Saturday just gone, as Adrian fixed our plumbing in the morning, I played Roger, then after lunch, I took on Adrian.
Great having brothers in the area who like the same games, counts as one bubble, honest!
Neil Bosher's table has neer seen such action, since lockdown started it's out at least twice a week!
Game 1 vs Roger.
My Hausa Kingdoms with Tuareg alies vs his Tuaregs, with two Tuareg allies. Eek! A historical match up.
Roger said he has never defended with this army, so I let him. Scouting went my way then (red is 40, yellow 20, green 10, everything else 0)...
The armies deploy. Roger picked sand dunes (I have these lovely examples) as his camels ignore them. Talking of camels, 7 units of them! Gah! Not good for mounted armies. My infantry decided sitting on a hill was probably a good idea.
Grandad left to be the baggage, a job he was qualified for.
Cantabrian light horse harrass the end of the Tuareg line.
My four main cavalry units feeling a little outnumbered, and out classed.
My own Tuareg allies go off to tie down one of Roger's Tuareg allies. Giraffes look on in puzzlement.
I an effort to pull his line apart, knowing that to get any tribal units to do anything apart from walk forwards, you need yellow cards or higher, my light horse peeled off, as did my superior cavalry. My camels might even have found a flank while one of Roger's two cavalry units had found the edge of the sand and got stuck without the right cards to move.
My superior camels (right) charge his third divsion, aiming for two of his units, to pin the line, while my average camels charge his superior cavalry's flank, while my superior cavalry, led by Queen Amina, charge home vs Roger's superior camels.
Roger's flank camels charge my light horse, and caught both, destroying them instantly! Bother! But I did do some casulties on the way out. (0-2)
In the centre, his two units of camels, one average, one superior, smash into (and nearly through) my three units of cavalry. All my units started on 6 bases! Roger was five up on the charge (short spear, devastating charge, superior, camel, general and I shot and evaded, I had short spear for +1) throwing Red and green on his charge, generating 'shatter' results to adjacent units to use (+2 on the dice, red and red) and mullered me!
Over on teh right, I had brought forwards my two long spear units and my guard archers (short spear bows) to assist the camel allies (mine, not his). Their first short proved their worth, three wounds on the camels (his, not mine)!
Roger samshed through my cavalry (oops) putting him 0-8 up! His command pursued, and then produced these cards. Think teh allies have done their job and have settled down for a nice cup of tea!
My guard archers do it again! Two and a half bases off the (enemy) camels (Roger had bought a wound back)!
As Roger's left hand allies still refused to move, Adrian had finished the plumbing and we started on the beers that were a leaving present from a school I worked with this year.
Which results in some pictures missing here, but my superiors killed their opponents (2-8) and my average camels killed their target (4-8) and even my giuard archers finished off that camel unit (6-8), but Roger smashed my superior camels (6-10) and then hit one of my long spear units in the flank with superior cavalry (6-12 - really 6-10, as you can't go above 10 until the game is over).
On teh left, Roger still could not move his allies, apart from turning one around. They've done their job, why worry?
I needed one wound to break another unit, over two turns, could my guard get it?
No!
Instead they broke, giving a well deserved win to Roger (6-15)
Amina and camels could do nothing to average camels. So much for a legend!
Look, allied camels moved, eventually!
Woops! 6-15 loss. Tuareg camels vs a mounted army is a hard fight. My gaurd archers did well, but the rest of my army somewhat underperformed, ween when they had adavantages, allowing Roger to take my army and break it into thousands of little pieces.
We broke for a leisurely lunch in the sun, and then reset for game 2.
Game 2: Siatic Egyptian vs Adrian's Greco-Bactrian
Not historic, but fun!
My Siatic undead vs Adrian's almost all mounted Greek succesor state from Bactria. An interesting mix of lancers, light horse and potentially all sorts of other nasties.
Deployment and I defended, two areas of rocky ground (with my new, unpainted Scotia-Grendal Egyptian ruins) and Adrian chose a wood, which he plonked two ambushes in. My Egyptian foot too the right wing, with archers and slingers in the rockiness, spears left of them, and then mercanary Greek hoplites (which I must paint). That's an awful lot of lancer cavalry aimed at my two chariots and unprotected horse unit! Maybe not...
My plan, get the chariots out of dodge, block the gap that Adrian was going to bring his catafracts through, while pushing left with my Egyptian spears.
Wall of spears vs wall of lancers!
My cards decided not to help when I needed maximum manouverability!
I was able to shove my light horse out the way, and then Adrian brought his cavalry through the rockiness of the ruins, knowing all my loose stuff was on the other flank!
REACT! Hoplites facing spears. Chariots facing catafracts shooting black dice because of the Cats heavy armour, 
Superior Egyptian spears redeploy top face more lancers.
Superior Egyptian spears redeploy top face more lancers.
Adrain's lancers charge my spears in the flank, but failed to clear the rough, so were disadvantaged. My spears made short work of them (2-0), ably assisted by blue squadron of chariots. Top and top left other spears face off against lancers. Cretan archers and cantabrian archers cause problems for my average Egyptian spears.
Adrian has his ambush sprung by my troops coming into visible range. A unit of Indian spearmen and a superior lancer unit. The lancers smash into Egyptian spears, but in the process catch the eye of the skilled Egyptian bows, knocking off two bases! The Indians are plugged at by javelins and normal bows on the right, slowing their charge so they cannot contact.
In fact, the superiors do so well that the massively outclassed spears beat them! (4-0) My bows, charged by the Indian foot, blow them away and then beat them in combat (even when massievely outclassed) (6-0), unfortunately, one of my Egyptian spears is shot to pieces by the combined weigth of skirmishing horse and cretan archers (bit embarrissing) (6-2).
And my superior Egyptians deal with a unit of lancers emerging from the rough (8-2), my red squadron of chariots fail to do any damage to rampagiung catafracts, but have stopped them blitzing into the backfield, and that is enough to win for the Egyptians.
However! A second unit of Egyptian spears were cruelly shot to pieces by the Cretan archers! (15-4) Honestly, they were the best performing unit in Adrian's army...
Another top game. Adrain could not get the flanks he wanted as I bottled myself in between the three terrain pieces. My bows performed brilliantly, and my Greeks redeemed themselves from Paul's unprotected bows.
Adrian spent a long time backing lancers away from Greeks, trying to drag them out, but thankfully I have met them often enough to know how nasty they can be! Great game, and puts the undead on 1-1 so far.
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