Mortem et Gloriam - Ice and Fire Game One - Hausa vs Sui Chinese

 A wee while back, it was the first MeG competition of the year, Ice and Fire (renamed by some Dice and Dire) at Battlefield Hobbies in Daventry. The theme is any non-European lists but it is also traditionally the last run out of the previous year's army lists before any changes come into effect. I chose my Hausa as they were are one of the most colourful and fun lists I possess, and deserved a run out. This was my first competition in six months, I had no illusions of any decent results, I was just going along to play. My aim was to have fun, maybe get a good winning game for the weekend, and to get Hausa another mention in Paul's rankings database! 

My list:

Lot's of decent cavalry, one unit VERY decent cavalry, some odd tribal infantry (not as odd s some that stayed in the box, unprotected long spear with shield cover?), a drilled infantry, many allied superior cavalry and camels, some allied average camels and cows! A great fun list, as long as you don't meet catafracts or elephants or pikes or spears or decent infantry or lancers or artillery or war wagons...

 

 

The draw had been held secret until that morning, firstly in case of drop outs due to illness, you don't need sudden redraws, secondly it stops people prejudging opponents lists. I drew Lee Sanders and his Sui Chinese. The problem is with this is that Lee is a wonderful gentleman, a huge laugh and a great player (current no" on the UK rankings, never beaten him yet). I've also been painting for him. I knew a (probably) well deserved drubbing was about to be administered as he is such a good player. It was a case of how many points could I get off him before I lost!

The table fell to me, as the defender, to hold the plains. It was satisfyingly bare, with just enough terrain to upset anyone. Camel friendly scrub on the right, rocky ground the left, a coastline, and that was it (Fruit pastels and Liquorice Allsorts do not count as terrain).

Slightly outscouted by 10% I had to deploy first, no biggy, but I decided NOT to send my camels through the camle friendly scrub and allow my infantry that pleasure. The bulk of my cavalry was on the right, the camels on the centre left and two of my archer units (a combat shy and my decent one) refusing the left. Lee mssed his catafracts, catafracts and catafracts in the centre, supported by decent cavalry. On my right he had solid blocks of polearms and crossbow  infantry! On the left, a lot more infantry (including a skilled crossbowunit, eek), with poor cavalry (who will not feature in this battle) sitting down to make a cup of char and watch the show (sensible chaps really).

My non-combatant giraffes walk between the lines, looking bemused. It's the default state for a giraffe I feel.

Turn 2, the lines close, and Queen Amina is upset about something, as her cards are dire! I needed to apply Cummins level chaos theory, and at that moment I could just about move my cows!

Oh, there's a unit of poor archers too, who are also sitting on a rock brewing up on Lee's side. They ain't comin' out ta play, they's grounded! ANYWAY, Lee's decent archers in the rocky ground make their presence felt by going full 'Gaukroger' on my superior Tuareg cavalry killing a base on their first shot.

My infantry on the right advance, slowly. Lee pulls back some of his line after being threatened by cows, as my camel corps advances into contact with the catafracts.

My superior cavalry caught in the wrong place, being really no help behind the cows.

My average cavalry pile in, and success, I caught Lee's light infantry, I GOT A POINT! (1-0) More than I got off him in our last game, already a success. It cost me a base, which was probably more than Lee's unit in value, but yay. I also caught his unprotected cavalry, who were somewhat surprised to fail their skirmish roll, and even more surprised to be jumped on by a lot of irrate Hausa cavalry.

The Tuareg camels go in, devestating chargers with short spear, superior, and camel bonus, I was significantly up.

(We played it out the combat as if I had not left a massive gap in my line which stopped the shatter roll from the right hand superior cavalry to my superior camels, if it had happened it would have killed Lee's superior cats in the middle in one phase, oh well, next time!).

The actual result was, opps, missed! More Batley Women's Guild than anything else! Come the melee phase, and my superior Tuareg cavalry are carved to pieces, my superior camalry has killed a base in return for two losses and my average camels have killed one base in return for two losses. Not great

Look, a straight flush for Queen Amina!

Sorry, were we fighting a battle? Lee manouvers his archers into the flank of superior cavalry, there was nothing I could do, I did not have the cards to break off, and this charge was inevitable. Lee played it perfectly, which is why he is a much better player than I. My attempted charge by my drilled infantry is shot down too.

I used to have an army here! Lee's archers crash through both my superior Tuareg units, and my drilled infantry also evaportate under Lee's massed foot (1-6). My archers do cause a few hits on Lee's though, which although not game winning made them feel a lot better about their lot in life.

Then my average camelry collapsed too, leaving me teetering on the brink of total collapse (1-8). My cows had long since failed in their stampeed, but no one cares about that (apart from the cows).

Meanwhile, I had caught and killed Lee's unprotected cavaley (3-8) and his furthest catafract unit was being swamped by a sea of cavalry, abley assisted by the legend that is Queen Amina in combat. Fighting in two directions is NOT good for catafracts, but also not great for my cavalry who died frontally (5-10).

Unfortunately, I failed to capture Lee's moment of triumph, as I was too busy enjoying myself in the game, but it involved a lot of dead Hausa. After a cracking game, one of my archers brokem giving Lee a well deserved win at (5-15). My all time highest score against him, and I can rightly feel proud of that.

Game 2: vs Simon Cooper's Early Selucids

Game 3: Peter Cross's Ming Chinese

Game 4: vs Cid's Gupta Indians

Oh if only I had got that central superior cavalry unit, it would have been glorious!