Dave Ruddock's Battle Report (photos by Geoff Pearson)
(cut and pasted with permission from the DBMMList):Game One v Tuaregs (Phil Barker)My army was fairly simple and comprised:
CinC, 20 LH(F) Sub, 20 LH(F) Sub, 20 LH(F) Ally, 20 LH(F)
Strategem: Delayed Start
| I invaded the Tuaregs and chose some difficult going. Phil chose Dunes (surprise) and an Oasis (A genuine surprise). All the terrain finished on the edges of the table, which I concluded meant that a flank march was not particularly sensible, hence I didn't delay the start.
Phil's report of the match was as follows:
"My first game with the Tuaregs was against Skythians. This was a good old ding-dong until my one command was broken. The CinC's command had lost only 2ME, and we were steadily whittling down 2 of the opposing commands. Flank restrictions had made me deploy very deep. I just failed to reach the LH with march moves and they moved out of the way around my flanks.
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 | This was not a disaster, and the ensuing impetuous moves looked very realistic and were easy to do. I had kept my infantry command off-table as a delayed command and was gratified when my oponent put a steep hill on by base edge, ideal for it to occupy. I ceased to be gratified when neither it nor my flank march had turned up by my bound 6 and cost me the game."
My report is:
I deployed second and Phil deployed two commands on table, both of which had a wodge of camels two or three ranks deep in two distinct areas of the battlefield. I guessed he was flank marching and since there was a CinC and an ally on table, then I was fairly certain which side the flank march was going to arrive on. I deployed one rank of LH(F) infront of the Camels and then in massed columns where the gaps where, with a tendency to move away from the flank march. Phil moved first and was a toenail short of contacting the Light Horse, I moved the majority of the light horse past the camels and then retired my Light Horse in front of them. I managed to ransack some baggage which was left in the open, which belonged to the smaller ally command (only 36ME).
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 | Predictably the Camels went sponno and hit some light horse, as expected my light horse contacted in the front died horribly, however when I began to hit the Camels in the flank and rear then the situation was a bit more favourable. Probably the game turning move was when the Tuareg ally general decided to lead the way and charged, he ended up double overlapped by light horse and died, with a few bits and bobs elsewhere (with the baggage already dead) this broke the command.
Although we didn't realise at the time, this meant the fourth command (of which I was not aware - I presumed the fourth dice was a dummy!) changed sides (on my fifth bound). However Phil's flank march / delayed command still decided not to turn up and since this was now after his sixth bound the ME of these commands added to the losses so the game was over. I lost a total of fifteen light horse (spread out over four commands) so the final result was 23-2.
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Game Two v Feudal English (Ray Briggs)My army was:
CinC, 17 LH(F) Sub, 17 LH(F) Sub, 17 LH(F) Ally, 32 Wb(F), 4 LH(F), 3 Ps(O)
Strategem: Delayed Start
I defended! The terrain was gentle hills, all of which finished on my side of the table. Since I was defending I decided not to flank march as I could not make use of the Delayed Start strategem.
| I setup with the CinC on my left, then the two subs then the ally on my right (uphill), my baggage was on the far right. Ray set up with a refused flank facing towards all of my light horse and all of his knights facing towards my warband! He also only deployed two on table commands. The refused flank was Reg Sp(I) and Hd(O), each command had about eight elements of Irr Bw(O).
Since I was going first I decided that it was prudent to get the warband out of the way, so they immediately did a 90 degree left turn and legged it (which only cost two pips).
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All of the light horse from my CinC and sub (on the left) ran over to try and take on the Sp(I) and hd(O) and then onto the baggage! The light horse from the other sub ran to the right to screen the warbands "tactical withdrawal" and cover the flank march.
Ray's flank march duly arrived first bound which put me in quite a lot of trouble. The rest of the knights and bowmen ploughed forward. Since my baggage was in serious danger of getting overran it also made a 90 degree turn to the left and legged it (it was bg (F) after all). It then became a race against time, whether I could hold onto my right flank before my left flank broke Ray's holding wing.
Ray had a brilliant general, which he used on two occasions to double pips (from six to twelve) which had quite a large impact on the game. His Knights and Cavalry from the flank march and the Knights from the ontable sub-general then hit the sub general's command who was "screening" the rest of the army. This was not a particularly fair fight and it didn't last very long, with my command breaking fairly quickly. With the fleeing rules my command was off table extremely quickly (apart from the general who died fighting), which meant I was down to three pip dice!
Since my bg(F) and Wb(F) move the same speed as the Knights I could theoretically get away as fast as they could chase, however because I had my rear facing them they weren't stopped from marching and could march into contact! This meant I had to drop off warband (to die) to hold up the knight commands.
| It was getting very close at this point, I had lost five elements from my CinC, one of my Subs was shattered and the warband was disheartened and had taken 8.5 ME casualties (from a 26 ME command), the remaining light horse command was unscathed.
Fortunately, my left wing was in the processing of mincing the Sp(I) and hd(O) and caught some bowmen in the flank as well, which broke the English holding wing, with the pursuit into the baggage this ended the game swiftly.
I had 8 penalty points (one broken command, one disheartened command and 39 % casualties) which made the score 17-8.
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ConclusionsIn both of my games the player deploying second had a considerable advantage.
I had picked these armies before the rule about marching into contact with skirmishers had been brought in, so I didn't in all honesty think they were going to do particularly well. However with the high pips required to march this wasn't really a problem and with the increased effectiveness of Light Horse it was actually a fairly good army. The Early Hu were picked to try out the spontaneous rules, but with the army I faced in the afternoon unfortunately this wasn't really a problem as they were moving away from the enemy as fast as possible.
The one thought I had was if I had flank marched in the afternoon with the Warband command (which was the plan) then I would have forced on the English flank march and then marched into contact (because he had his rear facing me) when I turned up, which would have been absolute slaughtered the knights. Note to self, having made a plan stick to it...
It was much easier to manoever than I thought, as to turn 90 degress or even 180 degrees only costs two pips. and from then on it is one pip a go.
Light Horse butcher infantry (especially inferior), which to my mind is not a bad thing - entirely historical.
I didn't notice any serious problems with the game mechanisms, although I think there are combinations of troop types which will be extremely powerful. I think blades are an excellent troop type, and combined with Cavalry and bow will be an extremely effective force. I will possibly be buying an LPIA army in the imminent future...
