Game 2 Britcon 2006
My Opponent was the towering colossus Lance Flint and his Dynastic Bedouin army.
The table was open - far too open for the liking of the Arabs, who's army
appeared somewhat curiously toothless against the Lithuanians, who somehow managed to
fill the entire table with stuff that was quite nasty indeed if you were one
of the many prawn sandwich eating Bedouin Dynast supporters arriving up from
the south to watch the game in the Theatre of Dreams that was UMIST's Barnes
Wallis Building that fine, early morning....
The Lithuanian line pushed forwards, oblivious to all opposition.
Even the artillery (S) pulled on its "Rooney" shirt, painted itself with a bright red cross and advanced slightly as it found itself facing a line of somewhat irritated Arab Bw (O), who up until that moment had fancied their chances against Light horse.
The Arabs were puzzled - with only 2 Bd (I) in the entire army, the rest of the troops were desperately reading all the back issues of the "How to disable a war wagon with a bent stick and some camel poo" manual. Light horse found themselves playing up front and threw themselves at the Hussite blades, who were now overconfidently racing ahead of their lines, hoping to eat some baggage of their own this game
With the Dailami safely kept in the wood with near terminal "Teutonic Fear" the white clad knights were camping it up all over the table, shaking their tail feathers and roaming at will, running down bowmen and light horse with equal measures of alacrity and joy.
Without ever really getting started soon the game started to look like a traditional Mancunian mopping up operation after a particularly Noah-esque damp day. And deep into injury time the flood waters rose in the desert as the Arab CinC was killed to add injury to injury...
15 turns in and it was 10-0 to the Lithuanians and we were riding as high as a Teuton on a horse wearing high heels in early practice for the following weeks Manchester Gay Pride.
Post Match Analysis
This was all won and lost in the army list selection - the Arabs had little to trouble the Lithuanians, and once the Teutons had been deployed opposite the Dailami, effectively preventing them coming out of the wood for the duration of the game it was always going to be a struggle that the Arabs were likely to come out worst at the end of. The terrain also helped, being just constricted enough to make a Light Horse lottery an unappealing option for the Arabs.
My lone artillery piece punched well above its weight, and in combination with warwagon shooting from my CinC's command, accounted for most of the casualties on my right flank, as well as preventing the Arab bowmen from coming into the game.
Save for the initial few bounds, the pips were also very even.
So, an uneven struggle, with a decisive result.
