Post by ken on Mar 5, 2017 13:31:44 GMT
Another surprising win for the Syrian City States!!
Neil won the initiative and chose to defend in desert with compulsory dune plus impassable terrain and a plantation. I had the other two dunes and two brush. The plantation played no part in the game being on my right rear flank. Neil had the impassable on his centre right with the three dunes forming a big no go area on his left flank and centre left. The two brushes were in my centre area although Neil moved one into my left flank area.
Given the mass of terrain in his centre and left, Neil was forced to deploy both his chariot commands on his right flank, whilst his swordsmen occupied the centre difficult going; being separated from the rest of the army by the impassable terrain. I deployed my best spear/swordsmen command on my left flank opposite the chariots, my second command to their right, with the bowmen in the brush, and my weakest, mainly mediocre command on my right opposite the dunes.
On the first turn, I expanded my left flank spears and slowly advanced towards the chariots, whilst the spear in the centre command advanced towards the impassable terrain and started to wheel towards the chariots in an attempt to restrict their movement. The right flank advanced rapidly towards the dunes to deny the swordsmen their impact charge. In his turn, Neil advanced and expanded his chariots into line and tried to slow down my right flank with bow armed skirmishers in the dunes.
By the end of turn two my right flank had removed one of Neil’s skirmishers and chased the other away, safely gaining the dunes. Neil’s chariots had advanced to try and disrupt my spears with bow fire, but although he caused a few disruptions, I was able to remove them whilst inflicting damage on him with my bow fire from the brush. My left flank spears continued to advance and Neil charged them with his right flank chariots but the fight did not go well and next turn he broke off. I followed up with my spears and soon his chariots were finding themselves close to the board edge. Meanwhile I had managed to shoot away one of his other units chariots and inflict disruption on another. The chariots supporting bows and spears had tried to move around their left flank but suffered bow casualties in the process.
Up until that point my dice rolls had been on the whole superb whilst Neil always managed to throw at least one less than he needed to avoid a disruption, or worse. I had inflicted losses of about 14 points for the loss of two. At this point Neil decided to attack all along the line, even in the dunes before he lost the game to bow fire. His right flank chariots turned at bay and promptly killed one of my spears in a turn by beating me by 5. His remaining three centre chariots (one of whom had survived three turns of shooting with two disruptions) charged my central command’s mediocre spears and soon started making inroads. However the game was decided in the dunes when I killed one, and severely mauled another of his elite heavy swordsmen with my javelinmen, whilst my mediocre bow just kept scoring at least two more than Neil in all their combats, surviving without a loss. These fights took my losses to 14, and Neil’s to 18; but with disruptions on the table added, Neil’s army broke.
Hopefully that is a fairly accurate summary of the game. The game was very hard fought by Neil, but the dice god was not with him; the terrain placement being awful from his perspective, and his combat rolls being atrocious for the most part. So another win for the Syrian City States; but mainly, yet again, due to the bad luck of my opponent. The daft thing is that Neil has now played all his games and finishes on 26pts. Even if I win my next game, the most I can score will be 27pts due to the absence of chariots in my army. Still I chose it, didn’t I!!!
Neil won the initiative and chose to defend in desert with compulsory dune plus impassable terrain and a plantation. I had the other two dunes and two brush. The plantation played no part in the game being on my right rear flank. Neil had the impassable on his centre right with the three dunes forming a big no go area on his left flank and centre left. The two brushes were in my centre area although Neil moved one into my left flank area.
Given the mass of terrain in his centre and left, Neil was forced to deploy both his chariot commands on his right flank, whilst his swordsmen occupied the centre difficult going; being separated from the rest of the army by the impassable terrain. I deployed my best spear/swordsmen command on my left flank opposite the chariots, my second command to their right, with the bowmen in the brush, and my weakest, mainly mediocre command on my right opposite the dunes.
On the first turn, I expanded my left flank spears and slowly advanced towards the chariots, whilst the spear in the centre command advanced towards the impassable terrain and started to wheel towards the chariots in an attempt to restrict their movement. The right flank advanced rapidly towards the dunes to deny the swordsmen their impact charge. In his turn, Neil advanced and expanded his chariots into line and tried to slow down my right flank with bow armed skirmishers in the dunes.
By the end of turn two my right flank had removed one of Neil’s skirmishers and chased the other away, safely gaining the dunes. Neil’s chariots had advanced to try and disrupt my spears with bow fire, but although he caused a few disruptions, I was able to remove them whilst inflicting damage on him with my bow fire from the brush. My left flank spears continued to advance and Neil charged them with his right flank chariots but the fight did not go well and next turn he broke off. I followed up with my spears and soon his chariots were finding themselves close to the board edge. Meanwhile I had managed to shoot away one of his other units chariots and inflict disruption on another. The chariots supporting bows and spears had tried to move around their left flank but suffered bow casualties in the process.
Up until that point my dice rolls had been on the whole superb whilst Neil always managed to throw at least one less than he needed to avoid a disruption, or worse. I had inflicted losses of about 14 points for the loss of two. At this point Neil decided to attack all along the line, even in the dunes before he lost the game to bow fire. His right flank chariots turned at bay and promptly killed one of my spears in a turn by beating me by 5. His remaining three centre chariots (one of whom had survived three turns of shooting with two disruptions) charged my central command’s mediocre spears and soon started making inroads. However the game was decided in the dunes when I killed one, and severely mauled another of his elite heavy swordsmen with my javelinmen, whilst my mediocre bow just kept scoring at least two more than Neil in all their combats, surviving without a loss. These fights took my losses to 14, and Neil’s to 18; but with disruptions on the table added, Neil’s army broke.
Hopefully that is a fairly accurate summary of the game. The game was very hard fought by Neil, but the dice god was not with him; the terrain placement being awful from his perspective, and his combat rolls being atrocious for the most part. So another win for the Syrian City States; but mainly, yet again, due to the bad luck of my opponent. The daft thing is that Neil has now played all his games and finishes on 26pts. Even if I win my next game, the most I can score will be 27pts due to the absence of chariots in my army. Still I chose it, didn’t I!!!