Roll Call 2006 Game 3
My Opponents List Fanatic Berbers
Sunday Morning saw more forces of Allah arrayed against the Northern horsemen. This time it was the (unseeded) Mr Briggs and his Berbers.
The Berbers deployed two huge, cheap and unattractive dunes, whilst I then put down some nice pine forests. the moral high ground was mine! Unfortunately I dashed this advantage immediately by assuming there would be a strong force of camelry attacking over the dunes, when in fact Graham had the much more exciting El Cid option, and a obviously substantial flank march equally obviously on my right.
Just to make a huge change, I elected to pursue the "attack like a looney with everything" approach, hoping to win the game before the flank march arrived. My blades raced towards the spear line, supported by wagons, and the Teutons teed themselves up for an early charge - and likely early bath.
Meanwhile The Sid maneuvered ominously behind the Berber lines. I ummed and ahhed about how to deal with him....the blades formed double line, and then recanted later as I decided to let him come on, assuming a breakthrough could be dealt with later
Artillery fire and a bit of messing about had left the Teutons with an unenviable attack window, with one flank protected by a wagons (not great against double ranked spears) and another with an echelon of spearmen to charge against.
But al least on the left I was rocking? Surely a whole command of 8 Ax (O), who's general had nothing else to do, could take out 5 pox-ridden Ax (I) hiding in the sand pit ?
The right flank featured the traditional "can I get round your flank with three expendable elements of LH if you roll crap pips?" LH maneuver from the Vilnius Boys followed by the "Oh no, we have rolled a 6, thats a no then" maneuver from the Arabs.
With their traditional Sword Brethern Order cries of "Bugger it, lets give it a punt" and the equally bloodthirsty "you cant make an omelet without breaking some heads" the Teutons charged into the insanely unattractive combat the Arabs had prepared for them.
Surely the Ax (I) cannot hold out any longer? Surely the pips of the Auxilia command will improve and allow us to take them down....?
But in the middle, the tactic of "let the Sid through, he cant kill all that many and we can mob him with LH and kill him?" were being replaced with the "well, now he's run over a couple of blades, and we have him at 3-2 on our LH, ...oops, he kills them too, and the Ps behind, and then 2 more Ps next turn"
..before finally being shot by a wagon...
But, miraculously the Teutonic knights were still grinding forwards, and had battered the Arabs to the brink of defeat! But hey - where are their supporting light horse??? Oh, damn, I've let 3 of them get killed! That's a mistake....
Maybe I can rectify it by throwing another one into a 2-2 combat against the Arab general, who cannot recoil, and who's death will break the command and with it the army?
Aaah - the artillery piece has shot up an Arab spearman who recoils to give my LH an overlap!
Its now 2-1. But its not the end of the world? I might survive.....
Guess again..........
The arrival of the flank march in all its intimidating glory was not soon enough to play a part
With the Teuts dead, I threw everything in, in a desperate attempt to take the Arab army down with me. In the final turn, the formerly resilient Ax (I) infantry on the flank collapsed, and a flurry of other arab elements also returned to the sidelines..
I had done it!
Hoorah !!!!
Erm, no actually. The Ax (I) had foiled me again.
This time, instead of me underestimating their ability to fight, I had overestimated their ability to die. And counted them as full elements, not halves!! The Arabs were teetering, with The Cid dead, and both on-table commands within 1 and 0.5 EE of breaking respectively. But I still lost, 2-14 !!
Post Match Analysis
Close - very close. But in the end a combination of El Cid and the resilient Ax (I) tipped the balance. The Cid did the Biz, killing 3 or 4 elements alone from my 18.5-strong CinC's command, leaving them teetering and vulnerable. Likewise the Teutons fell into the cardinal error of frittering away their breakpoints by letting LH get sucked into combats instead of calling on another command to help them out, and as the command broke all the Brethren were still intact. The counting error on the Ax (I) did not help - but even so, it would have been difficult to see what else I would have done, as they still protected the flank of the main Berber spear line. Close, but Cid walked away with the Cigar..
Rock and Roll! Blue Suede Shoes! Hammytastic Analogue Analysis
On the right, the boxed "1" and "6" are the arrival of the flank march, and the death of El Cid. 3 turns later his entire command flees the table!