Ancient Brits vs French Ordiance & Carthage vs Lt Seleuc

[stenic]

Two games at the meeting last night. Sorry no pictures but just to give you a flavour for those interested in match-ups.

First up was Ancient British vs French Ordinance. Unfortunately for the AB most of the terrain was on the FO side; a large village in the centre of FO long edge, to the left of that a wood but in AB half of the table, then left of that a plantation. This gave the FO two ideal positions to deploy in; one corner protected all around by terrain, or anchor on the village to the other side and swing round 90 degrees. Surprisingly the FO boxed themselves in and waited for the AB to force the issue. Even more Surprisingly then perhaps that the AB did not flank march with thousands of LCh. Rather they decided to use their greater LF numbers to contest the wood and village.

With no flank march and the French army skulking the AB LCh effectively stood and watched whilst the LF did the hard work. At one point the French handgunners sprung the AB ambush and some fanatical warband poured through the wood and engaged them. The LF hand gunners crumbled after fighting bravely for two turns but the ensuing pursuit caught a BG of longbow and gave them a kicking. By the time it was called the AB had the village and woods but the FO had the plantation, the FO were down 3 BGs to 2 AB BGs, so a winning draw to the AB.

Post mortem in the car on the way home concluded that the FO had played far too defensively and should have anchored on the village across the open side. Whilst they negated the Lch their knights also became rear support troops.

On the other table Late Seleucids (me) vs Later Carthaginians. I defended and went for a village in my half along the centre of the long edge. Carthage promptly removed that as it was non-compulsory. The only other significant terrain was open fields on each flank of the table and a small GH in the centre of the board. This was one were the game was effectively lost in deployment. Carthage put their HF centre right, MF to their left, LF forward of the MF and nearly all mounted to their left with a view to swing round and swamp me. On their far right they placed a 6 base BG of LF javelins, and some nellies right of the HF. I matched the HF and nellies with pike, LH opposite the lonely LF javs and deploying last countered the Carthiginian mounted with nellies, cats and cav but in column in the centre, LF were forward of the column.

The game opened with both sides advancing rapidly with HF whilst Carthage swung their mounted out to the left to envelope me. My LH advanced to the uneven ground on my left whilst Carthage LF javs advanced to the edge of said ground. And here it went horribly wrong for Carthage. In an effort to see off my LH he jumped out of the terrain to get into javelin range, this worked as I took hits and failed the CT roll but saved the base. In my turn I decided to attack the LF as with him out of the terrain it was evens POA in impact but I was up on dice and melee POAs, and I’d moved a general across to join the fight. In short order the LF broke and I was through and past his flank. From that point Carthage had to force the issue as I was now roaming free behind them. His HF and nellis went for the pikes…but as we know nellies, Off Sp and IF with sword need to win impact against pike and they didn’t. Over a few rounds of combat Carthage only ever won with the nellies and I passed all CTs. Meantime Carthage failed CTs, lost bases and to add insult to injury Hannibal was kebabed on a pike.

On my centre/right the cav and cats now assaulted the MF as the Carthage LF had moved away. Not sure why but I think he was looking to use them to help mob the elephants and protect his cavalry. This worked to a degree as eventually both BGs got swamped and went fragged after losing an attached general. But it was all too late as by this time the cats and elite companions were chewing up the Galatian and Spanish MF (despite losing a cat base). In the final bound some pursuing pike (all the Carthage HF had broken) helped the cats break the Galatians and the knock on CT on the Spanish was failed so they broke too. The Carthiginian nellies also broke as my LH had charged them in the rear and they were already fragged. Carthage massacred 12ap to 2ap.

Post mortem suggested Carthage should have had some LH on their right, I’d have never taken on the LF if they’d had LH supporting them and Carthage would not have then been compelled to force the issue with the HF. The other point was the removal of the village on my side in the centre, he’d wanted the clear the space to envelope me but with hindsight it worked against him. I changed my plan and was much more aggressive. Also, with his MF and LF vs my meagre LF I’d never have been able to contest the village, so he’d have controlled that and perhaps have engineered himself a better position.


Steve P