Thanks as ever to Bill and the team at PAWS for another excellent day of table-top action.
First time on the podium this year so some explanation for this unusual occurrence seems appropriate. Army choice was motivated by one simple thing - shooting. My last appearance at a PAWS event had resulted in a series of dismal defeats. The worst of which was a catastrophic game in which I was unceremoniously shot to pieces without making any contact with the opposing army. I therefore decided to take to this competition an army with plenty of fire power in an effort to expunge the memory of defeat.
Southern Dynasty Chinese seemed to fit the bill nicely. Lots of fast crossbows with a couple of chunky war wagons to stiffen things up a bit:
1x 4Kn Gen
1x 4Kn
2x War Wagon
2x 3Bld
2x 3Ax
4x 3Cb
Imagine my horror therefore when in my very first game I came up against Peter’s Japanese army which was composed almost entirely of solid bows! I could not believe my eyes, the shock was too much, added to which I realised I had forgotten to bring my trusty dice cup, do’h. Army morale slumped badly without a move being made or a dice thrown.
I forget the scenic layout but essentially Peter had a long line of bows and I didn’t. In the inevitable fire fight that followed I was indeed shot up very badly. Three nil down it was time to send in the knights. They were up against two spear elements which had become detached from the main firing line. My general bounced off one and his chums were doubled in very short shrift by the other and that was that. In retrospect I think I should have just charged in but war wagons are not keen on that sort of thing and are a bit slow anyway. So was it to be another repeat performance, a day of defeats?
Game two against Lyndon’s Koreans. I set up the scenery so that the centre of the board had woods and a hamlet quite close to each other to restrict his movement and to try to prevent his pike elements working together. The game started with some desultory shooting in the centre where luck went my way. My fast blades and auxilia then attacked into a wood on my right flank where once again the dice rolled in my favour (I had found a trusty dice mug by then so the army was feeling feisty). Lyndon’s pikes then got into action in the centre but were defeated by the war wagons and other friends. It was looking rather disorderly across the battlefield by then and as I was considering my next move we both realised that Lyndon had some how lost four elements, a nice surprise (for some).
Game three against Martin ‘horde master’ Smith with his Northern Dynasty Chinese. I was defending again with a similar deployment of scenery as in the previous game. Not too much open space with gaps to channel enemy units into crossbows and war wagons. As expected an express train of hordes quickly bore down on my centre. Unusually the hordes never made contact being shot up sufficiently to make a quick exit from the game. First time this has happened! Luckily Martin continued to throw an unhelpful runs of poor pip and combat dice. So despite his very best efforts, which included four knights bearing down on my weaker right flank nothing seemed to prevent his defeat. Rather a lot of casualties in that game.
Next up was the indomitable Martin Myers with a lot of Mu-jung cavalry. I was the invader and luckily was able to occupy quickly the top of a large gentle hill towards the middle of the board. A Hastings type battle for the hill then ensued with luck ebbing and flowing one way then another. Suffice to say that as the game drew to its conclusion we were both two elements down. I was still on the hill and Martin was busy organising his troops for another sally at the weaker end of my line. Divine intervention then occurred with the appearance of Bill who announced the final bound of the game. It was my move so I pushed up a crossbow element to help a friend shoot at Martin’s general and with the last dice roll of the game it killed him and so grasped victory from what by rights ought to have been a draw. What gentleman would not be embarrassed by such unwarranted good luck? Yes, I know who you are.
Three victories was enough to get into the final against Paul with more Northern Dynasty Chinese. Spear version rather than the horde option. An excellent photograph taken by Martin Smith of the game appears on the DBAList@groups.io/photo page for those interested.
I defended with large hamlet and a couple of amusing steep hills all quite close to each other towards the middle of the board. Usual plan; advance a bit, shoot a bit, fight a bit and hope the dice rolls are better than Paul’s. Plan worked well on the left flank where the crossbow defeated a couple of his bow elements. Didn’t work so well on my right flank where my slightly stronger force of two blades and two auxilia were badly mauled by Paul’s spears. I was three elements to two down and things were not looking good. Pips were draining away on the bow elements on the steep hills and Paul was bearing down on my right. Luckily the hamlet was slowing him down and I was very lucky with the pips dice. My crossbow eventually flooded the left flank steep hills and reigned down volleys of bolts onto his unhappy cavalry. Luck once again favoured the shooters and the Southern Dynasty prevailed 4-3 in a close game.
No great insights as to why the Southern Dynasty performed better than their northern friends. All elements performed both well and badly. Bows were easily defeated, blades got over excited when winning, knights were unreliable as were auxilia and war wagons slow and unreliable. Having said that all were also lucky when it counted and at least most of them could move quickly.
Thanks to everyone involved for another fun day.
