Burton 2002
We decided to take Patricians, on the not-unreasonable grounds that we usually do well with them, and in fact had placed in several themed competitions using this army .... including scoring 37 and coming 2nd at Burton a few years ago.
As Artillery were now forced to move separately to other foot, our usual "Builders + Scaffolding" gambit of a big hairy-arsed Wb (S) block with its flank protected by 2 elephant-scaring Art (O) was unviable, so we had to adopt a slightly different army makeup. This was it
| Command 1 - CinC | Command 2 | Command 3 | Command 4 - Hun Ally | ||||
| CinC Reg LH (S) | 1 | Sub Reg LH (S) | 1 | Sub Reg LH (S) | 1 | Hun General LH (S) | 1 |
| Foederati Wb (S) | 16 | Auxilia Ax (S) | 5 | Foederati Irr Kn (F) | 6 | Huns LH (S) | 6 |
| Legionarii Bd (O) | 3 | Supporting Ps (O) | 5 | Equites Reg Kn (F) | 1 | ||
| Supporting Ps (O) | 3 | Clibanarii Kn (X) | 3 | Equites Reg Cv (O) | 2 | ||
| Auxilia Ax (S) | 2 | Upgraded Equites LH (S) | 2 | Alans Irr LH (S) | 4 | ||
| Supporting Ps (O) | 2 | Indiginarii LH (F) | 2 | Illryicani Reg LH (O) | 4 | ||
| Other Ps (O) | 1 | ||||||
| Dromons Gal (F) | 2 | ||||||
| 27.5 | 15.5 | 18.5 | 7 |
This was the first one we fought : another Patrician
|
|
num |
cost |
|
num |
cost |
Com3 |
num |
cost |
Com4 |
num |
cost |
|
Com 1 |
|
|
Com2 |
|
|
Auxilia |
6 |
5 |
Knf Gen |
1 |
31 |
|
Auxilia |
6 |
5 |
Irr Kn f Ostrogoth |
6 |
9 |
Reg Kn f |
6 |
11 |
Reg kn f |
5 |
11 |
|
Reg Kn f |
6 |
11 |
Ostrogth General |
1 |
19 |
Reg kn Gen |
1 |
11 |
Reg Lh f |
2 |
4 |
|
Gen Reg kn f |
1 |
31 |
Reg Lh S |
6 |
7 |
|
|
||||
|
Lh S |
6 |
7 |
|
|
|
|
This was a very impressive list - more Kn than you could wave a stick at, all virtually expendable, enough Ax to contest any RGo going, LH to fill in gaps and cause trouble, really scary. We took out the two small commands, but the sheer weight and number of Kn overwhelmed our CinC's command - we had quite a few chances to kill their CinC, but he survived them all and almost single-handedly (well, with one other teflon Kn (F)) took out our CinC's command by going over 2 blades, 2 LH, and 4 Wb(S). This meant we lost 8-2 - much to our, and our opponents surprise!
This is the 2nd one we fought: Hsiung Nu (southern)
|
Com 1 |
num |
cost |
Com2 |
num |
cost |
Com3 |
num |
cost |
|
Gen Kn X |
1 |
21 |
Lhf |
18 |
4 |
KnX |
6 |
11 |
|
Lh |
16 |
4 |
AxS |
6 |
4 |
KnX Gen |
1 |
21 |
|
KnX |
6 |
11 |
AxO |
6 |
3 |
Lhf |
16 |
4 |
|
AxO |
6 |
3 |
PsO |
3 |
2 |
AxO |
6 |
3 |
|
PsO |
4 |
2 |
Gen KnX |
1 |
21 |
HdO |
3 |
1 |
|
PsO |
1 |
2 |
This list relies on the Kn (X) doing the business, and the LH (F) staying out of the way long enough to let this happen. Unfortunately in this game neither of these things came to pass, as our Wb & Kn (F) nailed the Kn (F) to the floor, eliminating about 4 of them in the first charge. For the LH, as we had managed to close the table down with RGo we managed to catch some of the LH (F) with our LH (S) in turn 2 when they were clearing some rocky ground... and then they couldn't get away before our Kn (X) & Ax(S) hit them too. We very nearly took out all 3 commands simultaneously for a 10-0 win.
This is the one we fought 3rd - Chou Chinese
|
Com 1 |
num |
cost |
Com2 |
num |
cost |
Com3 |
num |
cost |
Com4 |
num |
cost |
|
Chariot Gen |
1 |
31 |
Chariot Gen |
1 |
31 |
Sp O |
8 |
5 |
Gen Chariot |
1 |
31 |
|
Spear |
14 |
5 |
Lh F |
7 |
4 |
Ps O |
2 |
2 |
Lh f |
8 |
4 |
|
Ps O |
7 |
2 |
X-bowmen |
6 |
5 |
Kn Gen |
1 |
21 |
Bw O |
6 |
5 |
|
Irr Sp (I) |
2 |
3 |
Kn |
1 |
11 |
Sp O |
1 |
5 |
|||
|
X-bow |
5 |
5 |
P sO |
1 |
2 |
||||||
|
LhF |
2 |
4 |
Chariots |
4 |
11 |
||||||
|
Ax S (dismount cav) |
4 |
8 |
The fist dice roll of the game was the most decisive - we attacked, and threw down enough H(S) to close down the table and so that we would have a reasonably good idea where their Sp wall would be. They duly obliged, and our Wb went down , 2nd, and 2 deep facing the Sp (I) & (O). In turn 3 or 4 we were in contact, and after an initial small bounce, we ended up going straight through and entirely eliminating the CinC's command. Our Kn (F) command were then unleashed in successive waves against the exposed flanks of their right wing, and it ended up as a 10-0. A tough army, against probably almost anything other than ours!
Game 4 - Spartans
|
Com 1 |
num |
cost |
Com2 |
num |
cost |
Com3 |
num |
cost |
Com4 |
num |
cost |
|
Gen |
1 |
27 |
Lh O |
4 |
5 |
Lh O |
4 |
5 |
Spartans |
7 |
7 |
|
Spartans |
7 |
7 |
Cv |
3 |
8 |
Ps S |
9 |
3 |
Gen Sp S |
1 |
27 |
|
Citizens |
12 |
5 |
Auxilia |
7 |
5 |
Lh O Gen |
1 |
15 |
Art |
2 |
8 |
|
Auxilia |
4 |
5 |
Ps S |
1 |
3 |
Ps O |
5 |
2 |
|||
|
Ps |
5 |
2 |
Gen Cv |
1 |
28 |
Sp O |
12 |
5 |
|||
|
Lh |
1 |
5 |
This army is pretty horrible - again we threw down some H(S) to hopefully break up the wall of spears, but instead of advancing past them the Spartans stayed hung back, and threw the very clever Ax (S) command onto the H(S) in the center, forcing us to either enter the valley of death, or sit out a draw. We advanced into the valley of Death, relying on our own Ax (S) to keep theirs busy whilst the our Wb (S) went mano-a-mano vs their Sp. amd on the other flank our Huns and Kn (X) attempted to catch the end of the Spartan line and chew up their artillery and Sp (O) citizens. It nearly worked, as the Art went down, but of our 3 Kn (X), 2 died in the first round of combat in a straight un-overlapped fight against he spear wall. This meant not only were we still a long way from taking out the 2nd command even if the Wb could do the business, but also that we had seriously eroded our ability to contents the central hill and protect our own flanks - eventually this command was broken, after a last fling which saw it take the big spear command to within 3 elements of death.
Eventually the Wb got in, and after an initial scare they nailed the Spartan Kings command with a spectacular round of combat - unfortunately this spurred the broken Spartiates to put in a spectacular round of their own, and killed 4 Wb - then, helped by some LH our CinC's command went down as a deep column of warband was killed. If they had survived we probably would have converted our advantage to a 9-1 win, and possible bronze medal place, but as it was it was another 8-2 defeat.
I do have some photos of this competition, but I have run out of server space and need to both find a way to get some more free space and also find the time to transfer them into the right format.
