Fluffy stared out across the almost barren plain, as the Mongol horde arrayed itself. Tumen after Tumen, horse archers streamed everywhere, and lurking behind, the guard of the Khan himself.
'This is going to be a hard day' he muttered under his breath.
David from the Leighton Buzzard Wargames Club had asked for a game, and in amongst the rubble of our kitchen refit, and the tidal waves of my daughter's paddling pool, we set up in the garden in the dappled shade of apple and cherry trees for a most enjoyable afternoon's fight.
David chose to defend and picked 'plains' as his territory type, which is bad news for me as I suffer in open terrain with my Samurai (especially agaisnt one of my two bet noires, horse archer armies). Thankfully, I did manage to force the terrain into 'Normal', so some terrain was on table, but the splats you see are carefully chosen 'open' terrain spaces by David. The first real surprise of the afternoon was the scouting phase. Samurai don't believe in scouting, so a white card (0%) is pretty decent for us. I was not expecting David, on five cards (flexible mounted armies generate a LOT of cards) to have a handful of zebras!!! 0% for him too, so David deploys his army in thirds first. Yes, I had just outscouted Mongols!!! 
My list was the usual list, the only difference is my elite cavalry is not starting on horseback (dismountable is a useful trait), as although it losses my much feared mobility and short spears, plus I count as loose in the open if hit by cavalry, I get powerbows at their full 5BW range (insert evil Muhahaha here).
David deployed in depths with a mixed cloud of horses, with three professional competent generals, and a lot of mobility. I went with an anchor on a patch of tall crops hiding my average, normal bows, and the rest in a solid line and muttering many a prayer. 
David surged forwards, bringing his light horse archers round my flank aiming for an easy kill on my four based dismounted cavalry. Unfortuately, this left him in range of three stands of powerbows. I had moved up to within a BW (shoving back most of the army as it was in skirmish formation) and unleashing the Samuari's secret weapon (+1 for skilled vs average, +1 for powerbow vs mounted, +1 for the horse archers being unprotected and within 1BW), not a great result, but David learnt an immediate lesson, stay out of range of powerbows! 
He kept out of short range after that! Further down the line, one of his superior Tumens was also at point blank range, so only yellow! We didn't need the plus...
That unit scattered backwards quickly! David launched one Tumen through a gap in my lines, I though he was going for a Cummins-esq flank destroyer, but it headed for my camp, so with a slight sigh of releif, I detailed an Ashugaru unit to hunt it down (love drilled flexible troops, they can do all sorts of stuff with decent cards). They charged him, pushing him away from the camp.
On the upper left, my other dismounted Samurai was enganged in an archery duel with the light horse (who were npow at a safe distance), and lost a base (eek), but killed a base in return, leaing the horse archers brittle as glass . Across my line, my spear units are weathering the arrow storm of the Mongols skilled archers. 
My archers moved up into range of the beaten up Tumen, and killed another base, which upsets them (2-0), but behind them, the Khan's excpetional guards are looming, when they commit, it will hurt, a lot!
My average bows swing in on the right, peppering a light horse unit with arrows (they just wanted to show the skilled archers they were as good really). Wounds adorn my army like beads on a frat boy at mardis gras. 
A superior and an exceptional cavalry loom large, aimed at my samurai foot, while my superior spears (left) and average allied spears (right) sqaure off to cavalry and light horse, I needed a plan, and quick before I lost my army's elite (exceptionals +2, short spear +1, vs loose in the open +1, plus optional +1 for the Khan, I would be toast as superiors +1 Fluffy, +1, and nowt else)!
To the right, my allied spears, somewhat peppered by bow fire already, are charged by flexible superiors. I lose another base, taking me from 6 to a very brittle 4, but in the process I kill the file with the general attached, which causes a KaB (Kill A Base) on him, and I roll a skull! This means David's Tumen cavalry was leaderless across the table for a turn. 
My damaged archers reach out and touch horse archers, breaking them (3-0), but behind them lurk David's heavy cavalry.
Somehow, average long spears +2, are keeping ecxceptional cavalry at bay, and even causing significant damage. Doing well on a green and two overlapping whites, three wounds. Meanwhile, my superior spears expand while dealing the damage to the other superior cavalry.
My average bows (left) started to pressure the Tumen and the light horse, while my spears keep hitting cavalry.
On the right, my two sets of dismounted samurai face the approaching heavy horse. My superior spears on the right polish off a Tumen of horse. (5-0)
Meanwhile, on the hill, my spears push the Tumen cavalry back beyond my camp to the table edge, causing a KaB.
David's superior cavalry hits superiors loose foot, the archers fire, and one base killed on the way in, but...
Cavalry vs loose +1, short spears +1, superiors +1, vs superiors +1. I get steamrollered. (5-2)
In the centre, black plus shooting dice from David land on my superior spears (should be white+, but he is firing on an overlap so is at -1), and its a wound (1:6 chance)! Good roll sir.
David's follow up charge on my other bows. Closing fire does a base of damage, and can they hold on?
Over the next couple of turns, a lot of high quality troops on both sides spend the whole turn rolling misses, nothing to see here!
But David's skirmishers do ANOTHER wound from shooting, these boys are GOOD! Thankfully, I bought the last one off.
The Khan's guard are finished off by my spears (7-2) and they join my superiors trying to break the other superior foot. My average bows suffer losses, but also beat up an unprotected Tumen who sulk off into the background! This is where my superior spears get the final kill to break the unit, giving me a 15-2.
A great game, which was very pleasent in the sunshine. David played well with a hard army to get right, and his force had at least two more of my units within a hit of breaking. He has some rather inopportune blank dice, and I was trying to pick my fights carefully. His heavy cavalry was all in fours, making them very brittle, and we talked how to make some into 6s, which are a touch more durable. His command structure was interesting, with all his elites under one commander, his tumen under another and skirmishers with the third, meaning that once his army spread he had troops out of control, especially when one of his generals died at the wrong moment. I suspect in future he will split his army into thirds geographically like other do. Long spears and powerbows and not nice to face when unprotected mounted. I'm sure in the hands of Nik or Paul, this force would tear me to shreds, and David will enjoy doing so very soon I am sure.
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