The theme was 'Fall of Rome', the lists were heavy, mine was small and powerful.
After Meglomaniacs, I had high hopes of getting a top 10, maybe even a top 5 ranking (Top three with Alasdair, Jason, Richard and Simon Elliot in the field was not gonna happen!
The field:
Player Army Date
Lee Sanders Palmyran 271
Lance Flint Early Sassanid Persian & Later Pre-Islamic Bedouin allies 301
Jason Broomer Imperial Roman, Western 336
Laurence Donohoe Early Sassanid Persian & Armenian Allies 337
Peter Cross Imperial Roman, Eastern 350
Richard Jeffrey-Cook Middle Sassanid Persian 360
Bruce Rollett Gepid 400
Raymond Duggins Greuthingi 401
Robin Spence Early Ostrogothic 405
Michael Bradford Early Ostrogothic 405
Will Denham Imperial Roman, Western 406
Nigel Emsen Early Post Roman British 407
Ian Newell Hunnic 443
David Parish Hunnic 451
Simon Clarke Gepid & Rugi Allies 454
Paul Cummins African Vandal & Later Moorish allies 455
Alasdair Harley Sciri & Gepid Allies 469
Peter Entwistle Eastern Later Feodorate Roman 470
Adrian Nash Eastern Later Feodorate Roman 476
Simon Elliott Sassanid Persian & Sabir Allies 490
This was the list that had scored me a massive 8 (out of 60) at the Worlds last year, could it actually do any better?
A good mix, but heavy on the Sassanids! As long as I didn't meet too many of those, I would be alright.7
First round draw: Laurence (Cid) and his Sassanids!
Oh well...
Cid's list was charging lancer heavy, with added catafracts. Brace! Brace! Brace!
First moves, my usual 'corner sitting' deployment. Note, we never sit, nor stay in the corner, very long. Maybe we should?
Two long lines, as Barker intended. It's an awful lot of trunkies facing my cavalry wing! Eeek!
You get nothing in MeG for sitting back, so an advance was called for.
Those elephants are getting VERY close! Cid had his catafracts in 4s, superior hard hitting but very brittle.
Meanwhile, off on another table, Ade had the perfect scouting hand! 120% anyone?
Meanwhile, back on the plains of Persia, Cid clashes in.
Elephants vs Catafracts, that is going to hurt, lots! Oh, hold on, the right hand elephants were stopped by a well timed javelin volley from my cavalry (black up to white, two wounds and a slow, thank you)!
Auxilia and Legions take on catafracts. This should be an easy ride for Cid.
Somehow, my catafracts stand against the elephant charge, and join my Exceptional legion in polishing off a unit of Sassanid catafracts!
The cavalry crash together. I am down on all combats here, but this is a massive delaying action, honest!
Cid's first two units break, allowing my legions and auxilia to pursue on.
The legions start to squash Persians. Those 4's were not helping.
My Equites are suffering on the flank, the Illyricani go first.
Cid gets a flank on my superior auxilia (top left), but the catafracts are falling fast (centre) and my Roman catafracts still hold up the elephants!!!
Erm, didn't we both have cavalry here a moment ago? Cid's allies evaporate as a unit of elephants is shot down by javelins!
I was four units down, breaking on 5!! Cid was down by 5 and broke on 6. My absolutely average auxilia, almost the worst troops in my army, repay Cid's flank charge on my superior auxilia. Two reds a white and a yellow on the charge plays two blacks. Yes please!
And this is what we rolled.
Cid's last charge, also not in his favour!
And my catafracts, about to be flanked, still held on against those pesky elephants.
I had about 5 units within a whisker of breaking! 15-8 to me, I got very very lucky, and it was an awesome game!
Game 2 vs Simon Elliot, table 1! Serious nosebleed territory.
Give you a clue, there are only two photos from this game, as I lost 0-15 in about an hour and a half, of which at least half an hour was set up! My catafracts collapsed, my exception legionaries were dire, and his elephants killed three units of cavalry in a bound with a flank charge! OUCH!
Simon went on to a well deserved tournament win, with an almost faultless weekend).
It looked good up until here...
It was still a good game, I was very close to taking some of his units, honest!
Game 3, Sunday, vs Ian Newell and his almighty Huns.
We had previously played at Meglomaniacs with the same armies, so he was wise to my tricks!
But he still charged my exceptional legion frontally!
My flank holding action failed rather.
And my cavalry, supported by superior auxilia, could not get the cards to do much except pin and die!
A shaky shot as the game nears its denumont! Yes, I am surrounding his camp, but we never got there!
Ian knocking well deserved lumps out of my cavalry and auxilia. In fact, I had lost three units here by this point!
My catafracts engage some allied cavalry, but we still can't reach his camp!
Thankfully, my average auxilia sold themselves dearly, and stopped Ian from reaching my camp.
But it wasn't enough, in another great game, I took a smashing, and lost 4-15 to a real gentleman.
I had gone from top table round 2 to very bottom table, with only 19 points, I was at least ahead of the worlds, but was languishing massively.
Game 4: vs Pete Entwhistle and his Eastern Later Romans (Splitters).
It was also wime gums vs midget gems. Tasty! Two very similar lists, his had more heavy cavalry and foedrate devastating charge infantry. Only one superior infantry unit too, but all his were dart armed. Could be painful!
The table was interesting, with TWO town deployed, and they were basically next to each other. An area of rocky ground with a nice lane to approach, and many, many many woods!
I chose to be aggressive, what else?
My catafracts go on the offensive early, finding a nice unit of legionaries that were meant to get into the town in loose formation in the open, yummy! My superior cavalry also sees an opportunity to redeem itself by picking on a warband unit in the open too!
My legions in loose formation march through the second town, while the auxilia clear the woods after securing the first town.
Yeah, this should be an easy win for my cats.. err... we missed!
And he didn't! two bases down in seconds. This was not in the plan. Legion and cavalry smash into the Easterner.
And the excpetionals meet Pete's superior legion, while my average legion clashed with his.
Yeah, that was fun! ;)
Bugger! My legion disintergrates from Pete's. We are in trouble! My exceptionals chew through his legion, while the superior auxilia deal slowly with his superiors. My cavalry is taking losses, but is eating its way through Pete's other warband. My Catafracts do something never tried before, and break off as they are down to THREE bases and break on 3.5.
Meanwhile, three cavalry of Pete's bear down on two of mine. Unfortunately his are better than mine, and I didn't have much room left to run!
And one unit decided not to run, my Illricanii would suffer a short and ignominious death!
My 3 catafracts vs Pete's 6, plus light horse... A certain loss. and so it was! My cavalry and Pete's warband had mutually destroyed each other seconds previously! This was getting tight!
A sandwich! Exceptionals and averages in the back save my remaining average legion before Pete could catch them in the back, the Kill A Base test would also rout the legion that was threatening my rear!
Hot cavalary aon cavalry action, as my cavalry again go for the 'heroic sacrifice' option.
I'm sure there is something important under there!
My exceptionals clash into his legion, his cavalry and my superior auxilia, fearing the worst, chase the light infantry archers off the back of the table to secure 9 points in case I break first!
My average auxilia also pile in, they were my second most successful unit all weekend, accounting for 5 units!
However, my exceptionals munched everything Pete threw at them, breaking his last unit, before my cavalry finally evaporated, leaving me with a 15-8 win.
Another awesome game, right to the last, could have swung either way. My catafracts should have munched his foot, failed, a legion broke early, my cavalry sold themselves dearly. But in the end, exceptional foot and useless foot win the day!
The final results. My Romans scores 34 points, a respectable score which put me into 14th place out of 20, 4 places off my target, but more importantly, one place above Nigel! :)
After Meglomaniacs, I had high hopes of getting a top 10, maybe even a top 5 ranking (Top three with Alasdair, Jason, Richard and Simon Elliot in the field was not gonna happen!
The field:
Player Army Date
Lee Sanders Palmyran 271
Lance Flint Early Sassanid Persian & Later Pre-Islamic Bedouin allies 301
Jason Broomer Imperial Roman, Western 336
Laurence Donohoe Early Sassanid Persian & Armenian Allies 337
Peter Cross Imperial Roman, Eastern 350
Richard Jeffrey-Cook Middle Sassanid Persian 360
Bruce Rollett Gepid 400
Raymond Duggins Greuthingi 401
Robin Spence Early Ostrogothic 405
Michael Bradford Early Ostrogothic 405
Will Denham Imperial Roman, Western 406
Nigel Emsen Early Post Roman British 407
Ian Newell Hunnic 443
David Parish Hunnic 451
Simon Clarke Gepid & Rugi Allies 454
Paul Cummins African Vandal & Later Moorish allies 455
Alasdair Harley Sciri & Gepid Allies 469
Peter Entwistle Eastern Later Feodorate Roman 470
Adrian Nash Eastern Later Feodorate Roman 476
Simon Elliott Sassanid Persian & Sabir Allies 490
A good mix, but heavy on the Sassanids! As long as I didn't meet too many of those, I would be alright.7
First round draw: Laurence (Cid) and his Sassanids!
Oh well...
Cid's list was charging lancer heavy, with added catafracts. Brace! Brace! Brace!
First moves, my usual 'corner sitting' deployment. Note, we never sit, nor stay in the corner, very long. Maybe we should?
Two long lines, as Barker intended. It's an awful lot of trunkies facing my cavalry wing! Eeek!
You get nothing in MeG for sitting back, so an advance was called for.
Those elephants are getting VERY close! Cid had his catafracts in 4s, superior hard hitting but very brittle.
Meanwhile, off on another table, Ade had the perfect scouting hand! 120% anyone?
Meanwhile, back on the plains of Persia, Cid clashes in.
Elephants vs Catafracts, that is going to hurt, lots! Oh, hold on, the right hand elephants were stopped by a well timed javelin volley from my cavalry (black up to white, two wounds and a slow, thank you)!
Auxilia and Legions take on catafracts. This should be an easy ride for Cid.
Somehow, my catafracts stand against the elephant charge, and join my Exceptional legion in polishing off a unit of Sassanid catafracts!
The cavalry crash together. I am down on all combats here, but this is a massive delaying action, honest!
Cid's first two units break, allowing my legions and auxilia to pursue on.
The legions start to squash Persians. Those 4's were not helping.
My Equites are suffering on the flank, the Illyricani go first.
Cid gets a flank on my superior auxilia (top left), but the catafracts are falling fast (centre) and my Roman catafracts still hold up the elephants!!!
Erm, didn't we both have cavalry here a moment ago? Cid's allies evaporate as a unit of elephants is shot down by javelins!
I was four units down, breaking on 5!! Cid was down by 5 and broke on 6. My absolutely average auxilia, almost the worst troops in my army, repay Cid's flank charge on my superior auxilia. Two reds a white and a yellow on the charge plays two blacks. Yes please!
And this is what we rolled.
Cid's last charge, also not in his favour!
And my catafracts, about to be flanked, still held on against those pesky elephants.
Game 2 vs Simon Elliot, table 1! Serious nosebleed territory.
Give you a clue, there are only two photos from this game, as I lost 0-15 in about an hour and a half, of which at least half an hour was set up! My catafracts collapsed, my exception legionaries were dire, and his elephants killed three units of cavalry in a bound with a flank charge! OUCH!
Simon went on to a well deserved tournament win, with an almost faultless weekend).
It looked good up until here...
Game 3, Sunday, vs Ian Newell and his almighty Huns.
We had previously played at Meglomaniacs with the same armies, so he was wise to my tricks!
But he still charged my exceptional legion frontally!
My flank holding action failed rather.
And my cavalry, supported by superior auxilia, could not get the cards to do much except pin and die!
A shaky shot as the game nears its denumont! Yes, I am surrounding his camp, but we never got there!
Ian knocking well deserved lumps out of my cavalry and auxilia. In fact, I had lost three units here by this point!
My catafracts engage some allied cavalry, but we still can't reach his camp!
Thankfully, my average auxilia sold themselves dearly, and stopped Ian from reaching my camp.
I had gone from top table round 2 to very bottom table, with only 19 points, I was at least ahead of the worlds, but was languishing massively.
Game 4: vs Pete Entwhistle and his Eastern Later Romans (Splitters).
It was also wime gums vs midget gems. Tasty! Two very similar lists, his had more heavy cavalry and foedrate devastating charge infantry. Only one superior infantry unit too, but all his were dart armed. Could be painful!
The table was interesting, with TWO town deployed, and they were basically next to each other. An area of rocky ground with a nice lane to approach, and many, many many woods!
I chose to be aggressive, what else?
My catafracts go on the offensive early, finding a nice unit of legionaries that were meant to get into the town in loose formation in the open, yummy! My superior cavalry also sees an opportunity to redeem itself by picking on a warband unit in the open too!
My legions in loose formation march through the second town, while the auxilia clear the woods after securing the first town.
Yeah, this should be an easy win for my cats.. err... we missed!
And he didn't! two bases down in seconds. This was not in the plan. Legion and cavalry smash into the Easterner.
And the excpetionals meet Pete's superior legion, while my average legion clashed with his.
Yeah, that was fun! ;)
Bugger! My legion disintergrates from Pete's. We are in trouble! My exceptionals chew through his legion, while the superior auxilia deal slowly with his superiors. My cavalry is taking losses, but is eating its way through Pete's other warband. My Catafracts do something never tried before, and break off as they are down to THREE bases and break on 3.5.
Meanwhile, three cavalry of Pete's bear down on two of mine. Unfortunately his are better than mine, and I didn't have much room left to run!
And one unit decided not to run, my Illricanii would suffer a short and ignominious death!
My 3 catafracts vs Pete's 6, plus light horse... A certain loss. and so it was! My cavalry and Pete's warband had mutually destroyed each other seconds previously! This was getting tight!
A sandwich! Exceptionals and averages in the back save my remaining average legion before Pete could catch them in the back, the Kill A Base test would also rout the legion that was threatening my rear!
Hot cavalary aon cavalry action, as my cavalry again go for the 'heroic sacrifice' option.
I'm sure there is something important under there!
My exceptionals clash into his legion, his cavalry and my superior auxilia, fearing the worst, chase the light infantry archers off the back of the table to secure 9 points in case I break first!
My average auxilia also pile in, they were my second most successful unit all weekend, accounting for 5 units!
However, my exceptionals munched everything Pete threw at them, breaking his last unit, before my cavalry finally evaporated, leaving me with a 15-8 win.
The final results. My Romans scores 34 points, a respectable score which put me into 14th place out of 20, 4 places off my target, but more importantly, one place above Nigel! :)
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