Slitherine

Weekly round-up
Snugglebunnies (Kingdom of Soissons) is top of Division A having won 4 matches from his 7 starts. ruskicanuk (Romano-British) is looking the main challenger at the moment with 3 wins from 3 starts while youngr (Ptolemaic) has won his first 2 matches. Things are very tight in Division B where Morbio (Ptolemaic) has recovered from a poor start to register 4 wins to take him to the top of the table. But there are six players capable of making a challenge, including Geffalrus (Palmyran) and Triarii (Kingdom of Soissons). There are a lot of players in good form in Division C. Currently, cromlechi (Scots-Irish) is top with 5 straight wins, but GDod (Galatian), sunnyboy (Ostrogoth) and Trogilus (Dacian) are all on winning runs just behind him. In Division D, General Shapur (Kingdom of Soissons), who beat lydianed (Gepid) in a crucial match this week, needs just one point from his last match against phoyle3290 (Jewish Revolt) to gain automatic promotion.

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
ruskicanuk (Division A) 3 matches
devoncop (Division B) 5 matches
Morbio (Division B) 4 matches
cromlechi (Division C) 5 matches
GDod (Division C) 3 matches
sunnyboy (Division C) 4 matches
Trogilus (Division C) 3 matches
General Shapur (Division D) 8 matches

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 16 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 18 out of 45 matches completed
Division C - 24 out of 45 matches completed
Division D - 24 out of 45 matches completed

These are excellent match completion rates.

Player of the week
General Shapur (Division D) who posted a remarkable 5 wins this week.

Division A

youngr (Ptolemaic) challenges ruskicanuk (Romano-British), password is "nuts". PM sent

Weekly round-up
A slow start in Division A means there is not much to report other than ruskicanuk (Breton) has started with 2 wins. In Division B, things are proceeding at an incredible pace with half of all the fixtures completed in just 2 weeks! MorkinTheFree has established a clear lead, but a defeat in his most recent match has left the door open for other challengers, the most likely of which is Sennacherib (Andalusian) who is unbeaten after 4 matches. desertedfox (Byzantine) has recovered from 2 defeats to maintain his lead in Division C, ahead of Karvon (Arab Bedouin), who has started strongly with 3 straight wins.

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
Sennacherib (Division B) 4 matches
Karvon (Division C) 3 matches

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 7 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 23 out of 45 matches completed
Division C - 16 out of 45 matches completed

Division A is a bit slow, but Division B and C have excellent match completion rates.

Player of the week
Sennacherib (Division B) who has posted 3 wins and a draw so far.

Weekly round-up
Cunningcairn (Egyptian) has moved to the top of Division A this week with 3 wins. He is followed by youngr (Syracusan) who has also played 6 matches, but the big danger is ianiow (of Arabia) who has 3 straight wins. There is an exciting competition in Division B where devoncop (Arkanian) narrowly leads desertedfox (Egyptian) and deve (Achaemenid Persian), who have games in hand.

Unbeaten runs of 3 matches or more
Cunningcairn (Division A) 3 matches
ianiow (Division A) 3 matches
youngr (Division A) 3 matches
desertedfox (Division B) 4 matches
devoncop (Division B) 5 matches

Match completion rate (45 matches in total to be played in each division)
Division A - 16 out of 45 matches completed
Division B - 20 out of 45 matches completed

These are very good match completion rates.

Player of the week
Cunningcairn (Division A) with 3 wins this week.

Group 4

Triarii (Thracian Hellenistic 350-281 BC) defeats eobrian2 (Galatians 280-63BC) 45% - 19%.

Current standings
1. nyczar 2-8
2. Triarii 3-8
3. paulmcneil 2-4
4. eobrian2 3-0

Everyone has passed the first Time Control check.

Division B

Geffalrus (Palymyra) challenges:

rexhurley - Numidian/Moorish 220-56 BC
SpeedyCM - Sassanid 350-476 AD

PW is desert

PM to be sent.

Division B

Geffalrus (Polish with Viking Allies) challenges:

SpeedyCM - Rus 960-1053 AD (Polish 966-1057 AD allies)
sunnyboy - Byzantine 740-903 AD (no allies)

PW is cavalry

PM to be sent.

Division C

Geffalrus (Antigonids) challenges:

Najanaja - Roman 199-106 BC
paulmcneil - Thracian (Gallic) 280 BC - 212 BC

PW is impact

PM to be sent.

Division D

SawyerK (Seleucid 205-167 BC) and 'uneducated' (Jewish 167-111 BC) declare a draw with the Seleucid pikes unwilling to attack the Jewish Zealots waiting on top of a rough hill and the Zealots lacking interest in attacking into the open fields.

(0-0)

Division C

Rob123 (Indian) defeated Karvon (Arab Bedouin) 45:19

This match wasn't decided until the last turn and by then our forces were scattered all over the map.

Division C

lydianed (Gallic) defeats sunnyboy (Jewish) 53:23

Terrain suited the gauls who assaulted the Jewish encampment on a hill. Zealots on rough ground meant it wasn't plain sailing for the warbands but with a couple of unlucky general deaths on the Jewish side, the gallic side ground out a victory.

23/6

Div C

Karvon - Arab (Bedouin) 300-636 AD (Sassanid Persian 350-476 AD allies) defeated KiFi - French 888-1049 AD 42-3 for a score of 4-0.

French deployed a small shieldwall comprised of some dismounted knights, spearmen, and bowmen supported by a pair of light bow in the center. On their right some knights covered the flank of the infantry anchored on a small woods. On their left the bulk of the French knights formed up in a line extending from the shieldwall to a large forest securing their flank. A line of sergeants formed a bit behind those knights.

We deployed our Bedouin foot in a large group of trees anchoring the left of our deployment area. Screening them along the edge of the trees were a few light foot Our lancers were deployed in line from that forest stretching to another forest on the right side of our deployment area. A few light foot were deployed on the edge of that. A block of heavy horse archers was deployed at the end of the line of lancers on our right. A few light lancers were deployed on the extremes of both wings. Most notably, behind the heavy horse on the right were our 2 elephants.

Our plan was rather straight forward, we would push our elephants supported by bow and lancers directly into the French knights and sergeants opposing our right. a few lancers would demonstrate on the left to distract the other French knights. Our foot we would shift left thru the woods and into a neighboring bog to the left. Then, push on from there to a small forest on the far left. I hoped this would attract the attention of the French foot and pull them away from their horse on their left, my main target.

Essentially, the plan worked almost perfectly, though some of the French knights fought heroically and delayed my assault a bit, but the preceeding bowfire disrupted or fragmented most of the knight line before my elephants charged home. The French shieldwall wheeled away and chased after my foot, only belatedly realizing they couldn't effective engage them in the forest once they caught up to them.