FoG Game 4 at Britcon
So, with the marathon 6 game 'fest half way through, the thoughts of many wargamers turned to marathon veteran Paula Radcliffe. Not because the competition was taking ages, but more because they too had to run a long way to have a poo or a wee, as the toilets in the competition building were out of order.
So, Game 4 saw me fighting some Achemnenid Persians under the colourful command of Mr Briggs
This battle again saw quite a lot of lance-unfriendly terrain fall all on my opponents side of the table, despite my best efforts to have none - and out of it emerged a mobile MF machinegun nest in the shape of superior Immortals, intent on gunning down my skirmish screen.
Having none of it, they turned and marched across the front of the battle line, hoping instead to tempt the spearmen into some rash charges and draw them out of position (basically I was going for a repeat of the tactics that had failed in game 2)
The Persians had also beamed down a unit of light horse from Planet Sneaky, and sent them on a wide outflanking move, but allocating a general in the process slowed down the rest of their advance..
Meanwhile I was doing likewise on the other flank, but with the rather less subtle "lets attack you as you are smaller and less good than us" approach from my Bedouin lancer swordsmen
The Persians obviously knew something about the rules I didn't, as their MF advanced bravely out of the rough going towards my lancers...
As Grahams trousers hove disturbingly into view, my right flank pressed in to threaten the advancing flank of the spearmen and expose the un-immortals behind.
The Persians were besieged and beleaguered as the Armenians bottled them up - but the hoplites were steadfastly refusing to charge out of their cozy redoubt despite provocation from my psiloi. The Immortals had also executed some Drilled maneuvers and expanded out into a coherent line.
My cavalry had no such compulsions on waiting to charge at the right time, and after a thorough shredding from the long distance superior archery (re-rolls - ouch!!) charged in and also got a battering largely due to the 3 dice per frontage at impact a shooting formation can get, and the Elite status of superior troops led by Generals can create. My plan to get them to take and fail cohesion tests was failing at the "take" stage already.
Eventually the knights got in as well - but fared no better, obviously intimidated by the looming monstrosity that were the Trousers of Terror. And by now the clever light horse were back in play. Eschewing the baggage munching route, they instead opted to stand behind my cavalry, preventing them breaking off and thus causing a drop in cohesion that they would have been unable to do if they had actually charged in !
My knights were doing their best, but taking on 16 elements of spears and Immortals was a mighty ask...
But at least on the other flank some other Cavalry had managed to find their way into the rather more squishy non-immortal foot, although this did mean clipping some spearmen in the process....
Both sides took casualties, as we ended up with a rather odd non-conforming situation as my lancers fought a frontal combat against the flank of the Spear formation in the shade of the Pantaloons of Doom
The knights continued their round after round of charging in and bouncing off, however my Cavalry on the left were now starting to get fatigued...
Yet more lancers tried again to run down the Greek mercenary spearmen....
And the by now near spent cavalry on my left hurled themselves forward, but found yet again that an 8 strong superior unit is almost unkillable!
(caption repeated from previous pictures - something about cavalry charging in bravely again but not breaking through spearmen yet battering the non-Immortals ...you get the idea)
Finally the Non-immortals on my right evaporated, leaving my cavalry and spearmen free to gang up on the Greek spears
In this picture the Sparabara unit in the middle is not quite providing rear support to the spears on the right, as only 3 of its bases are behind the spears (red shaded area). Some of the spears are however in front of the line extending the front of the supporting bases. (green area) - the other requirement for counting as supporting.
and the Persian baggage trooped out of camp into captivity as my Bedouin light horse sacked the camp under the light of a dramatic Persian Desert sunset, sorry, just under Grahams beer gut and the T-shirt of Visual Torment.
So, as things swung slowly my way on my right, they swung quickly against me to my left, as the last cavalry unit attacked the resilient Persians again knowing that defeat (or breaking off to be more accurate) was no longer an option...
Despite throwing everyone into the fray, the Armenians were still unable to do anything to dent the armour of the 2 units of general-led hoplites who took comfort in the near presence of their beloved leaders Culottes of Chaos
And at that stage the helpful umpires called time, with my left flank totally eliminated and the Immortals closing in for a flank charge on my engaged, fragmented spearmen. A serious, but not total defeat.
Post Match Analysis
Graham had worked a simple plan well - have 4 big, strong units, add generals to them all, and put them in a position so they are sure to do nearly all the fighting. Whenever his other units had got engaged, they had imploded quite quickly.
I had also totally underestimated the Immortals, and had been relying on the -1 for MF losing to mounted in the open to sweep them away with a lancer charge - but with "elite" status in combat (Superior + General), armour, a good "always counts" POA in light spear and the effect of 2nd rank shooting at impact they had been a lot better than my cavalry - and on the few occasions they had actually lost, re-rolls, generals plusses, rear support and the size of the units had meant they had usually either not dropped a cohesion level, or recovered quickly.
I again had split my lancers, and had ended up with not quite enough in either position to actually succeed in executing my plan. This was something I needed to fix...
Next Game
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