The Dustbin

[rs2excelsior]

Division D

rs2excelsior (Byzantine 551-578 AD) beat bomber23 (Germanic Horse Tribes 260-492 AD with Dacian, Carpi 107-380 AD allies) 68-58

A long, bloody battle which was right to the wire all the way down to the end. The map was dominated by a big hill in the middle, and the Byzantine lancers charged down the warbands straight in the middle. The warbands gave as good as they got, especially at the beginning, but eventually started to fragment. The Byzantine army, also heavily battered by this point, was glad to see the German/Dacian rout percent pushed over 60% (at the time the Byzantine rout % was still under 50%)... but the warbands weren't done yet. Routing warbands rallied and brought the percentage back down, while the remaining Byzantine units tried to see off enough to get back over the victory threshold. The fifth time I got the Germans over the 60% threshold, it finally stuck... which was good, because I was a hair's breadth from breaking myself, and most of my broken units were heavily beaten up and unlikely to rally. A good game, if a bit frustrating at the end, and a well earned point at the end. Good game!

A screenshot of the final battlefield is attached (I seem to be unable to place screenshots inline right now for some reason)

(3-1)

[Aetius39]

Division E

Aetius39 - Palmyran 258-273 AD with Arab 312-299 AD allies defeats Tratmot - Roman 285-312 AD with Frankish 260-495 AD allies 43-9

Romans positioned themselves atop a hill in a defensive position. Palmyran second in command convinced his superior NOT to frontal charge the hill. Instead they went around it to hit the flank. The Romans saw this and eventually partially came down to intercept this. It was a bit messy in the middle, but the Palmyran mass archers stopped several units in their tracks on the right, and was rolled up while the left held. Good game to Tratmot and nice try in attempting to thwart my plan.^^

[Rob123]

Division D

Rob123(Sassanid Persian 591-628AD with Arab Bedouin 300-636AD allies) challenges

rs2excelsior (Viking, Ireland 900-1049AD with Scots 851-1051AD allies)

PW 4567
PM sent

[pantherboy]

Division A

pantherboy (Dailami) defeats Schweetness101 (Andalusian) 60-41

[bomber23]

Div D

bomber23 Andulusian 756-1049 plus Navarre

challenges

baldrick52
ggarynorman
rs2excelsior

password 1234

[stockwellpete]

Early Middle Ages A-D Tables.jpg (856.78 KiB) Viewed 1643 times

Early Middle Ages E-F Tables.jpg (485.97 KiB) Viewed 1643 times

[stockwellpete]

Weekly round-up
Nosy_Rat (Frankish) has moved to the top of Division A this week after securing his fourth win in 5 starts. He is followed by Sennacherib (Arab Conquest) who has 3 wins from 4. dkalenda (Byzantine) and pompeytheflatulent (German) have both started with a win. CheAhn (Byzantine) is likely to be relegated after only managing one win this season. In Division B desertedfox (Viking Ireland) has taken the lead with his third consecutive win while early front runner schmolywar (Arab Conquest) has been pegged back with his first defeat. Both ConstantinIX (Arab Conquest) and Macedonczyk (Byzantine) have made winning starts and sit in third and fourth places respectively. A first defeat for IMC (French) has tightened things at the top of Division C where Challenge1 (Arab Conquest) is second just 3 points behind with 2 games in hand. Division D is turning into a bit of a procession with Swuul (British) already posting 6 consecutive victories. It is very hard to see where a challenge might come from at the moment. It is very close at the top of Division E where DanZanzibar (Dailami), Aetius39 (Frankish) and Stew101 (Arab Conquest) have all made unbeaten starts. There has been no let up in the furious pace of proceedings in Division F where 27 of the 45 matches have already been completed. kraff (Sassanid) has posted another 3 wins this week to put himself in a very strong position but challenges could still materialise from Nikobeg (Viking Ireland) and PepeSlitherine (Spanish) who both have only lost one match so far.

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
Nosy_Rat (Division A) 5 matches
desertedfox (Division B) 3 matches
Challenge1 (Division C) 3 matches
Swuul (Division D) 6 matches
DanZanzibar (Division E) 3 matches
kraff (Division F) 6 matches

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 16 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 10 out of 45 matches completed
Division C - 12 out of 45 matches completed
Division D - 11 out of 45 matches completed
Division E - 13 out of 45 matches completed
Division F - 27 out of 45 matches completed

Player of the week
Swuul (Division D) with 4 straight wins to top the table.

[Doyley50]

Division D

Doyley50 (Anglo-Danish) beat Rob123 (Sassanid Persian with Arab, Bedouin allies) 62-39

Good game Rob,thanks.

[pantherboy]

Division A

pantherboy (Dailami) defeats CheAhn (Byzantines) 40-12

[stockwellpete]

Early Middle Ages A-B Charts.jpg (652.99 KiB) Viewed 1688 times

Early Middle Ages C-D Charts.jpg (632.5 KiB) Viewed 1688 times

Early Middle Ages E-F charts.jpg (651.89 KiB) Viewed 1688 times

[sarmation]

division c
sarmation phokian 550 461 challenge SpeedyCM median
psw game
pm sent

[texanotedesco]

Division E

texanotedesco (Arab 312 BC - 299 AD) wins vs BishUK (Byzantine alies Arab Beduin 300-636 AD) -- 63%-41%

[Morat]

Division F

Morat (Romans and Greeks) beat Tratmot (Carthaginians) 61-43.

A battle of the flanks. Romans managed to break the Carthaginians on the right, and just hold the left for long enough. But felt closer than the score suggests.

Thanks for the game, Tratmot.

M.

[Conteshard]

Division E

Conteshard - Viking, Ireland 900-1049 AD with Irish 900-1049 AD allies beats Aetius39 - Frankish 751-887 AD with Saxon, Continental 600-804 AD allies 60-55

this is as close as it can gets: we trashed each other left wing and then slug it out in the middle.

(3-1)

[baldrick52]

Division D

baldrick52 – Indian 546-599 AD beats Rob123 - Sassanid Persian 591-628 AD with Arab, Bedouin 300-636 AD allies 58-32

[Swuul]

Division C

Swuul (Germanic/Gothic Horse Tribes 260-492 AD with Dacian, Carpi 107-380 AD allies) beat MikeMarchant (Roman 24 BC-196 AD with Sarmatian 25-375 AD allies) 68-47

The map had a deep stream running across the middle, with a steep hill bang in the middle. The terrain didn't look at all favourable for cavalry, so I decided to leave horsies home (except the two compoulsory horses) and take instaead every single Light Foot in the roster. I did presume there would be a heavy fight for the central hill, and wanted my light foot to rush forwards to slow down the romans so that my warbands would have time to get on the hill. In this the german plan worked like a charm, the romans were slowed down by the constant peppering of the light foot, and then evading the roman charges. Duringn the process the few light foot the romans had brought along were routed off the field. When the roman heavy and medium foot finally got past the german lights, the warbands didn't stand a chance. Seven cohesion tests, all failed and five were doubledrops.

On my right flank the Close Order Warband led by general Recimer doubledropped and was then flank charged, and the unit broke. But they rallied, and three turns later they were back, though still Disrupted, and threathening to charge the romans in their left flank. The roman auxilia however had nothing of such nonsense, and the warband broke again, this time towards the maps right edge. Recimer screamed and yelled, and the unit rallied again, turned around, rallied up to Disrupted, charged into the stream as the center desperately needed help, but doubledropped and ran away, having now been broken three times during the battle. However, the warband unit rallied *again* before legging off the map (this time on the very edge of the map), but Recimer couldn't rally them past Fragmented anymore, so they took no further part in the battle. The roman light foot sent (slightly too late) to chase the warband was not able to rout the warband either, which would have meant the unit would have broken four times during the same combat...

On the left flank the other german lancers were ran off the field by roman cavalry, but the other lancer fought off the roman cavalry they faced with the help of a warband. A close order warband together with three light foot were able to rout off the roman mediocore legion that was tying down the warband, and not even the vigorous rear-charges from the roman cavalry changed that. In the end it was the roman cavalry who was running away (though only Fragmented, not broken), as the light foot went to town with the horses.

The german center had collapsed after all but two of the warbands ran from the roman charges. However, the light archers, after having shot off all their arrows, used their bows as clubs, and charged the roman legions and auxilia in the rough terrain. The roman had suffered losses early on from the constant volleys from the archers, and they had taken some losses beating off the warbands too, and they were already wavering. Seeing the blood-frenzied naked archers rushing at the roman lines, waving their bows as fighting sticks, the romans broke after a couple rounds of melee, and panic spread like wildfire amongst the romans. To the amazement of the german commander the german army stood victorious on the field.

Thank you for the match MikeMarchant. Quite the bloodbath! I was so sure around turn 15 or so that I had lost the game, when my center colllapsed. The german light foot were the heroes of this battle for sure.

Screen-shot of the end-situation: https://i.imgur.com/uOQzIQM.jpg

[Swuul]

Division D

Swuul (British 600-1030 AD with Viking 780-899 AD allies) beat Bluefin (French 888-1049 AD) 57-22

A flat map with a medium sized rough patch slightly left (seen from British point of view) of center. The french placed their excellent cavalry on both flanks, with their infantry (heavy, medium, archers, crossbows) in the center. The british set up their spearmen in a long line spanning the whole width of the map, with the cavalry on the left flank, the brythonic foot positioned to fight for the rough patch, and some more brythonic foot on the right flank ready to run get around the french flank. Initially the french seemed to be intimidated by the mass of british troops on the field, mainly just shooting with their archers and crossbows. This allowed the british to move into position (despite taking some heavy hits from the volleys) for the dogpile. The french realised what was going to happen, and released their cavalry. On the left flank the british light troops focused on hurting the french cavalry, who were then checked by the british cavalry and raw spearmen, but on the british right flank the french cavalry got the upper hand. This however was not enough, as the british dogpile swarmed over and through the french foot troops in center, and when the panic began to spread in the french lines it was all over.
Thank you for the match Bluefin. Good thing your infantry lines crumbled, as I would have had real issues with tackling the french cavalry. Good luck in your remaining games!

Screen-shot of the end-situation: https://i.imgur.com/MpE8d8f.jpg

[DanZanzibar]

Division F

DanZanzibar (Carthaginian 235-146 BC with Spanish 300-10 BC allies) beat random27 (Ptolemaic 55-30 BC with Roman 105-25 BC allies) 59-31

Good match! I look forward to our friendly rematch.

[Karvon]

Division C

Karvon (Thracian, Triballi 350 BC with Getae 279 BC allies) defeated ahuyton (Greek 460 BC) 62-36 for a 4-0 win.

Battle was joined on a rather constricted and broken field. Our right was walled off by the sea and further narrowed by a large wood on the Greek side of the field. Another large wood lay on the Greek side on our center left and left of that was a large marsh running along side that wood. A large rugged hill lay on our far left on our side of the field. Several small woods and numerous patches of rough were scattered across the central zone as well.

Given the terrain, we opted for a large contingent of light foot to screen our forces. We took a lot of cavalry to support our lights and a good number of light horse as well. Our core was our 4 picked warbands supported by an equal number of spearmen. We deployed to the left side of the field, planning to advance through the broken ground and smaller woods towards the large woods on our left. From there we would attempt to turn the enemy right.

The Greeks deployed set to their left, resting their flank on the large woods adjacent to the coast. They had long line of hopolites, mostly citizen, but with a few armored ones mixed in. They were supported by a few peltasts and a large screen of light foot. They had a token mounted contingent in reserve.

The Greeks advanced into the space between the two large woods and wheeled in response to my own advance on their right. We fairly easily reached the large woods on our left and our lights and mounted extended around the enemy right to threaten their rear. Our mediums, we paused in and around the woods as we assessed our options. Our lights neutralized most of the enemy horse about this point, though one managed to escape; it was pursued and harried and played no further part in the battle

The Greeks turned some of their foot to face our flankers along a gentle slope overlooking the woods. Others moved cautiously up to contain us in the woods and attempt to flank us once we passed into them. Our light foot began to pelt exposed foot with missile fire, prompting one to charge in an attempt to drive them off. This one was shot to pieces from all sides and finally broke. Other units were weakened, but mostly held as our ammo ran out. Their heavy foot drove off our horse that threatened their rear, so I redeployed those back thru the woods to threaten the other flank.

Fighting broke out around the woods as my warbands and spears engaged targets of opportunity. The lights and some cavalry get some of the Greek foot busy while the warbands and spear slowly devoured the enemy right. We did not escape without losses, as warbands pursued into unwinnable situations and invariably evaders got caught.

A small skirmisher fight ran for some time between a near equal number of foot on our far right, well away from the action. Our roving horse charged into this and slew a few which, ironically, pushed the Greeks to breaking just as dusk was falling.

A view of the final moments...

[herm]

Division A

herm (seleucid) beat harveylh (ptolemaic) 63-39

Thks to my opponent.