Another Cancon practice, and another defeat.
Doug invaded with his Ayyubids, and chose not to place a Sea, so my fleet wasn't available.
Doug selected a couple of gentle hills and a paved road, while I selected some patches of rough and a river. The road and river didn't make it onto the table. The hills were on my left edge of the table, one on my side and one on Doug's side. A large patch of rough terrain sat on my right flank. The other terrain played no part in the game.
Doug invaded in spring. The weather was a strong wind, which played no part in the game as neither of us had archers or naval elements.
Doug also won the deployment dice roll, scoring highly enough that even with the mounted modifier he still had to deploy first. He placed a command of Irr LH (S) under a sub-general on his right flank, a block of Cv (O) and Cv (S) with the General nearby, and another block of Cv (O) and Cv (S) on his left flank under another sub. Deploying first and unsure of my army, he deployed well back and in deep blocks amendable to easy redeployment. His army was a lot smaller than mine...
I placed the C-in-C on the left with his LH (S) facing Doug's. The small infantry command (Command 3) was next, then Command 2 with the mix of infantry and mounted. That command's Ps (S) sat in the rough, and just beyond them were the LH (S) and Ps (O) of Command 4.
Doug moved first. He expanded his LH out to near the table edge and advanced onto the gentle hill where some of my LH sat. His C-in-C's command advanced in support. Meanwhile Command 3 made a beeline for the small mounted contingent of my Command 2.
In my first bound, Command 1 got enough PIPs to allow my LH to expand to match Doug's command, then march downhill into contact. The downhill bonus thus cancelled out the march-to-contact penalty. The infantry advanced in the centre, and I wheeled Command 2's mounted to face the approaching enemy Command 3. Command 4's troops advanced out of the rough, along with the Ps (S) of Command 2.
The combat in the first bound was disappointingly indecisive. There were a few recoils each way, but I forgot the +2 for victorious mounted against other mounted didn't apply against identical opponents.
Doug counter-attacked, and the casualties soon racked up on each side, though slightly in Doug's favour. On the left I pushed the infantry of Command 3 forward to threaten the Ayyubid C-in-C's command's flank, but carelessly didn't cover their own flank, allowing Doug to hit them in the flank. His Cv (O) proceeded to rip open the Cv (S) line of my Command 1, which soon pushed it to disheartened.
I was able to make the first hit on Doug's Command 3 with the mounted of my Command 2. The mounted of Command 4 swung around the open flank of Doug's army, threatening to hit his Command 3 in the rear. But Doug countered in the best way possible by destroying all the mounted in Command 2 in one bound, except for the general. That command was okay, but only just.
On my left the LH were finally able to accumulate enough casualties to dishearten Doug's LH command. But more Cv (S) losses broke the C-in-C's command, and the 2 ME penalty was enough to break the adjacent Command 3. That, with losses to Command 2, was enough to break my army.
Thanks to Doug for a fun and quick game - it was probably about five pairs of bounds, and finished in under 2 hours. The score was probably 22-3 to Doug, although he agreed the dice played a major part in it.
My own mistake was to deploy Command 4 and the Ps (S) of Command 2 too far out on the flank to be useful. With low PIPs from an inert C-in-C this army needs to deploy narrow and deep.
