BHGS Challenge 2002

You may recall that I felt that the LIR was disadvantaged against the Patrician due to it's LH and so for the BHGS Challenge I'd decided to adjust List 1 slightly to help correct this. However, I wanted to stay with the LIR for the Art(F). So list 1 became:

C-in-C
Cv(O) Reg G 1 General 28.0
Kn(X) Reg 3 Clibanarii and Catafractarii 39.0
LH(O) Reg 3 Equites Illyricani 15.0
LH(S) Irr 3 Hunnic Mercenaries 21.0
Ax(S) Reg 6 Auxilia Palatina 30.0
Ps(O) Reg 6 Auxilia Palatina supporting archers 12.0
Bg(I) Irr 6 Baggage 0.0
Cmd Elts: 28 EEs: 19.0 Dem.Lvl: 6.5 Subtotal: 145.0

Sub-General
Cv(O) Reg G 1 General 28.0
Kn(F) Reg 4 Equites Taifali, Sciri and Theodosiaci 44.0
LH(O) Reg 3 Equites Illyricani 15.0
LH(F) Reg 2 Equites Sagittarii 8.0
Ax(S) Reg 6 Gothic Foot 30.0
Ps(O) Reg 6 Archers Supporting Gothic Foot 12.0
Cmd Elts: 22 EEs: 19.0 Dem.Lvl: 6.5 Subtotal: 137.0

Sub-General
Cv(O) Reg G 1 General 28.0
LH(F) Reg 4 Equites Sagittarii Indigenae 16.0
LH(I) Reg 2 Dromidarii Cameleers 6.0
Bd(O) Reg 4 Legionarii 28.0
Ps(O) Reg 4 Archers Supporting Bd 8.0
Bw(O) Reg 4 Auxilia Palatina Sagittaria 20.0
Art(F) Reg 1 Bolt Shooters 10.0
Ax(I) Irr 1 City Militia 2.0
Cmd Elts: 21 EEs: 19.0 Dem.Lvl: 6.5 Subtotal: 118.0

Total APs: 400.0
Generals: 3
Army Elts: 71 EEs: 57.0 Defeat Lvl: 28.5

Just the 1 Art(F) but a much tougher LH contingent. The reduced Bd numbers didn't bother me as I'd found 6 were not all used in the other version anyway. I used this version of the list for all 5 games as it turns out.

Game 1 on Friday was against Richard Collins who used a Ch'in Chinese. I invaded and went for no terrain thinking that if it was open my better LH would dominate. He placed a 1.5 FE wood on his centre right and 2 scrubby gentle hills one of which was on my base edge the other on his left flank - well at least I would know where his army was. He then deployed his whole army, which was very Sp and Bw heavy in the gap between the hill and wood, with 10 Irr Bw(I) in ambush behind the hill. He only had 3 Kn(O) chariots as any sort of strike force! I deployed from my right Kn(F) command, infantry then C-in-C. It was clear he would wait for me to do all the attacking work and I felt a draw coming on already :-( Although expecting something behind the hill, and probably Bw, I sent Ax(S) forward to attack it but advanced only so far that, if he wanted to come and shoot me, he would have to come onto the flat. On the left I advanced the Ax(S) towards the wood (which had Ps(O) in) to see if anything could happen there. In the centre I generally refused. The attack on the right was stopped dead by my losing 3 Ax(S) to shooting very quickly as the remaining 3 Ax wasn't enough to keep going. On the right by bringing up Bw(O) along the Wd and dropping the Ps back he makes it very difficult for me to attack. I try attacking his Sp(O) with Kn(X) which brings some success but he has reserves which stop me exploiting. After 4 hours he had advanced just beyond the half way line, but only as far as he can maintain a good line with supports, and we call it a day at 16-16. A rather disappointing start, I had the feeling he was quite happy to draw this one against me. Also definitely a case where "if only I'd known what was going to happen I'd have taken the other list" :-)

Game 2 on Saturday morning was against Tim Stubbings with a Massagetae. Despite him being Ag 4 I invade - this is something of a disaster as the Skythian list is very invader unfriendly for my army. With no Rd + H(S) option, and a Rv not really being much use, I go for nothing and he places 2 H(G) one of which is on his right the other on my right placed so as to be of little use to me. I choose a gully which lands in the centre and front of his centre sector. Ah well. I deploy on the left of the table hoping to get some use out of the H(G). He doesn't flank march and covers the table with LH(F), Bw(O) and a Mountain Indian ally - things are pretty bad IMO. In my first move I get 1,2,2 for PIPs and so just sent out LH to cut down his march moves, including some out of my right as sacrificial delayers. I get a bit of a break as his Indian is unreliable so reducing his ability to rush forward and swamp me. I have a bit of a chance pushing Kn(X) forward on my left and Bw and Bd into a gap between his left flank hill and the central gully. Unfortunately the spread of my PIPs is quite poor with me usually getting 2 low and 1 high dice (although the total number of PIPs is pretty average) and I never really have enough to develop the Bw and Bd movement. He sweeps round my right and I manage to extradite all but 2 of my LH, even killing 2 of his in LH fights, and I manage to create a defensive line of Ax(S), LH(O) and Kn(F). Of course it is not secure on both flanks and he picks up a few more elements when I carelessly leave a flank unprotected. However, I just hang on to the end of the game without losing a command, although I have killed very little. 17-15 to Tim. I think if his ally had been reliable he would have gotten a big win. I was also helped by the fact that Tim was unpractised with the army.

Game 3, and now below half way, is against Italian Walter Iermam using Beja. I invade and let him choose the terrain. We get a dune in his right sector away from the edge, scrub in my centre away from the edge, scrub on my right away from the edge and a dune on my right touching the edge. All pieces are along the centre line. Not bad for him IMO, but OK for me as well. I guess that he is going to be obvious and put his Cm(S) in the right dune and so line up Ax(S)+Ps(O) in front of that from the C-in-C with his LH and Kn(X) left of them. The centre is my Bw and Bd lined up to advance through the scrub to my centre front as I guess Bw(I) will be there. My right is a little refused waiting to see. He deployed with a 10 element LH on his right a gap behind the dune, then Bw(I) in front of the RGo, LH and Cv(O) facing the gap between the 2 areas of scrub, then more Bw(I) and 14 Ax(O) to come though the other scrub and a few more LH, including (I) on his left. I felt quite happy that I'd got his deployment worked out and it was obvious where the Cm(S) were. I move forwards with the Ax towards the dune to encourage him out whilst deploying Kn(X) and LH(S) to face off his LH(O) command. The Bd and Bw advanced through the scrub to threaten his Bw(I) and my Art(F) moved to a position to shoot at them. The right held back with it's LH extended far right to avoid an enveloping movement. His Cm(S) move out of the dune as expected and as he sends one off towards the scrub to attack my LH(I) I can get the combats with overlaps to me at each end. He also brings forward his LH command to support the Cm so we have something of a Cm+LH vs Ax(S)+Ps(O)+LH fight. He's lucky and I'm not and I can't even kill Cm(S) who are flanked. I'm soon 2 Ax, 2 Ps and 2 LH down from a command that breaks on 6.5. However, I hang in there and manage to get 4 of his 6 Cm and 3 LH from his 10 LH command, but it's all very sweaty. Meanwhile as I've had the PIP spread problem that I had in the morning I've not managed to do much elsewhere. However, his Bw(I) have come up to shoot at my Bd and so I can advance to attack them. I also have a fun shot at his C-in-C with my Art(F) whilst I have the front corner of my LH(I) behind him - he dies. This is a bit academic as 3 of my Bd hit the Bw(I) and kill 4 on contact so breaking his C-in-C anyway. However, he has just broken mine as well and my left flank has gone; but by holding groups I leave enough there to hold him up, plus crafty single element moves, and he has to be careful with his LH command as it's only 1 element from breaking itself. Attention now shifts to my right where he has brought up more Bw(I) to shoot my Ax(S) and his Ax(O) to outflank me. I need to get some quick results and so I attack quite aggressively with my Ax aiming to get mainly at his Bw(I). I also manage to pick up 4 Ax(O) when he pushes them a bit too far out of the RGo and they are mugged by Kn(F). I get 4 Bw(I) with a combination of Ax(S) and Ps(O) from the command I think I'm most likely to get, however, I take losses including 2 LH(F) to LH(I) and an Ax(S)+Ps(O) to a LH(O) I'm soon 1 element off breaking whilst I still need 4 of his. I attack the 6 elements available to be killed and get none despite them being Bw(I), and he then shoots 1 exposed Kn(F) that I'd not been able to withdraw dead with a single Bw(I) to win the game. 7-25 to Walter in a great close game that in the end could have gone either way.

Sunday and I'm on 38 points from a possible 96 and well and truly in the basement. A real comedown from 5th at the IWF. However, still 2 games to go to get respectability (I hope). It turns out to be The Day of the Sargonids for me.

Game 4 against Bob Smith with Neo-Assyrian Later Sargonid, one of 2 in the competition. I defend and he places nothing. I go for, in addition to the compulsory Rd, 6 1/2 FE; 1 BUA, 2 H(S) and 3 RGo. BUA on the left but as far in as it can be; the H(S) land on his centre base line and on my right touching the edge; the RGo land on my left against the edge and the others in the centre away from the edge. A very formidable defensive line for me (perhaps a bit too much as this can put your opponent off from attacking into you). I deploy C-in-C on the left with Ax in the BUA, infantry in the centre and the Kn(F) command on the right. I intend to use my far more numerous LH to dictate the battle. He has 4 commands and deploys his C-in-C with Sp and WWg in his central sector, an Ax based command to their left a Cv and mtd Ax command to their left and a small 3 Kn(S) and Hd command at the rear. He attacks strongly with his Ax and Cv heading for my relatively weak right. I react by sending forward LH to delay them and bringing the C-in-C's Ax from the BUA to my right whilst the C-in-C's LH rush to pin down his C-in-C and mug his limited LH, which I duly collect. For the loss of just 1 LH(F) I manage to delay his Cv(S) attack and by the time they are near my base edge I have a Kn(F) and Bw(O) - the latter from my centre - reception committee waiting that he does not fancy the look of. Also I now have twice as many Ax in the centre RGo than he has attacking and I'm ready to push forward, as long as I'm careful about his Kn(S) general. My C-in-C's LH also kill a couple of Ps from behind his Sp(S) leaving me 3 elements from that command and I start to wheel up the Kn(X) to have a go at Sp(S). He now decides that his two commands attacking on his left are in trouble and so pulls them out in a run of good PIPs (mind you with 4 regular commands he has a good chance). I chase them as quick as I can and am helped when my Art(F) shoots his Ax command general when it cannot recoil - the command of course survives the dice roll but the speed he can withdraw is now vastly reduced. However, time is running out (Bob isn't that quick). I throw Ax forward, double ranked as much as possible, and the Kn(X) go into single ranked Sp(S) and double ranked Sp(O) - for good measure I throw 4 LH into the long flank of his WWg(I) in an another attempt to get the 3 EE for the C-in-C. All this time his Kn(S) are contained by LH(F) skirmishing in front of them keeping them honest and totally out of the game. Well the LH get nowhere but the Ax get 3 elements leaving that command 1/2 EE away from breaking; however, the catafracts are heroes and roll over the Sp in 2 bounds getting me the C-in-C, but time is called before I can finish off the other command. 22-10. Better.

Game 4 against Geoffrey Punshon with the other Neo-Assyrian Later Sargonid. Here we go again. I defend. Terrain starts as a rerun of the last game with my BUA, 2 H(S) in the same positions and the first RGo landing to the left of the BUA. However, the other 2 pieces of RGo land in his central sector one touching the edge the other away towards the centre line. Again there are 4 commands and I deploy almost exactly as last time except I swap the C-in-C and Kn(F) commands around. He has 3 Assyrian commands; his right is Ax and Hd, centre is Sp and Cv(S) and centre rear 6 Kn(S) and much Hd. His left is a 10 element Saka command. The latter is quite dangerous to me IMO as it vastly increases the mobility and flexibility of the Sargonid army, it also means my LH cannot dominate the game so much. He starts the game by swinging his chariots and Saka towards my C-in-C with Sp advancing in support, his Cv move to his right and the Ax advance into the RGo. I advance my right wing LH and Kn(X) in support to see if anything can be done about his LH(F) command. As it is deployed only 6 wide I decide to take the risk, as I'm better quality, and attack him on an equal frontage but giving up an overlap as he has chariots supporting. I'm lucky and kill 2 on contact plus push backs, however, his overlapping Kn(S) gets 2 back from a flank attack. I risk another bound of LH combat (well at 2 vs 2 and 1 vs 1 anything can happen, and I got to chose the order of combats so getting a few 2 vs 1 in my favour) and get the other 2 to break the command :-) In just 2 bounds the whole game has dramatically changed as his left flank is now uncovered, even if it is very tough Kn(S) it cannot push on en mass any more. I now attack strongly on my left with the Ax(S) and Kn(F), the former into his Ax who are mainly (O) and the latter towards his Cv(S) - I also have LH here to create overlaps. On my right his Sp push on for a while but find themselves unsupported and a couple go down to Art shooting (helped by the odd element preventing recoil). Oh, as well by this time I have also collected his bits
and pieces of LH to keep the element tally going. There is a long slog in the RGo and we both suffer loses, but I eventually get a flank. My Kn(F) also kill a couple of Cv(S) and an odd LH and when his Ax command goes I just get the army on total losses. 30-2, and some relief.

So overall I get 90 points, although 52 came on day 2, and I finished 38th from 102.

Definitely a disappointment after the IWF, but saved from being a total disaster at the end.