We gathered in the crisp lighht of Daventry Battlefield Hobbies for Fire and Ice, non-europen themed lists. So, I took horse archers, Ay Koyunlu or Aq Qoyunlu, protected horse archers (formally known as White Sheep Turkomen) with an Kara Qoyunlu (Black Sheep Turkomen) ally.
Horse archers, technically deadly, but so far have proved to be my bete noir! Each time I have used them I have been absolutely thrashed. I had set myself a goal of scoring about 8 points, basically, one TuG a game. I would be okay as long I did not meet anyone decent, or with massed shooting, or long spears or pikes or better cavalry than me, or...
So, Round 1 vs Qin.
Ray is an awesome player, and this was going to be a hard game. If he brought anything with shooting capability or decent shooting ability, I would be okay.
So, Qin... All bow armed! All foot in either units of nine with crossbows and pole arms, or polearms armed with polearms (so get a plus vs cavalry), and even had a TuG of skilled crossbows. Plus chariots with polearm, crossbows AND devastating charge and melee expert, a really nasty mixed bag. Charging crossbows also gets you a plus in your face too! I'm doomed...
The sun of a clear Daventry day burns down. I failed to control the terrain and it was filled with useful anti-cavalry stuff. A gentle hills pins the left flank, a waterway to the right (with Ray's boxes on it). Three largish areas of rocky ground. I was rather out scouted, and Ray deployed along his line, refusing the flank. He had two poor units by his camp, and my Kurdish lancers thought about it until Ray's skilled crossbows were also deployed on that flank.The rest of my forces were in the open on the left, looking for any perceptible weakness.
They found none!
We moved to bow range, while Ray's bottle blocked our way. My lancers decided they shouldn't hang around and tried to break away to the left.
However, Ray force marched his foot to 4BW, so I could not march moe away next go (and as his army is loose/flexible, it doesn't care about the rocky ground).
That's a superior polearm armed unit, not what lancers want to deal with, as we get no charge bonuses.
On the left, Ray's water bottle is causing issues! At least he was staying hydrated... My main issue here is Ray had better range than my horse archers, and I didn't fancy charging in and there was no flank to get round to cause issues. 
The only thing extending dangerously here was Ray's elbow! Two lines, with reserves of superior polearms. Argh! At least I successfully shot one base off in the centre, bit my allied superior cavalry had a base and a half mullered by Ray's shooting, as is one of my skilled shooters.
The lines close up, in my ain attempt to get in and shoot, but Ray is still holding a solid line. Blitzer counter marches left to try and find an opening moment.
The lancers, under the farmer, realise their route is going to be rather blocked, and turn and face the skilled crossbows. Their only saving grace here is one unit is effectively distracting 5!
That's the cards from a mediocre, a competent and a legendary general, all I needed was greens to fall back and buy myself thinking space! Oh well. 
Two cards for the lancers, a white and green would have allowed a charge and expand, or even a charge and break off, but nope.
Sometimes, you have to do something stupid or you get nil points. Shawn, leading his elite guard, charge in on a unit of Ray's crossbows, various other units hurl themselves at Ray's line (or Ray hurls himself at us) like cat's at a conservatory window. On the left, a unit of average horse is charged by the chariot mass and the cavalry, and loses bases like they were going out of fashion. Blitzer turns to face, knowing the unit ahead of him wasn't sticking around, while lots of other units are either at 0.00000000001 BW or in contact.
The lancers, with Ray setting up the inevitable flank charge, attempt to charge in, and do kill a base on impact, but lose a base and a half to closing fire on the way and are so slowed they don't make it! It does leave them a flank on the unit peaking out of cover though..
Timmy's superior cavalry are blown away (why do guard cavalry always do that), but Blitzer's horse do make it in. The cavalry fight continues as I only rolled handbags on Ray!
An unexpected success, Shawn smashes through the line with no losses (2 points, woohoo)! Unfortunately, the KaB (Kill a base Tests)s to Ray's units did nowt, while Blitzers horse disintegrates on the charge (2-2) taking the neighbouring friendly unit with it (2-4).
I mean, this really says it all, as a general collapse across the sheep line happens. Two units mutually dissolve, but most of Ray's forces have now gone out of shot pursuing out of the bottom of the screen! (4-8)
On the right, the lancers hit two units simultaneously, causing lots of damage, but if you look left, there used to be ten bases of cavalry there fighting nine infantry. Now there are just nine infantry as my remaining cavalry scatter back to safety! I didn't do a hit! Don't know why Ray was coming in for a flank charge, I wasn't there any more!
Apart from skilled shooters, and my guard, my whole army hightails it. Ray wins 4-15.
To be honest, I'm quite impressed with my performance here, I'm not as useless with horse archers as I thought, points are possible. This proves I am improving, and I got two units, which I was really happy with. Great game, lot of laughs and Ray finally gets his revenge for Warfare! Four points, maybe I could win my own Wooden Spoon?
To be honest, I didn't, I beat Steve Hughes, the met Hammy, and surprisingly beat him. Then Robin and I had round four brain fade and we called it at 10 all as neither of us was getting the killing blow in. I ended up in a thoroughly respectable eight place, my best rest in a long while, and with sheep powered horse archers!
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