The Odds & Sods Period, at Akra Leuka Alicante 2024
Mithraditic vs ...
This year's Alicante competition was again an opportunity for an epic Central London pre-gaming Spanish holiday, which this year took in Seville Airport, Cordoba, Granada and then Alicante, a castle and a motorway service station inbetween the three, and then a flight out of Valencia ... all of which were negotiated in style and sophistication (and with a lot of tapas, beer and vino tinto of course too!).
But, after all of that, there were also some games of L'Art de la Guerre which took place, within the theme of "Armies which the Spanish ADLG meta thinks are either a bit rubbish or are under-loved, and which are also pre-Dark Ages"
With some beauties still in there (Assyrians, Hittites, most of the Chinese lists, Parthians, Kushan..) all still available, my efforts to take a left-field choice went round in circles several times, with some of the more left field choices (Spartacus?) being dismissed because of the likelihood of a number of lists with Cataphracts, the "good" lists all dismissed anyway, and so finally I settled on a "less than the sum of the parts" special of the Mithraditic list
The Pontic army is a classic mismash which often fails to live up to the sum of it's parts. There are other Successor style armies which do everything this one does, but a bit better - most notably in the numbers of Impact Cavalry and sometimes Cataphracts, but also Pikemen and support troops. It does however have Bowmen - a rare and secret weapon in most Classical themed armies that can make life very difficult for the HCv/Mcv you tend to find in historical opponents.
With only the Sarmatians as Impetuous (Impact) cavalry, your choice is really a 4-strong HCv command with them and the 2 Pontic horsemen plus some outriders, or to have no Sarmatians, take the 2 Cataphracts and use a Cv + 2 LH command to occupy/refuse a flank
With 2 Imitation legions, 3 Pikemen, 2 Galatians, 2 Thracians and the 2 Cats you do have a surprisingly wide "Pike and Spear Beating Up Machine" - if those are your opponents. Add in Heavy Spear Theurophoroi and you are looking at a pig-wrestler that can do well enough at first contact and slug it out in protracted melee as well
The 2 Scythed Chariots will almost certainly do nothing, but they can play a vital function in distracting the opposing player from noticing how underwhelming your wall of nonsense actually is... ideally until it is right on top of them and they can't get out of the way!
So, I'd ended up with a double-Brilliant General structure with lots of grinding heavy troops to create two wide jack of all trades (master of none!) commands which had enough pike and spear and Catas to put off eney cavalry, and eith each having either Galatians or Imitation Legions (and Pike) to grind up any infantry. There was also a teeny command of a cavalryman and 2 Light Horse led by an embedded Ordinary commander to muck about on a flank.
The lists for the Mithraditic and all of the other armies in these reports from Akra Leuka Alicante can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
So, with me feeling rather tired and a little under the weather as a result of that sinus-ey lingering cold that everyone seemed to have this winter, it was on with the games
Game 1 Mithraditic vs 3 Kingdoms Chinese
In this game the Mithraditic army struggles to understand what it's supposed to be doing, and how it can get the best out of its various elements while a Chinese army execute a well rehearsed plan involving terrain and ambushes to try and thwart the Pontic plans
Will borderline cheating things like "having a plan", "practice" and "understanding how your army works" play to the advantage of the Chinese, or will natural talent and the star power of an army being named after a singlular general who is however not graded as a Strategist come to the fore?
Game 2 Mithraditic vs Hittites
The second battle sees the semi-Successors take on a biblical foe of a type their commander had practiced with several times and in part already wishes that he'd brought to this event.
Will knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy army more than they know their own work out well for the Mithraditic forces, or will it be a case of what could have been ?
The third outing sees yet another Biblical foe emerge blinking into the headlights of Mithradates men, as the Hebres turn up for battle with an army that is almost certain to be rather similar to the Hittites
Will the Mithradatic army break its so-far binding Covenant with defeat, or will this time the Ark of Success set sail and leave the Hebrews on the shores as the waters of the Alicantian swimming pool at the venue rise around them in unparted fashion?
Game 4 Mithraditic vs The Kushans
It's heavy metal and big trunks as the Kushan Empire descends into the edges of Europe in a mightly clash of civilizations from the edges of the Eurasian world
The cataphract count imbalance is clear, but how will that pan out when the dice fall and the chips are down?
Game 5 Mithraditic vs The Alans
Mithradates heads for the wide open steppes and tries to stem the tide of Alans flooding in from the Eurasian plain in a "phalanx vs horse archer" matchup
The key question is probably one of terrain - will the Mithraditic army manage to narrow the battlefield and bring the Alans to battle in terrain of their liking, or will agrophobia and archery get the better of them ?
Phyrrus vs Mithradates - the second league big hitters swing at one another in a stand up slugfest of the Classical era almost-rans
Pikes, spears and Cataphracts will decide - unless the Elephant and Scythed Chariots weigh in and tip the scales in one general's favour or another
Thats the end of the battle reports - now lets dig into the lists!
A Video Podcast discussing the lists used by all of the London contingent
A sprawling 6-handed discussion of the army lists used by myself, Dave, Gordon, Simon, Mark and Dave at the Akra Leuka 2024 L'Art de la Guerre event in Alicante, complete with a bit of travelogue, and Madaxeman.com's first ever advertising slot!
The lists covered include Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Mithraditic, Warring States Chinese, Aztec and the Ancient Britons
That's the end - so why not go back to the Match Reports Index and read some more reports?
You may also like....
View My Stats for My Match Reports Pages
