Warfare 2021 ADLG Tournament
Finally back with Warfare Show this time at Ascot Racecourse.
Decided to join an ADLG ancients tournament than the usual FoW event - the theme was Feudal Age so instead of taking lots of Medium Knights, Spearmen and Longbowmen like most European armies of the period, I decided to try my hand with a Mongol Empire army of pure horse archers - see if I could shoot my enemy down while evading the Knights...
Game 1 - against Feudal Hungarians, my first venture into Eastern Europe did not have any Knights just plenty of Heavy Cavalry and Spearmen
Terrain fell good, big open expance on my left flank, while right had a Gulley and two fields but still space to travel down the flank.
The armies lined up facing each other on the left flank, meanwhile I sent my small scouting force of Light Cavalry down the right flank
The game consisted of me moving up and shooting and evading, unfortunately my first attempt to flee had me roll low on movement and my opponent rolling high allowing to catch me and destroy me. Suddenly he was up 8 breakpoints from my total of 22.
I fared better after that but still lost 22 vs 19 - just could not cause the final few hits in shooting
Game 2 - against Feudal English, travelling further west and finding an army with Knights, Spear and Longbows
Scenery fell again on the right flank with only a rough hill in opponents right flank which he ended up deploying some knights on.
We ended up deploying opposite on the left flank biggest issue for me in this game is that my opponent had won the initiative so was able to move first - in doing so reduced the distance I could fall back from evading before I ran out of battlefield, game started slowly as I shoot and evaded his force. Then the English Longbowmen started causing casualties on my right flank, Knights started getting casualties.
It finally came down to the last round where I was 2 away from breaking and he was 4 and it was my turn - failed all my rally rolls and failed to cause any casualties while opponent managed 2 more hits to win the game
Loss 22 v 21
Game 3 - against Communal Italian, so after being repulsed from England the Mongols travelled east through Italy and got waylaid, more Knights , Spearmen and Crossbowmen
Again the scenery fell to the right flank (pattern forming here), opponent got a coastal zone, a village and a field on his backline while I got a road and a field next to the coast
So again we deployed on the left flank, my opponent was very worried about breaking up his battle line with charging after my evading cavalry so only moved up slowly, this allowed me to rack up numerous hits which caused him to spend lots of time rallying troops not attacking.
Ended up a Win for me 16 v 23
Game 4 - against Berber army, so a little jaunt to North Africa to face an large army (30 bases!) of Javelin armed troops and Mediocre Spearmen plus a small contingent of Cavalry with Impact.
Again scenery fell to the right flank, with a coastal zone, march and a hill and field on my baseline
We lined up again on the left flank, while I placed two light cavalry to harass the light infantry in the marsh
Due to his lack of range with javelins except for the two Bowmen, I was able to outshoot him racking up hits across every stand.
He finally decided to charge me down as casualties were mounting, looking at the odds with my troops fresh and his wounded I decided to stand and fight, I took a few casualties but killed many more of his troops.
Finally chasing down the final few wounds required I won - 12 v 30
Game 5 - against Ghaznavids, on the way home to Mongolia to report to the Khan I was waylaid by a Heavy Cavalry Bow and Elephant army (an army I do like and own)
Now interestingly the scenery all fell to the right flank again - all placed bunched up next to the rough river, my opponent managed to move a rough hill and the marsh (blue circle) further to the middle of the table which drastically reduced the space in which I could advance my army and move.
Game started slowly as my opponent could not roll good dice for command and preferred to sit tight, we exchanged bow fire and it quickly became clear his Heavy Cavalry with protection was going to survive this exchange better than my unarmoured ones.
Finally my opponent got good dice and came rushing as me, killing a few but very much disrupting my lines, all I could do was rally and hang on.
On the final round the score was 21 vs 20 - I need 3 more points to his 1. My rallies all failed and so did all my shooting, while my opponent was able to cause the final wound he needed!
Lost 22 vs 20
So I'd managed to win 2 and lost 3 - realised that you can't reliably shoot down an enemy army, you need some combat punch
My final placing was 22nd out of 36 players - not bad for first tournament
NOTE: Turns out only my final opponent placed higher than me
