For the final team we were playing theRed Barons from Belgium - and I was up against the monstrous uber-army of LPIA. My only hope was that the heat of the desert where we were fighting would also rid me of the pesky mosquitoes, who had plagued me overnight, and (freed of the need to occupy the battlefield after the game) I would emulate the blitzkrieg like successes of the US army (who were based nearby) in an operation Desert Storm.
|
US Army Apache Helicopter |
Nasty Indonesian Mosquito |
This meant facing off a vast wall of blades, camels and LH (O) - basically more stuff than my army, and usually better quality. My only real options were to try and get any of my knights into his blades, and to try and initiate a rapid advance to try and engage his LH (O) in a "Light Horse Lottery" with hopefully greater numbers of my LH (F) before they could withdraw and clear the way for the camelry to come through.
After 3 beers and some red wine and a 4 course lunch I quickly decided that with one LPIA commands blades hiding behind a massive area of dunes on my left, the only way to win the game looked like by beating the big 33.5 EE command in the centre - accordingly I planned on putting both knight commands into it, with the bowmen, spears, Ax(S) and lone knight from the ally acting as extra punch in the pivot of my two commands. Brace Yerself Sheila!
The big crunch arrived pretty soon (as I had hoped) but it also
involved my knights (X) vs quite a few camels, and also against the only Bd (O)
in the enemy army (not exactly my plan). Here the gods of Vino Rosso clearly favored
the outlanders, and the camelry exploded in a satisfying 
exploding
camel noise, losing 3, and a couple of blades in the first 2 rounds of
combat.
This opened up the game considerably, but still hadn't put much of a dent in the LPIA game plan. And on my right the "LHL" got off to a bad start as I lost 3 elements in the first turn (out of my 9.5 command....). However, even with the LPIA centre gradually collapsing, I still was a long way off the army - and if I retreated on the flank my own centre would be exposed, and it could all still go horribly wrong.
I decided to risk it all - keep the LH committed, and gradually they fought back - and with one heroic act of bravery they turned onto the flank of the general from the small LPIA command on the flank - an overlap gave me a 2-2 combat, neither side able to recoil, and a command down either way!
Again the dice favored me, and the LPIA flank threat evaporated - soon the centre also collapsed, and the game was won - 10-0 to me!!
All in all a good set of results - helping our team sneak into first place overall by 3 BHGS points / 1 in old money - the narrowest of margins.
The trophy was considerably better than the one from Derby - and we actually also got a jar of local organic Honey, which was also nicer than the Derby Trophy from last year - if you have forgotten, here it is.
Certainly some great food, good games, and nice (-ish) weather. Huge thanks to the incredibly laid back and Italian organization for making us all into Italians for the weekend - scheduling 2 hours for lunch both days, having a start time of "somewhere between 8:30 and 10am", and having a plan to get 40-odd wargamers to a meal somehwere in the countryside of "well, theres quite a few of us with cars so I'm sure you can get a lift with someone" all worked perfectly in our book.
To be fair to Derby, Tirrenia isn't the most exciting of towns either, more like a road near the sea with some Italian cafes on it so if the weather had been grim it would not have been quite so nice - but a nicer trophy, nicer food and playing 4 nice people I'd not seen before were all great value.
The run of results meant that in the past 12 months of competition singles games I've only had 2 non-decisive results - out of 30 - ouch!
Next time I'd hopefully remember mosquito spray though... !
I haven't really got a caption for this photo, but I'm not sure it needs one really....
The End
