El(O) from his centre command.
Fortunately for me his pike block had been trying to support the sluggish
Indians so was still a long way off from engaging anything.

To his credit John did manage to kill a few Pk(F), Ps(O) and one rather unlucky
Kn(O) (who had followed-up into a world of pain) over the next 2 rounds.
Unfortunately, Kn(F) and Pk(F) don't mix and the Macedonian left wing was soon
disheartened. Over the subsequent couple of rounds the Macedonian left flank was
completely shattered with the Kn(F) C-in-C taking it up the chuff from my
C-in-C. During this time the Macedonian El(O) and Ps accounted for a few more
Pk(F) from my holding command but by that time they were outnumbers almost 10 to
1 in elements coming from all sides. The Indian's managed to destroy 2 Ps(O)
before running off. In the end, the baggage was destroyed and the victorious
Chin dined on "jumbo burgers" for a week!

And the morale of this story…don't get involved in a land war in Asia.

Chin Chinese 25 Alexandrian Imperial 0

Chin Chinese v Hun

OK. Its round 2. I've had lunch and I'm sitting on 25 points…bonus! The other
morning battles had resulted in 2 other players on 25 points (Bill Skinner and
John Fletcher) and my club mate; Pete Haines on 21 points. Clearly, (and
thankfully) I was not going to be drawn against Pete, so it was either going to
be the Hun or the Ptolemaic. I thought long and hard about this one and decided
that I would prefer the Huns. The draw is posted and it's a result! I draw the
Huns…hooray! But…what exactly was I going to about my flanks…arse!

Once again, from memory, Bill's Hun army went something like this…

Command 1
Irr Cv(O) C-in-C
Irr Cv(O) x 1
Irr LH(S) x 17
Irr Bge (F) x 2
ME24

Command 2
Irr Cv(O) C-in-C
Irr Cv(O) x 1
Irr LH(S) x 17
Irr Bge (F) x 2
ME24

Command 3
Irr Cv(O) C-in-C
Irr Cv(O) x 1
Irr LH(S) x 17
Irr Bge (F) x 2
ME24

A no nonsense Hun army that knows exactly what it likes. Bill had also brought
Feigned Flight as a Strategy but only managed to use it once and in the end it
helped me rather than hindered me.

As with the mornings game, the Chin's biggest weakness was going to be its
flanks (and against a Hun they were in even greater jeopardy). My only real hope
would be a succession of good luck during the pre battle phase…and it happened.

· I needed to defend and with an aggression of 3 it could easily go either
way…bit I did. Result!

· I needed to get all my terrain (unpaved road, village, 2 x rocky flats and 2 x
½ point marshes) on the table…and I did!

· With that terrain I needed to block off at least one flank…I blocked off both!

· Bill's 2pt low hill in my deployment zone would be a bonus…and it was!

With both flanks secure and a lovely big hill to sit on there was no need for a
flank march. But it would help if I could see where those pesky Huns were. With
the right dice roll they could steal the initiative and deploy first…6:1…they
did…sweet! :-)

In the end the Huns deployed with 2 flank commands and a centre led by the
C-in-C. I deployed my Chin conventionally with the Irr Pk(F) command in the
centre, C-in-C on the right and the other Sub-General on the left.

Now, at this point I should mention that Bill was faced with a bit of a dilemma.
He was the tournament organiser. If he slaughtered me he was in danger of
winning his own competition which would have looked a tad strange and almost
certainly resulted in much ribbing. If he played negatively and tried to eke out
a draw he might still have won a gonk but possibly ruined my chances of
winning…again a bit harsh seeing he was the umpire and supposed to be impartial.

In the end, and much to Bill's credit he decided to go for it and try to win the
game and thereby allow me the opportunity to beat him fair and square.
Unfortunately for me Bill's sense of fair play nearly worked against me because,
as Bill pointed out to me when the win was certain (but not the full extent), it
would have been unfair to the other competitors if he threw in the towel early.
He therefore made me work for every single point! "Good on yer Bill".

Anyway, there is little need to go into vast amounts of detail here. The Huns
advanced and concentrated 2 commands worth of LH(S), two deep, with reserves,
against my C-in-Cs command (my right flank). As there was no room on the low
hill for this command it had to deploy on the flat between the 2pt low hill and
my village. Fortunately, the command survived the initial impact with few losses
and with the support of the central command, it was able to spend several Hun
LH.

On the next turn I was able to again weather the storm and send out Ps(O) snatch
squads to hard flank the odd Hun element. At this point Bill committed more
reserves and I had to throw in the Kn(O) to fill holes and try and outflank the
enemy. As we all know LH(S) v Kn(O) is particularly scary and 2 knights were
rapidly inhumed. Fortunately for me they were the last to be destroy, especially
as the C-in-C himself had to face several LH(S) attacks which could well have
ruined his entire reign.

In the end the Hun line was riddled with holes but they were still holding on. I
had no idea how the mornings other high scorers were doing so I had to go for an
all out win. This resulted in a chaotic melee with Huns and Chinese all over the
place. In the end with the clock rapidly running out we eventually broke first
the Hun's left flank and then the C-in-Cs command. It had been a tremendously
tense, yet tremendously fun, hard fought, game. In the end I was actually ½ a ME
off losing 10% of my army so surprisingly I got the maximum 25 points and
thereby guaranteeing the competition win. Sadly, Bill got nothing for all his
efforts, which even to me seemed a tad unfair.

Chin Chinese 25 Hun 0

Anyway, thanks for Bill for an excellent day out and a great head t- head.
Thanks to everyone who wished me well. It appears that I will be playing at
Derby after all (fingers crossed)…maybe I will even get lucky again…maybe. :-)