LORDS OF KHURASAN circa 1000

[lascar]

Lascar challenges for: uheng1997, solly, scipioasinus, fogman

pw is your username

lascar the password doesn't work. please repost.

Fogman,

Reposted with password "fogman"

[solly]

Solly (daylami buyds) 10/36 vs uheng1997 (ghaznavids) 42/31

The map was very open: only some little lake and field camps in my right side.
Daylami's light troops in field camps broke the left wing of ghaznavids.
After the route of the wing, ghaznavids centre collapse for some retro charge.

[lydianed]

lydianed (Khurasan Saffarid) 25/35 bt. lascar (Ghaznavid) 37/31

A pretty bruising encounter which was level pegging up to two thirds of the way through the game. The Ghaznis advanced across a wide front towards the Saffars in the bottom left corner of the battlefield behind a line of trees and ponds (oases?). The Saffars threw weight behind an attack on the Ghazni right which was largely a cav battle. Initial success by the Saffars was checked by the Ghazni nellie who proceeded to tie up loads of units and damage quite a few before finally succumbing after 6 rounds. Meanwhile the Saffars' infantry, led by the Dailami, had emerged from the woods and pushed back the Ghazi centre. On the Saffar right flank initial stalemate gave way to greater Ghazni success and by the end of the game they had all but broken the Saffar right but too late to seriously influence proceedings. The Ghaznis were not helped by some atrocious dice results which allowed a fragged Ghilman and a protected MF to hold up two muscular Dailami units for a good few rounds.

Learnings?
1. Dailami are bad MOFOs who should be nerfed in FOG 2.0
2. Elephants well used are a good counter to otherwise rampant Ghilman - probably applies to all armies in this comp.
3. Heavy foot with Bw* played virtually no part in the game. With the threat of being outflanked I held them back which meant they were always too far from the action to do anything and their shooting with Bw* is like chucking paper aeroplanes. A waste of points? Discuss.

Thanks for a great game lascar.

[mschund]

Saminids (mschund) 7/35 vs Ghaznavids (lascar) 31/31

[fogman]

lydianed (Khurasan Saffarid) 25/35 bt. lascar (Ghaznavid) 37/31
Learnings?
1. Dailami are bad MOFOs who should be nerfed in FOG 2.0
2. Elephants well used are a good counter to otherwise rampant Ghilman - probably applies to all armies in this comp.
3. Heavy foot with Bw* played virtually no part in the game. With the threat of being outflanked I held them back which meant they were always too far from the action to do anything and their shooting with Bw* is like chucking paper aeroplanes. A waste of points? Discuss.
Thanks for a great game lascar.

Yes Dailamis are powerful. they can easily stand up to cavalry. This makes Solly the man to beat. Elephants can be hit or miss. Heavy foot, especially protected ones, are only useful against protected lancers and are extremely vulnerable against dailamis. Armoured HF can be a good buy: if they survive the initial charge, they have the edge over even armoured dailamis. The relative unimportance of HF in this period is perfectly normal. this is the age of the ghilman and fast moving armies.

[fogman]

some of you are really quick! at this rate we'd be done in two weeks.
somebody has not picked up ian's challenge yet. it's either solly, lascar or mschund.

[mschund]

Saminids (mschund) 15/35 vs Saffarids (lydianed) 37/35

[mschund]

Saminds (mschund) 32/35 vs Dailami(Buyids) (Solly) 38/36

[fogman]

fogman (later abbasids) 32/37 vs mschund (saminids) 36/35.

The abbasids centre was consistently hammered but held on while its right wing took time turning the saminids' left. saminid armoured heavy foot was excellent, repeatedly absorbing abbasid dailami impact and chewing them up until their wing support evaporated.

[iandavidsmith]

uheng1997: Ghazvanids 32/31
vrs
iandavidsmith: Later Abbasids 29/29

Draw

What a bloody battle which each side inflicting similar casualties right until
the end , a great game and a great result with both armies being decimated.

Thanks for the game ,
I look forward to meeting you on the battlefield again
in round 2 in the reverse game.

Cheers
Ian

[uheng1997]

uheng1997: Ghazvanids 32/31
vrs
iandavidsmith: Later Abbasids 29/29

Yes this was a very good game featuring a swirling cavalry melee on the Ghazvanid's right flank. There was maneuver and counter maneuver, flank and rear charges were traded, but in the end the fight was still going on when both armies broke.

Look forward to the rematch.

Chris

[mschund]

Saminids (mschund) 11/35 vs. Turks (ScipioAsinus) 42/35

[lydianed]

Would be great if players could write a couple of lines about the games when they finish. One of the attractions of this comp. was fogman's idea that we don't keep tally of points (I'm sure we all have our own private spreadsheets...) but that we post about tactics, outcomes and so on. Always nice to get a bit of the flavour of the battle rather than just the scores. Chris & Ian have provided a great example.

[mschund]

Samindids (mschund) 33/35 vs Ghaznavid (uheng1997) 34/31

Having played 5 games now, it seems most armies are pretty well balanced...some have more infantry some heavier cavalry...but the game goes to army that can hit his opponent from both sides. The other big factor is when infantry units on both sides clash, the first round of the melee can be critical.

[fogman]

fogman (later abbasids) 10/37 vs lascar (ghaznavids) 32/31

ghaznavids centre look impregnable with armoured heavy foot on a hill but both wings look vulnerable. faulty placement of an elephant right behind cavalry units allow the abbasid left wing to successfully engage and collapse their opposite numbers in a massive charge.

[fogman]

fogman (later abbasids) 24/37 vs uheng1997 (ghaznavids) 34/33

the terrain was wide open and there were two distinct unconnected battles. The ghaznavids won the smaller fight on the right but the abbasids won a bigger one on the larger fight thanks to a flanking manoeuvre despite ghaznavids ghilman times and again frustrating swarms of abbasid protected lancers.

** protected lancers have a +1 against ghilman on impact but will fight with -1 on melees. even if they disrupt the ghilman, they will lose the fight because having a +1 is better than having one more die. the same thing applies when they charge armoured dailamis, which i learned with disastrous results against solly. furthermore ghilman and dailamis are superior while protected lancers are only average. protected lancers therefore should charge with good support (a ghilman that will take advantage of their impact) or only target protected enemy units.

[fogman]

Would be great if players could write a couple of lines about the games when they finish. One of the attractions of this comp. was fogman's idea that we don't keep tally of points (I'm sure we all have our own private spreadsheets...) but that we post about tactics, outcomes and so on. Always nice to get a bit of the flavour of the battle rather than just the scores. Chris & Ian have provided a great example.

True. And I would like the losing party to write up something too. History should not only belong to the last one standing!

[fogman]

fogman (later abbasids) 26/37 vs lydianed (saffarids) 38/35

Both armies split in half and each half waged its own fight. On the abbasid left, swarms of lancers with their escort of ghilman had a terrible time against saffarid ghilman with heavy and medium infantry support. On the right saffarids lancers were checked by abbasid heavy foot spears while ghilman let loose arrows at each other from close range. In the end, the abbasids charged with uneven success but managed to wear down the saffarids. Both camps were lost.

[fogman]

fogman (later abbasids) 27/37 vs scipioasinus (seljuk turks) 41/39

the seljuks advanced on a wide front looking for impact. the abbasids obliged. the abbasid centre was shattered and so was the seljuk left. but it was the abbasids who were able to roll up the enemy battle line to preserve the empire.

*scipioasinus picked an army with no infantry (except LF archers) and may have done better by delaying impact.

[lydianed]

fogman (later abbasids) 26/37 vs lydianed (saffarids) 38/35

Both armies split in half and each half waged its own fight. On the abbasid left, swarms of lancers with their escort of ghilman had a terrible time against saffarid ghilman with heavy and medium infantry support. On the right saffarids lancers were checked by abbasid heavy foot spears while ghilman let loose arrows at each other from close range. In the end, the abbasids charged with uneven success but managed to wear down the saffarids. Both camps were lost.

The Saffarids started the game on a low rise in the bottom right of the battlefield but felt the need to abandon this to reform against the oncoming Abbasids. This was mistake number one. The saffarid left made for a small promontory which they defended stoutly but allowed the abbasids to get round them more easily than a solid battleline would have. Mistake number two. The cavalry on the right flank rushed out to intercept the "swarms of lancers" but their foot companions inexplicably failed to follow. Mistake number three. Although the right did well against the lancers, the real gains were only made when the infantry finally caught up. This wasted time and meant that the too-small force defending the left flank had by this point been taken to pieces and the day was lost.