Britcon 2003 - My Opponents 4-6

Game 4

Reasonably Standard Patsy Roman

The Patsys attempted the rather clever Patsy trick of throwing out a light horse screen... however suddenly this found itself being picked apart and chewed up by psiloi and elephants - and also by my rather more numerous light horse - including a Numidian who managed to sneak round the back of the Roman lines, preventing some auxilia from reaching the front as they were detached to deal with him.  

After a lot of shuffling, and with the auxila mostly out of the game as pips were thrown at the LH to save them from the wall of death approaching, the Romans were finally there with close to the best match-ups possible... Kn (F) vs Ps (S), and LH vs Elephants - with warband ready to mug anyone who dared to get through this rather surprisingly intimidating front line. Erm... what now ......?

The roman knights dithered, waiting for some auxilia to arrive (top right) to give them a secure flank from which to launch their attack. But with my spears pushing forwards on the near side, too many of the Roman light horse got caught between the battle lines, undermining the Kn's ability to take losses - and over on my left the Romans had little answer to the LH/El/Cv combo advancing towards them . Eventually the battle was joined - with my spears now providing a rock-solid flank to the scene above - and as the elephants handed out a kicking to everything they faced and with the warband on hand to deliver the coup-de-grace to the breaking through surviving knights it was 10-0 to the Carthginians. 

Irritatingly Clever Achemenid Persian

Providing clutter with steep hills I managed to slightly narrow the battlefield against what I understood to be a highly maneuverable 4 command army - and so it was. The Carthaginians adopted their usual tactics of forming a big long line and charging forwards, with warband in the center (one flank protected by a steep hill), spears to the left and the two mounted commands operating together on the right. 

The King of Kings bravely cowered in the center, along with his personal bodyguard spears and let his main command of half-rubbish cavalry on my right take the brunt of the action (if not the fighting) - but as they rushed forwards a lone Numidian slipped round the back and blew North African raspberries at the back end of the column of advancing Persian cavalry. 

This effectively deprived this command of 1-2 pips per turn and slowed their advance considerably as they detached elements to try and deal with this worrisome buggererabouter, and soon they were marooned in no-mans land as my cavalry faded away before them, leaving only an elephant as a souvenir the knights really did not want to find lurking at the bottom of their holiday suitcases.

In the center the K.o.K. (my abbreviation) rearranged his auxilia carefully behind the now fast retreating skirmish screen from the spear command - who them managed to flee into the middle of their formation, thus depriving some auxilia of rear support as they were hit by the almost unfeasibly effective line of warband and over-brave elephants. The auxila were smashed, leaving the spears fidgeting nervously barely more than a single move from my warband as the command broke in the Persian turn - and instantly the army increased in points by 4 as the "King of Cheeses" turned himself into a Kn (F). My shock was rather significant, only to be bettered when I proceeded to roll nothing higher than a 2 on the pip dice and my warband gleefully rushed into the now demoralized but still rather scary general. Even impetuously we got overlaps in - but still 2 died.

My spear command rushed in as fast as it could to help, fleeing the now routing cavalry and light horse before it taking hordes with them as they went - and the elephant command desperately committed light horse into the now jubilant "King of the World" - we bounced!

He charged on - and managed to nail our light horse despite being overlapped again - taking another auxilia and psiloi with them. He had now virtually done more damage to my army in his "retreat" incarnation than the rest of his entire force! In one desperate last move we hurled warband into the spears, and attempted to mug some Cv (I) with a warband who had got lost. This was it. Beat 2 files of spears with overlaps and push back a double overlapped Cv (I) with a Wb (F) and the game was ours.

We rolled, We killed the spears.

We rolled, but, possessed by the spirit of his leader, we lost 5-1 to the Cv (I) - and the warband command broke - with more than half its casualties caused by the fleeing King Of Wishfuil Thinking" !!!!!!!  6-4.

Rather Unfortunate Lydian

I took my army to play Jez's Spearwall. I also designed it to play LH and Kn.

Jez didn't take it.

He lent it to a mate who used it because his first choice army was dropped off a table by his son.

His mate changed it to a Lydian, with Kn & LH.

Some people do know how to choose their mates, don't they.

10-0. Ouch.

back to game reports

About This Site & Privacy Information