Game 2 Birmingham Alabama
Game 2 saw me playing some Sicilians - and again defending.
This time the table was a striking shade of brown, with many oddly placed terrain pieces scattered at random across it.
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Well I heard the Russkis Claimed to own her |
An obviously placed piece of RGo on the far right proved an irresistible magnet for the Sicilian auxilia, who rushed forwards to face off my similar number of poorer quality pedestrians, although the presence of a war wagon and some skirmishing cavalry rather tempered their enthusiasm for a fight.
Meanwhile, as usual, the rest of my army were sailing forwards in straight lines as Barker intended, hoping to rush the Sicilians before they could redeploy their limited number of Bw (X) in front of my Teutons.
The light horse matchup in the centre was proving particularly troublesome for the Mediterranean Invaders, and the rock-like fortress of the Bw (X) looked liable to erosion.
Neither of us really fancied the auxilia lottery quite yet, and this part of the battle degenerated into name calling and ineffective wagon shooting
But interesting things were beginning to happen on my left, where my artillery had found their range against unarmoured bow formations, and this was in turn attracting Wagons to the area, like sharks to the scent of blood.
As the Sicilian formation fragmented under the volleys of firing - and the need for LH F to avoid combat with LH O - , holes opened up which were then attacked by all manner of Lithuanian troops.
With the Teutonic General bravely taking the brunt of the arrows from the Sicilian Bw X, his men crashed into the outnumbered Sicilian knights, who's General was forced to throw himself into the melee too to make up numbers. Across the table, more Sicilian generals were being drawn into combat, dramatically eroding their ability to order troops to plug holes in the line - despite a valiant 6-6-6-6 pip roll in one turn!
The battle lines favored the Lithuanians, but the presence of reserves favored them even more, and as the fighting ebbed and flowed, the Sicilians were beginning to tire.
With the artillery continuing to shoot holes in the Sicilian bow formation, and three Sicilian general engaged, two against a single wagon, the Lithuanians were pulling all the strings - and with it, pulling Sicilian Generals into impossible positions. Eventually the Sicilians lost a General, who's command fled - and then a flurry of casualties ensued as gaps opened up across their lines, pushing them to total defeat, and a 15-0 victory for the North Europeans.
Post Match Summary
A difficult matchup for Sicilians was compounded by the available list, which left little to trouble the Lithuanians. Once the two groups of Auxilia were both committed out wide to contest rough or difficult going, the remaining Sicilian troops had little answer to the Lithuanian wagons, Teutons and double ranked blades, and also found their light horse overmatched as well.
The scarcity of available combat troops meant the Sicilian generals became committed to combat relatively early, and this created severe command and control issues which the more maneuverable Lithuanians were able to exploit to draw the Sicilian general out of position and into killing zones.
Post Match Expert Analysis from Walt & Wally
