Slitherine

Weekly round-up
A victory for sunnyboy (Lydian) this week keeps his slim hopes of winning Division A alive, and he now needs 2 decisive wins from his last 2 matches to prevent ianiow (Arab) completing a treble of championship wins in this tournament section. At the bottom a seventh defeat for nyczar (Assyrian) means that he will be relegated. All the issues have been resolved in Division B.

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
garymann (Division B) 4 matches

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 43 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 42 out of 45 matches completed

These are very good match completion rates.

Player of the week
No-one this week.

bomber23 Syracuse beat S Lancaster's Indo-Greeks 51-11

Bomber23 Syracuse lost to Rz2Excelsior's Roman's 16-45
Bomber23 Syracuse lost to KiFi Macedonian's 50-61
Bomber23 Syracuse lost to Questor17's Carthagians 19-46

Division D

rs2excelsior (Byzantine) beat phoyle3290 (Lombard) 66-43.

A fairly open map, with large patches of rough ground all across. The battle developed in two parts. The Byzantine infantry deployed on the right, centered around the archers who were intending to advance into the rough terrain ahead--something I learned in my previous game against the Palmyrenes, where their massed archers in rough terrain were basically immune to my lancers. On the left I deployed my cavalry in several lines. This cut my infantry off from support, but I was hoping they'd hold off on their own while my lancers dealt the decisive blow on the left. The center was screened by horse archers, both light and heavy.

On the Byzantine left, the Byzantine heavy cavalry met their lancer counterparts, outflanked both ends of the line, and drove them from the field before the Lombard warbands could push through the center and engage them. On the right, the Byzantine infantry actually managed to hold off, with a massed archer surviving long enough for supporting infantry to outflank and route the warband facing it. While the limitanei were eventually seen off by Lombard lancers, they inflicted a heavy toll and cost quite a bit of time.

With the Byzantine cavalry facing off against Lombard warbands, it became a chaotic struggle of lancers hitting the warbands and falling back. Lombard skirmishers were a constant thorn in my side, and the warbands didn't go down without a fight--at one point, the Byzantine army was down a few percentage points--but in the end, I could get multiple advantageous impact phases, eventually disrupt or fragment the warbands, then finish them off. This historical match-up didn't go down like it did in the real world, for which I am thankful Well played to phoyle, it was a good fight to round out the season.

A screenshot of the final battlefield, showing the spread-out nature of the engagement: And with this, I am done with my first season of the Digital League. Didn't do too bad for having basically zero multiplayer experience beforehand, I think. Thanks to all my opponents for the games, and I'll see y'all next season!

After losing his first match Nosy_Rat has put together a winning run of 8 matches with his Abbasid army to win Early Middle Ages Division A. Well played Nosy_Rat.

Division C

Trogilus (Dacian) and lydianed (Byzantine) fought to a draw, 56-54

The Byzantines had a slight edge at the end of a close fight that went 24 turns.

(2-2)

Division B

sunnyboy (Huns) defeated Nijis (Byzantine) 58-29

The result hinged on a single turn where the Hun was able to rout multiple units with cascading flank and rear charges.
Thanks for the game.

Division B

NikiforosFokas (Persians) drew with sunnyoy (Huns), 0-0%.

Elephants are very slow too try to catch a cavalry army!
Thanks for the game.

(0-0)

Division D

Bluefin (Alan) defeats Barrold713 (Palmyran) 60-46.

Resisting the urge to stay away from the forests, the Alan troops spent most of the game in rally mode and somehow managed a win very late in the game. It could have gone either way at the end.

Thanks for the game, Barrold -- we seem to have some epic battles!

Division D

Ulysisgrunt (Kingdom of Soissons) drew with Bluefin (Alans).

When time ran out the score was 51 to 32 favoring the Romans; the computer said the Romans had a 'Glorious Victory'.

I imagine it was at best a winning draw.

(2-2)

Division A

klayeckles (Arab) defeats nyczar (Ancient British) 49:21

Division A

MikeC_81 Vikings def NikiforosFokas Byzantines 65-42.

That's it for me this season in EMA, GGs to all opponents.

Division A

harveylh - Kyrenean Greek 630-461 BC with Libyan 549-301 BC ally defeats sunnyboy - Lydian 687-551 BC with Greek 680-551 BC ally, 51-25

The terrain on the flanks mitigated the Lydian lancers. Both armies deployed heavy on their right flanks. The Lydian were slowed by a large wood where the Greeks had deployed enough medium foot to slow the advance. The Greek flanking attack was successful and forced the Lydian center to redeploy to a hill but it was not enough to stop the attack. Good game.

Division A

klayeckles (Arab) defeats hidde (Parthian) 51:18.

Elephants made a positive difference in this one!

rs2excelsior wrote: ↑Sat Dec 07, 2019 10:23 pm Division D

rs2excelsior (Byzantine) beat phoyle3290 (Lombard) 66-43.

In hindsight, I don't think I should have spread out the way I did, but I expected to be able to deal with your infantry quickly enough to join the fight on your left. I didn't really expect to be so quickly disposed of on your left either. You very easily outflanked me giving you plenty of time to set up for my extremely slow moving warbands over the rough terrain. In the end, you outplayed me. It was a good match that "could" have gone the other way, but I would have had to had some very lucky dice rolls to even come close. Good win! See you next season.

Thanks. Romans are forgiving of your tactical sins.

Division A

nyczar (Ancient British) drew with youngr (Dacian) 58-42

Just managed to avoid defeat...

(2-2)

Division D

SawyerK (Picts) defeated phoyle3290 (Lombard) by 61 to 53 in a hard fought battle that went down to the last three moves.

The Picts made good use of separate terrain features of a hill, small forest and a patch of ground on their left flank to initially defend and then respond to the attacks of the Lombard warbands and heavy cavalry. It was nip and tuck through the game and at the end and the Picts were immensely aided by the recovery of three troops from routed to fragmented status during the late portions of the battle. It was a great final game of the tournament for me and best wishes go to Phoyle in his remaining games.

(3-1)

Division B

youngr (Anglo-Danish) defeats General Shapur (Arab) 61-48

A close game with the Arabs taking out the Anglo-Danes right wing. The Danish cavalry out on the left wing made all the difference in the end.

Cheers
Richard