Day 3
Game 5 v Medieval Vietnamese (Nick)
I knew Nick's army reasonably well from watching earlier games. I knew it had four combat commands under regular generals, plus an artillery command, giving him five allocated PIP dice, like my army and Doug's. It also had a decent number of Shot (I) and Fixed Hidden Obstacles. It was therefore optimised for defending a terrain-heavy table. So while I was confident of facing it in the open, I wasn't about to chase it into bad terrain.
I was the invader, and chose to invade in spring to maximise the chance of rain (though, given we were both rolling 5 PIP dice, not very likely). Wanting the table to be as open as possible, I selected two gentle hills and a patch of scrubby flat; I was concerned that a river might help Nick more than me, as it had helped Doug in the previous game. Nick selected a couple of wooded hills, a wood, and a couple of rice paddies (enclosed fields). And all the terrain went down. The wood was the dominant feature, a little to the left of the centre of the table. There was a wooded hill on each side of the wood, one at the front of my deployment zone, the other at the front of Nick's deployment zone. One gentle hill was out on my left flank, while the other was on Nick's base edge, at the right hand (his right hand, that is) end of his deployment zone. One rice paddy was on the left of Nick's deployment zone, while the other was in the front of my deployment zone, a little to the right of centre. Finally, the patch of scrubby flat went down on the right hand end of my deployment zone. All up, this meant that most of the right hand side of the table was clear of terrain, while the left hand side was very cluttered.
I deployed Command 1 on the right, Command 2 next to it, and Command 3 on the left, with Command 4 in the rear, however, I concentrated this deployment on the right hand side of the table, with my left-most element facing only the right-most part of the large wood in the middle.
The weather/deployment dice promised the possibility of rain, but also specified that I should deploy first. Before that, however, I needed to scout. So I committed four elements to scouting - both LH and 2 Cv as well. The dice favoured me, and I was able to get all the information I needed, without losing an element. Before I deployed, Nick had to deploy both his ambushes and his Hidden Obstacles. A small command, including a couple of Ele (S), some Ps and a Sh (I), was located in the wood, facing towards the open ground I intended to advance through, while some Ps were hidden on the further wooded hill. The Hidden Obstacles were on the slope of the gentle hill at the right hand end of Nick's deployment zone, guarding against the possibility of a flank march. This was all vital information, and I hoped I?d be able to take advantage of it.
After I deployed my army, Nick deployed the rest of his. He placed his artillery command facing to his left (that is, towards the open ground), behind TF, with the line of the TF roughly halfway along his base edge. He then deployed two commands facing the same way as the artillery. The first, next to the TF, contained some Bd (I) and Ps (O). The second, under the C-in-C, was in a single long column, and included Bd (O), Bw (O), Sh (I) and Ps (O). Nick, however, had been caught out by his requirement to deploy second. If he'd deployed first, he would have been able to deploy troops to within 12 cm of the centre line, and thus close to his ambush command. But because the army deploying second can't deploy closer than 20 cm from the centre line, the ambush command was dangerously isolated from the rest of the army, and I'd be moving first. The other command was off table, and I assumed it was going to arrive on my right flank.
I therefore decided to advance quickly, to crush the ambush command first, then try to overrun the other two combat commands on table before the flank march arrived. To this end I changed my PIP dice assignment, giving the highest PIP dice to Command 2, the second highest to Command 1, averaging the 3rd and 4th highest between Commands 3 and 4, and giving the baggage the lowest PIP dice. I hoped to get the Ps of Command 4 and the LH of Command 3 into his Ele and face his Sh with my Bw, but it didn't quite work out that way. Instead the Ps dived into the wood to face his ambush command's Ps, while I had to deploy Bw and the generals of Commands 3 and 4 to face the Ele. Meanwhile the Bw of Command 2 swung around to face the end of the wood, and the Cv deployed around and beyond them. Command 1 marched forwards, and then wheeled around the Cv of Command 2, taking up a position facing the other two on-table commands of Nick?s army. (Nick afterwards lamented that he'd neglected to place some Ax in the rice paddy on his left flank, where they could have slowed the advance of Command 1.)
I quickly killed a Ps and the Sh in the ambush command, but Nick then charged the two Ele out of the wood, killing one of my Bw DBEs in the process. I counter-charged the Ele general, hitting him in the front with one of my generals, and double-overlapping him with a flank hit. I won that combat, killing the general and thus breaking the ambush command, getting things off to a promising start. However, the other Ele in the broken command hung around for a couple more bounds, giving Nick enough time to deploy some Sh from his C-in-C?s command into the wood to cover his front, and deploy the rest of the troops from that command to cover the gap between the wood and the artillery TF. He also sent masses of Ps from the two on-table commands into the far end of the wood, and they slowly worked their way through it towards me.
As I deployed the Cv from Commands 1 and 2 into a good attacking position against Nick's two on-table commands, he decided he'd advanced too far with them. Leaving some Ps and Ax out to delay me, he retreated his Bd and Bw so their line was level with the TF. I attacked and overran the speed humps, though my Bw had their hands full trying to deal with his Sh. I also had to pull the Ps out of the wood, lest they be caught either by his advancing Ps or by the Sh in there.
Finally I got my Cv into Nick's main line, and the Cv began to slowly carve their way through the Bw and Bd, aided by a couple of combat brilliant strokes, although I also took some losses from his Art.
Then Nick's final command showed up - not a flank march as I expected, but as a delayed command, emerging onto the flank of Command 1. It was similar in content to his C-in-C's command, and was immediately able to attack Command 1's LH, killing one.
I was able to dishearten the smallest remaining command in Nick's army, and was closing in on the same for the C-in-C's command. When time was called and the last combats resolved, I needed to kill three elements from that command to break it and the army. I failed all three attacks. Even so, Nick's army had taken heavy losses. In my army, Command 1 was close to being disheartened, but the other commands had taken few losses. With a big advantage to me in penalty points, the score again ended up 15-10 in my favour.
Game 6 v New Kingdom Egyptian (Dave)
This was the first army I felt reasonably confident facing. I knew pretty well what it contained, and I knew I'd get pretty much the terrain I wanted - not much. The only question was how aggressive I should be. I had a reasonable lead in points on second place, but was unsure how many points I could afford to give away in a draw.
I was the invader. Dave selected a waterway which went down on my left, while I chose three pieces of scrubby flat. Two went on my base edge, and the third went on the right table edge, in my deployment zone. I knew Dave would have something on the waterway, and assumed he'd rest the flank of his army on the waterway. I therefore decided to place Command 2 on the left, Command 3 in the centre, Command 1 on the right and Command 4 in the rear. This way I'd be able to envelop Dave's left wing, which I assumed would have his chariot command. Dave duly deployed his chariot command on his left, with two fairly similar commands in the centre and on the right. They each contained a mixture of Bw (O) and Bd (F), with some Ps (O) and (I) behind, and a reserve of Cv (S) chariots. The C-in-C was on Dave's right, by the waterway.
It was obvious from my deployment that I was going to try to monster his chariot command, and Dave reacted accordingly. He pulled his chariots back, and turned the infantry of his centre and right wing commands to the left, marching them across the table so that the centre command infantry partially covered the chariots. He also advanced the chariots of his right wing command towards Command 2.
But Dave had made two crucial mistakes. Firstly, he'd pulled his left wing chariots back a long way, and secondly he'd also left his infantry in column. This exposed the infantry to a flank attack, if I could march up there. I doubled the PIPs of the C-in-C's command from 6 to 12, and was able to move into column, swing left in front of Command 3, turn 90 degrees into line, then advance onto the flank of the Egyptian centre command's infantry. This attack alone killed five elements, and put that command nearly half way to breaking. I incidentally discovered that a couple of the chariots in Dave's chariot command were fakes created using the Exaggerating Numbers stratagem - amusingly enough, it hadn't been enough to deter me. I also sent Command 3 around behind Command 1, and out to the right to cover Command 1?s flank. I sent the Cv of Command 2 forward to the left towards Dave's right wing chariots, and started to move Command 2's Bw and Command 4 over in support.
Dave counter-attacked Command 1 with the remaining infantry of the centre command, and the chariots of the left wing. We exchanged losses, and over the next couple of bounds both commands steadily approached their break points. It was Dave's centre which broke first, giving my Command 3 and now-battered Command 1 a chance to turn their attention to Dave's left wing chariot command, where they killed a couple of chariots. Meanwhile, Dave's right wing chariots approached my more numerous Cv, and he sent some infantry forward in support, while I tried to bring up Command 2's Bw to counter them.
I had the first chance to break Dave's army, with a couple of wrapping attacks on the chariots of his left wing, and some frontal attacks on his right wing chariots. But Dave won all the combats. He then took his chance, killing one last Cv to break Command 1. However, in my next bound, my C-in-C hit the rear of one of his chariots, destroying it, while the LH of Command 3 wrapped and killed another. This was enough to break his left wing command. And just to complete the package, Command 2's troops also killed a couple of infantry elements from Dave's right wing command. Dave's army broke, and I'd won the game 18-7.
End of day 3: I finished on 113 points, 19 points ahead of the next highest score. Yes, I'd actually won the competition. This time I think luck played a lesser part than on the second day. Against Nick, I got three good pieces of luck - deploying first (and thus narrowing his deployment zone), not losing anything to scouting, and the time it took his delayed command to arrive. But Nick got exactly the terrain he wanted, his Sh and Art shot very well, and I think his Bd (I) survived longer than they might have expected against Cv (S). In the last game, I benefited from Dave's mistaken moves in his first bound, but if he hadn't made those moves, I would have been in a position to attack aggressively with Command 2 against his right flank instead, while still pushing against his left wing with Commands 1 and 3. In other words, in each game I had a plan, and was able to follow it, although also with alternative available as well.