Britcon 2002

Being still tired from the weekend and not wanting to do any work I thought I'd write up my first Britcon experience.

Firstly, many effusive thanks to the BHGS and all involved in running Britcon it was fantastic - and especially Bob Whitehouse who kept me at the bar until after 2.30am on Sunday morning :-)

So despite my success with the LIR at the IWF I decided to go with the Dynastic Bedouin in 15mm period 2, 494AD and later. This was a bit of a romantic choice, I wanted to run the Bedouin over a 6 game competition even though I feel that given the current trends for armies that it doesn't quite cut it any more.

The list was:

Hamdanids of Aleppo, 965AD

C-in-C: Irr Cv(O) gen, 6 Irr LH(O), 4 Irr Cv(S), 4 Reg Bw(X)/(O) DBE, 2 Irr
Ps(O), 3 Irr Hd(O), 6 Bg - 21.5/7.5
Sub 1: Irr LH(O) gen, 4 Irr LH(O), 4 Irr Cv(S), 8 Reg Ax(S), 4 Reg Ps(O)
[support Ax] - 19.0/6.5
Sub 2: Irr LH(O) gen, 5 Irr LH(O), 2 Irr LH(I), 2 Irr Cv(S), 6 Irr mtd
Bw(O), 3 Irr mtd Bd(I), 5 Irr Hd(O) - 21.5/7.5
Ally: Irr LH(O) gen, 5 Irr LH(O), 1 Irr Ps(O) - 6.5/2.5

Army Elts: 84 EEs: 68.5 Defeat Lvl: 34.5

With this set up any of the commands (apart from the C-in-C, of course) can flank march so keeping options open for corner-sitters depending on what their army is and the terrain in. Having to place the Bw(X) with the first command is a bit of a problem, however, being with the C-in-C gives a reasonable chance to redeploy behind the LH if necessary even with Irr PIP dice.

First game on Friday night I drew John Sampson who was using an Irreg. general Medieval Portuguese, pre-1390AD with no weather. Unsurprisingly he invaded but chose to not put any terrain down initially. I chose 3 almost minimum sized pieces of scrub and a minimum sized orchard the only piece of which that had any effect on the game was one piece of scrub which went in my centre sector about 20" in from the edge. John then went for the invaders piece of RGo which landed in his right sector on the table edge max distance in from the short side. This was the one place I didn't want it to land as it gave him a 4' wide table to deploy in - it wouldn't have fitted in his other flank sector in the same way due to some of my terrain and the centre would have been bad for him too due to another bit. I deployed (l to r) ally, sub 1, C-in-C, sub 2.

John deployed (from my l to right again) his C-in-C's command of 8 Irr Kn(O) including general, 4 LH(O), 4 Reg Bw(S), 7 Ps(O) and 2 Ax(O), the Ax and Ps in the RGo, a sub-general's command of Bd(S) dismounted general, 8 Irr Bw(O), 8 Irr Sp(I), 1 LH(O) and 1 Hd(F) and lastly the third sub-general of Irr Kn(O) general, 3 Irr Kn(S), 3 Reg Kn(S), 4 Reg Bw(O), 6 Irr Ax(O) and 5 LH(O). Apart from the Reg Kn(S) everything is lined up with his left wing LH ready to expand from behind the Irr Kn(S) to get to the table edge. I was a bit surprised at this point as I had expected a command with a good chunk of Ax to be in the RGo he had placed and so hadn't deployed my Ax to really push through there.

My plan was to attack his right wing Kn(O) and LH(O) with Cv(S) and LH(O) from 2 commands and when they were distracted to also send the Ax(S) into the Bw(S), hopeful break the C-in-C and then take the Bg and hit the rest of the army in the flank. My Bw(X) were to move up in support of the Ax(S) to be able to attack his Bw(O) if necessary, although this wasn't my preferred choice due to being DBE. My right was to skirmish like hell and delay and contain the Kn(S), my 2 Cv(S) being there to threaten his LH and the mtd Bw would support as needed. I was assuming that as long as his PIPs were OK for him that he would be pushing mainly with his Kn(S) left and so expected to have to work hard to get at his C-in-S's command.

I realised now that I should have deployed my C-in-C's command on my far right and the Sub 2's command to it's left - the opposite to what I did, however, I do get wary about having the Bw(X) on a flank as it can take an age to redeploy them when you rely on Irr dice. Still I don't think it was a fatal error and I had a plan to use what I'd got where it was.

John's game plan was ruined from the start as his Kn(S) command threw a whole series of 1s for PIPs, and continued to have poor PIPs the whole game (and indeed the following game where Paul Robinson all but annihilated it in about 4 bounds with his WotR Lancastrian). This resulted in his battleline lurching forward a bit and stopping about 6" short of the centre line with the C-inC's Kn(O) and LH(O) angled back to the RGo where the Ax and Ps covered their flank. In turn 3 John had to let the Irr Kn(S) go sponno which
was good for me, however, they refused to die and by the end of the game they had killed 5 LH(O) and the 2 Kn I killed were by shooting them after I had arranged they had no recoil! In the centre I advanced to 6" away from John's Bw hoping that he would make the first move there, as this might have given me some advantages and cut down the shooting I would take on the way in. However, he had advanced his army as far as he wanted to without risking his flanks a bit so sat tight.

On my left the ally and Sub 1 LH advanced to cover the Cv(S) moving round to face John's LH and the right-hand end of his Kn(O) line. I was hampered on this wing by a series of low PIPs that slowed me down (obviously not a good night for left wing PIPs). John moved the Ax and Ps to the edge of the RGo to cover his line and threaten my LH, but never wanted to try double ranked Ps against my LH so they stayed in the RGo. I did slip 1 LH from the ally round his rear through the RGo into his Bg when my ally got a really high PIP, however, it only got 2 combats against the Bg before the end of the game and so didn't really effect anything. As John was sitting tight I pushed my Cv forward at his LH who dropped back a little so that I would have to attack being overlapped. Despite this I managed to push 2 forward to break their covering of the Kn's flank and get another Cv(S) into the end of the Kn line with a LH in support to create a 3vs3 combat that would kill 2 Kn. However, this did leave me in a position where only 1 of my Cv could recoil - but it was omelettes and eggs time.

The flank attack failed and recoiled, but at least no other Cv recoiled when John attacked them next bound and I killed 2 of his LH. Of course he advanced his Kn so that they were not killed by the one Kn in combat recoiling. With time starting to loom I advanced the Ax in the centre and decided that the Bw(X) needed to go as well if I had any chance of getting a win. Unfortunately with the Cv still needing PIPs and John's shooting they Ax never really got into combat and nothing came of that. The Bw(X) decided not to roll above 2 on shooting dice and I lost 2 DBE rapidly and so that attack stalled as well, although they did shoot dead a couple of Sp(I) whotried to close with them.

Then time ran out and we'd got a disappointing 16-16 draw and only 1 hour left until the bar closed - still managed to get a few pints in though :-)

Overnight the draw for the second round pitched me up against Trevor Cooper who was using an Ottoman army (and the guy Matt played in game 1 - in my game we got 11 bounds done in the 3.5 hours so I had no problems on that front, maybe Matt was unlucky or I was lucky?). I felt this was a good match up as I'd beaten an Ottoman in practice a couple of weeks before with only 3 of my 4 commands on table (Sub 2 was flank marching). Additionally I've never played Trevor before and its always good to play a different face (in fact 5 out of 6 of my games were against new opponents).

Trevor, unsurprisingly, invaded and there was strong wind from the south. He invaded down a river placed on my right (south) of the table. I went for minimal terrain again with the 3 pieces of minimum sized scrub and a minimum sized orchard. 2 scrub ended up in Trevor's central sector and the other in mine away from the edge (c.160mm from the Rv which is important later) and the orchard in my left sector on the halfway line. I deployed (left to right again) Sub 2, C-in-C, Sub 1 and the Ally. It was LH up front everything else behind and I didn't place anything accross the Rv. Trevor deployed (again my left to right) a Turkoman ally of 3 Cv(O) inc. general and 7 LH(S), Sub-general of 6 Cv(S) inc. general, 5 Cv(O) and 3 Ps(O), C-in-C of 1 Cv(S) general, 2 Bw(S), 10 LH(F), 4 Ps(O) and 6 Hd(O) and finally a Serb ally of 5 Kn(S) inc. general, 3 LH(O) and 8 Bw(I). He
had the LH(S) and (F) up front and other troops behind except for the Serbs who had their LH accross the Rv and the Kn next to the Rv in a single line with the Bw(I) extending to their right.

My plan was to use the massed Bw in my lefthand commands to push his right away and then exploit the result with Cv and LH whilst trying to get the Ax(S) into the Serb Bw(I) whilst "entertaining" the Kn with the ally. I must admit I don't know what Trevor was planning.

Both his allies turned out to be reliable and he advanced along the line as much as he could as his initial PIPs were low (moving the wind to hurt him more than me), apart from the Serbs who got a 6 and so he advanced the Bw and Kn 6" to the half way point. Again my Sub 2 had poor PIPs for the first part of the game and I couldn't get the Ax moving quickly, but I sent forward all my LH screen and advanced the Bw mass on the left. After a couple of bounds as my Bw started to get near his Cv Trevor realised that this was not a good place for them to be and marched them away to his left to come against my Ax and Cv(S) there - fortunately he had split the (S) from the (O) and so the latter stayed where they were. On my left the whole thing got very static as his LH(S) retreated slowly in front of my advance and my Bw(O) hardly shot anything, and to no real effect. The Bw(X) wheeled inwards to pressure Trevor, however, after a couple of quick wind changes in his favour his 2 Bw(S) shot dead 2 DBE of mine and so I had to do some dancing to keep mthe other 2 safe and the command OK.

On my right the advance of the Serbs ran into trouble when Trevor rolled a series of low PIPs (but no 1s!) when his 5 wide Kn line was close to the small piece of scrub with only a 4 element wide gap between that and the Rv - and my LH lurking just the other side of the scrub. This neutralised his Kn for a couple of moves during which time I'd manouevred the Ax(S) with supports and the Cv(S) to meet his 5 Cv(S) that had redeployed. I quickly killed 4 and also (as they were close <g>) killed 4 Serb Bw(I) by hitting them in the flank with a spare Cv - unfortunately due to PIPs and a silly manoeuvre mistake I'd had to get the Ally general in a position where he was shot from behind with no recoil, the command survived but was not much use and was close to the Serb Kn(S). So with about 1 1/2 hours to go I was 3 elements from his army. During this time I repeatedly failed to kill Serb Bw(I) with my Cv(S) and couldn't catch his Cv as my PIPs were never enough or they survived the combats. In the last bound I did get the Bw I needed on the last combat roll and so just won 20-12, much to my relief as another 16-16 would have been unbearable.

Having moved up a bit I drew Chris Ager using Beja. He invaded and there was no weather. I chose 2 x 1 FE rocky going both of which landed on the centre line, one in my right sector one in his. Chris then placed a 1 FE boggy ground which went on the centre line in my left sector max distance from table edges. So we had a gap of about 3' accross the centre of good going.

I deployed (left to right) Ally, C-in-C, Sub 1 then Sub 2. Chris deployed (my left to right again) a Sub-General command of 4 LH(O) inc. general, 2 Ax(O) and 1 Ps(O), then a Sub-General of 3 Cv(O) inc. general, 5 LH(O), 10 Bw(I), 3 Ax(O) and 1 Ps(O), then a Sub-General of Cv(O) general, 12 Bw(I), 6 Ps(O), 5 LH(O) and 6 Bd(F) and finally the C-in-C of 6 LH(O) inc. general, 6 Cm(S), 6 Bw(O), 2 Ax(O), 3 Ps(O) and 1 LH(I). His front is nearly all Bw apart from a gap between the Bw(I) and (O) where there are some LH and on his right which has LH in front of the RGo. The Bd(F) are with a subby at the back as are the Cm(S) with the C-in-C.

My plan for this game was dictated by his Bd(F), apart from them I felt I'd gor the situation covered with the Bw on each wing and the Ax in the middle and Cv(S) support roughly central and able to move where-ever I needed them - but I didn't want to commit with his Bd sitting at the back and able to redeploy if they got a big dice, and being with the sub able to hold for 1 PIP until then. When they were commited I would attack the Bw with Ax(S) and/or Cv(S) and the C-in-C's Bw(X)/(O) (I'm happy to get into a shoot out with Bw(I) as the (I) hurts). Other Cv(S) would, if necessary, move to contain the Bd(F) who will lose to them over time. The ally was to just hold up his small command. Chris had decided that he wanted to redeploy the Bd to his left to try and get at my Bw and Bd(I) and so turn the flank.

We now had 8 rapid bounds of cautious play where I advanced about to the centre line and both sides LH danced about a bit, and the 2 small commands postured at each other. There was little real action as Chris' sub with the Bd kept having low PIPs and they would trigger both sides plan. In move 9 Chris rolled 6 for the Bd command and they lept away to his left towards the RGo, he also advanced the Cm forward to threaten me, although I had Bw pointing at them. So seeing where the Bd were going I positioned
cv(S) and the Bd(I) from my right so as to cover the flank of the Bw and advanced the Bw at the Cm, and at the same time the Ax(S) and Cv(S) started out towards his Bw(O) and (I). On my left the C-in-C was prevented from attacking by Chris infiltrating Ax and Ps through the boggy going which I had to cover with Cv and LH and so any Bw(X) advance was held up for a few bounds.

Chris' Bw hardly disrupted the Ax whi hit them with an overlap on one end created when the supported Ax drove off the LH covering the Bw's flank. The Cv(S) didn't do so well getting in at the Bw(I) but a couple made it, and I got my Bw into range of his Cm. Chris' Bw(O) fought well and took 3/4 bounds to die, but of the Cm who had deployed out to charge the Bw (I don't think Chris really had much choice about this at this time) only 1 ever made it into close combat the rest were, one by one, shot down by my 6 Bw. Combined Bw(O) and Cm casualties broke the C-in-C's command. After some initial wins the Cv(S) who had hit the Bw died and with poor PIPs the Ax were not able to swing round and attack the flank of the Bw(I), this left 1 Cv(S) left to attack them frontally along with some LH. Meanwhile Chris' Bd had gone sponno through the RGo into a couple of Cv, the Bd(I) and (ugh) the end of my Bw line - on the other wing the Bw(X) had finally got to shoot at the Bw(I) there and killed a few quickly but then it bogged down into mutual recoils. Chris was now thinking its looking dodgy and so where out 2 small commands were he decided on a do or die charge with his 4 LH inc general into my 6 LH inc general - so he kills 3 of mine in 1 round of combat and breaks my small command! (At this point I was more than a little frustrated and swore a lot and had to apologise to
Chris for my lapse) Finally in the last 2 bounds my single Cv(S) in 2 1vs4 combats kills 3 more Bw(I) and my Bd(I) kill 2 Bd(F) in combats in RGo (helped by flanking LH) and just as time ran out I broke his army. In total we'd had 17 bounds - the 8 cautious, probing ones and then 9 going for it, great stuff.

29-3 in probably the best game of my competition, and Chris was an excellent person to play against. I felt really drained at the end.

So jumping up the table to about 12th I drew Hammy and his Welsh - not an ideal match up to say the least. To make it worse I then rolled and invaded - if I'd have defended I could place minimal terrain and caused Hammy problems by stretching his army. So I go for the Rd + H(S) (3 x 1FE and 2 x 0.5 FE) option going for 2" wide hills and hoping that they will land so that he can't place much terrain (and also using up one of his compulsory pieces). The H(S) land on each of my flanks along the edge (also useful for stopping flank marches) Hammys centre along the edge, my cebtre away from the edge (so I place it parallel to the short table edge) and on Hammy's left flank on the table edge. Unfortunately not a lot in his half where I really want it. His compulsory wood lands in his centre away from the edge (damn!), a large piece of RGo is in my centre touching the edge and a piece in my right and Hammy's left sectors touching the edge - my hills didn't stop a single one :-( Both sides place the baggage on the less cluttered side which is my leftm his right.

I had a long hard think about this and decided that I had to try the blindingly obvious flank march on my left into the open space. At first I though just go with the ally, but decided that this would be nowhere near enough and so went with Sub 2 who is mainly mounted and so can arrive with all the good stuff even on a 1. I had to think whether Hammy would also flank march because if he did his would almost certainly be larger than mine and the area to come on in in my side of the table was heavily restricted by the H(S) - I decided he wouldn't due to the small area to bring his troops on in. (It turned out that he didn't and that if he had done we would have has exactly equal sized flank marches and so would have come on in our own sides)

That decided I deployed (left to right) Ally, C-in-C and then Sub 1, Sub 2 was flank marching left. Hammy deployed (from my left to right) his C-in-C of 4 Cv(O) inc. general, 5 Kn(F), 10 Bw(O) and 6 Ps(O), the latter extending the Bw line and behind the Ps deployed his French Ally of 4 Kn(S) inc. general, 4 Bw(O), 1 Ax(X) and 1 Hd(O), next was his internal Welsh ally of 2 Cv(O) inc. general, 6 mtd Bw(O) at the back, 8 Bw(O), 9 Ps(O) and 2 Ps(S) all the Ps in the central wood, and finally on his left was his Welsh subby of Cv(O) general, 12 Wb(F) in the wood with the dismounted general, 6 Bw(O) and 5 Ps(O).

My plan, and I felt it was a bit of a long shot, was to attack his Welsh ally with the Ax and see what the flank march could do whilst hopefully pinning him back with LH enough for the flank march to have some targets, his Welsh subby would just be skirmished out of the game although I didn't expect him to want to do much with it when I had Ax(S) and Cv(S) to threaten it. As far as I can tell Hammy's plan was to wait for the flank march and then mug it with the mtd Bw and the Kn(F) and (S) whilst keeping the rest of my army off with massed Bw before turning on them as well. (I must admit I'm not sure if this could get more than a 6-4 though, but I'm sure Hammy will explain all)

To begin with all I do is throw forward the LH to hold him back and see what he does. Hammy then rolls a 1 for the French which makes life quite interesting indeed. To see if I can make it more interesting I throw 4 of the C-in-C's LH(O) into the Ps who link Hammy's two Bw(O) blocks - I think that I can easily stand to lose all 4 as I can't at this time see the C-inC's command doing that much all game, and I'm certainly not looking for a shooting match with my Bw(X) against his (O). However, I lose 2 in the contact bound, but the othe 2 escape.

Bound 3 and the flank march rolls a 6. Hammy's PIPs are not great but he moves the mtd Bw(O) towards where I will arrive next move, the French remain unreliable. Bound 4 and I roll a 1 for the arriving flank march - at this Hammy smiles a bit and comments that this will somehwta limit what I can bring on, but I smile a bit more and bring on the command, all mounted, and 14 elemets wide 2 deep in places :-) The Bd come on where his Bw are waiting, the Bw where his Cv(O) and Kn(F) are and LH for the rest. Two of Hammy's Bw are within 6" and flee to boot. Hammy races as much as he can to meet the flank march and I will have to fight his Kn, Cv and mtd Bw. In my next bound I get to shoot the Cv(O) and do nothing. French are still unrelaible much to my relief and I move up the Ax to get ready to attack his Welsh ally and advance the C-in-C's Cv(S) to support the flank march's attack if possible. I also (again with 1 on the PIPs for the flank march) move all the LH on the flank (from a coupls of commands) forward to hit various Bw targets that present themselves where I have overlaps - I don't get any and lose an odd LH :-( Hammy now attacks with his reception committee, including his Cv(O) into the Bw(O) as he feels he has to given the circumstances (I was not so sue, but wasn't going to argue). Hammy gets to start with a Kn(F) against an overlaped LH(O) - you know the result, I 6-1 him stone dead. The next combat is a Cv(O) against the flank march subby who recoils - but if Hammy had won the first combat he would have died! A Cv(O) also dies against the Bw. This all allows me in my next bound, where the flank march command now rolls 5 or 6 on the PIPs, to hit Hammy's mounted troops in flanks with no recoils and kill 5 of them which, along with a couple of Bw who die to LH attacks breaks his C-in-C.

The French change sides and Hammy concedes as he doesn't want to play the last bound or 2 where I hoover up the baggage to get the army - and I don't blame him I'd have done the same. We agree that although the situation was 31-1 at the time he would almost certainly have got the extra couple of elements to make it 30-2 so we can avoid a boring couple of bounds and both go and have a shower as the day had been hot and humid in the gaming rooms. (Different showers I hasten to add <g>)

After freshening up there was the fun of the pub quiz and beer. Thanks to Bob Whitehouse I stayed up far later than I had intended getting back to my room at about 2.45am with an 8.30 game start the following day.

Top stuff really :-)

Sunday dawned far too early and the previous nights late finish had left me with a sore head - I wonder why :-)

I'm now in 6th position and have drawn Richard Ligault from South Africa - in fact on the top 3 tables there were only 2 UK players, myself and Graham Evans. Richard is using a Jurchen-Chin in the less obvious post 1200AD version. As this is not an army I'd rate I can only assume he is good, not what I need with a hangover.

He invades, there is no weather and he places no terrain. I choose 2 half sized pieces of Dune and scrub to break up the battle field a bit instead of my previous choice of 4 miniature pieces. All land on the right hand side of the table away from the edge thus to some degree making the table 4' wide, which isn't what I'd hoped for. I deploy (left to right) the C-in-C, Sub 2, Sub 1 and Ally on the right. Richard deploys (my left to right) a Subby of 2 Cv(S) inc. general, 1 Kn(F), 1 Cv(O), 2 Cv(I), 6 Bw(I), 5 Bd(F) and 1 LH(F), then a micro Sub of 1 Cv(S) general, 1 LH(S) and 3 Hd(O), then a subby of 2 Kn(F) inc. general, 10 Bw(I), 1 Bd(F), 2 Cv(I) and 1 Hd(O) and finally the C-in-C of 2 Cv(S) inc. general, 1 Kn(F), 2 LH(F), 1 Cv(O), 8 Bw(I), 1 Hd(O) and 4 Irr Bd(F). I basically have the LH upfront with other troops behind whilst he has everything on the 18" line to attack.

My plan was to delay his C-in-C's mounted with my ally to the right of the terrain whilst attacking his Bw(I) blocks with the Ax(S) and Bw(X) supported by Cv(S) where possible to take care of his Bd(F) and to contain the Kn. I hoped to use by large numbers of LH(O) to contain his Cv as there weren't too many of these. Richard appears to have aimed to go round both of my flanks whilst using the Bw, Bd and Kn to keep me honest along the front and if possible get some Bd into my Bw.

We both started with pretty poor PIPs, however, this did prevent Richard getting round the flank of my C-in-C quickly and probably favoured me slightly. Richard had also had a "Sunday morning moment" having placed his 4 Irr Bd(F) infront of a dune thinking he could move in for 1 PIP and so had to spend ore or lose control of them in move 1. This stopped his C-in-C's command from getting round that flank. However, with my poor PIPs, especially on Sub 1 again, I couldn't get the Ax into position and was spending most of my PIPs getting the LH back behind the heavier troops. As we continue to have poopr PIPs it all starts to look rather "as Barker intended" with 2 lines of troops advancing on each other - or rather Richards advancing on mine as after move 2 I didn't have any troops outside of my initial deployment area.

When he had some good PIPs Richard took a couple of his right wing Bd(F) and moved them accross so that they were infront of my Bw(O) who were backed with Bd(I). About this time I had moved my Bw up to be able to shoot at his Bw(I) and the same with my Bw(X) both blocks having Cv(S) in support. I also finally managed to get 4 Ax(S) in a position to attack Bw(I) as well - but 2 of these were shot dead in the first shooring round :-( As richrd had moved his Irr Bd(F) and the C-in-C's mounted to threatedn to encircle my ally it now ran like hell towards the rest of my army covered by a couple of sacrificail LH from Sub 1's command. In the next few bounds it all went horribly wrong for Richard in the shooting. After his initial successes he started to roll terrible dice in the centre whilst I rolled a whole series of 6's. The 2 Bd(F) he'd sent at the Bw(O) dies quickly and they were followed by 6 elements off his 15.5 EE subby command which then broke - 7 of those 8 losses were to 6-1's including all the Bw needed to break the subby! Added to this my bw(X) took another couple of Bw(I) of his other large subby putting that in real trouble. However, time was called before I could finish the job and so I had to
settle for a 20-12. (Richrd's terrible dice luck continued into the next game as well where he lost a game he should have won easily by all accounts).

So now I was up to 4th and had to face Nick Ashby from Australia with a massive Leidang army. Definitely not a match up I'd have chosen. Over lunch many ideas were discussed. If I defended I avoided all his 3 compulsory terrain features (and as we were both Ag 1 it was 50:50 who invaded) and could put down a scattering of RGo for my bw and Ax to fight from and break up his attack, however, if I invaded I couldn't put any terrain down (no Rd in the Leidang list) and would probably be reduced to throwing Cv(S) at him and hope to get a bit lucky, otherwise hold out for the 16-16. One idea floated by Simon Hall was that as Nick was likely to flank march was to also sent out my ally on a flank march inorder to increase the chance of Nicks obviously larger flank march arriving and then mug it to at least get a 6-4.

Well I invaded. The compulsory WW went on my right and the H(S) - as a rocky gentle hill - went on my right making a promontary, a large piece of RGo went on his base line and finally on my left went a max sized hill touching the centre line. A piece of RGo couldn't fit on table IIRC. Given this I wasn't going to flank march and deployed (left to right) Sub 2, Ally, C-in-C and then Sub 1. LH up front other troops behind with the Bw(X) as far back as possible and the Bw(O) and Bd(I) facing left to be able to intercept the expected flank march. The Ax(S) sat on the hill. Nick deployed his C-in-C on my right with all the Bd in a single rank with Ps supporting the (I) types (sorry I forgot to write down his army) and next to that went a subby with a pretty similar command exceot it had about 6/8 less Bd but replaced these with Ax(O). He flank marched on his right.

My plan was to throw all the Cv(S) and the Ax(S) at his C-in-C's command and hope to get lucky enough times to be able to turn on flanks, etc. and break the command. I could pretty much lose all the Cv and Ax and should be able to get enough out of the way to avoid losing commands. The mtd Bd and Bw would wait for the flank march - although losses here and with that commands Cv(S) attacking the Bd it did mean that this command was vilnerable, however, I thought that as long as the flank march didn't arrive too quickly even losing that command I should not go down any worse that 4-6 as I could skirmish the rest of his army enough. Nick plan really relied on the flank march doing something, but he had deliberately strung his C-in_C out as bait so that I would have a target and would not just skirmish against which he had little to offer.

I started by pushing the LH forward and behind this massing the Cv and Ax(S) for their attack after which I withdrew the LH to allow the Cv to go in and for the LH to cover flanks, gaps, etc. However, the key thing in the game was Nicks flank march rolling 6 on the first move to come on - exactly what I didn't need. However, I manoeuvred the recetion committee to await the expected Kn(F) and Ax(O) which duly arrived and started an advace - which I did restrict to tactical moves with a single LH(I).

The Cv and Ax attack went in and killed 2 Bd and a Ps in the first combat rolls, and as there was no reserve line things looked hopeful. However, over the next few bounds they killed nothing else and I lost about half my Cv(S) to the Bd in a series of very one sided combat rolls. (In fact as a little digression here I have to admit to a "Pants" moment. When my Cv went in I sent in a LH on the end of the line to minimise the overlaps the Cv would have against them, what with LH being unkillable by the Bd frontally. I also measured the ZOC from another LH to ensure that the flank of the LH on combat was also safe and it couldn't be turned and forced to recoil into the Cv next to it. The "Pants" part is that even though I measured I failed to notice that the "covering" LH was facing my base edge and so wasn't covering at all. You ca guess the rest that loses me the LH and a Cv!)

OK so the Cv attack has failed but as long as I can stall the flank march long enough I should not go down to a defeat. So I get the bw ready to shoot at and receive the Kn(F) and the Bd(I) ready to take on the Ax(O) coming through the Wd with LH covering them so that Ps also coming through the Wd can't flank them or come out safely. Well his flank march runs straight over my bw and Bd, hardly breaking stride - IIRC I killed 1 Kn(F) to shooting when double overlapped and that was it. My subby breaks and I haven't yet got anything in place to cover the route to the baggage - the ally tries but he is broken as well and with a couple of Bg I go down 1-31. Funnily enough despite the rather depressing loss it was a fun and interesting game with 2 very different armies who were both trying to win.

At this stage I though Nick must win the comp as Graham Evans and Tim Porter's game looked to be going Tim's way which would leave Nick top of the pile. However, it turned out that Graham diced his way through in the end and just piped Nick by 2 BHGS points.

So overall I got 116 points and I think finished 18th out of about 70. Not bad but a bit of a come down after being 4th going into the 6th round. Perhaps I should stick to 5 round comps :-)'d taken the army thinking that this would be its last run out for the forseeable future as I reckoned that the armies in use at present mean it isn't as competative as it once was. One reason for thinking this is that the average army size has drifted upwards and there are more tough foot around who can survive the flanking attacks the Bedouin like to deliver, and who can stand up to the medium weight Bedouin foot.

However, on the day the army got up to 4th after the 5th round which is no mean feat, and I felt somewhat unlucky to go down so convincingly against the Leidang, but hey thats DBM :-)

In the 6 games I had fought:

Medieval Portuguese - with Irr generals and so bigger than the usual 1385 version.
Ottoman
Beja
Welsh
Jurchen-Chin
Leidang

I all the games I was sure that I had a chance, although the Leidang was a fairly long shot when I invaded and the Welsh was tough for the same reason.

Against the Portuguese I probably should have deployed to attack through the patch of RGo on his base edge, but in the actual game I had to make all the running against a seeded player who knew how to defend.

The Ottoman I just didn't have enough time and the Serb Bw(I) held out longer than they really should, normally I'd have got a 10-0 out of that, so no problems against that sort of army even accounting for it's odd composition.

Beja proved that a wall o crap Bw and light to middle weight support can be taken out if attacked properly. The 2 Bw blocks in the Bedouin were invaluable as with the Ax(S) they could cover all the probable Cm(S) attack points.

The Welsh are OK if you defend and a pain if you invade, however, the all mounted flank march proved useful and I was reasonably happy that even if that died I could contain my losses to a 4-6. If I'd have invaded, which is 50:50 as we were both Ag 1 the subsequent billiard table wouldn't have done the Welsh any favours.

The Jurchen-Chin again needed to put target Bw(I) in the line to avoid the LH outflanking.

The Leidang was by far the worst match up of the weekend. It can cover the table with troops that the Bedouin are just unlikely to be able to get through easily - and the break points are vast. However, again if they had invaded small scattered pieces of terrain can break them up and present opportunities - but a 5-5 is always likely.

So my conclusion is that the Dynastic Bedouin can still cut it in competition, even if its not quite as good as it was - so I'm not retiring it just yet. I liked the set up I took to Britcon as it was nicely balanced and had a number of tools available in reasonable numbers to take on most enemies. It's biggest problems are the wall o spear armies if it invades and the enemy has funny terrain choices (i.e. can't try the Rd and narrow H(S) trick) and good Cv(S) armies who don't worry too much about the LH. But this is no different from before. As ever you have to move quickly and decisively to maximise the bounds so you can wear away the enemy.

Sheikh Yer'dice will ride again.