Game 3 - vs E Byzantines
Experience is a great thing.
20/20 hindsight is even better
Gifting both to your opponent is however just plain careless !
I'd played a practice game against Nick Farrel a couple of weeks before Warfare. Having never seen my army before and expecting a wall of spears, he was caught totally unprepared for the onslaught of my 2 knight commands, and had send 1/3 of his army on a flank march, reducing further his ability to counter my Kn and which arrived too late to have any significant impact on the game.
Unfortunately he was not to make the same mistake again!
We both tried to clutter up the table, Nick deploying attackers H(S) and me using woods and hills as well. The key pieces were a wood in his forward central sector, and a steep hill in his half of the table to my right. This created 2 corridors down which either of us could attack - but with Nicks baggage on his left it was clear that this would be the decisive side of the table.
It was clear Nick was not about to come out to play (or to sacrifice his army attacking spears and a superior number of Kn more accurately), so I decided after an extended period of contemplation (erm, about 1 second.... maybe less?) to have a Charge of the Light Brigade with the 2 knight commands, hoping to ride my luck and force something to happen. With both mounted commands having an expendable strike force, this actually wasn't as bad as it sounded, as I would stand a chance of losing 1 command, but even if I lost both CinC and Alans I'd still pick up 2 points (in old money) from the game as they were far less than half the army.
Spears vs LH, Spears vs a Wood, Table Circulaire vs LH & Cv (S), Alans vs Kn & Cv (S)
The Alans and Tablers charged into the valley of death - but took surprisingly few casualties on the way, as the shocked Byzantines backpedaled furiously, not quite sure what to make of this impetuous advance - especially as the supporting spear command was unreliable! Gradually the Byzantines set up an almost perfect defensive position, and all we could do was just to keep reinforcing the by-now multiple blocks of knights with Lh and even cavalry, who had time to redeploy from the far left of the table to help harass the Byzantine LH.
By now the left had spear command was getting very ragged, but with only light horse to chase it was in confident mood, able so spend pips on its 2 Cv who were helping the main assault, and also chasing LH with spearmen in an attempt to attack the enemy's pips.
The
main spear command became reliable, and a furious skirmish developed in the
wood, as the inferior Auxilia from the two foot commands suddenly found them
selves with time and opportunity to try and hand out a spanking to the
excellently painted but rather unsupported Byzantine Ps (S) lurking there
without intent
The two lines clashed, and there was much carnage on both sides as Knights fought knights and cavalry fought LH - pushing each other around a a series of odd angles, and sometimes into the difficult going that bordered the field of play.
A surprisingly effective "action" shot of Nicks well painted Museaum Byzantine LH & cavalry attempting to resist a furious charge by my somewhat less well painted (but not embarrassingly so) Essex Gothic cavalry and medieval knights
It was nip and tuck, with shots ricocheting off the woodwork and good chances for both sides to score goals, but but just before the final whistle blew Alan (the big Croatian striker) tripped, stumbled and fell, letting the fleet footed Turk's to sneak in a tuck the ball just inside the near post. A 4-6 home defeat. Close, but no cigar, and I think we could have won it in the second half if the grass hadn't been so long..........
