Jeepers... it's been a tick. Been playing a lot of games, just not a lot of ADLG. More due to my local club not being as interested in it as they once were, which is a shame cause the game is awesome! Another group hosted a Big Battle ADLG. Three players a side, Huns vs Romans and it was glorious! Renewed my love for this system. There is a tournament coming up in November and I will be finding more games! However, enough about my silly excuses for not playing and on to the report. Hoping I remember how this game is played. Move minis forward, roll sixes, laugh at opponent, remember to wear pants.
21 units is not a big army, but there is some serious steel here. Five, count them, five heavy knights with impact. That's one hell of a hammer. Other two commands spot two foot knights (more steel), a mediocre pike and some medium spear. Am assuming the medium spear are to give some terrain control and are not quite as squishy as medium sword in the open versus mounted. A single medium sword longbow (note, not the half half type) to reach out and touch from a distance.
Blatant steal from the Madaxeman wiki (https://www.madaxeman.com/adlg/tiki-index.php?page=Chinantec ) with some minor modifications cause I can't bring myself to run mediocre bow. There is crappy and there is down right useless. Shout out to the Madaxeman for his wiki. It is my go to for new list ideas and inspiration. Much thanks and kudos.
Where was I? Right. The list. A million mediocre pike with some medium troops on each wing. Looking for coasts, impassables, villages to secure a flank and some terrain for the elite sword/bow (again, the good kind) to play in. Including generals in medium foot troops could be described as brave... (foolish?). Ahh it will be fine. This list lacks subtly. Wall of pike with hopefully enough width that you can afford to keep one or two pike in reserve for the inevitable hole in your line due to well being mediocre. Pike don't really fear anything. Though have seen foot knights slowly chop their way through them on more than one occasion. The elite medium sword bow am hoping can do a little flank hunting.
The Good Guys (thats me) lose the initiative and have to defend in the plains. Roll for coast, nadda, roll for village, no. Choose a hill... and forget to put stuff on it, not sure I can blame the dice for that one. The Germans roll a six and remove one of the fields. The board does not seem to have a wealth of "hide my elite swordy bowy guys" terrain.
Germans advance. At this point the more astute of you will have noticed that my mediocre pike looks a smidgeon less Central American and a touch more medieval Europe. I cleared this with my opponent before the game. He has an excellent imagination, so all is good.
This is not good.
Mediocre pike should be able to stand up to a knight charge, flipping bow however with go down fast. You could call it a retreat, I am calling it a tactical withdrawal while I wait for more pike to turn up.
Germans are getting closer.... closer I tell you.
First blood to the good guys! As an arrow smacks some light in the East! Victory is at hand. In the South West we have formed marching band and are attempting to get behind the pike line.
So while getting a close up of my tactical brilliance, lets have a chat about what is going on. The german line is effectively 17 units long. The Central Americans 21, but four of them are bow and don't really want to fight anything in the Germans force. They can flank however (unlike lights). In the East it's only a matter of time before the Chinantec flank the Germans. This would be great, except the Chinantec have the same problem in the West where the German knights are likely to run riot .
So both sides not in the best position.
More advancing Germans. Some bow fire hits a Chinatec mediocre pike, I didn't put in a marker. This is my version of you getting to play "Wheres Wally?" for the hit marker.
Am out of time, out of position and in need of some happy dice. Bow, crossbow (heavy cavalry) and slings throw an inordinate amount of stuff towards lines. Six hits, three each, very statistical. Looking at the picture I am actually in a better setup than I remember. (disregard my winge in the first sentence). My army is bigger and I can afford some losses. I should be able to collapse the German East before he pac mans me from the West.
This heavy cavalry is not in a happy spot. Elite medium/sword bow back up by pike. Though he did put a hit on a Chanatec (have I spelt this the same way twice yet?) light slinger.
This is the flank where I need to make magic happen and make it happen soon.
...of all the stoopid, unforced, wasted, dumb ass decisions. In the Centre East the Germans charge, I hadn't given the Chinatic lights enough space to escape if they rolled short. I rolled short and gave aways two units for nothing, nadda, not a bean. Was completely avoidable and my break point advantage just dropped by four points.
Elsewhere the Germans advanced. Those sneaky Germans are trying to get past my flank in the West (highlighted blue) lucky I a) noticed and b) had multiple spare units to protect the flank.
...of all the stoopid, unforced, wasted, dumb ass decisions. The above pic is at the end of the turn, was halfway through the shooting phase ( I was all excited due to mass bow fire on German Knight) before I realised I hadn't protected my flank. Its hilarious. Both sides have turned each others flanks in the same turn. In the East the elite Chinatec swordsmen are about to make merry hell with the flanked medium sword.
German turn. I don't want to talk about it.....
But I will type about it. Mediocre pike is flanked and routed. Mediocre pike next to that gets six'd one'd and I CRY INSIDE. Knights charge into the Pike in the South West. Win one, loose one. The battle for the centre heats up with markers appearing on both sides. Which would have been fine if I hadn't lost two units on contact.
"luckily" the amount of death caused by the Germans means they can't capitalise on more flanking. The Chinatex have Elite nobels to hold the flank and the Germans have a bit of a traffic jam. Ha! At that exact moment another Chintex Pike routed, this time dead centre, and the only reserve left... a bow. Am not sure if using a bow to slow down a foot knight is the best use of resources. However, is not all doom and gloom. Flanks have been turned in the East and the Chinatqx have pike to spare. Might take them a touch to get there.
In the far North East two German lights flee of table. They both had hits (having bounced about a million bow shots) and fleeing off table means it could get any worse for them. The camp was in sight! Or would be if I was better at taking inclusive photos. Sebastião Salgado I aint.
A medium spear withdrew from ZoC allowing a German knight to charge medium sword general, who does not die. Another mediocre pike dies. Ho Hum.
Hmmm, there are now only four German knights on the field. Which means one either got time off for good behaviour or I killed on last turn! Huzzah. In revenge the Knights rout a pike and things are looking Grim (capital G Grim) in the West. In the East it is looking rosey, pike have turned flanks, medium sword have turned flanks. The German cavalry crossbow has come back to the war (after rallying a hit off) and is desperately looking at ways to save the camp.
In the center a Bow stands up to German pike with General attached! Pike was mediocre, but still.
Both sides are moments away from breaking, both sides take another two routs, the advantage is with the Germans though. That knight in the West has a flank charge on the bow next turn. It will slam home at +5, +2 vs LMI, +1 impact, +1 flank, +1 friend. Throw in furious charge and you don't need much on the dice. To add insult to all the routing, this will cause a hit on the bow next to them (the Chinatex bow turns to face then routs.)
This camp spells the end for the Germans, IF the Central Americans can hold on for just a few more moments... okay, one whole turn.
The knight charge is a five v one in the wrong...err... right direction. The direction that doesn't see the bow die! The Chintex hold on long enough to sack the camp and make off with the goodies. Victory to the good guys!
Jeepers. What a debacle. Get that I am out of practice but at some points this was just silly. In the list construction part of the plan is "Wall of pike with hopefully enough width that you can afford to keep one or two pike in reserve ", instead I kept a bow in reserve and ended up with pike in the East just hanging out and passing round.Stinking Toe Fruit (https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/stinking-toe-fruit , and now your day has been educational) while the rest of the battle raged. Not protecting the flank in the West, I don't have any excuse, just one of those moments where you get caught up in something else and forget the basic task at hand. The bow in the last moments of the game should have moved away from his doomed companion, relying on a 1 v 5 dice result to get you out of trouble is NOT a good tactic. Am trying to see what I did right in the game.
Ahh! Withdrawing in the West and turning my line to the diagonal. Should have also contracted it to give me some pike reserve, but least was halfway a good decision.
Anyway, brushing the cobwebs off, getting back into the saddle, insert metaphor here.
Cheers
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