An Army for Derby

Bob Stradling
Posts: 393
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:46 am

Re: An Army for Derby

Postby Bob Stradling » Tue Sep 05, 2017 11:44 am

Martin, sent text (but no idea when it will go due to poor signal where I am), have had to wait to sort some things out with work to find a date to rearrange. Morning of the 11th any good for you?

MartinG
Posts: 926
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2016 8:48 am

Re: An Army for Derby

Postby MartinG » Thu Sep 07, 2017 1:13 pm

Yes fine see you about 9.45 a.m.
"No one ever achieved anything without making a few mistakes along the way"

Bob Stradling
Posts: 393
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:46 am

Re: An Army for Derby

Postby Bob Stradling » Wed Sep 13, 2017 1:14 pm

Well another two practice games with mixed results....

Martin's Gauls did not do much to the phalanx, but were eventually able to exploit the situation when the battle line broke up as the open order warbands were pushed back. So to some extent I became a victim of my own success.

Against Malcolm's Selucids it was better news despite some abysmal dice rolls (a feature of the game against Martin as well - so by Derby I should have all the really bad rolls out of the way - needing 4's - 9 attacks - all of them turned up 1 or 2!!)

I also discovered I had been mispricing my Hoplite units (embarrassed or what) so I will have to adjust the army list. On the positive side I have less models to paint!

Finally, I don't need 6 bases in my hoplite unit, apart from when I am fighting Malcolm when 8 attacks hitting on 5's and saving on 3's took off a base! - as I say hopefully all the bad rolls are out the way now..... )

Bob Stradling
Posts: 393
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:46 am

Re: An Army for Derby

Postby Bob Stradling » Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:58 pm

Well the models were just about ready for Derby. although some of the bases could have been made to look a bit nicer.

So how did it go.

Game 1 - against Dacians. They decided they didn't want to fight and kept on backing away. I lost one base to bow fire (5 hits from six shots hitting on 5's and saving on 3's) before enticing a warband on to one of my Phalanx units. That combat ended as I hoped. My opponent racked up more tokens from discouraging the odd unit. Whilst I had scored slightly more points it was considered a draw.

Game 2 - against EIR. We ended up deploying diagonally across the board from each other. My Cretan's kept on discouraging his cavalry, whilst the two battle lines moved towards each other. He hesitated with a unit of auxillaries that meant I could charge them whilst they were not inline of battle. It ended up that they had to take a break test which they failed. Some bad rolls later and three units were fleeing and two of his cavalry units went off table. I was then able to flank his battle line and roll it up. We were not playing to break point, otherwise the game would have ended there, as it was I ended up annihilating the rest of the army without any losses. Major win.

Game 3 - Against EIR again, flank attack. A more solid battle line faced me and I was relieved that there was no cavalry as in the flank attack scenario that can be a real problem for my army. I routed an auxillary unit early doors that then rallied. There was a major combat developing that the Roman's successfully disengaged from in the final turn to get away. Managed to rout a detached unit of legionnaires in the final turn that took some archers with them. Good win.

Game 4 - Against Sassanids. This had been all conquering in its previous three games. I got lucky with some of my shooting to get rid of some horse archers. Fortunately I had a hill that could act as fire base alpha in my deployment area. I was gradually able to spread out and corral his forces into two elements. There was a touchy element when an elephant charged in but survived. Got the drop on a cavalry unit and they fled off table and then his Daylami unit which was fighting alongside the ellie. That gave me a table quarter. I then lost a phalanx to an elephant charge, but ended up with another good win.

Lessons learn't;

Cretan's even at four bases are very good, but don't leave them out in view of other people to shoot at.

You need one unit of open order troops alongside the phalanx's.

You have to be patient when using this army as a mistake is easy to make and leave you vulnerable.


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