Have had two more games of ADLG against Warring States. One was versus a blok getting back into the game, so was a little bit of a showcase of the rules, the other, well the other a mate and I were pretty drunk by they time we hit the table and the game could be likened to two grown men slapping each other with handbags. No worth a write up. This however....
No alcohol and a experienced opponent, and NOT warring states. I mean its Han Chinese so polearms aplenty. But take a look at the top, no, not right up the top down a bit. SEE IT?! The Defence section has numbers in it! The Defence section never has numbers in it! Am shocked, stunned and not a little amazed. This is an interesting list. Also worth drawing your attention to the Levy expendable. More on that later.
No charges since last time. List is light on lights (ha!). And am still not sold on the Javelinmen, but am getting into a grove with this list and maybe it will come to the tourney with me. Or for those reading who are coming to the tourney... maybe it wont.. I am tricksy.
I wonder if I should include the pre/post terrain movement. About a million sixes were rolled and terrain did not look like it did when first placed. Would draw your attention to the difficult hill sitting annoyingly in the middle West of the battlefield. Some brush in the East and a Village North of that.
Was at this point that the Han provided their first 'surprise' moment (light blue). They placed six fortifications and two obstacles down. Which prompted an intelligent "what?" from me and then some reading of the rules that I had never read before. For a point, fortifications are pretty good. The only downside is that you kinda need your opponent to impale himself on them, but area denial or a fall back position is not terrible for the cost. Also, put your expendable levy behind it and you have a cohesion 3 heavy foot unit for all of three points! (you get a +1 to melee if you are defending).
The Han chinese lack lights on in the West. Plan is simple. Double/triple move stuff and win on that flank.
This is actually kinda scary, but completely avoidable. Does force you opponent to go a certain way though.... or just hold back and say "nah, you come out... I am not coming in".
This mixed unit of mediums is the lynch of my plan. Heavy Assyrian chariots race down the West flank then CRUSH these guys turning the Hans flank and we are home in time for Xmas.... or whatever pagan holiday the Assyrians liked.
The cavalry's job is to hold up the the Han chariots. The light horse is especially good at this.
The heavy foot will anchor on the hill further up and die slowly.
Hmmmmm, so this was a surprise. I really need to get better at math. In theory you should know how many points are in your opponents Ambush. I can see everything on table 200 points - that equals 24. So there is either six light foot in the village, or something else. I was expecting two lights... not FOUR impetuous medium foot!
Assyrians brilliant Generals seem to be not so brilliant, and doesn't get enough pips to move the lights up on the West to stop the Han chinese double moving next turn. Anything but a one....
In the West the Hans... retreat. Curse you, that was not part of the plan! Stay and take it! Will bringing more troops forward, including three expendable Levy. The impetuous troops do not leave the village.... interesting.
So here is my plan. Unchanged in the West. In the East I am going to block the exit of three of the medium foot in the village so if they charge out they will still be in the village making the fight really good for the mounted Assyrians. While 'triggering' the last ones impetuous forcing the little guy to run into swordsmen and be smashed with double overlaps (he loses his impact vs sword). If the general holds them, then he is not moving the rest of his force and I will take advantage of that. I can peel off on medium foot at a time, and free up some cav each time I do it.
How clever am I? How stoopid is my opponent for not coming out of the building when he had the chance! Muwahhaha ha!
"The worst kind of arrogance is arrogance from ignorance."
Jim Rohn
Han Chinese turn, they roll low for pips! I leap up CHARGE ME MONKEY! Dance to the tune of a superior intellect! You are mine now!
Han CnC looks at me like I have lost my banana, and to be honest I was kinda hungry.
With a patience that my behaviour did not deserve he pointed to yet another unexplored section of the rule book. Impetuous troops DO NOT have to leave fortifications or... yup.... villages....
How stoopid am I? How clever is my opponent for not coming out of the building when he had the chance!
Sad face.... slight tear.
I'll be honest, this threw me. I really had no idea what to do now on the flank. I have managed to get my cavalry into a idiot position and was facing a rain of crossbow and artillery fire.
In other news.. I lost a light infantry to shooting. Han chinese advance elsewhere.
Assyrian turn. The West is almost in place... and a light horse gets murderised by x-bow. This is huge as am now one dude short of being able to stop hard flanking on my heavy sword. The little guy just had to hold on for one more turn! In the East. In the East I just stood their paralysed by indecision and let my opponent dictate the game. Only good part of this turn was getting close to the levy in the center, surely that would go well.
What am I doing here?
The Han chinese make an error! (glad someone else took a turn, feels like all the fecking up was falling to me) they have retreated their mediums in the West, but have not gotted far enough away. Han engages in the West two draws and a slight win to the Assyrians. The only thing protecting the Han Chinese flank heavy foot is some expendable levy and a cavalry general. The light blue circle is a Han Chinese light foot, that has a clear run at the camp. Nothing can stop him. I mean a light horse could have stopped him if he wasn't busy achieving nothing over in the East.
No don't move the troops... just stay their and keep being shot at, eventually they will run out of pointy bits of wood to throw at you.
Whats this... in the East the Assyrian general runs! Two turns later than he should have, but better late than never.
In the West the Assyrian General Chariot slams home! He is elite, he has impact, he is in the rear! He is four up on the charge and the mixed unit is mediocre! He can't loose! He can however roll a one (which becomes a six) and the Han roll a six, which becomes a five. Furious charge makes it two hits, but the medium foot is not dead.
The Assyrian cavalry withdraws. The heavy foot fight sees a 1-6 in the other direction and BLAMO the Han chinese is gone (Assyrian general and support for a +2 up) woo hoo.
In the centre levy get charged, one in the flank... both levy win. I do not feel good about this. I feel so bad that I forget to take a pic of the next turn.
But here is what happen.
Chinese charit charges cavalry in West Cav hold, and take a hit.
Medium foot dies in the North West to General in Chariot
Han advance in the East
Levy start to loose in the centre, but don't rout and have created a traffic jam!
Right, back to our regular schedule. In the Far West an Assyrian cavalry withdraws off table....as I type that I realise that you can't withdraw off table. You stop at the edge... So I cheated and it worked for my opponent, joy.
Why did it work for my opponent? To ensure the cavalry doesn't cause monkey business the Han Chinese chariot would have had to charge it next turn, it would have THEN evaded off table. However the chariot is now two UD further from the action and facing the wrong direction.
In the Far North West the Chariot General conforms to the flank of the medium foot. Lets do the math. Base +1, General +1, Flank +1, Support +1 and is elite. The medium foot is mediocre. The chariot does a single hit and I cry inside.
While whinging about my luck in that fight slightly South the Han Chariot goes down in what was essentially and even money fight... aren't dice great?
Further South, highlighted in blue is what we call a cluster fruitcake. Both the Assyrian and Han Chinese are hard flanked. Both are elite, and the armour and heavy sword cancel each other out. So is straight up die roll, luckiest man wins!
Levy to the East of that are slowly starting to be whittled down. Four points on levey holding up 20 points of heavy foot, and killing them nets me nothing (there are expendable). These levy are worth their weight in gold.
So this 'plan' of mine is technically going to plan, just taking WAY longer than I had hoped. I am not sure how much will be left of the rest of my army by the time the chariots get back into the action.
A good turn for the Assyrians (what burning camp? I don't smell anything.... didn't want the camp anyway, slows us down...) It is the Han Chinese actual turn though. The Chariot general in the far North West routs the medium foot. The Cluster Fruitcake is unchanged, but there is some Han Chinese prepping for a another flank attack. The centre sees one of the levy go down, which gains the Assyrians nothing, but does open up the damaged heavy foot to artillery and x-bow fire.
The East, well the East is more interesting. A Han Chinese medium foot charged an Assyrian light horse, good move. But, rolled long and ended up contacting Assyrian cavalry in the open, bad result. There is something happening at the Assyrian camp that i don't want to talk about.
What a mess. I mean really. The centre of that photo has an Assyrian heavy foot 1mm from the Han Chinese included General heavy cavalry. They are not fighting.
The levy has taken forever to die, and still hasn't and has created a traffic jam in the Assyrian center. I expected the levy to just rout, instead they are rooted to the spot!
The Cluster Fruitcake is about to end in the Hans favour. That rear charge is a coming....
Assyrian turn. An expendable levy dies...woot.... The cluster fruitcake is STILL ongoing, which means we are rolling draw, after draw. In the East, in the East the Assyrians turn around....This makes no sense. Like none. I can't for the life of me work out what I am doing here? If I kept running to the board edge the medium foot would have had to come into the open. I have greater numbers and two cavalry, instead I order the men to turn to take a furious charge to the face.
Han Chinese turn. Assyrians take a furious charge to the face losing both units. The combat on the East end the Assyrians' are up +1, but loose. In the West the Cluster Fruitcake is over. A rear charging Han foot adding a +2 to the dice for the Han.
The Assyrians are three of breaking, the Han Chinese five or six. There would be some rear charging Assyrians next turn, including a heavy chariot in the bot bot of some Han Chinese. Would it be enough to win?
Probably not, and I certainly didn't deserve to win. I had a social engagement to get to (and needed to drown my sorrows) I concede the field.
Victory to the Han! Well played!
So what went wrong. The village stuff up was two fold. One not knowing the rules, and two not immediately changing my plan. Doing nothing was just silly. I should have either advanced (risky) or withdrawn (better choice). This would have had the other advantage of freeing up my light cavalry to stop a camp burning later....
In the late stages of the game, turning my medium foot command around when I did was just.... well dumb. I still can't understand why I did it? Am staring at the pics thinking "did I have a stroke? Did a less attractive a mildly inferior General take over?" I don't what the lesson here is apart from be less stoopid.
Otherwise, am not unhappy. The levy surviving for such a long time was unlucky, but would not have changed my decision. So overall played okay for what.. two thirds of my army.
On to the next battle!