Campaign 2006

Having entered the Richard the Lionheart period at Campaign I was faced with the choice of army  from Anglo-Norman, Futile French, Sicilian, Syrian, Later Crusader, Ayyubid or Futile English. Figures available narrowed the choice to Syrian or Ayyubid and as I couldn’t come up with an Ayyubid list I liked I went for the Syrians as I’d used them before although I had to swap the Cilician Armenian ally for a Later Crusader one.

 
The army was:

 
Damascus C-in-C: Irr Cv(O) gen, 2 Reg Cv(S), 3 Irr Cv(O), 6 Irr LH(S), 3 Irr LH(O), 6 Irr Ps(O), 1 IRr Hd(O);

Aleppo Ally: Irr Cv(O) gen, 1 Reg Cv(S), 2 Irr Cv(O), 6 Irr LH(S), 8 Irr Ax(O), 2 Irr Ps(O), 2 Irr Hd(O);

Homs Ally: Irr Cv(O) gen, 3 Irr Cv(O), 5 Irr LH(O), 2 Irr Ps(O), 5 Irr Hd(O);

Crusader Ally: Irr Kn(O) gen, 5 Irr Kn(O), 8 Irr Sp(I), 2 Irr Bw(O);

 
First game matched us against the Reigate team and I get to play Mr Briggs and his Ayyubids. I defend and there is a strong wind blowing from the direction of Hammy’s game :-) Between us we scatter scrub around the table with patches landing in my left and right sectors and then a couple of dunes on the table edges. I deployed the C-in-C on the right, then Homs, the Crusaders and finally Aleppo. Graham has a few Cv and a load of LH and Ps facing my right, but the Ps are hiding at the back, Cv and Ax in the centre and Cv and Bw on my left. Fairly quickly – bound 1 in fact – I find I have cocked up as I have left enough space in front of the Crusaders for Graham to send a lone LH into the Kn in order to break them up and get them sponno; shows my infrequent use of sponno troops I guess :-0 Plus side I have no unreliable allies.

Well Graham does break up the Kn for the loss of his LH and they surge forward some sponno and some still under control – in fact the command has good PIPs all game with just one “1” thrown. This sucks my Cv from the other 3 commands into following and supporting them and Grahams Cv also gravitate to the centre of the table in anticipation. On my right I push the LH from the right hand commands forward to push back Graham’s due to weight of numbers. We have an amusing side act here where one of my LH(S) elements chases one of Graham’s practically to the base edge, 3 of the moves cost 2 PIPs for being out of command range, and then dies to a 5-1 in combat. On my left Graham’s Bw advance and face off my Ax who are single ranked in RGo. Neither side wanted to advance and close too quickly here. I managed to wriggle a couple of elements round the side and get a Hd(F) and LH that were the Ayyubid flank guard which pulled a couple of Cv. Graham then decided to advance the Bw and start shooting even though the wind was still a disadvantage.

 In the centre the Kn hit Cv and pushing and shoving ensued and my Cv joined in the fun – both sides had files of double ranked Cv(O) here as well as single ranked Cv(S) – and I brought up the Crusader Sp to try and push past a flank. Elements were exchanged here and there and the Crusaders started to look a touch fragile and were finished off when a file of Sp were destroyed by their recoil being prevented when I couldn’t cover the flank. Ah, well but they are only expendable Christians so who cares :-) On the left I’ve contacted the Bw after being a bit disrupted and have some early success soon bringing Graham’s C-in-C’s command to 1 element from breaking which would make the game 7-3 to me. With the end of his line uncovered I have 2 bounds of 3-1 combats with no recoil to Graham for the command and I miss both times. In the last bound I have a 3-2 and a 3-3 the latter again with no recoil and again miss them and so I go down 13-19 (4-6) muttering about Graham being Mr Spawny. I rather think I should have got that 7-3.

 The second game matched us with the Terrapins team and I got to play Jer Morgan and his (well borrowed) Futile French. Once again the peace loving Syrians are invaded and I scatter small patches of scrub and dune around the table which create a channel in the centre and on my left down which the French may advance. Jer adds 3 small steep hills which with a dune effectively block off my right from his advance. I deploy the C-in-C on the right, again, then Homs, Aleppo and then the Crusaders on the left (a bit of a risk but I feel he may have lighter mounted on the flank). Jer deploys 2 commands with a total of 17 Kn(S) in the centre with Pk(I) blocking off any chance of me scurrying around on my right and Sp(I) and an Art(O) covering the Kn’s right. Jer’s right is his ally with Cv, Ax(X) and Bw – so my gamble with the Crusaders has paid off (ish).

 Quite correctly Jer placed his faith in the Kn and advanced them boldly down the table whilst keeping his ally back – but sending out a Cv to slow down my Crusader Kn’s advance a bit. My LH fall back in front of the oncoming wall o’ death and the Cv move round to be in a position to (hopefully) get onto the flank of the Kn – we really don’t want to fight them frontally. Additionally I push my Ax into RGo on my left. Inevitably at inconvenient moments Jer’s two Kn commands roll “1” and some sponno moves ensue including some into the Ps in the RGo – mind you these are destroyed for no loss of Kn … I have one particularly successful bound where I have thrown LH into the Kn and kill 5 or 6 including one in a single combat with LH(O) – however, I actually wanted to recoil from this one as I would have hit Jer’s subbie and destroyed him :-0

 We now have something of a swirling Kn Vs LH and Cv fight with the Kn forcing back the Syrians but losing the odd element here and there to whittle away at the commands. However, my smallest command is having to do a lot of fighting and looks vulnerable. Meanwhile my Crusaders have reached Jer’s ally command and kill a couple of elements and can flank the general who promptly dies – but the command survives the dice roll and I have to keep plugging away which I do, including surviving a possible recoil one of my Kn into my ally general to kill him. The result of the swirling fight in the middle is that my small command breaks when Jer gets his C-in-C into my Hd – although they’ve mugged one Kn(S) already – and my rather overburdened Homs command breaks. Time is called with all of Jers commands about 2EE off breaking and I’ve lost 14-18 (4-6 again). I feel for the second game in a row I’ve just missed out on a few dice rolls. Woulda, coulda, shoulda :-)

 Last game on the Saturday brings the Derby team and I play Mark Birch’s Ayyubids who invade Syria with a risk of rain – which appears only once late on in the game to no real effect. Once again I choose scrub and dunes of which 3 of the former land on my left and are the only pieces to have any effect on the game. I deploy Aleppo on the right with his Ax 1 deep in the RGo to tempt Mark in, Crusaders next to them, C-in-C and Homs on the right. Mark deployed an Ax, Wb and Ps command opposite the scrub a Bw and Cv centre and a small er Cv and LH right flank.

 Homs is sulking after doing too much fighting against Jer and is initially unreliable but comes back on side in bound 2 and so doesn’t really affect the game. Mark pushes aggressively at Aleppo and quickly creates gaps in my line which look rather worrying. I push as best I can on my right and the Crusaders are left in the unusual role of sitting still and holding ground whilst we see how things pan out – it being a team comp I may be required to hold onto as many points as I can so no sense in getting stuck in too quickly even if it looks a bit dodgy.

 Well after an initial run of bad dice on my right (I was 5 elements down to Mark’s 2.5EE) we had one of those luck swings and it all goes my way for a bound or two and I break Mark’s command, although Aleppo is 1 off breaking and so not in a good position to exploit. However, Mark has some LH(S) from his central command on the extreme flank and despite being out of command range they attack some of mine and with a luck swing back to him Aleppo is broken. To be honest it is only fair with the dice going the way they did. I finally get to put in a good attack on my left, however, with the Homs general unable to kill LH when 4-0 up I was unable to open up a significant gap. The game finished with a desultory Cv fight in the centre with a few of my Kn joining in but there really wasn’t time for anything to come of it. A straight 16-16 (5-5).

 Sunday morning saw Richard the Lionheart in the shape of Darrell Pearce invading Damascus on behalf of the Milton Keynes team. They invaded down a Rd and a couple of steep hills effectively cut the field in two. I added some scrub the only useful piece of which fell on my left but in Darrells half of the table. With the Crusader baggage being to the left of the hills I assumed that is where we would fight and so put my C-in-C on the right, then the Crusaders, Aleppo and Homs on the left again. Darrell had a centre of Sp and Bw(X) with wings of 4 Kn, (S) on my right, with SP and Bw supporting on my right and mainly Bw supporting on my left including more Bw(X).

 Darrell played a cautious game aiming to pivot on the hill on his left and push me out of the way with his tougher troops and deny me any chance of flanks. A quick team talk decided that the early period game would definitely get a result but it could be either way, Hammy had a shot at a win but it may be risky and so I should play safe for a while and have pop at the end if the team needed it. So I danced around a bit and moved a few expendable Cv to my left to have a longish shot at Darrell’s Bw to see if anything could be created. What it created was a few dead Cv and LH for no gain. Ah well. On my right I spend most of my Pips moving Ps onto the steep hill guarding Darrell’s flank to see if any pressure could be brought there. Once again the Crusaders job was to occupy space and once again the PIPs allowed them to do so.

 So after a relatively quiet couple of hours we see that MK have won the early period game 10-0 and Hammy’s attack whilst coming very close has petered out and he is 3-7 down. So it was now time for me to have throw of the dice and see if any points could be grabbed with a few long shots whilst making sure I didn’t go down any worse than 4-6. The Crusaders were sent into a block of Sp(I) with useful overlaps and I assaulted Darrell’s Bw on my left with LH from 2 commands to spread potential losses. I also wangled my Ps on the right into the flank of some Bw(I) thanks to good PIPs for my command and also into the flank of some Cv in the open. The Crusaders decide that killing fellow Christians on a Sunday is not the done thing but that being killed by them is, however, their general survived so the command is OK. The Ps get a couple of elements but luck is not with them. It is, however, with the LH who ride down many Bw, including the odd Bw(X), frontally and break Darrell’s right to get me a 19-13 (6-4). I seem to have picked up some of the luck I needed on Saturday.

 The final game is against the Warlords and I play Eric Doman back on the scene after period of illness – importantly he hasn’t played much recently so I may have a chance :-0 Eric is using Sicilian and despite their aggression of 3 I invade with a risk of rain – although it never turns up (or we forgot and it didn’t matter). Eric places a large BUA on my left and then 3 pieces of RGo which all fall around it so I decline to place any more terrain. With his baggage near the BUA I assume Eric’s army will be somewhat over that side and so I decide to send Homs off on a flank march on my left to see if they can do anything – but being the smallest command will not be missed too much if it is a wrong choice. I then deploy the C-in-C on the left, then the Crusaders and Aleppo on the right. Eric surprises me by deploying mostly out from the BUA with 2 Kn, Ax and Bw commands on my left and his infantry command of Bw, Sp and Ax on my right going close to the table edge. However, this allows me to deploy the Aleppo Ax opposite his Bw.

 The writing is now on the wall and Eric goes for everything he can. I make a mistake with the Crusader Kn – I work out where they will go sponno wrong when deciding how to deal with the 1 they roll for PIPs – and with a death in the line next to the Crusader general it looks a bit dodgy, especially if a line of Kn Eric has sent into Cv and LH can do something as well. I’m lucky and the Crusader general survives (his loss would have taken 4 elements down for a total of 5 from the command) and with a big PIP score I can clear a recoil for him to buy another move. Another big PIP for the C-in-C allows me to ensure my left is safe and on the right Aleppo cleans up the elements needed to break Eric’s right hand command. Despite this being the smallest command (21.5EE) with the other 16EE the Sicilian army breaks and I get a 30-2 (10-0).

Overall 92 points (29/50) and 5 most enjoyable games. Once again thanks to all the players and the MKWS for arranging it. Hopefully we will be back next year if the date is OK.