Post by martin on Nov 12, 2018 12:15:30 GMT
Six challenging games at the excellent Tarrington Tourney scramble event on Saturday.
In this competition the army you provide is used by other players for five rounds, and then by yourself for solely the last game. A fixed batch of terrain has to accompany the army, as it works its way around the players. As others will be commanding your force for most of the day, the consensus among gaming friends seemed to be that a super-army would be counter-productive, and give your opponents good opportunities for success, so an average or poor quality army, or unsuitable terrain might set them a challenge.
My choice was from the II/73 Early Saxon etc list, a decidedly monotype bunch, with 11 densely packed warbands and a solitary psiloi element. This, I assumed, would struggle against many opponents, as it had almost no answer to mounted opposition. To make it more flexible, and maybe more of a challenge, I nominated that it would be ‘Frisians’, from the modern Dutch coast, and therefore have a propensity for naval operations (ie be ‘littoral’). The terrain would consist of a waterway, large hamlet, and medium sized patches of marsh and dunes (the latter to add a bit of fun if camels were encountered during the day).
Six games followed:-
1) Using Peruvian Chimu (mainly 3Ax and Ps) against Colin O’Shea, who commanded the Frisians, who defended. The Frisian landing party on my right was a distraction, but most of the action took place in the centre between the coast and a patch of sand dunes. At one point my troops surrounded the Frisian general but were forced back, and a counterattack saw my own 3Bd Chimu leader outflanked and crushed by the Frisian masses, as the game ended on a 3g - 3 loss.
2) Now I was allocated Sassanids, to invade Neil Mason’s Carolingian Franks. A confused fight on the left saw Frankish psiloi fall to Sassanian cavalry, before the enemy general countered and put paid to the left wing Persians’ chances. In the centre my elephant was delayed in breaking through the enemy spear line long enough for Neil to destroy my Daylami, horse archers and cavalry elements to give him a 4-2 win.
3) Defending, my next army, Picts, used a large village BUA to anchor my right flank as we deployed on an otherwise empty field against Alan Davison’s Aitolian Later Hoplite Greeks. The Greek hoplite centre and Pictish spearmen stood hurling unintelligible insults at each other while the action progressed on the flanks. On the right Pictish skirmishers held off a concerted effort from Aitolian psiloi in house to house fighting, while on the left the King of the Picts led his cavalry and light horse against even more Greek psiloi and light horse who were rapidly (and with some lucky dice) dispersed, to give a 4-0 Pictish victory.
4) My next army was Three Kingdoms Chinese, with an eclectic/confusing mix of troop types. We invaded against an Aitolian League army assigned to Tim Rogers (he had a mix of ‘solid’ auxilia, psiloi and light horse). His city, in my deployment area, came under immediate bombardment from Chinese artillery and crossbowmen, while most of Tim’s army initially clung to difficult hills on his side of the battlefield. The city denizens surrendered, Chinese warband moved in to garrison it, and Chinese foot and warwagons faced off the niggling enemy foot skirmishers in the centre. Elsewhere, however, the Aitolian light horse general and his colleagues wiped out my Chinese cavalry general and bodyguard, and the game was now in the balance. Lucky PIP dice allowed the Chinese enough manoeuvre to strike back for a win, 4+city - 2+general.
5) Gelimer Smith now led his African Vandals (11 x 3Kn, 1 x LH) against Tony Green’s Picti, who were ensconced between a hamlet and an area of fields. Most of the fighting ran to and fro up the Pictish right flank, with Vandal and Alan mounted tussling with Pictish light horse, cavalry and foot skirmishers. An abortive headlong attack on the Pictish centre failed to turn the game in my favour, after which the Vandal left collapsed, in a decisive 1-5 loss. Oops.
6) Finally, I led my Frisians against a Sassanid invasion under Shah Mark Johnson. Rejecting the idea of an aggressive naval landing, the Frisians initially deployed hiding in a corner, among dunes and marshes. As the Sassanids came on, the Frisians formed shieldwall and attacked, with their skirmishers and warbands surrounding and hamstringing Sassanid cataphracts, before moving against the enemy elephants. All this time Mark’s initiative dice were extremely cruel (1,1,1 for PIPs). When he finally counterattacked, the Frisians had a good run of luck in the ensuing combats, which saw the Frisian skirmishers crushed by nellies, but Persian cavalry, light horse, Daylami and levy all wiped out for a 4+Hd to 1 Frisian win...totally unexpected.
Great fun, many challenges and a superbly organised tournament.
In this competition the army you provide is used by other players for five rounds, and then by yourself for solely the last game. A fixed batch of terrain has to accompany the army, as it works its way around the players. As others will be commanding your force for most of the day, the consensus among gaming friends seemed to be that a super-army would be counter-productive, and give your opponents good opportunities for success, so an average or poor quality army, or unsuitable terrain might set them a challenge.
My choice was from the II/73 Early Saxon etc list, a decidedly monotype bunch, with 11 densely packed warbands and a solitary psiloi element. This, I assumed, would struggle against many opponents, as it had almost no answer to mounted opposition. To make it more flexible, and maybe more of a challenge, I nominated that it would be ‘Frisians’, from the modern Dutch coast, and therefore have a propensity for naval operations (ie be ‘littoral’). The terrain would consist of a waterway, large hamlet, and medium sized patches of marsh and dunes (the latter to add a bit of fun if camels were encountered during the day).
Six games followed:-
1) Using Peruvian Chimu (mainly 3Ax and Ps) against Colin O’Shea, who commanded the Frisians, who defended. The Frisian landing party on my right was a distraction, but most of the action took place in the centre between the coast and a patch of sand dunes. At one point my troops surrounded the Frisian general but were forced back, and a counterattack saw my own 3Bd Chimu leader outflanked and crushed by the Frisian masses, as the game ended on a 3g - 3 loss.
2) Now I was allocated Sassanids, to invade Neil Mason’s Carolingian Franks. A confused fight on the left saw Frankish psiloi fall to Sassanian cavalry, before the enemy general countered and put paid to the left wing Persians’ chances. In the centre my elephant was delayed in breaking through the enemy spear line long enough for Neil to destroy my Daylami, horse archers and cavalry elements to give him a 4-2 win.
3) Defending, my next army, Picts, used a large village BUA to anchor my right flank as we deployed on an otherwise empty field against Alan Davison’s Aitolian Later Hoplite Greeks. The Greek hoplite centre and Pictish spearmen stood hurling unintelligible insults at each other while the action progressed on the flanks. On the right Pictish skirmishers held off a concerted effort from Aitolian psiloi in house to house fighting, while on the left the King of the Picts led his cavalry and light horse against even more Greek psiloi and light horse who were rapidly (and with some lucky dice) dispersed, to give a 4-0 Pictish victory.
4) My next army was Three Kingdoms Chinese, with an eclectic/confusing mix of troop types. We invaded against an Aitolian League army assigned to Tim Rogers (he had a mix of ‘solid’ auxilia, psiloi and light horse). His city, in my deployment area, came under immediate bombardment from Chinese artillery and crossbowmen, while most of Tim’s army initially clung to difficult hills on his side of the battlefield. The city denizens surrendered, Chinese warband moved in to garrison it, and Chinese foot and warwagons faced off the niggling enemy foot skirmishers in the centre. Elsewhere, however, the Aitolian light horse general and his colleagues wiped out my Chinese cavalry general and bodyguard, and the game was now in the balance. Lucky PIP dice allowed the Chinese enough manoeuvre to strike back for a win, 4+city - 2+general.
5) Gelimer Smith now led his African Vandals (11 x 3Kn, 1 x LH) against Tony Green’s Picti, who were ensconced between a hamlet and an area of fields. Most of the fighting ran to and fro up the Pictish right flank, with Vandal and Alan mounted tussling with Pictish light horse, cavalry and foot skirmishers. An abortive headlong attack on the Pictish centre failed to turn the game in my favour, after which the Vandal left collapsed, in a decisive 1-5 loss. Oops.
6) Finally, I led my Frisians against a Sassanid invasion under Shah Mark Johnson. Rejecting the idea of an aggressive naval landing, the Frisians initially deployed hiding in a corner, among dunes and marshes. As the Sassanids came on, the Frisians formed shieldwall and attacked, with their skirmishers and warbands surrounding and hamstringing Sassanid cataphracts, before moving against the enemy elephants. All this time Mark’s initiative dice were extremely cruel (1,1,1 for PIPs). When he finally counterattacked, the Frisians had a good run of luck in the ensuing combats, which saw the Frisian skirmishers crushed by nellies, but Persian cavalry, light horse, Daylami and levy all wiped out for a 4+Hd to 1 Frisian win...totally unexpected.
Great fun, many challenges and a superbly organised tournament.