Roll Call 2006 Game 4
Opponents List - Lithuanian Again !
Another civil war, another mirror image deployment, another identical Teutonic command
The Anti-lithuanians this time had a handful more auxilia, and had bottled taking the artillery piece. I had dropped an irritating wood onto their deployment zone, but realistically it was even matchups all along the line.
The game started with my Teutons moving out of a stupid start place and filing over to the flank.
The Anti-Lithuanian general copied me slavically (see what I did there? Slavic, bit like slavish, but...oh well, you know!)
My wagoneers were feeling inferior compared to their better painted enemies, and soo it told as I lost one in a central position shootout!
The Anti-Vilnians attempted to extricate their auxilia from the wood and bear down on my gunners, who peppered their column with great accuracy and effect. (painful)
With two identical battle lines, Darth Lithuanian ganged up his light horsemen from two commands to mount an attack on my left, forcing a path past the artillerymen and wagoneers.
In the middle, the two lines of regular blades had settled down to exchange campfire stories and tales of flailing unbelievers to death whilst their generals invested all their pips in buying tickets for the obviously imminent Light Horse Lottery!!!
A couple of the Lithuanians of Light and Goodness had snuck round the flank, and attracted the attention of some of the Evil Empire's horsemen - others were busy keeping my psiloi legal and honest in some broken ground. Lex Lithuanian then threw his horsemen of darkness into the melee (lacking an overlap on one end, but still with plenty of reserves)
Wiley E. Lithuanians horsemen charged forwards, and the battle raged as the bad blokes auxilia attempted unsportingly to spike the Guns of Goodness.
But, as is always the way in tales of Good vs Evil, sheer luck meant I comprehensively won the Light Horse Lottery, and the mounted raiders from Mr Burns-ski's nuclear plant were almost instantly and totally dispatched back from whence they came!!
Hoorah!!
On the right, my Teutons had the territorial advantage through the expedient of moving first - and my light horse had managed to mop up some of the Cv (O) Lithuanians-in-black-hats before they arrived, so the edge was with me also.
With the Light Horse Lottery firmly won though, the game was being decided on my left, and my victorious horsemen swept down relatively ineffectually onto the flanks of the exposed auxilia and blades, and eventually finished them off also - but not before my right hand command had collapsed under a couple of shocking impacts (designed by the producer to string out the tension a bit). A 14-2 win for the Forces of Apple Pie and Milk Chocolate !!
Match Summary
2 identical armies, set up the same way - basically it came down to the light horse lottery. I did start with an overlap (who was my general also, giving me a 3-1) but the Lithuanians of the Night did have lots more reserves. Luck - and the old adage of "don't be the one to start the balls rolling" then played their part. From then on the game looked lost in a matter of moments for the Dark Forces, but they hung on much to everyones surprise and nicked back a command.
The 1970's are almost upon us. Get your digital watch out and prepare to say goodbye to the Analogue Hammytastic analysis...
The right hand columns show Bruce's LH Lottery command getting reasonable pips, and then getting a 1 at the crucial time, and then a string of 6's to regroup - but too late, as they were then totally eliminated!