Caesaromagus 2016 Game Reports

Delhi Belly

Having run my Samanids in various DBM tournaments for the last three years, with other armies in between I decided that I needed to try something new. I had just completed my Later Muslim Indian Army for the Delhi Sultanate and having played one game with them and then revised the army slightly thought that I should use them at Caesaromagus 400 AP Singles DBM tournament this year. So a new army only used once before and slightly revised – what could go wrong? We did a totally random draw and my army was organised into four commands:

Command 1 20E/16.5 EE/5.5 D

Command 2 20 E/18 E/6 D

Command 3 20 E/18 EE/6 D

Command 4 1 E/1 EE/1 D [Rathor Ally]

Army 60 E/53.5 EE/27 B

Saturday Game 1 Jer Morgan with Later Crusader

Jers army was a Irr Kn F version with a Military Order command. I placed a waterway thinking to use this to protect a flank and force Jer into combat frontally. Jers army was 64 EE strong so could afford to lose a few more elements than mine before it started to sweat.

I threw my Blades forward into his Crossbowmen in the round dice were rolled lots of 1’s appeared and defeat awaited. I then threw in my cavalry to try and break his centre and yet more 1’s were thrown. Jers report confirmed how bad a morning I had crashing out to a 30-2 Defeat and 8^th place after the 1^st round.

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Saturday Game 2 Peter Hockaday with French Ordnnance

The one practice game I had managed before the tournament was against Peters French so I was happier in that I was expecting to be able to turn around the mornings defeat. Peters army was 54.5 EE so similar in size to mine but his third command was the Swiss Mercenary sub-general that this list allows.

I deployed my CinC in the centre with the mounted arms on each wing. As luck would have it one of them ended up facing the Swiss which meant I could screen the15.5 EE Swiss elements out of the game with 8 mounted elements whilst I concentrated the rest of my army against his remaining 39 EE. On my other far wing I pushed my six mounted infantry as far forward as possible opposite his three flanking mounted crossbowmen cavalry  At the same time I pushed forward the rest of my line to pin his infantry back and reduce the options for his knights to redeploy. The rest as they say was history. My blades hit his bows whilst my elephants chased down his mounted knights. I was not far away from breaking his army when time was called so I only got a 20-12 Victory. Still leaving me in 8^th place.

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Sunday Game 3 Tim Myall with Western Chou Chinese

I had already played times army in the Essex Warriors DBM Tournament this year where he managed to beat my Low Country army. So for me this was a “grudge” match – only joking.

Tims army was 65 EE strong organised into three differently sized commands. He deployed centrally and narrowly to give him time to react to my deployment. As luck would have it I also deployed centrally with only the mounted infantry to my far left to take some forward rough ground. Tim didn’t disappoint he advanced as quickly as possible forcing me to push past his open right flank with a part of one mounted command whilst my elephants were lined up nicely opposite his irregular chariots. His chariots were dropping like flies in the centre and on the far left I managed to break up and take apart his CinC’s command meaning that I only needed to break his largest command to break his army. Despite all my efforts when time was called I only managed a 24-8 Victory due to his last remaining chariot surviving three turns of combat two of which when it was tripled outflanked. This placed me on 46 VP in joint 6^th place.

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Sunday Game 4 Ian Pudney with Classical Indians

This wasn’t a game I wanted to have to play. I needed more practice and to be honest I threw the game away with bad choices and indecision. I then adopted a waiting and try and stem the tide of defeat to survive unbroken. Ians army was the huge Irregular version and was 77.5 EE in size spread over three commands. I had my blades and skirmishers shot away which broke that command and I stupidly decided that I wasn’t going to attack when I should have just thrown everything in and hoped for the best. I ended up losing 23-9 with a total of 55 VP and 8^th place. So I ended up exactly where I started the weekend.

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Congratulations to Dave Madigan on winning the tournament with Andalusians as he submarined from 4^th place in the 3^rd round. We had ten different armies taking part and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.