Slitherine

This time I was facing Ian (JD) McNeil, running a Cypriot army. Ian was rusty with the rules after spending the last year travelling the world marketing FoG and other Slitherine products, but Ian is a canny gamer so it wouldn’t be easy.

Ian’s army was:

1 x IC
2 x TCs
3 x 4 Knights !!!!!!
4 x 4 LH bows
2 x 8 HF armoured defensive spears
1 x 8 LF bow
1 x 6 LF bow
1 x 8 MF crossbow

12 BGs with an initiative of 3.

The knights were clearly going to be a problem. I wasn’t worried about anything else although the 4 BGs of LH could prove a nuisance.

As a reminder, my army was:

3 x TCs
3 x 6 HF “Average” Legionaries – armoured IP + sword
3 x 4 HF “Veteran” Legionaries – superior IP + SSw
1 x 4 Spanish LH – unprotected, average, undrilled, javelins, lt spear
1 x 4 Gallic Cv – undrilled, armoured, superior, lt spear + Sw
1 x 6 Bow LF unprotected, average, undrilled, bow
1 x 6 Sling LF unprotected, average, undrilled, sling
1 x Jewish ally TC
1 x 6 Jewish slingers LF unprotected, average, undrilled, sling
2 x 8 Jewish phalanx of the foot MF protected, ave, drilled, off. spear.
Fortified camp

Onto the game:

















Time was called and play ceased. It was a 11-9 draw to me as I’d destroyed a BG of knights.

Post game analysis

I’d managed to hold the knights by having overlaps in the melee which countered Ian’s POA advantage. Ian didn’t risk charging his infantry in to support the knights because, being defensive spearmen, they would have been on a double negative POA against my impact foot.

On the other hand, Ian only risked 3 BGs whereas; if I lost against the knight’s charge I would risk most of my army.

The next game report can be found here: viewtopic.php?p=56627#56627

Neil's Experience told here. his plan was better than mine. I had my knights deployed the wrong way round. I should have had two blocks on my right, but I did learn a lot

Regards
JDM

Great reports, Neil! They really help illustrate the rules in action, and keep things fun, too.

I looked at other posts & the Hall of Honour, and couldn't find how many points the armies were for Helsinki. Pardon me if I missed it somewhere obvious. What was the limit, and is there a 'standard' evolving for 15mm?

Thanks!

Mark

800 points - this is pretty much the standard for singles.

I am rather impressed that the MF Offensive spear wanted to engage the knights, much less won.

Do I have it right Impact POA is a wash. mtd vs MF & Offensive Spear gets a + and negates the lance?

Then in melee a wash again. Knights get Armor & Offensive Spear gets a + and negates the sword?

Or were there both BGs 16 bases versus 4 knights?

hazelbark wrote:I am rather impressed that the MF Offensive spear wanted to engage the knights, much less won.

Do I have it right Impact POA is a wash. mtd vs MF & Offensive Spear gets a + and negates the lance?

Then in melee a wash again. Knights get Armor & Offensive Spear gets a + and negates the sword?

Yes, at impact it's no POAs (assuming the knights charge in). Ditto in the melee (assuming the MF lose the impact and disrupt).

To be honest, I was lucky and threw better dice than Ian. The knights generally will have a slight edge because the can reroll 1's.

Ironically, Lt spear cavalry have a better factor against MF spears than lancers.

Of course, the problem for the spearmen is that things rapidly go downhill for them if they get disrupted. The knights only lose dice while disrupted, while the spearmen start giving up all kinds of POA. In my experience, knights aren't actually very good at winning combats (at least, no better than other troops) but if they can manage to win one round and the enemy fails a CT the knights can rapidly break through after that.

Thanks for the wonderful report!

neilhammond wrote:Ironically, Lt spear cavalry have a better factor against MF spears than lancers.

Only because of the delightful anti-MF/LF plus, which makes it rather useful in eras and regions where MF predominates.

Otherwise Cav has a sad time trying to use LSp if the enemy has a POA since it has to find a hill and persuade the enemy to come up.

I think the Jewish MF Spear hook is rather daring - I probably would have taken them as HF for open ground use against mounted and one BG of Scutarii IF/Sw for terrain troops.

Mike

However , I did not think Neil would advance aggressively on his left flank with the MF and in doing so he heavily outnumbered me. In an earlier post I said I had deployed my knights wrongly. This gave Neil the oppertunity to leave the safety of the village and attck me . So a bold move that nearly came off and an excellent play

Regards
JDM