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Mortem et Gloriam - Ice and Fire Game Two - Hausa vs Early Selucids

Game two, after luch, began. I was not quite the bottom of the heap, but must have been pretty close. Mattered not, as I was there to have fun.
Early Selucid, Simon Cooper's beautiful army, full of pike blocks, catafracts long spears and... and... possibly elephants. This was going to be a HARD fight for my cavalry forces then!
Not only is Simon a great painter, he's also a lovely bloke, so this game was always going to be a scream.
Terrain fell to the flanks on the African plains. A growth of camel friendly scrub abutted the river to the right, a village pinned us in on the left, while rocky ground lurked beyond, anchoring the Selucid flanks perfectly. I chose to ambush some archers and my decent spears in the village, the third card in the scrub was a dummy. Basically, ambushing the infantry was to keep them safe and my archers would never actually appear, so happy with their little patch they were. My cavalries held the left, with my guard cavalry and cows angled right, my infantry centre right (archers vs pikes can be useful, not so against catafract armoured cavalry) and through the camel friendly scrub, eyeing up a unit of 8 Thracians and the camp behind warriors, were my camels. The giraffes were marooned mid-table, still looking bemused. Simon anchored each end of his line with spears, catafracts held the right, while a MASS of pikes held his centre. Good news though, no elephants! Phew.


Starting cards, not bad really, CinC still not firing on all cylinders.


Simon over committed his catafracts, trying to get at my archers (superior catafracts, yuck), but was met by my cavalry from the Tuaregs and, much to my delight, left his flank exposed to a charge from my COWS!
This was the best chance they would ever have of doing some damage.


After an ineffective catafract vs Tuareg charge, my cows FINALLY rolled an S on a yellow die and killed a base (it's a special effect, I never normally get it). I don't care about the rest of the game now, my cows killed something!


Told you they were beautiful. Simon advances his pike, which makes the giraffe non-combatants wonder if they will have any food attached to the long trees?


With the disintergration of the moo cows, the Tuaregs expand and took on both catafract units. The flanked units lost another base, a rather unexpected result really. However, the other catafract unit stands firm, dealing hits.


At this point I start applying Cummin's-cavalry-chaos theory, although no doubt not as well as he would. On the right in the scrub, my camels were charged in the flank by Selucid spears, while they charged at the Thracians. My Tuareg cavalry fought on with the two units of catafracts. To their left, my average cavalry starts to engage and pin pike blocks with flank charges as Simon has over extended his frontage. Below them, Queen Amina leads her guard horse into a charge on the catafracts.


I had the deck, so my camels charge the Thracians first, slaying a base and a half, while leaving the Selucid spears in their wake, but lined up for a dangerous rear charge later. Queen Amina slams in to the catafracts, it's a frontal charge, but it does the needed wound (2-0). Unfortunately, a covering pike block had got in arc of charge too with an  intercept and we had to contact them too. Flank charges on pike blocks kill a base and KaB tests for the catafract death liberally sprinkle wounds around.


My aevrage cavalry (sensibly) breaks away from the pikes after taking a lot of damage from pikemen who turned to face, and other pike units line up for their go at his flanks.


Over on the right, my other camel units turns to face the spear threat in the brush, this will be tight! More damage is done to the Thracians, but the catafracts are whittling away the Tuareg horse, and Queen Amina's guard are not looking to happy either having lost 3/6 bases.


The action was happening quickly now. Selucid spears hit my camels in the rear, while being caught in the back themselves by my other camels. Selucid sandwich anyone?


Amina's guards break (2-2), drat, without completing their follow up charge on the second catafracts. To their left, pikes charge horse, who is tieing who down now?


With the demise of the guards, the Tuareg horse go too, leaving me uncomfortably exposed (2-4). A flank charge may help as the pikes crash into my guard foot with bows, who do nowt! Pursuing catafracts within a hit of breaking meet unprotected, combat shy archers. Not a pretty sight!

On the far right, camels deal quickly with Selucid spears (4-4) and crash on in to the Thracian foot.


Archers, knowing they just need a wound to break catafracts, shoot for all their worth at the charging super heavy cavalry.
Not worth much then!!! Can I get a refund?


My dead pile grows, as does Simon's. Cavalry take the role of charge, fight, retire from pike blocks, each time pulling back before their exposed flanks get hammered. The catafract charge kills three out of eight archers.


Catafracts continue carving through my archers, who eventually throw the wound they need to break the tanks, even though they perish at the same moment. Those catafracts have now accounted for three units! (6-6)


Simon kills my foot with his pikes (6-8) one of my cavalry units is picked off by the pikes (6-10) while I overrun a skirmisher. (7-10). The Thracians crumble (9-10), and the camels smash into the Selucid camp, destroying it in one charge (15-10) securing a close victory for Queen Amina.

 

Hell of a game, really enjoyable and literally down to the wire for the win. Simon was very happy with ten points, and I was over the moon to have played such a nice guy with such a great army!
I now had 20 points, leapfrogging into mid-table obscurity.

Game 3: Peter Cross's Ming Chinese

Game 4: vs Cid's Gupta Indians

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