Thanks to MKWS for the day, always a good start to the campaign season, even if
our club (WAR) always seems to end up propping up the table. (Mainly down to me
this year, losing badly in the 1st game)
My army - Inert LAP
1 Command 4 Cv S, 4 Kn I, 6 Cv O, some Ax + Ps and LH O, Pharnabazus in charge
1 Command 20 Sp O, 1 Ps O, 2 Hde , 4 Exp (I know, giving the Exp to Conon to
look after is ahistorical, but Sp need protecting)
1 Command 3 Reg Ps S, 2 LH O (Araios)
1 Ally (Tissaphernes) 4 Cv O, 4 Ax O, 4 Ps O, 2 Hde O, 1Bge
Baggage - 6 Bge F
Game 1 vs Neil Sutherland, using Patrician.
Deployed 1st, moved 2nd (being inert) The hoplites were in front of a line of
Bd,with some Ps supporting flanked by Ax S, who had to come over/round a
difficult hill on my right flank, which Tissaphernes defended.
Pharnabazus faced off Kn F. Not a good match-up, the Sp O being QK'd by the
entire opposition army, and the Kn F QK'ng my Cv also, and not being able to
outmanoeuvre due to the magic baggage.
The Exp caused Neil some concern, and he basically backed off with the Kn F to
avoid them, used Ps to deal with them, and they had their customary effect - 1
Ps 0 removed for the loss of 42 AP (including the Unnusual troops) Even so, this
did sort of get the Romans out of line.
Basically what happened was that I was able to get the Cv S into the right side
of the Bd, and the Sp O to get the 1st charge in. Neither caused any damage in
the 1st round of combat, and 4 Sp bit the dust in the next bound. From then on
it was a matter of trying to survive until the last round.
This didn't happen - in the last round of combat I lost 5 elements of Sp in one
bound , and 3 off 2 ME elements had been removed by Kn F QK's, as they came back
into the fray, just enough to break the army.
Tissaphernes, very much in character, broke on seeing the hoplite command go
(the 2ME did for him) and I only managed 10% casualties, despite having punched
a small hole in the Bd line. A good tight game, which Neil deserved to win, but
not as far apart as the 2-23 result suggested.
It was a bit frightening for the Sp O seeing that every element in the
opposition army had a QK against them, apart from the supporting Ps and the
baggage!
Game 2 vs Dave Pothecary. Early Ostrogothic
Another good, tight game. The usual inert problem - again, much in character for
Agesialaus' opponents in Asia, occurred.
The hoplites, having had enough of Bd in the last game, stayed well hidden from
the mass of Wb facing them in the centre, and did nothing all game, apart from
turning round at one point, and fighting a few Ps and LH unsuccessfully.
There was an even bigger mass of Kn F facing my CinC, but they had to come
forward between a rocky hill in the centre, a gentle hill on which my Lh were
perched, and a BUA, which had some Ps S in. On Dave's left, my right, facing a
small difficult hill, was a command of LH S with a Kn F general.
My CinC's command was basically perched on the RH, facing the warband, with the
hoplites between this Rh and a DH on my right flank. The Unnusual troops
stratagem helped, in that I could angle the Exp to be more threatening. To the
immediate left of the block of Wb, (O and S) were a group of Ps O who thretened
the DH, and also the Exp.
There were two almost separate battles in this fight. The Exp went forward,
avoided the Ps just about and hit the Wb. Dave's Kn F kept on rolling 1's and
didn't fancy the Exp, so stood around initially, then went forward into the gap
between the RH and the GH on my left flank. His CinC's Kn F column got involved
in a messy fight with LH O on the hill, where I even managed to hard flank his
CinC at one point - got into another hard flanking situation, rolled a 1, so
couldn't move in.
In the meantime, the Cv S and one surviving Exp element had begun chewing into
the Wb O. The Goth Ps withstood Sp O, Ax O, and my Ps as well, beating off
everything chucked at them. His LH and Kn F general got dragged onto the DH, but
6-1's everything they fought (Ax O uphill on a difficult hill dying to a flanked
Kn F- who'd of thought it.) This made up for Dave's terrible movement dice
though to be fair.
The final result was the Wb command was broken, nothing decisive on my right
flank, though a few casualties on each side, my CinC's command beginning to get
a bit hairy, and running away from Kn F. The Cv O held up Kn F on the central RH
- failing to remove one element twice when it was hit in the rear, and so the
score was a 15-10 to the Persians.
Two good fights - I do hope that 1.1/2.0 will make Sp more feasible - I'd have
been better off in each game with more Cv O or such like, as the Sp were nervous
throughout, though being inert means you have to take your chances, so perhaps
Artaxerxes or Cyrus next time rather than Pharnabazus. Or Darius with 4 Reg
generals I suppose.
(I know the history has been stretched to breaking point by the way with the
lists, but needs must!) I really wanted to use a Lykian ally, but there was no
way I could see to make that combination work. Inert CinC's with other nation
allies is a non-no.
Steve Rathgay
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.