Hollyoaks Doubles Game 4
So, dumped back down into mid table mediocrity after grasping and losing the jewels of victory, the random draw threw us up against the only team we could play (its complicated).
With daylight and my camera batteries failing we faced a Khurasanian army and two very tired looking generals.
We had guessed correctly that the Khurasanians would avoid the big open spaces on the table, and we were flank marching our Poles on the right and leading with the Pecheng and wagons on the left.
The Arabs prepared grimly for battle
The Khurasanians started with a large Dailami ally confidently occupying the central patch of RGo
...who soon found himself staring down the barrel of a load of Rus spearmen ably led by the Rus Abbot himself.
Their Dailami fortress had become a Cauldron in a Stalingradesque encirclement!
Meanwhile on the right the Rus pressed forwards towards the Khurasani Spear (I), ignoring the cries of their own Psiloi who were getting callously cut down by the Khurasani light horse seeking a quick early win.
The with a fanfare of trumpets the Poles arrived - the game was now up for the Khurasani CinC'c command caught in a horrible vice between spears and more spears. He and his men fled, eventually for the command to be totally eliminated, with the Great man the last to be humbled (6-1 by a Polish cavalryman) - reducing the now quaking Khurasanians from 3 regular dice to 2 irregular ones at a stroke.
Despite some mucking about on the left that saw the Pechengs gradually and eventually fall, the trap closed remorselessly, and the Dailami in Stalingrad were whittled away as the baggage also fell to the advancing Poles and Rus. With night falling the final curtain also fell.
9-1 to the Rus.
Post Match Analysis
A game won in deployment and army list drawing - the Arabs had expected to be neutralizing a large Rus command on our left but instead found themselves fighting for their lives against 4 wagons and a horde of light horse. The arrival of the Poles seemed to be totally unexpected - and delivered the coup de grace to the Arab CinC's chances. Once the Rus got motoring on the right the Dailami were left as mere spectators in the central Cauldron, and once they were completely surrounded, even the RGo could not save them from attack from all sides. The Arabs simply ran out of table - as we raced through the bounds before the clock ran out
