The Open...a winner

As requested...

Steve Tanner and I played the final of the 15mm L'AdlaG Open competition which started last year. I brought my post-Mongol invasion Polish army which relies on impetuous medium knights backed up by heavy spearmen, bowmen and light troops. Steve brought Odenathus' Palmyran/Roman force which historically restored the eastern Roman frontier from Sassanid incursions. The army relies on legionaries and cataphracts supported by camels, auxila, bowmen and light troops.

I won the initiative and kept the battlefield as clear as possible. In fact, terrain played little part in the game.

Steve deployed with legionaries on the right, catphracts in the centre and the auxilia supported by camels and bowmen on the left.

My bowmen, axes and slingers held my right, and on the left I was able to deploy the knights directly opposite the legionaries. My centre was held by a handful of spear, bow and Lithuanian light horse units, as I had foolishly placed most of my spearmen on my far left in fear of a phantom cataphract deployment.

The battle began badly on my right where I rashly flung skirmishers forward in brush to slow Steve down, only for them to be cut off by an infiltrating light horse unit and crushed by the advancing auxilia. This meant my weaker right wing forces were put immediately on the defensive and had to fight for their lives.

On my extreme left Steve had two skirmishers hidden in ambush, but they were kept out of the way by one of my spearmen units and achieved little.

On the main left my knights raced forward to smash into the Romans. In five battles, the legionaries won two marginally, but my furious charge brought two Roman units close to destruction. The combat on my far left was a draw; spearmen came up in support to turn that battle in my favour, and my two successful knight units then finished off their legionary opponents. My right hand knights held on despite being overlapped. The one legionary unit which eliminated the knights in front of them was wiped out in turn after my general's reserve knights charged in with the aid of two overlaps.

In the centre I was forced to fling in light horse to prevent my knights being charged in their right flank by cataphracts. Steve's careful micromanagement allowed his cataphracts to catch and eliminate one of the Lithuanians but the delay worked, allowing a couple of spears and a knight general to plug the whole in the line. I brought the knights up too near however; they 'went sponno' and attacked the cataphracts at disadvantage.

The battle on my right flank got quite messy with Steve's initial flanking advantage being countered by my willingness to throw in bowmen against his exposed flanks. It became a race between us; could he kill sufficiently more of my units to overtake the headstart I'd gained by eliminating his legionaries? The battle went right down to the final turn. I finally had enough PIPs to bring up some bowmen to disorder his camels, and then a couple of the mutually flanking fights went my way. Steve's army fled. I was only two points short of my break total. A Pyrrhic victory in every sense.