AAR archive

[ianiow]

Eric's go. He sent another LH and a Cav against my beleaguered LH on the ridge, now there is just a gooey red mess on the floor. On the right the MF that was too far away from my cavalry, charged a LF instead which ran away leading the MF the extra hex it needed into my Cav, disrupting them with 3 hits to 1. More and more units are pulled onto the ridge and lots of shooting causes lots of casualties but no disruptions.


My go and Eric has totally dominated the terrain now. If I attack with my left wing he just retreats while shooting. If I attack on my right wing he has ideal terrain for his troops. If I attack in the center he has both knights and high ground. If I sit in the valley he just shoots me. Ok, the lesser of 4 evils is to attack on the right! I lead with my best troops, the Lanciarii. These bad boys are armoured superior skilled swordsmen MF. Their opponents with be Eric's Almughavars unprotected superior offensive spear MF. I charge in at even odds and lose but only suffer a few casualties, the same for my cavalry which will break off in the rally phase. I have a foothold on the ridge now with my two best units!

[ericdoman1]

I am probably jumping the gun a little (not sure about the frequencies but ever watched something when the sound/commentart/dialogue comes first before that person speaks or acts? PITA when watching sport:)). Hotting up now as Ian will soon show you. I have charged in with cav and then Almughavrs, disrupting both Lanciarii units. The cav on the far right was a stupid move. I charged in when Ian's lanciarii unit was already disrupted. He disrupts me, (I hae 4 dice needing 4s and he has 3 dice needing 5s, maybe 2 dice), the stupid thing is that a legion and a cat is nearby. The legion charges in and routs my cav, AARgh! 4 out of my 5 knights have charged in. 1 is on the far left, he went A and inflicted 17? casuaties recived 60+, ouch. One of the lanciarii routed and my shooting has disrupted a legion and reduced one to <75%, in goes the knights.

I should beat those 2 legions but Ian has cats lurking behind. SO when I follow up we will be equal in combat, prob not though as I'll have a few <75%. If you also look at far right his armoured legion charged into my ALmughavar in brush. Not sure if I receive an extra + for defending terrain (comments please). He disrupts the Alughavar but the legion fails the test on seeing lanciarii rout and disrupts. That was bad luck as he had rear support and a gen nearby. The armoured legion will now be facing 2 Almughavars, 1 is disrupted though so he should beat him and if I fail my test with the other a hole will appear.

The left flank is a bit of a standoff. I am trying to shoot him up but again my shooting is a bit woeful, in that I am not having that many double hits and or double figures of casualties but he will be worn down by them.

I reckon we are only playing on about 60% of the map, which is ideal for Ian. 4 vs 2 in my favour at the moment but will prob be 8 vs 8 shortly, worse for me if I fail a few tests.

[batesmotel]

Eric,

There is no intrinsic POA advantage to defending in brush, just the disordering effects and negation of weapon POAs that only apply in clear terrain. I think that hills are the only terrain that actually gives you a POA (like fortifications and PDs (against mounted).

Chris

[ericdoman1]

Thanks Chris had a quick look. For example I was in brush and charged by HF imp foot. He ony receives 3 dice to my 4 but his factor is still better on impact.

Only noticed something else about lf supportin troops, they actually have 2 shots on impact? Definitely needs to be sorted in some way

[ianiow]

With the withdraw of my disrupted cavalry my two lanciarii MF were set upon by Eric's left wing MF and cav who came in endless waves tearing my MF to pieces. They are both disrupted and exhausted now and useless as a fighting force. A lesson has been learned here. If you venture near the enemy make sure you have a nice tight formation with plenty of backup. I have neither here on my right wing.


Two charges from legionaries on my right wing saw off Eric's disrupted cavalry. And a 3rd legion charges and disrupted some Almughavars but despite this assistance my poor lanciarii took another beating. My legions brace for impact in the centre but are getting shot to pieces. I send a few skirmishers out the left to try to draw the fire away from the center. This will prove to be a mistake though.

[ianiow]

Eric's turn, and he immediately routs my MF causing the legion behind it to fail its cohesion test and disrupt. The rest of my right wing hold but they are losing each turn due to being outnumbered in unfavourable terrain and using the wrong weapon compared to their opponents. Eric has really done a number on me! In the centre the massed bow first causes disruptions and exhaustion in the legionaries and with that Eric sends his knights crashing in.


I continue to reinforce my right wing but I'm charging my HF and Cats in at an impact disadvantage all the time, but I have no choice. In my center, again the cats are charging in at a disadvantage, but they must support the crumbling front line. I send 3 skirmishers of the the left to occupy the attention of Eric's 11 unit right wing but alas I make the newbie error of leaving them too close to the enemy cavalry and with the wrong orders.

[ericdoman1]

This game has proven (once again) the importance of missiles, especially vs protected troops. Also just wondering if Ian had tried to take the hill early on, what might have happened? I have 17 bgs of missile troops to 5 and before the knights charged in they had done quite a bit of damage to the central legions, my xbows were specifally bought to shoot at Ian's cats but have been doing a good job, albeit single figures against other troops. However the combination has disrupted 2 units. Ian's cav on the far left was one. I thought he would evade but he stood. OK armoured cav vs prot but he is disordered, good for me on impact not so good in combat but my other 2 cav then moved into a position to charge him in the rear, however I routed him on Ian's turn.

As Ian has mentioned I have had the better match ups and this is down to ian having to commit rather than being shot up. The score is 16 vs 8 to me and things are looking good for the Catalans.

[ianiow]

In Eric's turn I lost a HF on the right and the backup unit that charged into the gap go disrupted. It was stalemat in the center. On the left my HF managed to frag a LF. Note Eric lining up to rear charge my pinned cavalry on the far left. It turns out he need not have bothered, he routed it anyway with his already engaged cavalry next turn.


My turn see's the further weakening on my center but I did get a consolation prize with the rout of one of his LF.


My army is on its knees now.


We are doomed. At least my troops fought bravely. All the routing units have two skulls. They fought a long time before routing.

[ericdoman1]

eric (Catalan Company Later) 7/38 vs Ian (Palmyran) 29/28

Having lost one final probably based on not marching a single lf to stop davouthojo's Christian Nubian Later cav from marching behind my flank and losing a semi final because I attacked too quickly rather than allowing my missile troops to shoot miversson's Dailami (lost that game by a single bp and witha number of Matt's troops close to auto rout). I played a bit more carefully this time.

Winning initiative and having a monopoly of missile troops were the big factors in this final. But what may well have been my saving grace was charging my lh in very early on. Whatever would have happened I intended to put him on stand. Having a closer look at Ian's advance onto the hill and the positioning of my troops. He wouldn't have made it as my knights in particular were in good position to counter attack but that was all due to my lh charging in.

For the last turn I had 2 rear charges. An ALugavar to the rear of a cataphract and another almughavar to the rear of a legion. The latter was allowed as Ian had moved his lf out of the way. Ian also left a disrupted cav with <75% to be within bow/xbow range of my troops. I was able to auto rout him which caused the legion and cataphract unit to disrupt, the knight fragmented the legion and the almughavar charged in routing the legion and the cataphract unit failed another test and fragmented. A very bad set of cohesion test dice from Ian on my turn, a he failed so many, that allowed me to win the game.

Thanks very much to Ian for this game, to all my other opponents and players, to Pete for organising this competition and Slitherine for sponsoring it.

[ianiow]

Congratulations to Eric on a fine win. And thanks the Pete for setting up an exciting tourney.

[Miras]

Sorry, Polish language only ------> http://youtu.be/lQONyK0PLJc