Slitherine

Div A
NikiforosFokas (Indians) defetats rbodleyscott 40-15% .
Thanks for the game (x2) .

Division A

nyczar(Scots-Irish 50BC-476AD) defeats NikiforosFokas (Jewish Revolt 66BC) 61% - 43%

Chariots proved decisive in a horde vs. horde battle. Thanks for the game.

Division A

SnuggleBunnies (Kushan) defeats ianiow (Indo-Skythians) 60-56

A very close match - I achieved 60% on the very last turn, through the luck of evasion and pursuit! It easily could have been a draw.

For the first half of the battle, ianiow led the way, at one point being 15-0 in his favor. He made excellent use of his Light Horse Archers to ride rings around my slower, formed up Cavalry Archers, shooting them to pieces and charging them in the flank after a cohesion drop. Gradually, the swirling melee on the flanks began to take shape; my cavalry largely fled the field, but my elephants supported by Massed Archers saw off his infantry and most of his elephants and cataphracts. Soon, a sort of standoff developed; all of my surviving troops attempted to make or fight their way to a large hill in the center of the map, while his light cavalry, now low on ammunition, attempted to intercept them. My elephants and cataphracts shrugged off the now sparse shafts flying their way, while my Massed Archers stood their ground on the hill, shooting in all directions at the horsemen under the cover of some Indian Javelinmen and elephants. This continued for some time. Finally, on the very last turn of the battle, a combined charge with all of my remaining elephants and cataphracts, with missile support from my three units of archers, caused just the right evade/pursuit/chain breaks to give me victory at 60-56.

The closest game I've played in a long time, and it so easily could have ended in a draw. Frankly, considering how the battle opened, I was looking forward with relief to nightfall bringing the battle to an end at a draw. Ianiow deserves credit for the great skill with which he handled his lights; lesson learned, next time I play such a match up, I will grab a few more of the pesky buggers, and rather less of the heavier, formed units of mounted archers.

Edit: attached, a screenshot of Last Stand Hill

Division D for Dogged

Barrold713 (Roman) barely defeats Herode_2 (Seleucids) 64-53

A nail-biter to the end as some seriously good rally rolls kept bringing Seleucids back into the fight but I managed to pull out the win with some timely flank attacks.

Thanks for the excellent match!

BDH

Wew ! I confirm : my Seleucids have been lucky on rally rolls on the last turns ! BTW, Barry and his Romans had to fight hard until the conclusion (at t-3 or t-2 or so, the last screen does not show the number of turns unfortunately)
That's the kind of defeats I love, a lot of fun for the looser
Thanks for the game, congrats !! and... see you later, I don't resign

Division A

ruskicanuk (Romano-British 407-599AD) defeats dkalenda (Ptolemaic 55-30BC) 65-41 - meat grinder battle

Division A

ruskicanuk (Romano-British 407-599AD) defeats NikiforosFokas (Jewish Revolt 66BC) 45-9 - rolls were with the Romano-British

Division C

XLegione (Carthaginian, Hannibal in Italy 216-203BC) challenges batesmotel (Seleucid 205-167BC) pw: batesmotel

XLegione (Carthaginian, Hannibal in Italy 216-203BC) challenges MikeMUC (Indo-Greek 175-10BC) pw: Mike

PM sent

Division D for Dutiful

Barrold713 (Romans 199-106 BC) challenges Tresantes (Pyrrhic 280-270 BC)

PW: victory

PM Sent

Div C
Fighting Poultry (Romano-British) beat Youngr( Huns) 59-33

Division A

ruskicanuk (Ptolemaic 166-56BC) defeats hidde (Gallic 300-101BC) 63-53 - both armies were limping around at the end, exhausted, great fight hidde!

Division A

ruskicanuk (Romano-British 407-599AD) defeats DzonVejn (Rhoxolani 350BC-24AD) 56-31 - the cav fought well but the Romano-British are too many!

Division B

harveylh (Indian 546-599AD) beat SpeedyCM (Breton 411-579AD) 41-10

Indians had favorable terrain with an impassable stream securing one flank. As it was, the Breton swarm overwhelmed the open flank and if they had got around the flank even one turn earlier, it would have been a much closer game.

Div B

GDod (Arab city) beat Trogilus (Ostrogoth) 55/24

Arab Generals fell, but the massed infantry managed to pull the riders down off their horses into their ranks to methodically dispatch them. Trogilus fought a solid game, which should have yielded better results.

Weekly round-up
pantherboy (Indians) has taken a firm grip on proceedings in Division A with 3 more wins this week. Perhaps his most likely challenger now is ruskicanuk (Ptolemaics) who has started with 2 wins, although klayeckles (Persians) has also begun quite well with 2 wins from 3 starts. dkalenda (Macedonians) has made a similarly impressive start in Division B and has 4 wins from 4 starts, but he is headed at the moment by Ulysisgrunt (Jewish) who has won 5 of his 8 matches. rbodleyscott (Lysimachids) is still unbeaten in mid-table with a win and a draw so far. No-one yet seems to be capable of mounting a challenge to IMC (Galatians) at the top of Division C and a lot will depend on the next few results for Morbio (Jewish) who is the only other unbeaten player in this division. Division D has seem some extraordinary events this week with the whirlwind that is youngr (Samnites) blowing in off the west African coast and winning 8 of his 9 matches in just 8 days! I think pantherboy won a division in Season 2 in a fortnight, but this is definitely the fastest victory ever in the FOGDL over 7 seasons. Barrold713 (Romans), who was the initial pacemaker in this division, is holding on gamely and could finish second ahead of cromlechi (Persians).

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
pantherboy (Division A) 6 matches
dkalenda (Division B) 4 matches
IMC (Division C) 4 matches
youngr (Division D) 7 matches and finished

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 19 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 16 out of 45 matches completed
Division C - 19 out of 45 matches completed
Division D - 31 out of 45 matches completed

These are good match completion rates.

Player of the week
youngr (Division D) with 8 wins from 9 matches this week.

Weekly round-up
Things are really heating up in Division A now with ruskicanuk (Romano-British) joining pantherboy (Spanish, Sertorius) at the top of the table after posting a superb run of 5 wins this week, including a victory over previously unbeaten dkalenda (Ptolemaics), who is now third. harveylh (Jewish Revolt) has a commanding lead now in Division B after his sixth straight win. GDod (Arab, City) is in second place and will need to beat harveylh if he is to have any chance of taking the top spot. Bluefin (Visigoths) has moved to the top of Division C after his third straight win with ggarynorman (Palmyran) and jjaquemond (Romans) in close pursuit.

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
pantherboy (Division A) 5 matches
ruskicanuk (Division A) 5 matches
GDod (Division B) 4 matches
harveylh (Division B) 6 matches
XLegione (Division B) 4 matches
Bluefin (Division C) 3 matches

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 25 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 30 out of 45 matches completed
Division C - 18 out of 45 matches completed

These are generally very good match completion rates.

Player of the week
ruskicanuk (Division A) with 5 wins this week.

Div B

oscarius Roman's (105-25BC) beat SpeedyCM's Kingdom of Soissons (461-486AD) 41 - 10

Limitaneis on the downhill vs Caesar's boys? Buggers never knew what hit him. An ambitious large-scale cavalry flanking attempt arrived too late and taught the Frenchies how a real legion fights.

Terrain covered my flanks nicely and allowed the boys in red to do what they do best: walk forwards in a straight battle line and hack down anyone standing in the way. Fun game of quantity vs quality infantry.