Day 2 - Game 3 - late.. arrghhhh! a little bingle (that's Australian for 'Minor Accident') on the road ahead of me caused a traffic delay, and I didn't get there till 20 minutes after due time. Richard Cornwell (Yuan Chinese) was very understanding and we kicked off in plenty of time to get a result.
No photographs again, though Richard took a few with his Canon EOS, so I hope to get some to add later. Again I was defender and there wasn't much terrain to speak of. I deployed to my right with the Turcoman Light Horse, and two blocks of Cavalry behind in the centre. Richard had a lot of Superior Cavalry - and a lot of Superior Light Horse, and quickly redeployed to my left, I counter-moved to create a defensive arc on my left, and tried to move my Light Horse over to counter, but they were allocated a low PIP and a series of ones meant I was very slow to respond.
Richard managed to knock over a few of my ordinary cavalry but I was also causing losses to his light horse and disheartened (in DBMM - a quarter of a command's fighting strength) one of his smaller commands. Killing the light horse in front of him, and losing his cavalry flankers to a 5-1 death and a 4-2 recoil then left my CinC exposed and Richard hit him with his general, at a major disadvantage (to me) as I was then double overlapped.. a dice split of 4-1 in Richards favour, my Commander in Chief was gone and his command disheartened.
A furious cavalry and light horse melee continued but my ordinary cavalry were now fighting at a disadvantage (in DBMM, lesser troops in a disheartened command get a -1 to their scores).
All not lost however, as Richard followed up he broke this command (its next PIP or Command dice roll was a '1', and with the general gone I couldn't move anything!). The broken command transmits a morale effect to nearby friendly troops, and this meant my second cavalry command was disheartened.. all along the line, except for the Turcomans, all my lesser troops were now fighting at a disadvantage..oh dear!
And now the dice showed how fickle they were, Richard attacked my two broken superior cavalry with his own superior cavalry.. a 6-1 cost him the first one, and a 5-1 cost him the now overlapped second.. all of a sudden his command was looking shaky with this added to the losses of light horse he had already suffered. In my return move, I rolled high for PIPS (allowing me to manoeuvre) and picked on his small light horse command, two combats at 3-1 in my favour where he could not recoil (so destroyed if beaten), and that command broke.
Richard then shook my hand.. the additional morale effect of the command breaking had taken two more commands over their break point.. game over. Huge losses to me, so a 16-9 in my favour.
Without the broken superior cavalry killing his, it would have been an extended game and the result uncertain (me with one broken, one disheartened and one intact to his two broken, one disheartened and one intact. So you could say the dice were in my favour, but then again, it took a 5-1 to strip my general of his flank protection, and the 4-1 to kill him, so I guess it worked both ways.
Game 4 - Dugald Duncan - Mu-Jung Hsien Pi...
More Kn(F) - plus a Chinese Ally, with a load of LH(F) supports, I was defender and terrain was minimal, a waterway, road and two marshes with a built up area (BUA) on my right.
I deployed the Turcomans in a single element wide screen in the centre, two Arab light horse on the road to inhibit him just marching up there, and the cavalry behind the Turcomen so they could pass through as required.
Dugald placed his chinese ally on my right (lots of Auxilia, skirmishers and some light horse) placed to charge up the road and sweep round behind me.. then two large commands of mixed Knight (Fast) and Light Horse (Fast)
A quick game is a good game so I advanced my light horse to charge reach of his Knights, and extended my cavalry lines to match his extension. In Dugald's turn the Chinese were unreliable so he advanced and tried to extend his lines with his other Light Horse.
One in.. all in.. I threw the light horse into his knights... a massacre ensued. Dugald stubbornly rolled low, and the superior factors kicked in.. end result, 13 combats and 6 dead knights. No losses to my light horse. Dugald then rolled low for command pips and wasn't able to repair the damage - he did kill 3 light horse, but in my next bound my cavalry moved up and the holes, overlaps and combats just got worse for him. Another bound of low PIPS for Dugald, I lost another Turcoman, and then in my bound finished it off. One command broke, which caused the morale on another to break, and his unreliable Chinese changes sides. 25-0 to the Ayyubids.
End of Day 2.. 70 points and I am the meat in a Russell sandwich. Greg on 86 points, Aaron on 81, me on 70 and Zac on 66.
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