Well, last night I took on the mighty and (if I understand it correctly) largely unchallenged Feudal French army designed by Dave Ruddock, with my Hellenistic Greek Aitolians. My opponent was Dave Turner.
For those unfamiliar with it, Daves's army consisted of four commands, each containing 4 Kn, 2 Bg (I), and a miscellany of lighter troops to bulk each of them up to 24 or 24.5 ME.
My army also consisted of four commands. The C-in-C had hoplites, supported by LH, Ps and Art (O). The first Aitolian ally had Ax (S), supported by LH, Ps and Art (X) (the famous incendiary pigs). The second Aitolian ally had a small command consisting only of LH and Ps. The third ally was Achaian, and his command included Pk (O), Kn (F), plus LH, Ps and Art. All commands had Bg (I), the second Aitolian ally totalling 13.5 ME, while the others were between 25.5 and 32 ME.
Dave was the invader, my first piece of luck, largely cancelled out by terrain dice which did me no favours. The left flank swarmed with difficult hills, and another small DH split Dave's deployment zone in two. The rest of the board was clear, as neither my vineyard or olive grove made it onto the table.
I then got a second piece of luck with Dave having to deploy first. He placed only two commands on table, leading me to assume he was doing a double flank march. I deployed the small Aitolian command on the left, with the larger Aitolian ally next to them. In the centre was the C-in-C, and the Achaians were on the right. Dave Spent two Ps in a wasted attempt at Scouting, while I used my Unusual Weapons stratagem to place the incendiary pig element between the peltasts and hoplites, facing oncoming Kn.
Dave went first, and with his first PIP dice, revealed he had a delayed command led by his sub-general, while his on-board ally was reliable. The delayed command arrived on Dave's right flank, but he soon wheeled the Kn to his left, presumably to occupy the gap between the two starting commands.
Fortunately for me all my allies were reliable, and I got reasonable PIPs early on, allowing me to push forward quickly to get a result before Dave's flank march arrived. My plan was simply to try to break any two of Dave's commands, a result which would be sufficient to break his army. Things started well when the incendiary pigs accounted for a Kn element from Dave's on-board ally command. They got even better when Dave's sub-general's command rolled a series of 1s for PIPs, forcing the column of Kn to keep advancing obliquely from his right to his left. This left his on-board ally unsupported and charging onto my massed hoplites.
On my left, the two Aitolian allies advanced steadily across the board, their objective being the light troops and baggage attached to Dave's sub-general's command. Marching across the difficult hills slowed me down a bit, but after about five bounds they were able to put in their attack.
Things weren't going so well on my right. The Pk managed to kill one Kn from Dave's C-in-C's command, and later the Achaian Art scored the necessary 6-1 to kill another. But otherwise the remaining Kn ground their way through my poor Pk. I also carelessly got the Achaian ally stuck in combat with a Kn, which adversely affected my available PIPs. After a few bounds Dave's sub-general's Kn column joined in the fun, as well as his flank-marching ally-general, who arrived in about the 5th or 6th bound on my right.
The result of all this pressure meant the Achaian command collapsed. But elsewhere things were looking up. After an initial rebuff, the Aitolian Ax (S) carved their way through the on-board French ally's Pk (F). The hoplites also wrapped and killed the ally-general, breaking that command. Meanwhile the small Aitolian ally's Ps and LH knocked over enough of the French sub-general's Ps that the command's Bg was uncovered.
Dave conceded at this point. He had no prospect of causing casualties to my other three commands, and the LH of the small Aitolian ally command would go impetuous in my next turn into the sub's Bg, the loss of which would be sufficient to break it and the army. The result would have been 18-7 to me. Thanks to Dave for an entertaining game.
So what did we learn from the game? Well, for me, there was a new respect for Kn (S). They are truly scary hombres, able to grind down my Pk (O) with little trouble. I also didn't spell out how well the on-board ally's Kn fought against my hoplites either, with one guy killing two hoplites *after* the enemy command broke. The other point which was clear was that if you're going to try using an army modelled like this FF army, you'd better protect the supporting troops. Yes, it took a bit of an effort to get to them, but Dave was hamstrung once poor PIPs had carried the sub-general away from his support troops - they simply stood there while the two Aitolian ally commands bore down on them.
Finally, it's important to understand that all our commands had Irr Bg (I) - cheap and mobile filler - but we don't know for sure what baggage either army will have when the lists come out. After all, Bg (I) as command baggage allows the owning command to flank march or delay, while if the list specifies it must be Bg (O), then ally-generals at least won't be able to flank march with baggage, which is something of a limitation.
But is Dave Ruddock's FF army tamed? Not necessarily. It's a powerful army, and I respect its power even more after last night's game. But I'd like to think I've shown that with aggressive play and little more than average luck (my PIP dice in the second half of the game were dismal), even an army of misfits like my Aitolians can take them down.
Cheers
