Nationals 2001 - The Lithuanian Odyssey - Game 3
vs Graham Briggs - and game I had known in my waters that would come along in the competition - and it was nearly to literally to prove true, as Graham deployed a river as attacker, but as he had his own river, he didn't need to borrow mine. So it was kinda in his waters, I suppose....
Guess what - with Frantic Burpers, he deployed with 2 big Sp commands next to the river, and the totally expendable set of Cm (S) on the open flank. I almost fell off my chair in shock, the paramedics were called in to offer open hear massage and electro convulsive therapy, and I put my big WWg command on the open flank, and planned to hit the end of the lie with both my Teutons and Blades, whilst messing about with LH everywhere else.
Well, it nearly worked. But some clever forming of columns by the boy Briggs meant that the poor quality spear line faded away before the very eyes of my blades - and they were forced to reorganize to withstand a Camel Onslaught.
The wagons again under performed with aplomb - failing to kill a single camel, and in fact failing to achieve even a pushback - and then they were in!
I'm in two ranks - I have overlaps a both ends of the line, I'm on higher factors......
I'm run down like speedhumps......
This makes it really scary. My CinC's command is now on the very edge - 5.5 elements down, out of 6.5
Oh dear.
And something horrible was happening to my Teutons as well - a succession of poor pip dice, and a small gap in the line had left something horrible - the odd Sp started darting out, turning, and scooting into less - than - 1 - element -wide - gaps (by going straight forwards).
Soon the Teutons were toasted - arrgh!
Then the game got into the end-zone - I was hanging on by my fingernails, and the ability of my army to survive being totaled rested on the ability of a line of my troops to stand up against some of Grahams spearmen.
This was the matchup
| Sp + Ps | Sp | Sp | Sp | Sp | Spx2+Ps | Spx2+Ps | Spx2+Ps | Spx2+Ps | Spx2+Ps | Ps |
| LH (O) General | Bw (O)x2 | Bw (O)x2 | WWg | WWg | Bw (I)x2 | LH (S) | Ax (O)x2 | Ax (O)x2 | Ax (O)x2 | Cv (I) demoralised |
The result was almost total success ! The bowmen and wagons suddenly discovered their range, and butchered the Sp like they were , erm, camels.
The spears crashed in - and were repulsed everywhere !!!
Well, nearly everywhere. My LH (O) general was fled
Off table.
So - if I failed the dice roll, the game was over.
We Lived !
Hanging on by my fingernails, for a 6-4 defeat. A result that could have been lots lots worse !
