Galatians at Cancon 2016

[Barritus]

Cancon 2016 was an open comp, at 400 points, with another 10 points available for stratagems only.

After much faffing around, I decided to field a Galatian army of 227BC. Its structure was as follows:

Command 1 (24ME)
General as Irr Ch (O) - that is, a Cv chariot
4 Irr Cv (O) - cavalry
4 Irr Ps (I)
24 Irr Wb (O)
(2 Irr Bge (I))

Command 2 (18ME)
Sub as Irr Ch (O)
2 Irr Cv (O)
1 Irr Ch (O)
2 Irr Ps (I)
16 Irr Wb (O)
(2 Irr Bge (I))

Command 3 (27ME) - Seleucid allies
Ally as Reg Pk (S)
3 Reg Pk (S)
8 Reg Pk (O)
2 Reg Ax (S)
2 Irr Ps (O)
4 Reg Kn (F)
1 Irr LH (F)

Command 4 (13ME) - Pisidian allies
Ally as Irr LH (O)
1 Irr LH (O)
16 Irr Ps (S)

Command 5 (4ME)
4 Irr Bge (I)

Army: 86ME

Stratagems: Scouts, Delay Battle.

My tactics were fairly straightforward. I'd try to place at least one decent piece of difficult terrain to restrict one flank of the table, and use the Pisidians to control that. I'd then concentrate the other three commands in the narrowed table on the basis that not many armies would appreciate having to take on massed Wb, especially if they had massed Pk covering one flank, and a decent mounted force which could either sit in reserve or cover a flank.

I went for 227BC because I wanted to avoid having to take the Galatian Cv (I), and because I thought the Wb (O) were more cost efficient than Wb (S). I structured the Galatian commands in such a way that I could lose more than half the Wb before either command became disheartened. Thus, while I might take heavy casualties when fighting with them, I could simply hope to outlast my opponent. The Seleucids were there to provide an unexpected force of regulars, particularly the 4 Kn. They were intended generally to go on a flank, where the effect of potential unreliability was minimal.

The purpose of the Scouts stratagem was obvious. The Delay Battle stratagem was in case I got ideas of a flank march - something which had worked reasonably well in practice games at the club...

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Game 1 v Gauls (Gary):

I was the invader. Between us Gary and I managed to place a reasonable amount of terrain. Most of it was on my left flank, with a rough hill just on Gary's side of the centre line, a small wood in line with it on my side of the centre line, and another small wood close to Gary's table edge. Along with a small patch of scrubby flat and another rough hill, the left third of the table was out of bounds for all of my army except the Pisidians. On my right flank, just on Gary's side of the table, was another wood. This left a decent space in the middle of the table for two fairly unmanueverable armies to face off.

My scouts got off to a good start, finding a small block of four Wb (O) in the wood on my right.

IIRC I had to deploy and move first. As you'd expect, I deployed the Pisidians on my left, ready to race for the rough hill. I deployed the Seleucids on the right, with the Ax and Ps ready to deal with whatever might be in the wood. The Pk deployed next to the wood, while I kept the Kn back as a reserve. The two Galatian commands deployed in the centre with the C-in-C on the right. The gap was sufficiently narrow that I was able to deploy the Wb in three ranks. I kept the Ps and Cv as reserves, figuring that they'd only have to intervene if the enemy broke through; the Galatian commands were structure in such a way that they could lose more than 50% of the Wb and still be fighting, so I was hoping for a reasonable bit of good dice luck to outlast the Gauls in what would likely be a messy fight.

Gary deployed three commands on table. On his left, next to the wood (and including the four Wb ambush elements) was a large block of Wb (O) in four ranks, with the C-in-C in the fourth rank. In the centre was another large block of Wb (O) in four ranks, with the sub-general in the fourth rank. Finally, on his right, facing the rough hill, was a command of Gaesati Wb (F). Off table, and I guessed flank marching to my right, was a command of Cv and who knew what else. He had a grand total of something over 60 Wb (O) to my 40.

This was a tricky situation. With the extra rank of Wb (O) compared to me, Gary's army was likely to overwhelm me in the centre, so I didn't want to rush into combat there. On the other hand, with a flank march due on my right flank (so I assumed) I also couldn't afford to sit around. My only position of advantage was with the Pisidians against the Gaesati. So my plan was to attack first with the Pisidians in the expectation of being able to break the Gaesati, then swing as many of the victorious Ps around onto the exposed flank of the Gaul centre command, in the hope that would be enough to tip them over the edge. I planned to move the Seleucid Kn over to the right to face the arriving Cv, and use the Seleucid Ax and Ps to clear the ambush and threaten the flank of the Wb fighting the Seleucid Pk.

Yeah, sorta...

My first PIP dice were excellent, with both allies loyal. I advanced the Pisidians as quickly as I could, getting forward far enough that I'd be able to reach the crest of the rough hill first. The Galatians and Seleucids advanced more sedately, with the Kn moving across the rear and the Ax and Ps approaching the wood.

Gary advanced his two Wb (O) commands towards me, while trying to wheel the Gaesati around in front of the rough hill to avoid the Pisidians. However he took a risk by breaking the Gaesati command into a couple of groups.

In my next turn the Pisidians reached the top of the hill, and the Seleucid light troops plunged into the wood. The Galatians advanced more slowly, while the Galatian Cv and Ps spread to the right to position themselves more evenly in the rear of the Wb.

Gary got unlucky. The Gaesati rolled a 1 for PIPs, and a bunch of Wb (F) charged uphill into the Ps (S). There were a couple of dead Wb elements, and gaps for me to exploit. The Wb (O) continued to advance.

Now the Pisidians came into their own. With overlaps and (S) v (F) combat, more Wb (F) died. On my right the Seleucid light troops reached the Gaul Wb in the wood and knocked over one element. But in the centre the sub-general rolled 1 for PIPs, meaning I had to move the Wb forward into charge range. Gary would be able to initiate combat, with all the advantages that offered in a Wb v Wb fight.

In Gary's next bound he duly charged his Wb into mine. Meanwhile he tried to regain control of the Gaesati v Pisidian fight, with a little success, although the Gaesati were getting close to being disheartened. But the action was all in the centre; and amazingly, despite something like a dozen combats, there wasn't a single casualty on either side. Also notable, still no sign of the Gallic flank march.

The Pisidians now got dismal PIPs, which slowed down my opportunities for mischief. However on my right, the Seleucid Pk, which had hung back, was now able to charge into the Wb. There's something really pleasant about having a combat factor of 7. The Seleucid infantry all managed a couple of casualties, but once again the Wb v Wb combat achieved nothing.

With fighting now general along the line, the game slowed down. The Gaesati continued to hold their own and even inflict a couple of casualties on the Pisidians, and the Seleucids managed a couple more casualties. But even for the next two bounds still the Wb couldn't kill each other, despite overlaps all along the line.

Finally, in the fifth bound of Wb v Wb combat I rolled badly enough to lose some elements, with something like 6 elements being destroyed. In my next bound my lads also finally managed to inflict some losses on Gary's Wb. The Gaesati and Pisidians traded more losses, and this was now enough to dishearten the Gaesati. Only now the Pisidians were getting bad PIPs, leaving them unable to exploit the situation, which was now getting very messy. And the Gallic Cv were still off board.

Gary's next bound saw more losses to both sides' Wb, but the ratio of Wb losses was definitely in his favour; apparently now they were making up for the earlier bloodless combats. The Seleucid Pk were still slowly grinding their way through Wb, still not taking losses, and the Seleucid light troops finally destroyed the last of the ambush Wb elements. However, now low Seleucid PIPs made it hard for them to exploit their success. The game was on a knife edge, although I was sure that Gary had the edge.

And then I won the game.

Almost just like that.

What happened was that one of my few successful Wb columns happened to be directly in front of Gary's C-in-C. Having destroyed one pair of Wb elements, they took advantage of the Seleucid Pk providing an overlap to win another combat and destroy two more Wb elements - including the C-in-C in the fourth rank. The loss of the general, in addition to the previous losses, was just enough to break that command, and the transmitted losses were enough to push the Gaesati over the edge too. Adding on the losses to the other Wb command, and that was more than half the army. 23-2 to me.

Although I'd taken some fairly hefty losses from the Wb, neither Galatian command was yet disheartened, although they were getting close; same for the Pisidians. The Seleucids didn't lose anything.

Thanks to Gary for a thoroughly entertaining game. As mentioned, the end came very suddenly, at a point where he had a definite advantage: once either of my Galatian commands became disheartened, its end couldn't be far away. My only hope was that I could have broken the Gaesati, with the transmitted losses doing something to one of the Wb commands. In addition I was lucky the flank march didn't arrive: it would have outnumbered my Seleucids Kn more than 2 to 1. So while the score was very one-sided it didn't reflect the closeness of the game.

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Game 2 v Nikephorian Byzantines (John)

I was a lot more confident about this battle. I had a reasonable idea of the content of John’s army – three commands, no allies and slightly heavy on the infantry – so I felt my army had the perfect mix of troops to take him on.

John was the invader, although once again time of day and weather played no part in the game. I took advantage of being the defender to select a lot of terrain, and nominated a side edge of the table to take my terrain placement dice. My plan was to flood one flank of the table with terrain to cut the maneuver space for the Byzantines (and to provide a natural habitat for the Pisidians), and use sheer weight of numbers to crush him frontally.

It didn’t quite work out as hoped, but near enough. The terrain actually ended up spread around three edges of the table – my edge, the left edge and John’s edge. The dominant one was a difficult hill on John’s left, which was the only decent target for the Pisidians. At the opposite end of John’s deployment zone was a small rough hill and a small patch of scrubby flat. Further out on the flank was a small Built Up Area, which sat on a road I placed close to John’s table edge. I was hoping to give him the idea that I might try to run some Wb down the road. The only terrain which played much part in the game were the two hills bookending John’s deployment zone.

After some dithering I ended up deploying the Pisidians on my right, facing the difficult hill. I deployed the Seleucids next to the Pisidians, then the C-in-C’s command in the centre, and the sub-general’s command on the left. John deployed a command of Cv (S) in his centre which included a small LH reserve. On each flank was a large force of Bw (X/O) Double Based Elements with Bd (X) and Cv (S) in reserve. The command on John’s left also included Ps (S) and (O) which sat on the difficult hill.

All in all I was pretty happy with the deployment, and my plan was correspondingly simple: attack the Byzantine infantry. I had to hope that (1) the Wb in the centre could hold out against his Cv (S) and (2) the Pisidians could take the hill; the Byzantine Ps were greatly outnumbered, but I remembered many occasions in the past in which Ps (S) had failed to take hills, almost no matter what the defending troops.

To cement the advantage, I rolled at least 4 PIPs for all four commands. So the entire army hurried across the table, stopping only when they passed inside march limits. I used spare PIPs to start sliding the Seleucid Kn across to a point opposite the Byzantine centre command. Immediately John was at a disadvantage, with only the command reserves able to move. He advanced a little, started to move the LH in his centre command over to his right, and deployed the Cv (S) on that wing out to cover the flank of his Bw. That was the one place he had a clear advantage, with his Cv (S) facing my Cv (O), although my two Cv elements could get support in enemy bounds from supporting Ps (I).

Within another couple of bounds combat was general across the line. The Byzantine Bw had killed a couple of Wb on the way in, but nowhere near enough to seriously improve their odds, given I’d deployed them in three ranks. During the initial advance I didn’t use press forward result to get into combat quickly, as I didn’t see any benefit in risking combat while double overlapped. However, it was useful when columns had previously been recoiled a couple of times to allow them to get into combat along with the columns either side. The Bw fought bravely, with some elements holding on against the risk of Quick Kills for a few bounds. But the writing was on the wall for the Byzantine infantry from the start, and the intervention of the Bd (X) achieved little. The Seleucid Pk were somewhat less effective. High factors produced a lot of recoils, but it took overlaps and even flank wraps to help reduce Byzantine combat factors before the Pk actually started killing anything. On this flank the intervention of the Cv (S) reserve also achieved little.

On my right the Pisidians launched themselves up the hill, and immediately ran into the problem of being clumsy in difficult terrain. Low PIPs meant it took a long time to turn onto open flanks. In the meantime the Byzantines’ uphill bonus cancelled out the Pisidians’ (S) ability, so the casualties were low and slightly favoured the Byzantines. Fortunately for me John had few PIPs to spare for that fight, and he had few reserves anyway.

On the far left the Byzantine Cv started to mount a serious attack against the sub-general’s cavalry and chariots. Ps support provided a small amount of assistance, but with (S) mounted elements from two commands attacking, my poor Galatian Cv started to take casualties. I was grateful for the narrow amount of space between the Wb and the rough hill, which slowed the LH trying to outflank my Cv.

In the centre, however, the Byzantine Cv (S) were scything their way through my Wb. In the first bound a lucky 6-1 for me killed a Cv element, but John had a spare LH (S) to plug the gap. By the third bound of combat, by contrast, the Byzantines had scraped off the entire front rank of their Wb opponents and were grinding their way through the second rank. I was grateful that the Seleucid Kn were in position to counterattack.

But then, once again, things finished with a rush. Over on the difficult hill the Pisidians got a series of lucky combat rolls, knocking over 3 Ps in one round of combat. John counterattacked with his last available elements but they imploded on contact. Along with the losses to the Bw out on the flat, that was enough to break the Byzantine left wing. Meanwhile the Galatian Wb of the sub command on my left also finished off the last of the infantry on the Byzantine right wing. Those losses, along with the transferred losses from the left wing breaking, were enough to break the right wing, and, with it, the army.

The score was (IIRC) 22-3 to me. Again, although I’d lost a lot of elements, particularly from the C-in-C’s command, they didn’t amount to much in the way of MEs. The difference with this game from the last one, however, was that losing Cv and Ps elements was just enough in the end to dishearten the sub’s command, costing me another extra point.

Thanks to John for another enjoyable game. I’d done well out of the terrain and the combat match-ups, and I’d also been well served with those excellent PIPs in the first bound: preventing most of the Byzantines from being able to march ensured John wasn’t able to do much to shuffle the match-ups, so he was under pressure from the start. And it was those match-ups which won the game for me: at the end of the game I’d destroyed every foot element in John’s army, but only one mounted element (from a command which had only mounted elements), and those particular infantry losses were just enough to break the two flank commands. It’s not the sort of thing you can design an army to deal with. Every troop type is vulnerable to some other troop type, and if you run into an army with the right combination of threatening troops you’re in trouble. On this particular occasion the QKs helped me win the game.

[Barritus]

Game 3 v Timurid (Greg M)

So day two of the comp started with me playing on the top table, against similarly undefeated Greg’s Timurids. Here was an army to be wary of, and a player too: we all knew Greg’s reputation as a player and fully expected him to do well. As for the army, I knew it had plenty of mounted, some elephants, and some mighty Hd (I).

Once again I was the defender, and set about trying to lay terrain which would cover my flanks, as with the game against the Nikephorians. There were a couple of difficult hills on my right flank – one in my deployment zone and one in Greg’s. On my left flank there was a gentle hill in my deployment zone, and a piece of scrubby flat in Greg’s. On my table edge, near the difficult hill, was a small BUA, while a road ran across the table through Greg’s deployment zone. So I had the right hand side of the table locked up satisfactorily, but the left was disturbingly open. Once again I hoped that Greg would see the road as something flank marching infantry might enjoy trundling along, so I hoped the threat of a flank march would influence his deployment.

Things got off to a depressing start when I lost a Cv from the C-in-C’s command attempting scouting. Deploying first, Greg placed a screen of Hd (I) and, disconcertingly, a bunch of Expendable flaming ox carts out front. Well behind them were blocks of Cv (S), Cv (O) and LH (S), along with a group of Ele (O) and Ax (O). These were clumped, ready to march wherever Greg needed them. Of particular concern was his deployment of an entire mounted command on the road: never mind my infantry – Greg was going to get some immediate use out of the road. Some more light troops sat in the difficult hill on his left. I placed the Pisidians on the right, where the two difficult hills would give them cover. Next to the were the Seleucids, with the Ax facing the Exp. In the centre I placed the Galatian sub-general, and the C-in-C on the left flank with the largest mounted force in the army. My plan was once again pretty simple – advance and destroy the cheap screen as quickly as possible in order to pin and overwhelm the much smaller Timurid mounted forces.

But Greg wasn’t having a bar of that plan - he had his own. As had been my case in the last game, in this game Greg’s first bound PIP dice were excellent. This gave him the PIPs to mass the mounted elements from three commands to Greg’s right, and to advance the Ele block towards my C-in-C’s Wb, and still have enough to wheel the Exp to his right to aim them at my sub’s Wb. One bound and I was in serious positional trouble.

My first bound PIPs were somewhat more modest, although at least my allies were again loyal. With a large number of mounted elements bearing down on the desperately outnumbered Cv in the C-in-C’s command, I needed to shift mounted elements from the sub and Seleucid ally over to the left, while also trying to get Seleucid elements in the way of the ox carts.

To some extent my plan worked. The Ax got in the way of two of the Exp, with one cart destroyed in return for one Ax. The third ox cart hit the sub’s Wb and destroyed an element. Unfortunately for me, the ox cart which destroyed the Ax then pursued into the flank of the Seleucid Kn column, and the following bound destroyed a Kn too. It was only a last ditch rear attack by the Seleucid LH element which dealt with that cart. Meanwhile the second rank of Wb killed the last ox cart. But while the AP value of troops destroyed by the flaming ox carts was less than the AP value of the carts themselves, I felt that destroying that Kn had been a bad result for me. Meanwhile the Pisidians made for the hill, the garrison of which was much smaller than the Pisidian command.

The massed Timurid mounted now advanced down the left edge of the table, well outside where my C-in-C’s Cv and Ps were sitting, while the Ele block continued its advance towards the C-in-C’s Wb. The Hd screen and hill garrison sat and waited for my lads to arrive.

In my next bound my infantry charged into most of the Hd screen – the Ax had been left behind by the Pk, so some Hd were unengaged – while the Pisidians started up the hill into the Ax. And in another sign that this wasn’t going to be my day, a Hd element managed to 6-1 its opposing column of Pk, and survive. The sub’s Cv moved out past the C-in-C’s Cv and block the flanking Timurid LH (S), while the Seleucid Kn struggled with a lack of PIPs to move across the rear of the army.

Greg’s mounted split up, the LH taking the long way around to get into the rear of my army, while the Cv turned inboard sooner, supporting the flank of the Ele block and aiming at the C-in-C’s Cv’s front and flank.

One more bound of combat saw the end of the Hd, opening up some opportunities for me, while the Pisidians struggled with low PIPs to exploit their numerical advantage. But on my left, things were getting ominous. Not only did Greg’s mounted forces exceed mine in numbers and quality, the Timurid Ele block was about to engage my C-in-C’s Wb. The last didn’t overly concern me – it was dangerous for the Wb facing the Ele to be sure, but my Wb should beat the Ax, especially as I had an overlap at one end, and overlapped Ele were at risk even from Wb.

Over the next couple of bounds the Timurid Cv and LH ground their way through my Galatian Cv in return for very few casualties, and with those losses spread among three commands none of them were in much danger of becoming even disheartened. The Seleucid Kn arrived but had only LH as targets, and this fight also achieved little for much cost. Meanwhile the C-in-C’s Wb’s fight against the Ax and Ele went nowhere, with the Ax and Wb taking turns to push each other back, while the Ele slowly knocked over Wb. I was able to wheel the sub’s Wb a little in the hope of surrounding the open flank of the Timurid Ax, and with the Timurid Hd dead I turned the Seleucid Pk into a long column to march over to the fight. The open space allowed the Pisidian LH and the Seleucid Skythian LH (F) to race over to the Timurid baggage and sack it. And finally numbers told in the fight on the hill, and the Pisidians destroyed the remaining Timurid Ax on the hill.

However it was all too late. The Cv losses to the two Galatian commands quickly pushed both those commands to disheartened and then broken, and along with a couple of losses to the Seleucids and Pisidians, more than half my army was gone.

21-4 to Greg, in a game he was in control of from the start. By keeping his mobile strike force well behind a screen I couldn’t break though quickly, he was able to mass his mounted on one flank and overwhelm the forces I had there. About the only thing I could have done, as Greg pointed out, was to have had an ambush of Wb behind the hill on the far left. That would have delayed the mounted forces for a few bounds, giving me a lot more time to move my own mounted forces across. It would have been quite a lot more interesting if I’d got the Seleucid Kn into contact with his Cv… The problem was that I’d spent my permitted 10AP of stratagems on Delay Battle, and, worse than that, never actually used the stratagem.

At least I was able to take some consolation from the fact that, thanks to sacking his baggage command, I took more points off Greg than anyone else at the competition.

[Barritus]

Game 4 v Ottoman Turks (Greg R)

Here was another game ripe with possibilities. I knew exactly what Greg’s army contained as he’d only finalised his list the day before the comp, with comp rules meaning he had to put his list on display. Essentially it was a late 15th century combination of Bw (S) Janissaries, Cv (O) and light troops, with a tiny Serbian Kn (S) command, and regular baggage.

Once again I was the defender. I chose as much terrain as I could, and the result suited me reasonably well, with most of the relevant terrain falling on Greg’s side of the table. At the right hand end of his deployment zone was a decent-sized piece of scrubby flat, while at the left end there was a vineyard. I also placed a road which started near the centre of Greg’s edge and headed towards his left table edge, just cutting through the corner of the vineyard. On the road near the right table edge was a BUA.

After much dithering I placed the Pisidians on the left, facing the scrubby flat, with the Seleucids next to them. In the centre was the sub, and the C-in-C was on the right.

However, now came the interesting part. Our deployment rolls meant that Greg had to deploy first, while I also had the opportunity of a night attack with a couple of bounds of uninterrupted movement. I eagerly accepted the opportunity, as it would allow me to create suitable matchups in deployment and then lock them in by being able to march across the table and pin the Ottomans in place. The dice determined that it would be a moonless night, so my movement would be slow, but I had a few bounds available to use.

Greg deployed cagily, keeping his Serbs well back, and deployed on the road for ease of movement. He had a bunch of light troops in the scrubby flat, the Janissaries next to them, then a large block of Cv (O) in the centre plus some Cv (S) in reserve, and some LH (F) out near the vineyard.

Once again I got great PIPs on the first bound, guaranteeing the loyalty of my allies, and allowing my army to make cautious haste across the table. By the time dawn broke a couple of bounds later I was closing in across the line. I was pleased with the matchups in the scrub, and with both Seleucid Pk and Galatian Wb facing the Janissaries. More Wb were facing the Ottoman Cv, and the C-in-C’s Cv were facing the Ottoman LH. My big concern was that the road would allow the Serbian Kn to deploy towards my right wing quickly.

And this was generally what happened.

Greg initially advanced his light troops in the scrub, then turned them around and moved them back. This surprised me, as I was then able to move into contact with their rear, and the result was a massacre. In an army with regular baggage and quite a few 2 ME troops, the loss of a handful of 0.5 ME troops isn’t normally much of an issue, but as I was going to have a hard time killing his 2 ME troops I needed to cause casualties wherever I could.

Next to this combat, the Pk and Wb advanced as quickly as they could towards the Janissaries. The Janissaries let off a few arrows but managed only a couple of recoils. Greg pulled back the rear rank of Janissaries to slow down the losses. But it was going to be a tight thing. Once the Pk and Wb were through the Bw they were only two moves from the baggage. In the last move before I made contact, though, finally a lone Janissary element managed to shoot down the front rank Pk element facing it.

Over on the right flank things weren’t going so well. Greg had received good enough PIPs that he was able to expand out his LH, so any aggressive moves by my C-in-C’s Cv would leave them surrounded. Plus, the Serbs came rocketing up the road and, even as I was winning on the left, began hoeing into the Galatian Cv. I tried to move the Cv and Kn from the Galatian sub and Seleucid ally command, but poor PIPs and my tangled columns delayed the moves.

But it was in the centre that the carnage was happening, and in a rather unexpected way. Greg charged his Cv (O) into my C-in-C’s Wb. This was a fight that was likely to eventually go against me. What surprised me was how savagely and quickly it did so. Each bound it seemed more than half the combats resulted in a destroyed Wb, and I rarely came close to inflicting any losses on the Cv. I’d expected to lose there slowly enough to have time to win elsewhere. But even as the Seleucid and sub-general commands closed in on the Janissaries, the Ottoman Cv were making a mess of their opponents.

My hopes were now mainly on the left flank. The Pk and Wb charged into the Bw, and had an immediate impact. The Ottoman right wing became disheartened, and in the following bound broke. Now little more than one move away, the ME-rich baggage beckoned like the pot of gold it was. But in that broken command one element held out – the Bw which had shot down the Pk element facing it. Missing that vital fourth rank, and often with an overlap against it, the Pk column was only able to recoil the desperate Janissary for something like four bounds in a row. And with dismal PIPs I simply couldn’t develop the attack any more aggressively. Finally, however, the Bw element succumbed, and the path to the baggage lay open.

But it was too late, and I ran out of elements. The Galatian C-in-C’s command broke, followed soon after by the sub-general’s command.

Full credit to Greg for pulling this entertaining game out of the fire, having to deploy first and then sit around unable to move for a few bounds. The Ottoman Cv (O) were just deadly against my Wb...but that lone Janissary!

[Barritus]

Game 5 v Scots-Irish (Dave T)

Once again I was fairly confident about this game, given that the Scots-Irish had little in the way of troops which could threaten me – just a few Wb elements. Otherwise I had the numbers to match Dave’s army and expected that the Seleucids would cut their way through the Irish line, while hoping that the rear support available to the Wb would provide just enough of an edge over the massed Ax.

I was the invader, and there was a fair bit of terrain on the table. On the left end of my deployment zone was a patch of scrubby flat. In front of it, on the centre line, was a difficult hill, and beyond it at the right end of Dave’s deployment zone was a wood. In the centre rear of my deployment zone was a marsh, and facing it at the front of Dave’s deployment zone was a wide gentle hill. On the right end of my deployment zone was another patch of scrubby flat. Finally, I placed a road across the rear of Dave’s deployment zone, unable to resist the ploy of hinting at a flank march. A gentle hill in my rear right corner played no part in the game.

Weather and time of day played no part in the game.

Dave deployed four commands across the table. On his right, at the edge of the wood was an allied command consisting mostly of Ax (O) and some Cv (O) chariots. Next to them, behind about half the gentle hill, was the C-in-C, her command including all available Wb – 8 Wb (S) and 6 Wb (F) – along with some more chariots. The next command was the sub-general with another generic command of Ax and chariots. Finally, on Dave’s left, was another allied command, which in addition to the generic mix of Ax and chariots also included 2 “Roman” Ax (S).

I deployed the Pisidians on my left, facing Dave’s right wing command. The Seleucids were next, facing Dave’s C-in-C, with the Pk facing the Wb (S). Next to them was the sub’s command, and the C-in-C on the right. My tactics were fairly straightforward – as described earlier, use the Seleucids to crush the enemy C-in-C’s command and then turn outwards, and overwhelm the remainder of the army along the entire line.

Dave’s first turn was seemingly disastrous, with both allies unreliable. He was able to advance only in the centre, getting troops onto the gentle hill, and saving some PIPs from the C-in-C’s PIP dice to cajole the ally on his left.

But I wasn’t overly concerned with unreliable allies. I saw no advantage in hanging back, as once I engaged the Irish C-in-C’s command his unreliable allies would be close enough to be activated anyway. On that basis I was better off getting everything close to minimise his opportunity to optimise his deployments. So with two reliable allies I pushed forwards across the table, and swung the C-in-C’s Cv and Ps out from behind the Wb to a position on their flank where they faced the chariots of Dave’s left wing ally.

On Dave’s second turn, the C-in-C’s efforts to activate the ally worked, although now the C-in-C rolled only 1 PIP, so Dave used it to hold the Wb on the hill.

And then everything went wrong.

I advanced the Seleucid Pk block towards the Wb (S) and awaited their attack with a reasonable amount of comfort, only to watch the front two ranks of both Pk (O) columns dissolve in the first round of combat. After that it was only a matter of time before the entire Seleucid command collapsed. The Pk (S) managed to destroy 1 Wb (S), but the lone element behind it also did its job on the Pk. I sent the Kn (F) in to attack the adjacent Ax (O), and managed to destroy only a couple of elements – insignificant in terms of breaking that command. The Ax (S) fared a little better, destroying a few Wb (F) elements. In Dave’s second round of combat the Seleucids were broken.

Out on my left the Pisidians launched themselves into the Irish right wing allied command, again with little success. There were a few casualties each way, but it was clear the battle wasn’t going to be won or lost here.

In the centre I was left with little alternative but to charge the sub’s Wb up the hill into the Irish Ax of the C-in-C and sub. But with the defender’s uphill bonus cancelling out my rear support, it all came down to the dice, and they were against me. The commands traded casualties but the trickle was always slightly in Dave’s favour.

Out on my right the C-in-C’s Wb similarly had trouble causing much in the way of casualties against the Ax of the Irish left wing ally. The one place where most action took place was with the Roman Ax (S), which provided a rock around which the rest of the command rested. Out on the flank the Cv and chariots faced each other, with my Ps support partly cancelling out Dave’s overlap at the end of the line. But once a lucky kill opened a hole in the line, the C-in-C’s command was soon in trouble. The victorious chariot swung around and hit the C-in-C in the rear, and that was the end of him. Before long, the C-in-C’s command was broken and the transmitted loss broke the sub-general’s command, which was already on edge thanks to its own Wb casualties.

IIRC that was a 25-0 victory to Dave, as I simply hadn’t managed to cause many casualties anywhere.

This was a particularly frustrating defeat, as I realised afterwards just how many mistakes I’d made. For one thing I realised sending the Pk against the Wb (S) was silly. I’d originally thought of aiming the Kn (F) at them, but was worried about the (F) factor costing me casualties in Dave’s combat rounds. Instead I concluded I should have had Pisidian Ps facing them, as a simple way of neutralising the effect of the Wb. Even if the Ps were spent, the Pisidians were eminently more expendable than the Seleucids. From that realisation everything else fell into place: I should have spread the Pisidians out a lot more, and compressed the rest of the army, which would have had the Seleucids facing only the Ax of the C-in-C’s command. That would have given me a much better chance of a breakthrough that the Wb could have exploited. And I need not have attacked so aggressively with the Pisidians – as a flank guard they should have been able to sit back far enough that I could have avoided activating the unreliable ally they faced; that would have forced Dave to spend more PIPs on attempting to activating them, which would have been PIPs his C-in-C couldn’t use on her own troops.

But this shouldn’t take anything away from Dave’s performance. Regardless, it was a gutsy move on his part to take the Scots-Irish to an open competition, and it required careful and cautious play on his part to manage his army after starting out with two unreliable allies.

[Barritus]

So after starting full of promise I finished the competition with three defeats, which was a depressing experience. In a sense I felt like I'd wasted the big advantage presented by passing all my loyalty dice rolls - I didn't have a single unreliable command over the competition.

What was worse was that, in various ways, those three defeats could have been avoided. In game 3, an ambush of Wb out on my left flank would have delayed Greg M’s flank attack, possibly long enough for me to get my own mounted into the way. In some respects it wouldn’t even have mattered if he’d found it with Scouts (which he didn’t have) as what mattered was being able to deploy troops near the edge of the table where they normally can’t deploy.

In game 4, the loss of that one Pk element to shooting had an effect out of all proportion to its cost, with the offending Bw (S) element hanging on for several bounds and preventing me from getting into Greg R’s baggage and the flank of his centre command.

And in game 5, the desire to spread out and attack all four of Dave’s commands, when I really only needed to attack two of them and cause a couple of casualties to a third, almost certainly cost me victory.

But it got worse than that when I realised how lucky I’d been to win game 1 – of all the columns for my Wb to break through, it just happened to be the one containing Gary’s C-in-C. Plus I was lucky that his flank march was so sluggish: not having to fight all his army simplified my job. To a lesser extent I benefited in game 2 from one bound at a crucial point in the game when John rolled three 1s for PIPs.

I also concluded that I probably got my army structure wrong. While it was fun to field an army including an allied Hellenistic command, I don’t think I got value for money from the Seleucids. Specifically I don’t think the Seleucid Pk did much for me that an equivalent AP value of Galatian Wb (O) couldn’t have done. The Kn were useful, but too often I was reluctant to use them for fear of losing them. Instead, I think I should have restructured the Seleucid command to include only the minimum number of Pk, and field the ally general as a Kn (F) wedge. That would give me a force of 5 Kn in a smaller command of about 18ME, with the intention of using the Seleucids aggressively as a flank command. Because such a command would represent a smaller proportion of the total army it’s loss would be a lesser threat to the army as whole; and the points saved could be used getting more Wb. And I’d happily invest in an Ambush stratagem, accepting that its purpose was to help allow deployment out on the flanks rather than to conceal troops.

Oh well, there's always Cancon next year...