Field of Glory Renaissance Take-Away in the Southern League in Clevedon 2013
Maratha vs Aztecs
Game 2 Maratha vs Later Jin Chinese
So, with a drubbing behind me and a ham salad sandwich on order the Maratha army lurched into the final round of three. Maybe this time I would be lucky to draw a less billiardesque table where the sheer quantity of the Maratha army would translate into a deep formation and a solid line of spearmen against a frustrated mounted opponent?
Oh no …the same table as round 2, the same side and an opponent geared up to attack Average spearmen… The Aztecs!
The lists for the Maratha and Aztecs from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at the Southern League in Clevedon can be seen here in the Field of Glory Renaissance Wiki.
The logical thing may well have been to race all the Maratha lancers up the middle of the table and try and run down the Aztecs with a wild frontal charge, but with the Aztec Warrior Guinea Pig Knights being mostly Superior or even Elite, and no doubt supported and having generals with the key units this could be a risky way to either win quickly or loose even more quickly - and as I was giving someone else a lift back there was actually no point in finishing the game early either way. Hence a plan for a more sustained slogging match and a test for the resilience of the spearmen started to take shape… in which the Maratha would build a wall of mixed Spear and Musketry to confront the Aztec Warrior Shaved Ostrich Knights head on and work the flanks with most of the cavalry.
There was a slim chance that the Musketeers could contest the rough terrain as well, so the Maratha army raced forward, much to the surprise and delight of the wall of Aztec Giant Tortoise Knights who were intent on doing exactly the same thing.
Whats actually happening now?
The Maratha are trying to sieze the terrain which they failed to sieze in the previous game in an attempt to anchor the flanks of their spearmen against some indefinable threat that it is hard to see what unit in the Aztec army will create. The Aztecs are advanding in a deep block with all their best troops up front and central, with the rest of the army clearly playing a supporting role. Their plan is simple, engage whatever is in front of them with the best troops and hope they win.
The Aztec Warrior Baby Giant Panda Knights were a spectacular sight, one which led me to realise that they were probably not the type of army which could be done with a one-colour undercoat and a wash of Army Painter Mid Tone…
What did the Aztecs do for Us?
The Aztec general was ready and waiting to support his Elite Warrior Pipistrel Bat Knights. When you re-roll 1, 2 and 3 who needs POA's anyway?
The Aztec Slow Loris Knights were a solid wall of riotous colour and they filled the gap between the two small pieces of terrain very effectively. The Maratha had rushed up the spear line, which was now widening out as the Musketeers moved up to fill in the gaps.
First into the fray were the Maratha skirmishers who were forced quickly to evade from an Aztec charge and ended up safely behind their own infantry, to play no further part in the game
The Aztecs...
The two lines were closing at a rate of knots that was catching everyone by surprise - the Maratha had decided to sneak a unit of cavalry lancers into the middle of their line to cause a few additional problems for the Aztecs Hairy Wombat Knights, but it looked as if they really were not going to care, as feathers rustled and they readies themselves for a charge..
The two lines clashed, and in a Games Workshop-esque assault on the dice bucket everyone was rolling to hit …the Maratha generally needing 5's and the Aztecs Meerkat Knights generally wanting 4's.The dice rolling worked out fairly well for the Marathas all in all, with a good budket of 5's and 6's everywhere apart from in the middle of the line
And the spear unit in the middle of the line then responded by rolling a cohesion test 1/1 and double-dropping in impact against the fearsome Aztec Kookaburra Knights, despite having a general and rear support. The ideal place to have a huge hole in the plan right from the very first clash of lines…
The Maratha centre was in dire straits, and would last a lot longer than the average Mark Knopfler guitare solo as the almost inevitable loss of a unit would be immediately followed by the somewhat unusual situation in which the Aztec Cute Baby Kitten on Youtube Knights, famous for their military collapse in the face of a handful of gunpowder-equipped troops would soon be the possessors of the only artillery on the field of play
Yet more dice rolling, and despite the factors swinging in favour of the Maratha their dice skills actually got worse and almost every Indian unit was outdiced by its Central American opponent. This surely spelt the end for the Fragged spear unit in the middle?
Whats actually happening now?
The Aztecs are steaming down the middle in a big blob, and the theoretically coherent front the Maratha have put up to face them down has, well, failed to work as advertised.
The battle plans of both sides are almost identical, but the Aztec soldiery is simply better. So they are winning.
The spearmen broke and fled back through their own lines, leaving the shocked artillery to be captured instantly and in the same instant, placed the reserve Maratha infantry unit in fear of their very lives as they contemplated the ignominy and high probability of pain involved in being broken through and then hit by triumphant pursuing Giant Anteater Knights
The Flying Muskrat Warrior Knights were now in full cry, carving a sharp obsidian-edged swathe through the Indian army, impact..who were struggling to comprehend just how things had managed to go so badly wrong so quickly. Even the largest unit of spearmen in the Maratha army were now being sucked into the action as the Golden Tamarind Knights steamed into them.... it was only by the judicious application of a General that they managed to survive the impact
Aztec re-enactors
The rest of the Maratha line was just about holding on as the Aztecs continued to chop away at the Indian warriors relentlessly. The Indians secret weapon, the Maratha Lancers were now locked into a death struggle as their initial charge had failed to accomplish anything of note, much as the Maratha had feared, and now it was swordsman on swordsman, with no-one deploying any armour. The battle raged on, occasionally the Indians winning a round of combat only to see the high quality, General inspired and rear supported Aztecs pass their resulting cohesion tests without fail, This would be a long evening...
The largest 10-strong Maratha spear unit was now starting to sort itself out, as the routing infantry were now well past them. The worst was hopefully over, and in a long term slogging match the weight of numbers would surely start to count in their favour..?
Well, that was the theory anyway... another big chunk of Indian martial architechture succumbed to the Aztec earthquake and crumbled into the sea of defeat as two units of musketeers simultaneously broke and fled. The middle of the Maratha army was now all but eliminated, with the only real surviviors still on the table being the artillery, who were unfortunately in the hands and under the control of the Aztecs...
The Aztec Camera
As the Aztecs swarmed forward pursuing the fleeing musketeers, inevitably gaps were opening up in the second line of Maratha resistance. The 10-strobg units plan of attrition suddenly looked a lot less viable and sensible as pursuing Aztec Norfolk Red Legged Chicken Knights halted their pursuit of the musketeers and turned onto the flank of the Indian spearmen!
In a move which probably should have happened far earlier, the flanks of the Aztec army started to come under attack - somewhat inevitably given the rapid advance and impressive successes of the Aztec centre which had outdistanced its supporting bog-standard spear infantry. The second string Aztecs were a far easier proposition for the Maratha lancers and foot, and on the left flank of the Maratha battle line a new wave of combats were being initiated which the Indians hoped would prove more fruitful...but would they have enough time to make up the losses they had already suffered in the centre?
The Indian centre is just about hanging on, although the erosion plan of the 10-strong unit in the middle appears not to be working out all that well for them, as they are now down to 1 rank deep along part of their frontage. The flank attack has been thwarted however by a unit of Maratha bowmen, who managed to shoot the Aztez Great Crested Newt Knights down to DISR before they were able to charge, and having failed the resulting reaction test the Aztecs are now poised, but are themselves also in some danger too from yet more arrows fired from their rear.
Once the great hope of the Maratha centre, the unit of lancers breaks and flees, further discomforting the Maratha infantry who are now hanging on grimly and praying for the final whistle before they lose bases or cohesion. The Aztecs have had almost uninterrupted success acrcoss the whole centre of the battlefield - it is a good job that Cortez didn't like curry..
Whats actually happening now?
The Aztecs better quality troops massed in a big block in the middle of the field have proved that quality beats quantity and have beaten down everything the Maratha can put up against them in a straight fight. What however seems like a disaster for the Indians is somewhat mitigated by the sheer size of the Maratha army, and even though they are now making inroads into the Maratha reserves the resolutely pedestrian Aztecs may soon find that their lack of equestrian culture means they will simply lack the time, speed and maneuverability to follow up their initial victories and they will be unable to reach the additional Maratha units they require for a total victory.
The Maratha meanwhile have finally, almost be default, started to find ways to get amongst the second string Aztec troops on both flanks, and this is sttarting to rebalance the proportion of unit losses on both sides. As time goes on the game may yet swing back in the Indians favour....
On the Maratha left the Lancer and Spearman attack has proved far more effective against the softer targets of the Aztec second string than it did in the middle against the Tame Impala Knights - the Aztec infantry are losing cohesion and bases, and with all the Aztec Generals in the centre leading their Koi Carp Knights there is no salvation in sight for the Central American Peasantry
Meanwhile the middle goes slowly from worse to really really bad for the Maratha, as their units steadily lose cohesion against the relentless quality of the Aztec warriors
The whistle blows and with the Maratha teetering on the brink of the slippery slope towards utter defeat the game ends - the result is a ...............
Post Match Summary from the Maratha Commander
What a strange, colourful and unexpectedly resilient opponoent for my brave Hindu warriors to have to face. In the light of such fierce opposition it is hardly surprising that we were no doubt caught unawares by the merely hinted at abilities of these gold-loving jungle dwellers from across the oceans.
Fighting against men dressed as animals, birds, fish and amphibians would always be a test for my mostly vegetarian warriors, and the thali of obsidian swordsmanship which these Aztecs served up was indeed a difficult one for us to stomach. At least the resilience and fortitude of my brave boys was enough to salvage a draw at the end, and we also learnt much of use along the way. Indeed, I will no doubt be issuing urgent orders to my quartermaster to pluck the feathers from every hen and cockerel in Greater Rajisthan to fashion armour from before this night is out.
The battle was also one in which I deliberately adopted a strategy of experimental engagement, engineering a fight to see if my men could tough it out against such opposition instead of just charging all of the lancers straight down the middle - and as a spectacle, and as a method of making sure we enjoyed full value from the engagement and got to roll bucketloads of dice I regard my approach as vindicated.
Clearly if viewed as a srategy to try and win it was somewhat less effective but one cannot achieve everything and if there is a choice to be made between style, elan, enjoyment, and constructive engagement with the enemy in the ballet of battle, or just piling all your best troops into his in a heads I win, tails you lose impact engagement I feel the honourable man always chooses the former. This has been an interesting weekend, and I look forward to many more..
Hannibalipuripathi's Post Match Analysis
Hazaar lund teri gaand main would not have woken you from your intellectual slumber and even rundi ki tatti pe baithnewaali makkhi would have come up with a plan which actually involved trying to win the game by pitting your best troops (the lancers in this matchup) against any of your opponents
But not only was the plan little more coherent than a bur ki chatani, it was poorlye exectuted to boot. The opposition were bound to be narrow, they had strong first line troops but nothing to back them up, and so even a plan involving simply not moving any of your troops for the first hour would have created a far better tactical situation than the one you sought to engineer with your mad forwards rush?
This is only a one-day competition, so how did you fail to notice that the plan which so nearly worked in Game 1 was the one to try again here? I mean, jab tu paida hua tho aagey se ya peechey se nikla tha chutiya? And to sacriifice immmobility for an advance to try and achieve a pointless tactical position on the field of battle that you had failed to achieve in the very previous game too makes it even more as if you can only be ullu ke pathe
To add final insult to I have finally to ask kahe ko kha raha hai chut ki chapati aur lund ka beja when nothing seems ever to be learnt from your musings and ramblings - the reports would be more constructive for your silence than this chut ke pasine mein talay huye bhajiye which you parade as your onw comments?
Many thanks to the MyInsults.com Hindi pages for their support in compiling these reports!
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Game 2 Maratha vs Later Jin Chinese
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