Field of Glory Renaissance in The Deepest Deep South - 2010
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Riding high, and thats not a reference to the surreal High School Rodeo either. Bring on The Southern States Greatest Ever Wargamer ("TSSGEW")!
Game 3 was a top of the table clash against The Ghengis of Georgia, The Atilla of Alabama, The Chingiz of the Carolinas, the Temujin of somewhere beginning with T in Alabama (probably), the Monke Khan of the Mississippi. What a mouthwatering clash was in prospect as a seasoned expert of the masteries of the Light Horse and shooty cavalry would end up battling for supremacy with a Johnny Come Lately Muppet from The Old Country. A classic clash of cultures.... and a game of 2 identical armies. only luck would surely separate us...?
Pictures of Turks from my Ancients Photo Directory
My opponents list was almost a mirror image of my own but you need to click here to see what that looks like . With no-one really wanting terrain, there ended up being only marginally present terrain on table, with just 2 smallish patchs of rough on the edges.
Realising both armies were near mirror images, and that my opponent clearly knew what he was doing my plan was to strike quickly, not giving the Khazars time respond before we moved into a luck-fest. By massing my army on one wing I was prepared to accept the odd lost unit on one flank if it allowed me to put overwhelming weight of numbers into the mixer I hoped to create on my right.
A judicious deployment order allowed me to throw fully four units of light horse - including a hopefully decisive lancer unit - against just two. My own cavalry would try to move up to occupy the Khazar cavalry supporting their outnumbered LH.
In my center a solid block of cavalry faced off the more fragmented enemy - they were clearly deployed to wait for the game to develop before committing themselves, which would allow the greater competence of their general to take effect - but my plan anticipated this by planning a mad rush forward, hoping that the game would be as good as over before the enemy had a chance to react fully or do anything clever whatsoever.
The Seljuk light horse wing descended on the hapless Khazars like lightnng from the heavens striking the only tree on the wide and empty steppe...
The bemused Khazars were slowly moving forward as the onrushing juggernaught of seljuk cavalry swept towards them, in a maneuver designed to puzzle anyone who believed that tricksy maneuvering was a part of the Seljuk military canon.
On my far left, 2 units of LH were heading off to play a game of tag with three units of Khazar cavalry, as the rest of the Seljuk Ghilmen moved up to join the main line of battle
The Khazars and Seljuks exchanged shots - and despite throwing out a hailstorm of arrows sufficient to blot out the artificial light of the Hattiesville Community Hall shining down from above, the Seljuks inflicted no losses on their opponents. The more accurate Khazars however managed to disrupt the Seljuk Bedouin lancers - depsite the presence of a supporting general. The cutting edge of the Seljuk Scimitar has been slightly dulled, but the blade was still surely sufficiently heavy to slice clean through the Khazars flimsy 2-unit shield?
The Seljuks swarmed forward, splitting the Khazars shooting whilst unleashing another incredible hail of arrow shafts ! Which yet again failed to cause any damage to the increasingly bullet proof Khazar Light Horsemen
In the middle the Seljuk tactics were confounding their opponents. The Khazars oh-so-clever tactic of deploying a LH unit in the middle of their line was starting to look like rank foolishness as a tidal wave of much heavier cavalry swept towards them, threatening to turn the LH into little more than a 2 attrition point weak spot in the Khazar battleline. Yee-hah!
Back to the uneven shooting match on the right. Yet another barrage of arrows was unleashed by the Seljuk multitude - to no discernable effect. The Khazars replied with two well placed shots, which fragmented the unwilling and unreliable Bedouin
Over on the left, the Khazar cavalry were thinking about peeling off to join the fray in the middle, so seeing another chance to remove the skill from the game I carefully initiated a Light Horse Lottery! And as if to prove the brilliance of my tactic of abdicating responsibility to the dice, the Khazars lost cohesion and bases at impact! Surely the depleted LH wuld soon be swept away???
With the Bedouin LH now essentially entirely useless, and with the main batle lines about to clash in the distance my own Lh were now reduced to the role of filler, additional units I could not afford to lose as the battle was decided elsewhere. Accordingly, as the Khazar cavalry finally came int0 play, they dispersed like so many grains of pollen as the sping winds sweep across the long, long grass of the high steppes of Seljukia. The Bedouin were as good as dead anyway, and so it proved as they quickly broke..
The left was proving much better - half the Khazar LH were destroyed by the overly aggressive Seljuk LH bowmen, and at least this lot of Bedouin were doing better too. One unit to the good on my left, and even if the Khazars committed their cavalry unit to evening the score, it would take one of their capital units out of the main fray - a good exchange ... but there was also a good chance my now oponnentless LH unit could return and help the Bedouis crush the Khazars first anyway.
Even as my LH fled on the right (and the Bedouin routed), they still had some advantage in numbers - it would be difficult for the Khazars to leave them alone and unattended - another capital Ghilman unit taken out of the decisive part of the game board!