The Worlds in Rome 2022
Khurasanian vs 100YW English
Game 1 Khurasanian vs Catalan Company
Game 2 Khurasanian vs Classical Indian
Game 3 Khurasanian vs 100YW English
Game 4 Khurasanian vs Later Byzantine
Game 5 Khurasanian vs Rajput Hindu Indian
Game 6 Khurasanian vs Catalan Company
With an early finish to the first round that morning I had been able to get some all-important pool time in, and even better have the chance to send those all-important group Whatsapp photos of my poolside feet to the rest of the CLWC posse and in the process disturb their concentration as they still laboured on in the conference centre playing out their own second round games.
After drying off in the sun, having time for a shower and then waiting impatiently as the worlds slowest-service hotel bar in all of Christendom for some sort of lunch/late brunch/early teatiime comprising of minesweeping other peoples crisps and nuts it was suddenly time for the third game - whatever that time actually was in the Italianized schedule!
My opponent in Round 3 was from all the way across the Med, in just-as-sunny-as-Rome Barcelona in the shape of David Ruestes - someone I had played on Tabletop Simulator during lockdown in a game which I recorded and put online on the Madaxeman YouTube Channel.
This time I hoped to have an advantage however, as David would be forced to look at my somewhat disturbingly reddened (by both sunburn and breakfast prosecco) face during the game - not really a distraction tactic I had available to me on TTS, and as such a ringing endorsement for the primacy of face to face gaming over doing so online.
The army I would be facing was 100YW English - one I had faced a couple of times at Bournemouth earlier in the year, and which is notable for its obviousness - men at arms, longbowmen, not much else. This certainly called for List B, with the recently-victorious Elephant and Dailami combination, and so that was the only choice to be made.
It's all about the Longbowmen, who can be Stake-equipped or not but are mostly the new Swordsman/Bow combination brought in in v4. This makes what are already excellent ranged shooters into very deent close combat troops - such that if they can do a point of damage to you on the way in, then they are likely to be as good or better than anything that might hit them in hand to hand.
The army also has a fairly standard Late Medieval range of Foot Knights and armoured polearm or 2HW foot - probably more 2HW than some lists, where they have often been replaced by Polearm chaps who are better against mounted, but not so good against foot - which for an army with a lot of Longbows is not really much use.
100YW English is lacking in decent mounted Knights, but that means taking none is often a decent bet and relying instead on what it does best - shoot, fight and shoot again
The terrain had fallen pretty well for the Khurasanians, and I had (unsurprisingly) taken the punchy infantry-first list with the Dailami ally and the elephant, which deployed skewed very much to the right hand side of the table aiming to advance through a plantation in the middle of the table while refusing and withdrawing the mostly-mounted troops to my left.
With no mounted at all, the 100YW English army should be slow to react to this off-balanced attack, allowing me to concentrate on one wing of the enemy army and in the process minimise the amount of longbow fire my units would take on the way into melee
The right hand of the English line was anchored with a couple of pretty vanilla Polearm-armed halberdiers, and next to them a block of longbow-sword armed units.
The very tabletop shook as Khurasani elephants, Ghazi warriors and on the outside of them Heavy Cavalry all stormed forward like a horde of eager Italians chasing a discount voucher for the Vespa store, all eager to get into contact as soon as possible
(OK, admittedly the unit of Javelinmen were keeping a little to the back, but to be honest this probably wasn't a fight they should really be getting involved in - if they did things would have gone badly wrong already)
The English, led by Henry V, were living up to their key cultural stereotype, as they carefully formed themselves into a neat orderly line to wait patiently for the arrival of the next bus, sorry, wall of mad screaming Dailami warriors, elephants and fanatic Indian-sourced nutters with swords.
Henry V
With the speed of the advance cutting large swathes of the English army out of the action, the Khurasan left wing looked like it would be where all the action was going to happen
As is traditional at this stage, libations and sacrifices were made in honour of our Two Holinesses, Lords and Saviours Phil Barker & Rick Astley, as the two forces lined up exactly as they both would have wanted to see them ready to roll into combat and roll some dice to decide the winner
What's Going on Here Then?
I'm happy with this so far - the two commands best placed to do so are already in place and poised to attack the left flank of the English army, and the rest of their force is struggling to even get into the game at all
The tricky bit is managing to navigate the last few yards between the two armies without being shredded by Longbow first, but with an intact but small Light Infantry screen covering teh vital elements that is about as good as it gets with this list build too
The third Khurasani command was busy avoiding being shot at, and in a dramatic change from the previous game instead of racing forward it was racing sideways out of the way as the English did all they could to push their Heavy Infantry forwards as the Khurasanians repeatedly forgot about the 4MU rule.
L'Art de la Guerre hint - Heavy Infantry can move 3MU in v4, unless they start that move within 4MU of an enemy (when their move is reduced down to 2MU). Pushing a skirmishing unit within that 4MU zone is therefore more important - even if you can prevent someone moving twice by sitting at, say, 5MU, it's still better to get closer and prevent them moving 3MU just the once (if you can without putting yourself at risk of enemy archery).
About now I decided to try and do something that was almost certainly going to be too clever to come off, but which was so amusing I had to try it anyway
Henry V had pushed up a block of armoured 2-handed (non-Polearm) Men at Ams forward into the middle of the table, chasing the mounted command which was trying to extricate itself from my left - but this put them in range of a couple of units of cheap-as-chips Medium Cavalry Lancers.
Seeing an opportunity for wrongfooting the English, blunting their attack and possibly also blasting a big hole in their army the lancers attacked!
L'Art de la Guerre hint - Medium Cavalry against Heavy Infantry with Armour sounds bonkers. However, in the first round the factors here start at are 1 (HI Swrd vs Mounted) : 1 (Impact Cavalry vs non-Spear HI). Add in a couple of overlaps and it becomes 2:1 for the lancers - who also have Furious Charge if they win.
To add a bit of extra spice to these odds, that same Furious Charge capability means the MAA cannot count their superior armour in the first round of combat either.
The final, super-bonus benefit of this attack was that my Turkic Heavy Cavalry bowmen forming the overlap on the right were now in charge range of the English Longbowmen - but as an overlap could not be targeted by their shooting. They were therefore in an ideal position to join in and support the imminent Dailami-led attack on the main body of English achers next turn
With the MAA reeling from the surprise attack in the middle, the main body of infantry violence cautiously approached Henry's lineof Longbows trying to work out the ideal distance to stand at to minimise shots on the way into melee.
Whatever it was, the Eglish decided it was not enough, as they just had time enough to squeak back a little before the Dailami got into 4MU march-stopping range. Battle opened with Khurasanian cavalry closing in and shooting up the detached polearm infantry on the end of the English line
The surprise dual-lancer attack had done significant damage to English Men-at-Arms, but theu had just about withstood the fierce charging attack and now were rapidly bringing up reinforcements - forcing at least one overlap to flee away. Henry himself was even drawn like a moth to a flame to this pivotal scene, stepping in personally to rally his men for St George, England and the rest of that speech in a limelight-grabbing heroic sort of way
St Crispins Day..
Prolonged melee with armoured MAA was a very different proposition for the Arabian and Dailami lancers than a heroic and dashing initial furious charge, so as the tide turned the lancers broke off from combat to lick their wounds
Their heroics had however bloodied the English nose, and bought time and space for another wave of attacks, this time from Dailami and Heavy Cavalry, on the adjacent block of Longbowmen.
Ghulams moved up in support, keeping the shellshocked but resilent MAA honest as the next wave of Arabian aggression hurled itself at the next (and less well defended) part of the English line
Next up, the Main Event.
Elephants and Ghazis crashed at pace into the line of longbowmen, and fierce Dailami lanched themselves at the Polearm Men at Arms on the end of the line as the Khurasani Cavalry fell back to make space
What's Going on Here Then?
The battle plan has worked out pretty well so far, especially in terms of how little shooting the English longbowmen have been able to do - barely a shot has been loosed, never mind found it's mark so far and almost all f the longbows on their left flank are in combat with troops who can and should give them a right going over in melee.
The lancer shenanigans have been a nice bonus too, and have distracted attention away from this part of the table, where it feels like the game can really be won and where a breahthrough against these longbowmen will allow the Dailami to roll up the flank and break through into the baggage of the English army
Hmm, not really working out as planned. The Longbowmen do more than resist the fierce charge of the Ghazi/Elephant Combination, they stop it in its tracks and dish it out a right old British pasting as well
Not since a video game style incident on the dark side of Alderaan involving an X-Wing and a lot of bleeping from an R2 unit has so much damage been done to a Death Star
In the centre of the English line the Dailami allied contingent is faring better.
Working in close tandem with the Turkic Heavy cavalry (who had snuck up on the longbowmen whilst helping the Crappish Lancers surprise attack) the zupin-thrwing foot warriors of Dailam County had gotten right in amongst the Longbowmen and knockd a big hole in the English line, which Henry's Foot Knights seemed ill-positioned to backfill
The Mighty Pachyderm had by now also fallen to the short and nasty dagger-thrusts of the Yeoman Bowmen of Merrye Ole Englande.
The smug celebrations of the little Englanders seemingly would be short lived however, as the only succesful Death Star component, a unit of Ghazi warriors, had now found itself in a position to turd the flank of the line of archers and was looking forward eagerly to starting the process of munching them up, Medieval Pac-Man style, from their left.
At the edge of the table, more Dailami continued the fight against some extremely stubborn polearm infantry who were stoutly refusing to yield to the better-class Almost-Afghan
The Turkic Heavy Cavalry + Dailami attack on the heart of the English line suddenly faltered, even as the Zupineers turned the Longbowmen's flank the Yeoman Bowmen despatched the Turks to their front to the promised land.
Fortunately by now the tactic of removing all of the Arab troops from the left side of the table meant there were plenty of further Khurasani Ghilmen cavalry on hand to join in the fray.
By now Henry's Foot Knights had also started getting into the action, inching forward in 40mm non-inch increments to engage the Dailami themselves
Personally directed by their Great Commander, the Ghazis flipped (OK, "conformed") onto the flank of the line of English Archers, as the Dailami General hurled himself and his personal bodyguard unit into the front of the same line of enemy shooters.
The stoic resistance of the densely packed English Polearmsmen was still continuing, even as Turkic Cavalry waited in the wings for a gap big enough for them to exploit to appear
L'Art de la Guerre hint - The Ghazis turning the flank from this position is not "quite" as spectacular as it looks. They started in side-to-side contact with the Longbowmen so this does not count as a "charge" - instead it counts as a "conform" move, so there are no first-round factors in place (such as +1 for Impact, or even the Ghazis Furious Charge ability).
The general rule in ADLG is that if you start any turn touching an enemy unit, you can never count as "charging" that unit. Any combat that does happen is instead treated as a continuation of the broader melee that was happening between multiple units (including these two) in previous turns
Even without the benefit of Charge bonuses the Ghazis, under the stern gaze of their Ultimate Leader (and Paymaster), swiftly carried the day, and drove forward into the next hapless member of the English Lineup
What's Going on Here Then?
This part of the battle is going pretty well for me at the moment. I've broken through the English line and turned it, giving the Ghazis and Dailami general a route to knock off a few quick units from the fairly small English army and drive towards the centre of the line - which is already pinned to the front by yet more Dailami.
It would have been better to not have takeen so many casulaties - especially the elephant - along the way, and also nice if the polearm guys were a little less resilient too but on balance this is more than OK.
The right wing of the English is still stuck in a bit of a traffic jam too, but is now starting to slowly build up enough forces to be able to push past the hodge-podge of cheap and cheerful obstacles (the Medium Lancers first amongst them) that I have been scattering in their path
The English right, driven foreard by inspirational speeches from Henry himself, has finally gotten so far across the table that the static defensive blocks of the Khurasanian infantry are now in range of the Men at Arms.
This is a decidedly lose-lose situation for the peasant spearmen, a matchup they can only ever hope to win in the fashion rather than the combat stakes, but a bit of resilience now would still buy their army a couple of extra turns for the Dailami and Ghazis to finish the job of breaking the English army by sweeping away its left flank entirely.
Unfortunately, unlike rather anemic toasted sandwiches and overpriced but chicken-rich Caesar salad, resililence seemingly isn't on the menu today, and the Spearmen take a right kicking at first contact - their almost-instantaneous collapse triggering a bout of mathematical panic in the Khurasani ranks as they suddenly realise that their losses have mounted alarmingly and their left wing hodling operation now resembles a near-army-break-level problem in its own right!
Finally, just as the Polearm dudes are starting to crumble, and as the Dailami/Ghazi/Commander in Chief combo has been reinforced by Turkic cavalry to help the Khurasanian left hook sweeps onwards the English army starts to throw its very best bodies into the breach (dear friends), many of whom are clad in full plate armour and equipped with long-shafted cutting implements.
The sums are done quickly on both sides, as each army tries to work out if the clash between MAA and Dailami/Ghazis is in fact an act of last-gasp English desparation, or whether the Arabs have exhausted themselves carving up the soft underbelly, and will now fail at the last hurdle as they begin at last to encounter far stiffer forms of English resistance?
The last Longbowman falls on the English left, but the Polearm guys refuse to yield.
Elsewhere, sheer weight of numbers finally counts as the English right overwhelm the Khurasani rearguard, and, in numerically surprising cataclysm both armies find themselves exhausted and broken!
So, with a mutual destruction in the bag to add to a timed-out (or pipped-out) draw and a win, the only thing missing from the roster was to slope off to the bar for a well-earned pre-evening drink !
FWIW, service at the bar in the venue was rather slow to say the least - however the fact the barmen were uniformly suited and booted, and no doubt used to more upscale clientele than us wargamers did remind me greatly of this Rowan Atkinson masterclass scene from Love Actually
The Barman in the hotel in Rome
The Result is a Mutual Destruction!!
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Khurasanian Commander
Howay man! Sooo close, ahnd sooch a good battle, but not quite over tha line - like Keggy Keegan's season leadin tha Mighty Toon Army to ahlmost win tha Premier League that time only to have it snatched hawey at tha last minute bah the old red devil himself, Alex Ferguson.
That geem was purely belta for a Saturday aftanoon', like and ah think ah deserved ta win it if ah am honest like, but somehow mah men fell at tha last hurdle when it ahl seemed well within ma grasp
Howay man, put the sneck on the netty door ahs I must go ta that bar to queue oop fowah ahboot an hoor for tha barman ta pour me a bottle of Newky Broon to drown ma sorrows before ah sneak off ta me room for a bit of down time droppin' tha kids off at tha pool wi' a copy o'that Newcastle Echo for company like
I was hacky lazy this morning, didn't get oot me scratcha till gone 8, but afta thaht first game I thought I was gannin well. Anyway, with this result ah am not oot of it and frankly ah still fancy ma chances like, all good and proper with a bit of soobmarinin' under that Tyne Bridge.
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You roguish blockheaded scoundrel, how can you claim a loss for your army as a victory? Your men lie defeated and vanquished on the tabletop even as we now speak, and nothing can hide that fact, it is writ large in the 58 points you score for such a result for all to see
And who's fault is that you poor-born shite-shovelling urchin? An opponent who's main attack you appeared to have at one point feinted entirely out of the game, and who you were able to attack almost at your leisure with the troops of your choice at the time and the place of your choosing?
But even this did not propel you to victory as you stuttered and lurched in the expectation of easy success - only to mis-time an assault on a stationary, utterly linear enemy formation in such a way as to gift the opposition vital overlaps, and at the same time spread out your best Dailami warriors across so wide a frontage that they were left unable to support or reinforce each other's occasional successes, leaving your fanatical Ghazi swordsmen unsupported in their moment of maximum impact. I fear that you are basically nothing but a preposterous dog-hearted scut if you cannot see that this was your mistake, not some mystical numismatic occurence
And then, this basic error was further compounded by the banality of thinking your army was so much bigger than your opponents that you could fritter away unit after unit in what you laughingly call "delaying" their right wing? What sort of "delay" is it that instead of falling back, simply gifts your opposition turn after turn a drip drip drip of your losses such that by the end of the game this drip has puddled into an army-breaking pool of great depth and clarity?
Thou cans't not be but a mewling weather-bitten vassal if you are not to learn this lesson, and you seem destined to do naight but slide down the greasy pole of success after such a result. Perhaps the slide will accellerate in the next game?
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
You may also like....
Game 1 Khurasanian vs Catalan Company
Game 2 Khurasanian vs Classical Indian
Game 3 Khurasanian vs 100YW English
Game 4 Khurasanian vs Later Byzantine
Game 5 Khurasanian vs Rajput Hindu Indian
Game 6 Khurasanian vs Catalan Company
View My Stats for My Match Reports Pages
