Game 4 - vs Rimmer - sorry, Hammy...
Lets get this straight right from the off. This is NOT a game of luck, its a
game of skill - we all
know that. Clever tactics always pay off, mistakes are always punished
severely.
Game 4 and I'm playing a Hunnic army under the command of James Hammy Hamilton (pictured, right). Graciously following our game in Derby he elects not to record every single dice roll made in the game, and we crack on.
Hammy is using Huns - not exactly a great fear for my wall-o-spear, but probably able to get out of their way as well. My challenge is to force a result, as neither of us are in a position that a draw will put us in the silverware...
The terrain falls interestingly, with clutter filling the right hand third almost entirely, leaving one broad corridor to the left of center as I look at it. I could choose to fill it up with spears and roll forwards, but what's the fun in that eh?
Instead I choose to send the blob of knights charging down the big gap, and flank march a command of spears as well, just in case Hammy is doing the same.
Hammy
has deployed his main strike command - 6 Ostrogoth knights, a general and their
supporting bowmen facing the gap. they are supported on their right by two
unfeasibly small commands - 7 Huns, and a 13 EE Hun command with some Cv (S) in
it. The Hunnic CinC is waiting at the back, on top of a hill, just in case I
attempt to filter a command in a series of columns through the maze of terrain
on my right to harass his flank....! My Flank march proved unreliable.......
The Ostrogoths charge forwards, 6 Kn in front and the general forming a second rank. The Huns also manage to get past the terrain on my left and expand out, overlapping the stretched Alan command, whose Bd (I) are forces to press themselves into service as flank guards to their own LH. The Hunnic CinC brings his group do knights off the hill to support.
But then the Ostrogoths get eager, and roll a 1 forcing them to come within
range of my knights with the general still stapled to the back of their line. I
don't want to fight, as my Alans are in a poor situation with their LH facing
enemy Cv & Lh with overlaps, and I need an extra turn to
re-organize myself for a sustained fight. But I too roll a 1 with the Alans, and
they have to crash in, dragging the old Table Circulaire with them. The
Hun general (pictured, right) crosses everything, as he is now realizing that he
started too far back, and now battle has been joined with him still a couple of
turns away with the 7th Cavalry!
Classic stuff, Kn vs Kn in turn 3. It is nip and tuck across the line - and I am choosing the order of combats with the big prize of the Kn (F) in front of the Ostrogoth firmly in mind.
It starts poorly - my Alans fail to get a decisive advantage where they have Kn vs Cv & LH, and are generally pushed back along the line - but my LH hold out. Then onto the Table Circulaire, who are actually engaged in the crucial melees. I do all the combats in the right order, but still end up losing ground, and a time comes to roll the last dice I have a overlapped Kn (F) vs a non-overlapped one, 3-4 down.
I roll a 6 - Rimmer replies with..... a 1 !! Its 9-5, going to 10-5 because of the (F), and the Table Circulaire have done the business and killed the general in the second rank !!
With their general down, the Ostrogoths decided it was time for Roger, Over
and Out .... they duly rolled a 1 with their next pip dice and turned tail and
fled, leaving the rest of the army 
(which
seemed like about 3 or 4 elements worth). The Hunnic general, still astride the
hill at the rear of the army gave his
verdict
The 7th Cavalry arrived, only to find themselves wedged into a kinked column facing supported spears by the bucket load, and with their flanks being stove in by the Table Circulaire. The Alans are having all sorts of fun tearing into tow tiny commands - and with the Ostrogoths gone the Huns are less than a command away from defeat - even the 7EE command will take them down. The situation was not good by any stretch of the imagination.
And it could not continue for long - the Flank march arrived just in time to see the last of the Ostrogothic archers flee off table, and then the Hunnic foe imploded with a second 6-1 by the Table Circulaire who had been overlapped by a pair of the surviving Cv (S), and so with2 commands broken and the other two on their knees it was all over - 10-0.
