Alexandrian Imperials at Cancon 2015

[Barritus]

Well, for Cancon 2015 (5 rounds @ 400AP, all lists), I chose to field Alexandrian Imperials, of 325BC. This was a reluctant choice, as I'd cycled through a bunch of other Hellenistic armies, but on paper it seemed a reasonable army.

Command 1 (36ME)
General (not brilliant) as Reg Kn (F) SBW
4 Irr Ele (O)
3 Irr Cv (O)
3 Irr LH (F)
8 Reg Pk (O)
1 Reg Art (O)
4 Irr Ax (S)
3 Reg Ps (S)
3 Reg Ps (O)

Command 2 (16ME)
Sub as Reg Pk (O)
7 Reg Pk (O)
1 Reg Art (O)
2 Reg Ps (O)
1 Irr LH (O)

Command 3 (25.5 ME)
Sub as Reg Kn (F) SBW
4 Reg Kn (F) SBW
1 Reg Cv (O)
5 Irr LH (O)
4 Irr Ax (S)
2 Reg Ps (S)
1 Reg Ps (O)

Command 4 (6 ME)
6 Irr Bge (I)

I wasn't convinced having a brilliant general was worth the loss of troops, and likewise I felt that the army wouldn't benefit significantly from stratagems. My tactics for the army involved Blunt Force Trauma - relying on the army's high aggression to deploy second, and create a wall of unstoppable troops about 10-12 elements across, with the flanks covered by light troops. I figured that a wall of high factor or quick killing troops 10-12 elements wide would be sufficient to break one command and damage another, allowing me to then turn outwards and complete the job.

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Game 1 v Early Japanese (Dugald)

Dugald was a late entry, so I got to see his list - Pk (X) and massed Bw, with Korean allies. I was the invader, with a 1FE area of enclosed fields on my left and a rough hill on my right. Dugald deployed the Koreans facing the enclosed fields, a command of Bw next to them, and a command with more Bw and Pk (X) on his left, angled back to his table edge. Another small command of Bw was off table.

I deployed with C3 on the left, the Kn behind Ax to advance on the Bw, the light troops to delay the Koreans. C2 and C1 faced Dugald's left wing command.

Strong wind was blowing from over my right shoulder, and in due course it swung around behind me.

I moved the Ele across the table to face the Pk (X) while the Pk advanced more slowly towards the Bw. Dugald responded by advancing the massed Korean Pk (F) and slowly wheeling them inwards, which I countered with the LH.

Eventually I shook the Ele out into line to attack the Pk. And failed miserably. After something like four bounds of combat I'd killed one Pk and lost one Ele. Even when I brought up the Ax it didn't help much.

In the centre the Pk stalled for lack of PIPs just outside the wind-reduced archery range. The bolt shooters knocked over a couple of elements, but it was never enough to be decisive.

C3, however, got a bit lucky. The Ax braved archery to get into combat, and although they took casualties, it allowed the Kn to advance to contact as well. After a few bounds of combat I broke the small Bw command. However the Korean Pk were putting plenty of pressure on C3's LH, with several elements destroyed or spent.

Dugald's flank march eventually arrived, but time was called before anything further decisive could happen.

14-11 to me in a tough slog where the strong wind hindered my artillery but probably saved me some bad archery results.

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Game 2 v Ming Chinese (Nick)

Once again I was the invader, with Nick placing a road from his edge to mine, and a BUA alongside it just inside his deployment zone. I had a patch of rough flat on the right of my deployment zone, facing a gentle hill on the left of Nick's deployment zone.

Nick deployed a command of Mongol allies on the gentle hill, a command of Bd (I) fronted by Art (O) and (I) (and a couple of Sh (I)!) in the centre, and a small command of Cv (S) and LH (S) in reserve under the C-in-C. On his right was another command with Bw (X) and Art next to the BUA, and some Ps (S) and (O) and Cv (I) in the BUA itself. As Nick was another late entrant I got to see his list too, so I knew the C-in-C's command had some exploding cow Irr Exp (O).

I deployed C1 on my left with the Ele behind the Ax, C2 in the centre, and C3 on my right. My plan was to use the mounted troops in C3 to hold off the Mongols while the Ax and Pk ran the gauntlet of his artillery and then his infantry line.

Nick had other ideas. He immediately sent his Exp forward and lined them up against my Pk. I shot down one with Art and saw off another with Ps (O). The third one proceeded to blast its way through three ranks of Pk before finally coming a cropper against C2's general, who prudently lurked in what had originally been the back rank of the phalanx.

Meanwhile on my right the Mongols, with superb PIPs, slid around the flank of my LH (O) and then inflicted massive casualties thanks to the advantage of (S) over (O). My ability to respond to the situation was restricted by terrible PIPs, C3 not getting above 2 PIPs in any bound until the command was already disheartened.

On my left the Ax managed to do their job and, with some casualties from Art and Bw (X), eventually got into combat. They were eventually followed by the Ele. But again I was restricted by low PIPs, meaning C1's part of the phalanx was also slow to reach the enemy.

Things reached a crisis on my right when I pushed C3's Ax forward and engaged the Sh (I), only to be blown away by a 6-1 combat dice roll, then hit in the flank by the advancing Mongol LH. C3 soon collapsed, at which point suddenly the other two commands started rolling brilliant PIP dice.

But it was all a bit late. C2 had already taken a hammering from the exploding cows, and with the demise of C3 its flank was open to the rampaging Mongols. A couple more casualties were sufficient to break C2 and with it the army.

23-2 to Nick in a game which clearly showed up my army's shortcoming - I had a huge army but not the PIPs to use it effectively.

[Barritus]

Thanks to my low score so far, I scored the Bye in Round 3.

More to follow.

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Right, game 3 v Mongol Conquest (Anton)

This time I was the defender, and remembering that Anton wiped the floor with his Mongols in the last round of Cancon 2014 I wasn't feeling that confident. My main comfort was knowing that his army was pretty similar, so I knew what to expect. I decided to place as much terrain as I could to cover my flanks and force a battle up the centre.

There was a wide river covering my left flank, which curved away to the side edge on Anton's side of the table. Next to it, roughly straddling the centre line, was a 1FE patch of enclosed fields. On my right flank there was a small BUA (I'd hoped to place it further inboard, but the road I selected didn't make it onto the table. Finally, there was a gentle hill on the left end of Anton's deployment zone.

I placed C1 on the left, C2 in the centre and C3 on the right. C1's Ps were poised to dive into the enclosed fields, providing protection for the Ax and Pk which formed my centre. Learning from last year's debacle I deployed the Pk in two ranks, which gave the formation considerably more depth. For lack of room I kept the Cv and LH on the left in reserve, and also kept the Ele behind as I didn't know where Anton would place his Art (I knew he had 2 Art (S) and 2 Art (O)). Over on my right I had the Ax and LH of C3 deployed in line, with the Kn (F) in reserve.

Anton deployed two large LH commands, one facing C1 and one facing C3. A smaller command with Art and Cv (S) sat in the middle.

My plan was to push forward as quickly as possible to pin the Mongols in place, and rely on superior numbers to overwhelm him. With plenty of mounted elements in reserve I was reasonably confident I could achieve this.

Only, I rolled terrible PIPs. As with the last game I simply had too many disparate groups to advance efficiently, with rarely more than 3 PIPs for any command.

Anton's left wing LH swarmed down on C3's LH (O) and Ax (S). He proceeded to rip holes in the line, but suffered an embarrassment when the command's sub-general died to a 6-1 against. This had been his high-PIP command, and now it was rolling its own.

Only, Anton's PIP dice remained superb, while mine remained dismal.

On my left I tried to push C1 forward to engage Anton's right wing. Anton's response was to double up his LH ranks and charge the Pk, while his Art starting plinking away at the Pk in C2.

Meanwhile my attempts to charge Kn (F) into victorious LH (S) was again hindered by bad PIPs, so I was never really able to mount a co-ordinated counter-attack.

C3 soon collapsed, and I now can't remember whether that was sufficient on its own to cause a collapse in C2 (and thus the army) or whether I was able to fight on for a short while. Either way, the result was an ignominious 24-1 defeat, in which the elephants never really got close to making contact.

Anton played a superb game, and while I was disappointed by the result the game itself was played in wonderful spirit with plenty of cheerful sledging on both sides.

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Last round, game 4 v Mongol Conquest (Dave)

Not only the same army as Anton's, but the same year!

Once again I was the defender. Once again I chose a river, a BUA and a road. The river ran behind my rear from the right flank, then swung around to cover my left flank before leaving the left edge of the table on Dave's side. The road ran from the right side of my table edge over to Dave's table edge. The BUA was between the road and the table edge, near the centreline. There were a couple of gentle hills in Dave's deployment zone, one to the left and one to the right.

Once again deploying first, this time I placed C3 on the left and C1 on the right. Going to the extreme I placed the Pk now in one rank (keeping the general of C2 in the second rank). The Cv and LH of C1 were in column on the road, and the Ele were again in reserve (as I knew Dave's army also had Art). Likewise I kept the Kn (F) in reserve for the LH (O) on the left.

Dave deployed four commands. On his left was a small command of LH. Next to it was the C-in-C with the Art (on the left gentle hill), some Cv (S) and a few LH (I). On the right were two more LH commands (which, IIRC may have had some Cv in them too). In the centre my Pk were advancing against open space.

So once again my LH (O) were facing massed LH (S). And once again my plan was to push forward as quickly as possible to pin my opponent in place.

And once again moving first I rolled bad PIPs.

On my right things started reasonably promisingly, as I was able to get the Ax (S) to face the LH of the small Mongol command, and even loop some Ps out of the BUA around the Mongols' flank. I took some losses but was able to deploy some Cv and LH to keep the fight going. I managed to destroy a LH element in his bound, and then in my bound hit the sub-general in front and flank, the flanking element preventing the recoil of another LH element. Defeating the general would break this small command and open up the flank of Dave's C-in-C's command. But alas I didn't win the combats, and the small command continued to hold Dave's left flank for several bounds more.

Meanwhile the Pk of C1 advanced to contact the LH (I) of the C-in-C's command, and managed in two bounds to spend them all.

In the centre, however, the Pk of C2 were being destroyed by the Mongol artillery. And over on my left, the LH (O) and Ax (S) were taking a hammering from the massed Mongol LH. The losses were enough that I had to commit the sub-general along with the Kn (F), and they achieved some success, but poor combat rolls caused the loss of a couple of knight wedges too.

Before long C2 broke, uncovering the flank of C3. Fortunately for me it took a couple of bounds for Dave to collect the victorious LH of his right wing. This gave me time to move the LH of C3 out into the open space between Dave's left and right wings, and make a bee-line for the artillery on the hill. Dave was unable to stop it because the Cv of the C-in-C's command had moved up to support the LH of the small command on his left.

Eventually I caused enough casualties on the small command to break it, although Dave pulled the general back to keep him safe.

C3's adventurous LH hit the flank of the bolt shooters and mowed them down. It then charged down hill onto the sub-general of the broken command, and destroyed him too. Nearby, my Pk were facing off the Cv (S) of the Mongol C-in-C, and in theory I had enough troops to put him under pressure, if I could only get decent PIPs. But I never did.

Even as I was scrambling to build pressure against Dave's C-in-C's command, the LH of Dave's right wing swarmed across the table and overran the disorganised phalanx of C3, breaking that command and the army. 23-2 to Dave in another complete shellacking for the Macedonians.

[Barritus]

*sigh*

I came out of the comp feeling like one of those demotivational posters - the one reading, "It could be your purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others."

The cause of my problems soon became clear - I just didn't have enough PIPs to move the army efficiently, what with no brilliant general, and both elephants and artillery to manage. I could blame the dice, and my PIPs over the course of the comp seemed well below average, but there were also bounds (often late in the game when I'd already lost a command) when I got excellent PIPs. It seems that with such a large army I really needed more PIPs than three dice could give me...

The other problem I faced was that three of my four opponents fielded artillery. The only army which didn't have any artillery was not actually allowed any artillery. In face quite a few armies at Cancon had artillery - it seemed to be the fashion of the year. And most people seemed to use it far more efficiently than me. The problem then was that I needed to screen my elephants to keep them safe, and this was particularly tricky in the two games where I was deploying first. In both games the elephants never got into contact - because I had to deploy them in reserve to keep them safe from artillery deploying after me, and because I was constantly under PIP pressure, it was just too hard to get them into combat.

My own artillery were also a hindrance. Unlike last year, where they meshed extremely well with the phalanx, this year they just seemed to slow me down, and not even destroy many elements. This was particularly an issue when I was being tactically aggressive against an opponent who also had artillery - as soon as I moved into range he'd have the first shot and likely silence me.

Even before the end of the competition I'd worked out an alternative list which ditched the artillery and elephants in favour of Pk (S), Sp (O), Ps, and a brilliant general...

Oh well, we'll just have to see what happens for Wintercon.

Thanks for reading (if you made it this far).