Pike fear nothing in ADLG NOTHING! Though not the worlds most maneuverable unit....
Solid line of pike, hard hitting Companions and and combined command of heavy spear and medium sword. I suppose the presence of the heavy spear in the line can make mounted think twice about coming in. If there is a lot of terrain the heavy spear hang out with the pike line while the medium foot go do their thing. Did we all notice two Unreliable generals! I can barely handle the stress of one. There is a 30% chance every game that one of your commands is going unreliable. I don't think I could run a list like that.
Slave revolt. Moved 4 impetuous levy to the medium foot command to give them some bulk and reserves. Otherwise no real change. Swarms of impetuous foot. I think if you wanted to make this list sing you would need to get the initiative count up, to like a four, so you could attack! No way to get it past two.
Nothing like screwing up on deployment. I don't know where the Alexandrian cavalry is going to go. So in the West have deployed a group of levy to swing around and complete a long line. In no way do I think that it will stop the cavalry, but hopefully slow it down. Nothing wrong with this, unless the cavalry is deployed on the other flank and you have to turn around impetuous levy... which takes forever and is pip intensive. Should have deployed them in the black box and then shifted wheeled them where ever they needed to go.
Alex comes foward.
These are bad, bad news for the Slave revolt. The only saving grace is they have to do ALOT of work to pay for themselves. If they can be slowed and flanked.... well it could be a good time for the slaves... admittedly not for the slaves that have to slow them down initially, for them it will be a brief and somewhat painful time.
Slaves decide they will fight the Alex Companions later and retreat in the East. Elsewhere they advance!
Alex comes closer. There is a light off. Generally when lights face of vs lights not a lot happens -1 to +1 is a long war. Of course generally means that sometimes it goes tits up for one side as half of the six light slave units pick up markers.
Slaves charge! Don't get into the main line, but scare away the light screen. In the East the slaves are sorta getting ready to fight. Individually they are out matched, but there are twice as many slaves. If you look closely you can see a slave light horse ZoCing a heavy cavalry on the West end of the line... oh I thought I was being so clever.
There is nothing good here, elite and armoured cavalry vs levy or medium cavalry. BUT one ot the Companions is ZoC and needs to move in the other direction leaving three vs eight. Those are good odds for our heros!
So.... I had a brain fart, elder moment, issue with playing completely sober pick one. I thought light foot could block evades of light horse. I don't actually know why. So a light foot casually wandered out of the field, blocked the evade path of the Slaves light horse and one the Companions turned and beat the ever loving bananas out of him. Later am gong to whinge about the dice, but the dice did not cause this to happen, this was all me....
Centre East the two companions charge! The levy... the levy hold. I mean on of them is one hit from routing but is not dead! The other combat is less surprising, the Companion was only +1 up (elite) so there is an okay chance of a draw. The levy winning I hear you ask? Elite and armour and +1 up is a hard combo to beat. Defensively the companions can't score below a 4 in that fight. Further down the line light horse pepper Slave medium cavalry, goes great for Alex!
Slave turn. This is their moment..... CHARGE for glory! Charge That they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!
...shit.... so looks like Alex has opted for the take the lives option. Charging the pike is risky except that the slaves have the flank (West end of line). They don't really need to win anywhere else just not die quickly. Vs Pike it basically a 50/50 spin (Pike are +2, impetuous foot +1 vs all, +1 impact). Not only did I lose four out of four rolls, three them by three or more. Sad Face.
While the heavy foot attack went badly the mediums went okayish. They also have the flank on that end, so things are looking up. The Companions seemed to be bogged down in the levy. Maybe its not so bad.
What the actual cheese nuts?! The slave heavy foot situation goes from bad to worse (not surprising after last turn, they are now fighting a +2 in the wrong direction), but the slave mediums are with even or up and loose four out of five fights! One unit goes from full strength to routed in a die roll! Is so bad! Only fun part is the campions fight as a levy actually manages to put a hit on one of the Companions and the other one can't finish off the levy despite being two up and elite (blue circle) so while the dice hate me, they do not truly loathe me.
....nope they loathe me. Slaves turn the flank on the West end of the Alex line, but the cost has been so high. The pikes are undamaged and ready to cut through the levy in front of them. Slave mediums are routing left right and centre. The only good news is way done South East where light cavalry elected to hold and was slaughtered on contact by the damaged slave medium cavalry! Ahh dice, you draw me back in I so want you to love me, but much like my ex, you give to little and cause so much pain.
Alexs turn. Cunningly so many slaves have died that Alex is struggling to find stuff to kill! Wait! They found the two medium slave foot and flank charge both of them! One is marked with just a small pile of skulls. Testing your wheres Wallys skull pile skills here. The companions are winning, but winning slowly and looks like they are about to get flanked in the East!
levy charge the pike in the West. Hard flanked pike dies. Rest of pike win...... I mean the levy are +1 down in all fights so winning is less likely, but this group of pike has fought off two waves of impetuous troops and the only losses they have taken are due to being hard flanked! In the South East the hard flanked companion fighting at +4 down and one hit away from routing... does not die. I am.... disappointed by this result, but I still have my health so there is that.
Slaves are one pip away from breaking. There is a fight somewhere that they lose and the slaves quit the field. Only thing of note is the hard flanked companion at +4 down, one away from death... who does not die... again.
Victory to Alex!
Don't get angry at the dice... don't blame the dice... good generalship overcomes.... AARGGARGARGARAGRARGA
Feck me, thought when I wrote this up it would look better. I don't think I have had a game that unkind to me since mid lockdown 2020. Why dice? WHYYYYYYYYY? What bad thing do I do that I deserved such payback? (I mean sure, wasn't a great week for me karmically, but sort of assumed that would be forgotten about by Sunday).
So the dice were bad, but there were plenty of non-dice mistakes to take note of. Forgetting that lights can block the evade of anything they can legally ZoC. Leaving my own lights to far back when they should have been in the field fending off my opponents lights. Deployment of four of my levies so they took weeks to get back into the fight. Looking back the medium foot should have been deployed closer to the hill. A single light javelin could have stopped any light horse shenanigans (they enemy lights spent a lot of time on that hill). I think there were more mistakes but I want to go and have beer, we re-read this later tweak the list again and keep trying.
Just realised that in my report I don't mention the rallying the lights drama. I moved two lights in the West out of 4 UD of the enemy so they could rally for free on a 3+. Three turns later one of them was still not rallied... Have the weird urge to lay my dice out and crush one with a hammer, where all the other dice can see.
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