Cold Ash Clash 2nd November 2024

I enjoyed The Clash, as always. Yesterday’s gathering provided all the ingredients for an excellent day of gaming – a great venue, good company, superb organisation and management, interesting tabletop tactical problems and some good luck at the right moments. I won’t mention the ones.

I took III/77 Papal Italian with four knights, thinking that with the usual run of weak armies a strong one would cause problems for those players who had to face it. Perhaps others had similar thoughts as most armies were good contenders for an open tournament.

Game 1. Two heavy hitting armies faced each other in good going. What would you do?
Braced for an unavoidable colossal slog between Papal Italians and my Later Hungarians I had to rely on that most fickle resource, luck, to batter an advantage – game drawn.

Game 2. My massed Swiss pikemen expected to be outflanked by fast moving Free Company knights and blades. Only one option!
I waited until they got close, making some line adjustments for better match ups and then, relying on luck again, I launched the massed pikes. Initially it didn’t look good, but the dice god began to look favourably upon me, and I won.

Game 3. The People’s Front of Judea, or was it, The Judean... cowered in the hills, no doubt arguing amongst themselves and my Picts were reluctant to join them. Impasse?
There was no point in attacking the massed horde who were sitting out in the good going and so I edged towards the other flank and began nibbling at exposed elements – with little success. Drawn game, but as someone once sang, “Always look on the bright side of life.”

Game 4. A Sung grand battery supported by massed archers and a sprinkling of protective blades and knights faced my Persians, composed of vulnerable cavalry, bows, horde… perfect shooting targets.
I got shot!

Game 5. My mixed bag of Kushans faced the solid Polybian Roman line. Would my knights break through? Would my weaker elements succumb to legionary professionalism?
My knights had the luck.

Game 6. Could the Picts destroy everything to their front, flanks secured by two large pieces of bad going? Would I have to throw my knights into the massed double ranked pikemen relying on quick kill luck?
Initially happy to wait for me to make the attempt on his formidable front the Pict player, harassed by my light troops on both flanks, saw more advantage in developing a breakout. At this point the mass of my knights arrived after countering an expected littoral landing and in a concerted army effort managed to separate several of the Pict pike elements from their battle line. This was an interesting tactical challenge which turned into a mammoth tussle, hard fought and close; until it wasn’t. At the end my good Christian Papal mercenaries were slavering at the prospect of ravaging the Pict baggage. Good banter. Great game!

Not long to Farnborough.