1066 and all that
In the best traditions of "I've done well so I'll tell
everyone about
it." here is a report on the performance of the Early Polish at John
Graham-Leigh's latest themed competition.
For those who don't know about John's comps they are small and tightly
themed - 20 players (by invite) and 20 armies each of which can only be
used once. Players get to choose their army from the list in order based
on how well they have done in the last 3 comps - least well chooses
first up to the best performer having no choice at all. Before this comp
I was the 2nd best aggregate performer and so could choose from 2
armies, Early Polish and Breton, so I chose the former consigning Martin
van Tol to the Bretons. All armies had to be dated between 1042AD and
1071AD which, of course, further limited the choices available to each
player. John had also decided that we would use the 15-0 scoring system
this time round :-)
My list was:
C-in-C
Cv(O) Irr G 1 General 17.0
Cv(O) Irr 10 Noble Cavalry 70.0
Sp(I) Irr 4 Spearmen 12.0
Bw(O) Irr 8 Archers 32.0
Ps(O) Irr 3 Slingers 6.0
Cmd Elts: 26 EEs: 24.5 Dem.Lvl: 8.5 Subtotal: 137.0
Sub-General
Cv(O) Irr G 1 General 17.0
Cv(O) Irr 6 Noble Cavalry 42.0
Sp(I) Irr 10 Spearmen 30.0
Bw(O) Irr 6 Archers 24.0
Ps(O) Irr 3 Slingers 6.0
Cmd Elts: 26 EEs: 24.5 Dem.Lvl: 8.5 Subtotal: 119.0
Polish Ally-General
Cv(O) Irr A 1 General 12.0
Cv(O) Irr 4 Noble Cavalry 28.0
Sp(I) Irr 4 Spearmen 12.0
Ps(O) Irr 9 Archers 18.0
Ps(O) Irr 2 Slingers 4.0
Cmd Elts: 20 EEs: 14.5 Dem.Lvl: 5.0 Subtotal: 74.0
Wendish Ally-General
Ax(O) Irr A 1 General 8.0
Cv(O) Irr 2 Noble Cavalry 14.0
Ax(O) Irr 14 Slav Javelinmen 42.0
Ps(O) Irr 3 Slav Archers 6.0
Cmd Elts: 20 EEs: 18.5 Dem.Lvl: 6.5 Subtotal: 70.0
Army Elts: 92 EEs: 82.0 Defeat Lvl: 41.0
This was the first time in 5 of John's competitions that I hadn't gone
with 3 allied generals :-)
The first game is pre-ordained by John who sets historical match-ups as
befits a tight theme. I was matched against an East Frank who was
allowed, if desired, Slav allies but no other external allies - this was
played by Duncan Thompson. I invaded with no weather and the important
terrain ended up as a BUA on Duncan's right with a patch of RGo and a
steep hill to its left both closer to the centre line. There was also a
patch of RGo on my extreme right and another opposite the BUA both in my
half of the table. I deployed with the Wends opposite the BUA in the
rough, the subbie, the C-in-C and finally the internal ally on my right.
Duncan placed his (smaller) Wend command in the BUA and rough, some
Bw(I) in the rough and on the hill with Kn(I) dismounted as Bd(O)
between the Bw blocks. His right was his Kn(F) backed by Sp(I).
had no sub-generals (to save AP) but no allies turned out unreliable for
either of us.
On my right Duncan didn't fancy the chances of his Kn when faced by the
massed Cv(O) of 2 commands plus the Sp(I) and Bw(O) and so spent a few
move manoeuvring the Kn out of the way of their advance. This involved
the inevitable traffic jam of Irr PIP dice, inconvenient 1's and needing
to hold groups at times and so took rather a lot of bounds. Even then it
left Kn facing the RGo stuffed with Ps which didn't progress the attack
much for
by manoeuvring/holding the Kn meant they didn't contribute before the
game ended. The only fighting on this side of the field was when
had to let 4 or 5 Kn go sponno into the Bw and Sp who destroyed them for
the loss of 2 Bw.
On my left the main attack was the Wends on the opposing Wends and Bw(I)
supported by the sub-generals Bw who aimed to get some shots at the
Bw(I) to weaken them before the Wends crashed in. The Sp(I) were to
support the Bw and try and keep the Bd(O) opposite honest as best they
could - not really wanting to fight them after all. Duncan tried to get
round my Wends with his 2 Wendish Cv(O) and we ended up with a 2Cv(O) Vs
2 Cv(O) fight and as I killed one of his at impact that ended that
threat. My Bw shot off a few of the Bw(I) and then the Wends hit home
and polished off the remaining couple. They then turned on
Wends and took them out as well. With my sub-generals cavalry taking out
a couple of Bd with a flank attack the whole of
rout and the game was mine. 15-0 or 10-0 in old money. A good start to
the weekend.
The second game saw
played by Simon Clarke (the other 2 15-0 winners were both Italian
armies and so were matched against each other). Again there was no
weather and the important terrain was a wood on my left and a mass of
RGo and marsh on Simon's left which cut down the open terrain for his
heavy infantry army to his centre and right sectors. He also placed a
fortified camp in his right hand sector so I had to be a little
concerned about a possible flank march. I deployed, from my left, the
internal ally, the C-in-C, the sub-general and finally the Wends facing
the rough terrain (surprise, surprise!). Apart from the Sp in the
sub-generals command all the Sp and Bw were on my base line as too
vulnerable for this match up, I was going to fight with the massed
Cv(O). Simon had a small command of Bd(I) and (F) in the camp, an
Anglo-Danish command on his base line (he planned to be able to move it
to where it would be needed, a touch optimistic
Bd(O) and Bd(I) up front the former in front of the latter but with a
gap between the commands.
The game was pretty straight forward and included no great tactical
thinking on my part. On my left the Ps from the ally moved out and
threatened the flank of Simon's right hand command so slowing its
advance and effectively peeling off elements with ZOCs thanks to being
at an angle to the advancing Bd (DBM geometry at its finest!). On my
right the Wends piled forwards through the rough to threaten Simon's
left flank which pulled the Anglo-Danish huscarls from the rear to try
and cover the weakness. It also attracted the Bd(F) from the camp in a
long march that ended up with them fighting Wends in the marsh to no
effect either way. Good PIPs saw me line up 23 Cv(O), some double
ranked, including 3 generals (2 next to each other) opposite Simon's 2
large Bd commands and I charged in on one of them with overlaps at each
end whilst standing off the other to see what happened. The first clash
was decisive as I killed 3 Bd(O) although I had my end Cv 6-1ed but its
neighbour survived being flanked in the next bound and the flanking
element was taken out with extreme prejudice the following move. The 4
Bd(O) destroyed meant that the line had to be filled with Bd(I) which
with 2 generals fighting as well meant I pretty much had an overlap or
double overlap each combat thereafter and Simon's command crumbled to
rout rapidly. I now turned on Simon's C-in-C's command and got lucky and
took out the general, but he passed the dice roll. However, the writing
was on the wall and over the next 4 or 5 bounds I whittled away the Bd
(whose movement was obviously now crippled) and broke the command and so
the army. Another 15-0 (10-0) for the only perfect score for the day :-)
As is traditional at these comps a number of us were staying at the same
(good) local hotel and we met up for a rather good meal, a couple of
bottles of wine, a few beers and an evenings talking about this and that
- mostly wargames related of course.
Sunday morning saw the refreshed Poles invade
O'Dea's Early Hungarian army who had notched up a near perfect score of
29 on the first day. Terrain was negligible with a couple of gentle
hills and a piece of RGo on the Hungarian side and one piece of RGo on
the Polish extreme right just in the Hungarian half. All rather bare and
nowhere for the Wends to operate comfortably - especially as I knew
there were 8 Kn and 6 Cv in the Hungarian army plus the 3 generals. So I
decided to send the Wends on a flank march on the right with the
internal ally on my right flank, the sub-general in the centre and the
C-in-C on my left - who would have his flank somewhat flapping in the
breeze but I hoped that I could cause enough pressure elsewhere to avoid
that being critical for most of the game. Brian deployed a LH(F) and (S)
command on his left, a centre of Bw(I), Sp(I) and Kn(F) under the C-in-C
and a right wing of LH(F) and Cv(O).
Once again I decided on a strategy of subtlety - well not actually I
just advanced straight forward to get my Bw at the Kn(F) ASAP. The
internal ally was unreliable but this mattered little as all he had to
do was expand the Cv out to stop a LH raid round the flank and 1 PIP did
this nicely. He came into play on bound 4 and contributed thereafter.
The other two on table commands had good PIPs - in fact the C-in-C had
very good PIPs for most of the game - and were soon close up to the
Hungarians. The C-in-C's cavalry were strung out in a long line covering
as much ground as they could, however, the Hungarian LH started to march
round the flank and with the opposition Cv moving up as well I had to
start dropping elements back to cover the flank (this is where the good
PIPs were all important). With the Bw now in range Brian had no choice
but to send in the Kn to see what would happen. The Bw hardly caused any
disruption on the approach, and no kills, but were demons in close
combat as were the few Sp(I) who were also hit and the Kn exploded in
short order. Brian had, rightly, sent in his Sp to fight min to support
his Kn but these also fought like girls and hid C-in-C's command was
shortly streaming to the rear. I was now attacking his LH command with
lesser numbers of Cv(O), but including 2 generals, but at the same time
the position of my C-in-C's command looked rather precarious.
Unfortunately for Brian I now got really lucky as my C-in-C's Cv refused
to die and usually threw back his Cv and LH and my right wing Cv 6-1ed
his LH(S) to death in about 2 bounds (it got a bit embarrassing to be
honest). Thus his army collapsed without the wends ever rolling a 6 to
arrive and I collected another 15-0 (10-0).
Over lunch - provided by John's wife (many thanks there) - I found out
that my final opponent would either be Martyn Rogers' Anglo-Danish or
John Patrick's Communal Italian, neither of which looked like a good
match up for me. In fact both are pretty dire to be honest. My one
advantage was that I was 9 points clear of both (they were on 36) and so
didn't need to win the game to win the comp. John diced for who I played
and I ended up with the Italians invading Poland whilst the Danes were
matched against Simon Clarke's Vikings - this latter was, I thought, to
my advantage as I'd favour the Vikings in that match up and Simon was on
"only" 30 points going into the last game as so could not over take
me.
The Italians invaded down a road with steep hills to which I added some
RGo and Wd, there was strong wind and risk of rain but this hardly
affected the game.. We ended up with the table clear on by left half
with steep
hills on my right with rough towards the centre on my side - very
suitable for the Wends. I thought long and hard about flank marching the
sub-general on my left and putting the rest of the army on the
centre-right in an attempt to get one of the small commands I knew
John's army had (one with a WWg(I) which he used to cover the flank) as
1 command plus no loss of my commands would guarantee me the comp
regardless of what happened on table 2. However, I chickened out (partly
psychological as I felt my luck must rebound after the morning game) and
deployed the internal ally on the far right with Ps in ambush in the
hills, the Wends next to them in the rough and the sub-general and
C-in-C to the left with their cavalry generally forward to slow down the
Italian advance. I was more or less banking on Simon winning on table 2
and that I would not lose more than my C-in-C in my game. John deployed
his 2 small commands on his right - the flank one was the caroccio plus
bits, the next C-in-C plus 5 Kn plus bits - and then 2 large Reg Sp(I)
based commands extending the line. His extreme left looked rather
vulnerable to me as it was held by 4 Hd, 4 Bw(O) and 4 Sp(I) rather
detached from the rest of the command - it looked like an opportunity to
me.
John attacked with the aim of pushing his spears through the open ground
on my left and I spent a lot of time an effort throwing cavalry towards
them at angles, etc. and pinning them in order to slow them down as best
I could having nothing much to face the quantity. I also attacked the
vulnerbale end of his left flank with my internal ally whilst pushing
the Wends into the rough to be a threat if a significant gap opened on
that side. Basically I was primarily attacking John's PIPs to avoid him
being able to break my army whilst having an eye open to taking a
command off him if possible. Whilst my attack on his left was rather a
damp squib - my fears about a diece backlash from the morning seemed
justified - it did pull off his highest PIP dice each turn and the mass
of cavalry I had on my left did slow down his spears very successfully.
After a couple of hours the game on table 2 finished with a victory to
Simon which meant I didn't have to take any commands and so pulled back
my attack on the right to avoid any risk there, although I sent a few
sniping elements of Wends out to sort of threaten his general to keep
his attention a bit divided. My stalling cavalry obviously couldn't hold
the Sp up forever and in the end John got into the foot of my C-in-C
with Kn and Sp. The Bw died rather quickly and a few Cv went as well as
John was willing to suicide elements to prevent recoils at times. In the
end my C-in-C hung on by 0.5 EE but John got the 6-4 as he'd taken 1/4
of the command. So a 4-6 but enough for me to finish on 49 4 ahead of
Simon Clarke and so win the competition.
As ever many thanks to John for the organisation. Next year is armies of
the bronze age fertile crescent where I will be lumbered with the army
nobody else wants as my victory means I'm now the most successful player
at John's comps :-)