Derventio V - Boards & Swords Derby 2022
Time for some Misadventures in the Classical Period at Derventio V Mortem Et Gloriam (MeG) Tournament organised by Will Denham.
Four games over two days at the fantastic venue of Boards & Swords in Derby.
I have challenged myself with learning how to use an all-cavalry army over the last year, previous outing was for Britcon with my Nikephorian Byzantines who ended up having a rough time of it.
This time back with my Later Sarmatian force of Charging Lancers led by a Legendary General, 9 TUGs, 3 SUGs so a break point of 5. With a strong PBS of 8 and scouting of 5 - let's see how many times I can get an intercept on an empty table?
Game 1 - Lee Sanders with an Early Imperial Roman army
So straight away Lee rolls a Skull while I roll a Shatter, he goes for being the Defender so that he can get some scenery down (my only terrain being Plains)
PBS - I manage to draw 4 Blacks and 4 White cards, so terrain ended up Dense with a secure Mountain flank, Plantation and rough ground. Giving Lee a perfect strongpoint to defend in (top of photo)
I did win the out scouting by 70% so knew where he would be!
I decided to not take on the Roman head on but look to flank them on the left
All did not go well as I ended up with a lot of Black\White cards, so ended up moving slowly forward and to the left.
Seems Lee had all the good cards as his Romans start double moving to close with me.
After a number of turns and a good 2.5 hours of gaming, I had lost 4 TUGs and 2 SUGs to the onslaught of Romans - just one final unit of my cavalry got caught before they could round the corner of the central rough ground for me to be broken.
Win for the Romans 15 v 0
NOTE: Lee went on to win the tournament with four victories total 60pts
Game 2 - Jamie Meyers with Macedonian Successors
Again, beaten on the first dice roll, so Jamie decided to be the Defender in Standard terrain, I decided to use all my good cards to pull the terrain down as low as possible but still with a secure rough flank.
Jamie managed to get a Village on his base line and a gentle hill just in front of his deployment zone
I was outscouted by 20%, so deployed my skirmishing horse on my far-left flank and as I anticipated Jamie filled the zone between the Village and his secure flank with his forces.
So, I placed all my army over on the left flank with three units of 4 Charging Lancers in outflanking (my right) with a Competent General, bit of a risk as it reduced my breakpoint down to 3! Ouch
Game progressed with my skirmishing command racing up to the village to spend a number of turns shooting the lone Hoplites defending it (managed to actually destroy them through bow fire).
While the rest of my force trotted forward to entice the Pike blocks to come off the hill, then spend three turns retreating while I waited for my outflank to turn up - managed to get 1 Red card but failed to get the second.
Due to Jamie unfortunately failing to get enough good cards, his line of troops got a bit disjointed, this gave me the opportunity to move a unit of Lancers around his flank and charge in the following round.
After rolling 4 red dice (Superior vs Average, charging lancers in the flank) and getting 3 skulls and a 1 wound plus the damage from the front with Legendary General in front rank - down went the first Pike block and into the next.
Even with his supporting units moving up to help and flank one of my units, I was 4 TUGs up vs 1 fled SUG.
Final nail in the coffin was the reserve Hoplites being charged in the front and rear and breaking on the charge...
Win 15 v 1
Game 3 - Hammy with Lowland Thracians
Overall, did not look like a good match-up for Hammy, with charging lancers I would be up across the board against his infantry and cavalry.
Time to get lots of scenery on the table - again I lost the roll with Hammy being defender and going for Standard terrain. I again spent all my best cards (even red cards) to drop the scenery down as low as possible so that we ended up with no secure flank and one piece of rough ground on each side of the board - Hammy was going to have his forces sitting out in the open
Plus, I out scouted Hammy by 70%
I placed all my forces down on my right flank with the view of wheeling round and hitting his centre without risking my left flank
So, most of that worked the way I wanted, except Hammy managed to move two cavalry units down his right flank with some very good cards. I had to commit my three smaller units of cavalry to holding them off as long as they could while my main force hit hard in the centre.
With some overconfident movement after the skirmishing horse and Unskilled Bow charging lancers rolled 4 white and 1 green dice getting 5 hits and reducing the Thracian cavalry down to 3 bases, I left myself with an open flank (misjudged how far 3 UD charge was) - I lost the unit of cavalry and it's supporting 2 Skirmishing horse.
Meanwhile in the centre the cavalry did a block retreat from combat and charged in again - breaking 2 Average Warbands, 1 Superior Warband and the Superior Cavalry, putting me 1 TUG away from breaking the Thracians.
In breaking the centre, I now had a unit of Charging Lancers within 3UD of the camp and in they went - 3 Red and 3 White dice came up 3 Skulls and 1 would - game over
Win 15 - 8
Game 4 - Robin Spence with Later Sarmatian
In the past few years, myself and Robin have faced each other, I have come out winning even when all the odds were on Robin having the better chance.
This time it was my all-cavalry army vs his cavalry army with Quadi Warband infantry.
Again, I lose the roll off and Robin goes for attacking, forcing me to have a poor camp on table (easy kill).
Good news, the scenery being plains ends up being very open, no secure flank but the three pieces of scenery taken up Robin 'rough terrain' all end up on the left flank.
I out scout Robin by 70% and so he deploys his mass of cavalry facing towards my right flank.
With the Quadi Allies holding the left amongst the rough terrain
I decide not to deploy in the predicted right flank, so instead place all my skirmishers on the left in the rough ground and angle the cavalry line in front of my camp
Game on - Robin re-aligns his formations and moved towards me, I barely move (I've got a fist full of Blacks & Whites).
Robin continues a slow advance - seems we both ended up with loads of black & white cards.
Finally, we are within 3UD of each other, time to charge and in we went.
It turns out that I've ended up with more Superior bases than Robin giving me the advantage, I also send my Legendary General into the mix.
After the Melee fight - having rolled for ~26 combats, I had managed to at least roll 12+ Skulls while Robin managed a few wounds.
I even survived sending in a 4-base unit of Lancers against 6 of Robins, lost 2 bases and then retreated out of combat and not dying to the KaB test to then next turn charge in and stop Robin from flanking me!!!
The next round of combat would see 4 of Robins unit's rout for the loss of 2 of mine, with 2 of his Generals also dead (so many KaB tests).
Next turn had me turning ready to charge the rear and flank of one of Robins 4 strong cavalry, but it was not to be as again in combat I manage to roll another 2 Skulls on Green dice for the break.
Win 15 - 4
In the end I had managed to win 3 & lose 1 game with a score of 45pts.
Really good result for me, think I'm getting the hang of this game.
Then I was really surprised to hear that I had managed to land 3rd place in the tournament :)
