The theme of the competition was you must have 450 points of Cavalry, Bow, Sword. 900 pts were available. The scoring system was a bit odd in that you didn't get a bonus 5 points for breaking your opponent, but you did if you sacked their camp.
My army was:
Hunnic - Hepthalite. Book 2. Page 47.
IC, TC, Internal Allied TC
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1x8 MF, Poor, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow
1x8 MF, Poor, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow
1x4 Cv, Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen
1x4 Cv, Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen
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1x4 Cv, Superior, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen
1x4 Cv, Superior, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen
1x4 Cv, Superior, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen
1x4 Cv, Superior, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen
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1x4 Cv, Superior, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen
1x4 LH, Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen
1x4 LH, Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen (allied)
1x4 Cv, Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen (allied)
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1x4 Cv, Average, Unprotected, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen
1x2 El, Superior, Unprotected, Elephants
1x2 El, Superior, Unprotected, Elephants
1x2 El, Average, Unprotected, Elephants
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900 pts. 15 BG's. PBI 4.
Try as I might I couldn't get the points to upgrade the last BG of Elephants to Superior.
Games
I didn't take any photo's so I'm afraid a very brief description of the games and the key events within
Game 1 v Owain Simpson: Ghaznavid: Elephats, Armoured Cavalry, you know the drill
I lost initiative and also lost the die roll to move first. Never a good start.... But Owain struggled to pass death rolls, which is problematic for elephants - even when they are three bases. This meant that despite one of my superior elephants exploding at impact, I gradually wore the Ghaznavids down and eventually surrounded and wiped them out, but not without taking heavy losses. A 23-14 to start with.
Game 2 v Phil Powell: Eastern Han: 18 bases of HF Polearm, plus all the Chinese cavalry that dismounted as polearms. Loads of rubbish MF as required by all that polearm.
I flank marched with my ally and it never arrived. If it had I would have likely broken the Chinese army. Otherwise a real nip and tuck game. Phil's Elite Cavalry were especially useful, breaking from three rounds of shooting with a base down. They later got lucky and bolstered to fragmented. Conversely, I had some HF charge cavalry who promptly 6-1'd them and caught them which cost me 4 AP's and also meant a narrow loss. 16-13 to the Chinese.
Game 3 v David Bannister: Eastern Han: Mainly Average Chinese Cavalry that dismounted as polearms and other foot polearms and foot crossbow.
I pushed some cavalry up a gentle hill two ranks deep to try and get behind the Chinese line, so some LH took the opportunity to shoot them up. They missed, so I charged them. They threw a six and ran off table
This caused a huge problem for the Han as I got behind them. A BG of 6 elite armoured cavalry was massacred. My elephants went for the polearms and despite initial successes, faltered and exploded. I flank marched and captured the baggage. My average elephants had been shot to disrupted and refused to bolster, then refused to charge a cavalry BG that could not evade. But we timed out. A narrow victory 20-18.Game 4 v Martyn Simpson (Ghaznavid): Elephants, Armoured Cavalry, same old, same old.
Martyn threw really rubbish dice in this game. As an example, he charged some of my cavalry and caught them in the pursuit. 9 dice against 6 dice, Martyn at double plus. Martyn lost the impact 3-1. Double dropped and lost a base... That was one of the highlights of the game for Martyn. 30-0 to the Huns.
Game 5 v Renfrey Pearson: Nikephorian Byzantine: Mainly Lancer Cavalry / Bow Cavalry mixed units that could dismount. And did.
Renfrey won the initiative and went for a lot of rough going. His army then wedged up in between it. I attacked with Elephants and managed to burst through. I survived some very scary death rolls - some of which I needed 5's to pass and never lost an elephant, so luck was definitely involved. Two Byzantine cavalry units were surrounded and massacred on one of the wings and with Renfrey's army being only 10 BG's. I won 30-0.
Overall
Every army had an IC and a PBI of 4. Not unsurprisingly. This meant it was difficult to achieve a result from shooting, which is where my elephants came in, despite every single Battle Group of mine being unprotected in a period festooned with armoured opponents, my elephants were meant to plug that gap. The superior elephants are much better than average and I will try these again. Unprotected Superior Cavalry with an IC can soak up an incredible amount of damage, which gives the elephants enough time to do their thing and make a hole.
Overall, really enjoyed the tournament - first games in about six months so was all good. Five really good games with several being nip and tuck (even superior elephants are not immune to a single bad death roll) even if in the end I got a big result.
I managed to accumulate 116 points and win the tournament, although since it was an ad-hoc affair, there were no prizes or trophies. According to my daughter this meant the competition never happened...
