Steve & Don at Usk, Game 2

[donm]

Game 2 Bruce Brown Ghaznavid.

Again we won the initiative. This time we chose ???Steppes??™ terrain from our opponents home terrain choices. We ended up with 2 broken and 2 rough pieces of terrain. Three of these landed on our left in a line, one in our half of the table, the other two in Bruce??™s half of the table. The last piece was on our right on Bruce??™s side of the table. The three pieces on our left effectively closed off that third of the table.

Bruce??™s army was as follows:
2 x 4 element BGs of Nomad horse, undrilled, unprotected, bow armed light horse.
2 x 6 element BGs of Ghilman, drilled, superior, armoured, bow armed cavalry.
2 x 4 element BGs of elephants, undrilled, average, elephants.
1 x 8 element BG of Dialami, drilled, superior armoured, impact foot.
1 x 6 element BG of Ghazi, undrilled, superior, protected, impact foot.

1 x FC general acting as C-in-C
3 x TC generals.

Bruce deployed first, placing his two infantry units opposite our left flank, one in the terrain and one on its flank in the open. Next, from our left to right, was a BG of Ghilman with light horse in front, a BG of elephants and then another BG of Ghilman, again with light horse in front. His left flank was covered by the second BG of elephants. His four generals were with the Ghilman and elephants.

Our deployment went well until we came to place the spearmen in front of the elephants. It was at this point that we realised our mistake. We had deployed our armoured horse archers too far forward and exactly were we wanted the spearmen. Our deployment was from left to right, Dialami opposite the broken terrain, followed by a BG of spearmen, 3 BGs of armoured horse archers in single rank and the other BG of spearmen out on our right flank. The BGs of light horse were behind the joint of the spear and armoured horse archer BGs. The lancers behind the armoured horse archers in reserve.

In Bruce??™s first move he made full use of his four generals, moving twice with his BGs of Ghilman and elephants. Wheeling his elephants towards our many cavalry on his right, his infantry held back.

We hastily withdrew our cavalry in the centre and replaced them with the light horse. Our infantry on the left advanced so that the Dialami could enter the rough terrain. Two of the BGs of lancers moved to the left to hopefully go around the flank of Bruce??™s elephants in the centre. On our right the BG of spearmen was wheeling as fast as possible to intercept the other BG of Bruce??™s elephants. Most of our cavalry was just trying to get out of the way of the on coming elephants.

The next couple of moves saw our light horse in the centre throwing javelins against the elephants in the hope of causing a COH test. However, we appeared to have brought the wrong javelins, they just bounced off. On the right, our BG of spearmen had managed to get into charge reach of Bruce??™s flank BG of elephants. The question was, should we charge? In the ???Impact Bound??™ the elephants would have advantage and, if we lost and failed, the resulting COH test we would be in a lot of trouble. We had to risk it; we had to stop the elephants. In the impact bound only two bases contacted, so it was two dice each. We both missed, even with Bruce??™s general in the front rank re-rolling any ???1??™s. Our relief was short lived, in the melee phase, when the combat was equal, Bruce??™s general proved the difference. We lost the melee and failed the COH test badly and went ???Fragmented??™. With the reduction of melee dice, caused by being fragmented, the spearmen??™s fate was sealed. With the rout of our spearmen and the pursuit into other units by the elephants, our right flank crumbled.

We were left with no choice but to attack on the left. We committed our C-in-C to the struggle and managed to break the two units of infantry. However, our C-in-C died in the process. Bruce needing to throw 12 on two dice, achieving it at the first attempt. Our attempt at breaking one of his units of Ghilman with our lancers ended in an inconclusive melee. The game ended with one of Bruce??™s BGs of elephants millimetres from our baggage. The loss of our baggage was enough to break our army and so we were definitely ???save by the bell??™. We lost 8-24.

We had messed up our deployment and, although we had been unlucky with our spearmen, Bruce had played a blinder. He realised our deployment mistake and attacked as fast as possible to take full advantage.

Although this had been a difficult game for us and we had to call the umpires on several occasions to sort out troop interactions, the rules coped well and it was a very exciting game.

We would not make the same mistake again.

There was a get together on the Saturday evening for all the AoW competitors. A sort of debrief and forum for ideas etc. Unfortunately, family commitments prevented me from attending. Hopefully our Sunday morning opponents would stay out late and drink far too much. Well, we could hope!


Don M