Round four.
Hunter and one of his typical massive horde lists, eek! This will hurt. Last time I met him, he tore me to pieces with his Khwadji taking out my Samurai.
Back to the Wadi-al-Shawady, and all to play for to avoid an ignorminious placing and shame for the Empire..
Scouting was a draw, so I was putting out first as defender. I went with my 'no, I don't corner sit' corner sitting for a turn as all the terrain dispeared off the right flank to see what Hunter would do. Hunter deployed a massive line of short spear, tribal close melee expert foot almost as long as his back edge, and two sets of unprotected cavalry on the left, one one set on the right, escorted by a brace of skilled light cavalry (think Numidians) on each flank, and a unit of pure dross at the rear to hide. My disgraced cavalry hid behind my legions on the left, waiting for the inevitable sweep round, and my legions pivotted outwards to push them back. What I was waiting for was the massive foot rush while the cavalry worked round my flanks, and to start with, it looked like it was due to happen. On the right, I pushed forwards my heroic archers to support a legion vs Hunters cavalry.
First shot of the game, two green dice vs unprotected horse, yes please (and a white against their escorting light horse).
Drat! Oh well, a wound is a wound.
This caused Hunter to pause his plans on my right as he had forgotten my archers were out there. He then pulled back, my archers matched pace with the horse and kept shooting! He fell back, I moved and kept in range, he turned away, I double moved to shooting range and shot him the next go. My bows were having the weekend of their lives! My right hand legion was on guard duties, watching on while taking bets. In the centre my superiors and an average legion looked at the wall of Moors and wonder what they did to upset them. To their left, on it's own, a single legion wonders what it REALLY did to upset the other half of the horde!
An unexpected success! I have had lots and lots of practise catching and ascattering cavalry both against Paul and Hammy, so I was able to shed the skirmisher screen and catch one of Hunter's cavalry with mine (he tried to evade, but rolled a 1, a -2 slow, and was within 3BW to start, so I caught him), and pin them in combat (his cards were awful that turn, and could not break off)
On the next turm this would allow my guard foot and guard cavalry to launch simultanious flank charges against the unprotected horse. Hunter simply removed the unit, laughing that there was no point fightimng that one! (2-0) I had taken losses with my cavalry, but with this one action they almost redeemed themselves.
This did lead me in quite a tangle mind you...
Thankfully I had put a screen of legions between this action and the Moorish foot line, which still felt like it stretched on forever. I was trying to engineer this so that I would not allow Hunter any easy flanks on secondary charges, and could I put one of my units into two of his? Difficult when you have four units to hold up eight of his! I really needed my guards back on the front line. On the far right, Hunter tries to charge my legion with his other cavalry, only to realise that my bows would be assisting with closing fire!
The Moorish line advances, and my Guard infantry charges a light horse to scare them off (a risk, but exceptionals ignore skilled shooting), while my average cavalry forms up with my superior Legio Primani Iuniors to hold the end of the line. To the right, a Moorish god moves his troops as the line begins its advance (possibly it should have come forwards sooner, but only history can be the judge of that).
My superior legion Presidentienies and Cohors I Moniorum absorb a charge by the Moors as their god moves them in.
The Seguntines face down three units on their own, while my line reforms around the cavalry, even if the skilled Moorsih cavalry has got behind us, their shots are largely ineffectual (in fact I bought off the wounds, just because).
Now it comes to the main event. Already you can see on the three units fighting my two their losses are extraordinary. The left hand had lost two bases, and the right two bases, the centre had expanded to my right, but it had still taken hits.
On the left (ignore the cavalry far top left, that's Hunter's dead pile), my cavalry has now lost its second base, but is happily pushing Moorish light horse around. I had thrown my cavalry in with Legio Primani Iuniors and they had inflicted terrible damage to the Moorish foot to their front for not much in return.
The action and the grind continues. On the right, my archers and legio face down the cavalry wing. Centre right my average and superior legion significantly out roll the Moorish foot, even if they expand to meet us. Presidentes only take a wound, to two bases slain. My average legion loses a base, but has killed three in return! Centre left four bases remain of the six of the Seguntientes, who had expanded to into a third unit to stop Hunter flanking them; but they are facing 14 enemy bases on their own (there should be 18, but they had killed 4 by themselves!)
On the left, my superior cavalry chase off and catch a cavalry unit and a light horse, which puts me firmly in the backfield of Hunter's army (4-0).
Not that they would be needed, as this turn saw a massive collapse. If you look you can see the Seguntienties disintergrating (4-2), but amazingly they had taken a unit of Hunter's of the way out (good lads) (6-2). To their right the Presedenties killed a unit (8-2) (finally, it's been a long weekend for them). To the left, Legio Primani Iuniors, despite being down to three bases, carves through a third Moorish (8-2) unit and the fourth one goes to a combination of the Legio Primani Iuniors and the Equites Tatifi Iuniors (10-2).
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With that Hunter's foot collapses along the line (the following mutiple KaB tests across that line would not have been pleasent for Hunter), that was it. (15-2) to me.
Fantastic game, played for laughs across the board. I honestly thought Hunter was going to get around me and then squash me, but it was my day. I had stopped his line enveloping me, and better quality troops had won through.
With a rather pleasing symmetry across the weekend and the day, I had scored 17 points and conceeded 17. Added to yesterday's 21 points for and 21 points against; I had two wins, two losses, no uncompleted games and 38 points for and 38 points against. This put me into a good 8th place, and the top placed Roman player. A fantastic weekend, run brilliantly by the Preston club in a great venue, recommended to anyone and I will return.
Hunter and one of his typical massive horde lists, eek! This will hurt. Last time I met him, he tore me to pieces with his Khwadji taking out my Samurai.
Back to the Wadi-al-Shawady, and all to play for to avoid an ignorminious placing and shame for the Empire..
Scouting was a draw, so I was putting out first as defender. I went with my 'no, I don't corner sit' corner sitting for a turn as all the terrain dispeared off the right flank to see what Hunter would do. Hunter deployed a massive line of short spear, tribal close melee expert foot almost as long as his back edge, and two sets of unprotected cavalry on the left, one one set on the right, escorted by a brace of skilled light cavalry (think Numidians) on each flank, and a unit of pure dross at the rear to hide. My disgraced cavalry hid behind my legions on the left, waiting for the inevitable sweep round, and my legions pivotted outwards to push them back. What I was waiting for was the massive foot rush while the cavalry worked round my flanks, and to start with, it looked like it was due to happen. On the right, I pushed forwards my heroic archers to support a legion vs Hunters cavalry.
First shot of the game, two green dice vs unprotected horse, yes please (and a white against their escorting light horse).
Drat! Oh well, a wound is a wound.
This caused Hunter to pause his plans on my right as he had forgotten my archers were out there. He then pulled back, my archers matched pace with the horse and kept shooting! He fell back, I moved and kept in range, he turned away, I double moved to shooting range and shot him the next go. My bows were having the weekend of their lives! My right hand legion was on guard duties, watching on while taking bets. In the centre my superiors and an average legion looked at the wall of Moors and wonder what they did to upset them. To their left, on it's own, a single legion wonders what it REALLY did to upset the other half of the horde!
An unexpected success! I have had lots and lots of practise catching and ascattering cavalry both against Paul and Hammy, so I was able to shed the skirmisher screen and catch one of Hunter's cavalry with mine (he tried to evade, but rolled a 1, a -2 slow, and was within 3BW to start, so I caught him), and pin them in combat (his cards were awful that turn, and could not break off)
On the next turm this would allow my guard foot and guard cavalry to launch simultanious flank charges against the unprotected horse. Hunter simply removed the unit, laughing that there was no point fightimng that one! (2-0) I had taken losses with my cavalry, but with this one action they almost redeemed themselves.
This did lead me in quite a tangle mind you...
Thankfully I had put a screen of legions between this action and the Moorish foot line, which still felt like it stretched on forever. I was trying to engineer this so that I would not allow Hunter any easy flanks on secondary charges, and could I put one of my units into two of his? Difficult when you have four units to hold up eight of his! I really needed my guards back on the front line. On the far right, Hunter tries to charge my legion with his other cavalry, only to realise that my bows would be assisting with closing fire!
The Moorish line advances, and my Guard infantry charges a light horse to scare them off (a risk, but exceptionals ignore skilled shooting), while my average cavalry forms up with my superior Legio Primani Iuniors to hold the end of the line. To the right, a Moorish god moves his troops as the line begins its advance (possibly it should have come forwards sooner, but only history can be the judge of that).
My superior legion Presidentienies and Cohors I Moniorum absorb a charge by the Moors as their god moves them in.
The Seguntines face down three units on their own, while my line reforms around the cavalry, even if the skilled Moorsih cavalry has got behind us, their shots are largely ineffectual (in fact I bought off the wounds, just because).
Now it comes to the main event. Already you can see on the three units fighting my two their losses are extraordinary. The left hand had lost two bases, and the right two bases, the centre had expanded to my right, but it had still taken hits.
On the left (ignore the cavalry far top left, that's Hunter's dead pile), my cavalry has now lost its second base, but is happily pushing Moorish light horse around. I had thrown my cavalry in with Legio Primani Iuniors and they had inflicted terrible damage to the Moorish foot to their front for not much in return.
The action and the grind continues. On the right, my archers and legio face down the cavalry wing. Centre right my average and superior legion significantly out roll the Moorish foot, even if they expand to meet us. Presidentes only take a wound, to two bases slain. My average legion loses a base, but has killed three in return! Centre left four bases remain of the six of the Seguntientes, who had expanded to into a third unit to stop Hunter flanking them; but they are facing 14 enemy bases on their own (there should be 18, but they had killed 4 by themselves!)
On the left, my superior cavalry chase off and catch a cavalry unit and a light horse, which puts me firmly in the backfield of Hunter's army (4-0).
Not that they would be needed, as this turn saw a massive collapse. If you look you can see the Seguntienties disintergrating (4-2), but amazingly they had taken a unit of Hunter's of the way out (good lads) (6-2). To their right the Presedenties killed a unit (8-2) (finally, it's been a long weekend for them). To the left, Legio Primani Iuniors, despite being down to three bases, carves through a third Moorish (8-2) unit and the fourth one goes to a combination of the Legio Primani Iuniors and the Equites Tatifi Iuniors (10-2).
With that Hunter's foot collapses along the line (the following mutiple KaB tests across that line would not have been pleasent for Hunter), that was it. (15-2) to me.
Fantastic game, played for laughs across the board. I honestly thought Hunter was going to get around me and then squash me, but it was my day. I had stopped his line enveloping me, and better quality troops had won through.
With a rather pleasing symmetry across the weekend and the day, I had scored 17 points and conceeded 17. Added to yesterday's 21 points for and 21 points against; I had two wins, two losses, no uncompleted games and 38 points for and 38 points against. This put me into a good 8th place, and the top placed Roman player. A fantastic weekend, run brilliantly by the Preston club in a great venue, recommended to anyone and I will return.
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