Game 3 - vs Mick & Colin
Even despite the worst machinations of "The BHGS" we were now back in the saddle, and up there in the frame challenging for the silverware and sniffing at the coat tails of the leaders of the pack in a pell-mell chase for the finish line. How would it all pan out...? Read on dear reader, read on ....
They had Kushite & A Mighty Mighty Mesh-Wesh Ally, casting a long dark shadow of fear into the hearts of our spearmen (which, lets be fair, was a fair chunk of our army...). The terrain fell oddly, with us attacking, and Mick B placing 3 large pieces of RGo which all fell on the center line, extending from our left flank almost half way across the table. We were keen to try and force the game across into the open area, and put one of our Lydian spear commands (the biggest in the army) on a flank march on our left. We then lined up with Sp & Kn in the center/left, and the plan was to refuse the RGo area with our Ax command.
What could possibly go wrong ?When Mick B's first command came out, with a horde of Ax (O) facing into the RGo I was keen to try and put our knights in there, rush them out and win the game in a trice, but my partner persuaded me it was a stupid idea, as it totally ignored the possibilities that a/ their 20+ bowmen might wheel and support their Ax and butcher us, and b/ we might roll crap pip dice and lose instantly.
Instead we deployed more conventionally, with two columns of Kn (F) ready to rush past the Greeks in the center and face off against whatever they liked.
Unfortunately the Greeks were set against the Mighty Mighty Mesh-Wesh, but hopefully they would not be called upon to fight - and our flank march, plus the CinC's foot could surely put too much pressure on the right flank, and it would collapse like a deck of Egyptian cards (no, I don't know either - sorry!)
The game started and we rushed forwards by the RGo, deploying our Kn (F) quickly to catch the far smaller chariotry force before they had time to extend their lines, whilst the CinCs knights also spread out to put pressure on the MMMW - but the Mighty Mighty Mesh-Wesh ratcheted up some top pips in the early bounds and managed to reorganize...
There was a moment of indecision - do we bring our two lines of knights together and try and kill off the meshwesh - they were by now 4 deep, but without flank support - or do we try and cave in their flank supports and stop their advance that way? However, in what was soon to become the pattern of the game, we found that having only 2 of our regular commands on table was to prove a great problem, and we rolled some imbalanced pip dice, meaning our hand was forced.
Our CinC's knights slammed into the Cv (S) and Kn (O) of the Libyans, and got bounced.... and our flank march didn't arrive. On the left we had 4 Kn (F) plus a general plus LH in support against 3 Kn (O) chariots + a Cv (S) general - if we could push them back we could also turn the flank of the Auxilia before they could overwhelm our smaller Ax force defending the RGo, and everything would be marvelous.... but we didn't....! Time and time again we rolled odd pips - one high, one low, but never enough to achieve what we wanted - one flank was always unable to exploit its advantages, and soon the tide turned and we were throwing our high pips into shoring up situations rather than exploiting them.
Then it happened - The Mighty Mighty Mesh-Wesh hit - we had done as best we could, with overlaps on both flanks, threatening their flanks, and their formation in disarray. But.......
...it didn't work, and we were nailed.
The Greeks fell in a matter of a couple of turns, and our Auxilia command also started to crumble under the assault of 2 of Mick B's commands - and we still had failed to make any impact in either of the Kn vs Kn combats ....and our flank march still failed to arrive !!!
As time drew on we got increasingly desperate - finally our auxilia were being overwhelmed, and it was clear that command was soon to fall. With a handful of elements already gone from the Kushite CinC's command we took a last gamble, turning his flank to get a mutual death scenario. If we won, we would be back in the lead having killed the CinC's command - if we lost we would be 2 commands down - but not out.Of course, in the pattern of the game, it was not to be, and we were now hanging on for grim life. Our viable forces occupied less than 1/3 of the table, and only now, when it was far too late, our flank march arrived. Including the last game we had gone 27 turns without it turning up - now it had, it was just in time to see the final moves, but not to participate !!
We threw everything forwards - partly to attempt to pull of an astounding recovery, as we had an outside opportunity of pulling back a command, but also partly to try and kill a couple more elements so we could take more than 5% of the enemy so we could get away with at least 1 BHGS point !!!
With a last flurry we threw Ps and Sp into the Kushite Bw, with overlaps galore, and with LH flowing up to support us it looked possible - but with our dice, it certainly wasn't !! The clock rushed on, and on the final throw of the dice at the end of bound 12 our CinC's command suffered it's final casualty - we had lost 10-0 !!
We left the dice on the table for some poor unfortunate to pick up and take away.....
