Jerusalem via Leeds Pt 3 (the miracle is I managed 2 photos)
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:42 pm
To make sense of this article, read Jerusalem via Leeds parts 1 and 2 first.
Saturday night was spent out on the town, looking for a restaurant that had room for 12 people at short notice. It was the age old problem: if the place is good then there are no tables left, and if not then you can get a table but you really don??™t want to eat there. Eventually we found a place that catered for a trendier age set. They were alarmed at the sight of twelve middle aged, slightly-over-average weight guys, but reasoned that our wallets were probably as fat as our midriffs. They shoved us into a side room where, hopefully, we wouldn??™t be too much of an embarrassment to the establishment. The food was surprisingly good.
I did notice, as a crusader general, that the youth of Leeds were very religious. They were all keen to carry through a penance; to shoulder a burden on behalf of the good people of Leeds. Their penance being to walk around on Saturday night in near freezing temperatures with the fair maidens wearing only short, skimpy dresses, and the men in short sleeved shirts. Truly a noble example.
Game 3 was against Alan Montgomery, who was using Late Republican Romans. What can I say about this game? Well, Alan played it extremely well and that Republican Romans are tough, tough, tough. Like, where??™s the historical justification for that! Wargaming convention dictates that legionaries should be expensive, slow moving, and able to be skirmished out of the game.
Here is the situation after the initial moves. The Romans on the left, the Crusaders on the right.
My intention was to anchor the main battle line between the two dark brown pieces of broken ground. The missile troops on my left were to take and hold the broken ground where they could shoot but had a relative degree of safety against the legionaries. The extreme left was held by the turcopoles (seen in the right foreground of the photo). The spearmen were in the centre with knights and some more spearmen in reserve. The right was held by the Bedouin horse and light foot, who were going to try and force the flank.
From Alan??™s left (i.e. from the centre-left background of the photo) there were a unit of Numidians, supported by Gallic cavalry. The Numidians have raced forward and in the photo and are seen nearing my Bedouins, who are besides the village. Two blocks of light infantry were placed against my Bedouin light foot with the clear intention of seizing the rough ground.
Alan??™s main force was deployed in a hollow square, screened by more light infantry. Why the hollow square? I held the pre-game initiative, forcing Alan to deploy 25% of his army first. He therefore needed to deploy defensively. As the game progressed the legionaries in the box ???unfolded??? and deployed out in a line.
At this point I realised my camera batteries (like my game plan) were almost dead and I only managed to snap one more photos. So here it is??¦
The situation a couple of moves later, but with the camera facing 180 degrees ??“ so the legionaries are on the right in the photos and my crusaders are on the left.
The legionaries are unfolding, with some rear battle groups moving to the Roman right wing to face off the on-table outflanking move, others (right foreground) are moving to the opposite wing.
I??™ve charged some knight in because that seemed a good thing to do at the time. Alan has held off contacting my spearmen while he waits the knight vs. legionary clash to resolve. To hold back legionaries he has successfully passed a ???CMT??? test as the legionaries at such close range to the enemy are inclined to ignore their orders and to charge in. He??™s using the shooting from his skirmishers to try and disrupt my spearmen, which he managed to do against one spear unit. My general (large yellow flag with Red Cross) has just joined the spearmen to try and rally them.
More and more units on both sides got sucked into the melee, where the superior ?©lan and swordsmanship of the legionary battle groups started to tell.
Worse still, my attempts to work around Alan??™s right flank had stalled by his aggressive use of legionaries. My shooting did have some effect on the exposed unit, which became fragmented, but it was an elite unit and a general quickly moved there to rally it before I got a chance to charge in. On the other flank (not visible in the second photo ??“ look at the first photo), Alan skilfully coordinated his Gallic and Numidian cavalry to defeat my Bedouins, the Numidians then going on to loot my supply camp. I couldn??™t do the same with my turcopoles because the Roman camp was fortified. Sodding Romans. The two light infantry units also managed to overwhelm my lone Bedouin light bow unit.
Eventually the relentless pressure of the legionaries in the centre, combined with the loss of the camp and the Bedouin units resulted in my army collapsing. I did rout two battle groups of legionaries, but to rub salt in the wound Alan rallied one unit on the last turn and also recovered a couple of fragmented units. Alan played a very controlled game, attacking in a rolling series of strikes up and down the line, working units in pairs to pick off my battle groups. A good game even if I played like a bunny.
Saturday night was spent out on the town, looking for a restaurant that had room for 12 people at short notice. It was the age old problem: if the place is good then there are no tables left, and if not then you can get a table but you really don??™t want to eat there. Eventually we found a place that catered for a trendier age set. They were alarmed at the sight of twelve middle aged, slightly-over-average weight guys, but reasoned that our wallets were probably as fat as our midriffs. They shoved us into a side room where, hopefully, we wouldn??™t be too much of an embarrassment to the establishment. The food was surprisingly good.
I did notice, as a crusader general, that the youth of Leeds were very religious. They were all keen to carry through a penance; to shoulder a burden on behalf of the good people of Leeds. Their penance being to walk around on Saturday night in near freezing temperatures with the fair maidens wearing only short, skimpy dresses, and the men in short sleeved shirts. Truly a noble example.
Game 3 was against Alan Montgomery, who was using Late Republican Romans. What can I say about this game? Well, Alan played it extremely well and that Republican Romans are tough, tough, tough. Like, where??™s the historical justification for that! Wargaming convention dictates that legionaries should be expensive, slow moving, and able to be skirmished out of the game.
Here is the situation after the initial moves. The Romans on the left, the Crusaders on the right.
My intention was to anchor the main battle line between the two dark brown pieces of broken ground. The missile troops on my left were to take and hold the broken ground where they could shoot but had a relative degree of safety against the legionaries. The extreme left was held by the turcopoles (seen in the right foreground of the photo). The spearmen were in the centre with knights and some more spearmen in reserve. The right was held by the Bedouin horse and light foot, who were going to try and force the flank.
From Alan??™s left (i.e. from the centre-left background of the photo) there were a unit of Numidians, supported by Gallic cavalry. The Numidians have raced forward and in the photo and are seen nearing my Bedouins, who are besides the village. Two blocks of light infantry were placed against my Bedouin light foot with the clear intention of seizing the rough ground.
Alan??™s main force was deployed in a hollow square, screened by more light infantry. Why the hollow square? I held the pre-game initiative, forcing Alan to deploy 25% of his army first. He therefore needed to deploy defensively. As the game progressed the legionaries in the box ???unfolded??? and deployed out in a line.
At this point I realised my camera batteries (like my game plan) were almost dead and I only managed to snap one more photos. So here it is??¦
The situation a couple of moves later, but with the camera facing 180 degrees ??“ so the legionaries are on the right in the photos and my crusaders are on the left.
The legionaries are unfolding, with some rear battle groups moving to the Roman right wing to face off the on-table outflanking move, others (right foreground) are moving to the opposite wing.
I??™ve charged some knight in because that seemed a good thing to do at the time. Alan has held off contacting my spearmen while he waits the knight vs. legionary clash to resolve. To hold back legionaries he has successfully passed a ???CMT??? test as the legionaries at such close range to the enemy are inclined to ignore their orders and to charge in. He??™s using the shooting from his skirmishers to try and disrupt my spearmen, which he managed to do against one spear unit. My general (large yellow flag with Red Cross) has just joined the spearmen to try and rally them.
More and more units on both sides got sucked into the melee, where the superior ?©lan and swordsmanship of the legionary battle groups started to tell.
Worse still, my attempts to work around Alan??™s right flank had stalled by his aggressive use of legionaries. My shooting did have some effect on the exposed unit, which became fragmented, but it was an elite unit and a general quickly moved there to rally it before I got a chance to charge in. On the other flank (not visible in the second photo ??“ look at the first photo), Alan skilfully coordinated his Gallic and Numidian cavalry to defeat my Bedouins, the Numidians then going on to loot my supply camp. I couldn??™t do the same with my turcopoles because the Roman camp was fortified. Sodding Romans. The two light infantry units also managed to overwhelm my lone Bedouin light bow unit.
Eventually the relentless pressure of the legionaries in the centre, combined with the loss of the camp and the Bedouin units resulted in my army collapsing. I did rout two battle groups of legionaries, but to rub salt in the wound Alan rallied one unit on the last turn and also recovered a couple of fragmented units. Alan played a very controlled game, attacking in a rolling series of strikes up and down the line, working units in pairs to pick off my battle groups. A good game even if I played like a bunny.