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winterbadgerIt's been a good few days for gaming. I had the game with Bryan and Steve on Saturday and last night I went out to Chantilly and had a Warhammer Ancient Battles gmae with my friend Frank. As usal, he beat the tar out of me. Frank is a very good general: he is very good at choosing armies, he is good at tuning them to get the best out of them, and he's very good at playing them so as to get the most out of them. I rarely test his resolve, and last night was no exception. He played his early Byzantines against my late Romans, and thrashed me soundly. Fortunately, he's a verty nice fellow, which makes it easier to take losing to him on a regular basis.
I deployed between two small wooded areas, with skirmishers in the woods, a large unit of light horse on one flank beyond the woods, a unit of cavalry on the left, and a battle line on the open ground between the groves. The battleline was two units of close-order spearmen with a small unit of cataphracts, armoured lancers on armoured horses, between them.
The Byzantines had some spearmen in their center, much like mine, but they had two units of armoured horsemen that were both more manoeverable and better armed than mine (they carried bows as well as lances). They had two small units of light horse (Asian horse archers) on the flanks of their army, and one unit of skirmishing foot archers accompanied their infantry.
Our light horse chased each other back and forth on my right; that battle never led to anything much. I tried to move quickly on the left to press his two units with my three, but he was too nimble for me and defeated two of my unit s with his two, leaving my third to get sandwiched. In the center, I wasn't able to win either one of two battles--my best unit against his foot and my second foot unit against his best unit.
My mistakes: First, as always, is the choice of army to play. I always pick armies based on what seems the most interesting, colourful, etc., not which one fights best. I don't maximise the advantages I could have with them either. In this case, my light horse unit was much larger than it neeeded to be, and my cataphract unit was too small to be of much value. I should have punched up several units by giving them better leaders, and I didn't spend the points on having an army standard bearer, which would have helped with morale. My general stayed out of the fight, which let him slow the collapse of the army, but he could probably have been more use leading the cataphracts in combat. And, also as always, I don't sit back and let the enemy come to me; I rush forward to come to grips with him. Sitting back might not have been the best thing to do here, since every unit in his army had bows, but my foot could have gone into shieldwall and msot of the arrow would have bounced off, plus my skirmishers would have been of more use holding the woods on my flanks instead of moving out into the open.
I deployed between two small wooded areas, with skirmishers in the woods, a large unit of light horse on one flank beyond the woods, a unit of cavalry on the left, and a battle line on the open ground between the groves. The battleline was two units of close-order spearmen with a small unit of cataphracts, armoured lancers on armoured horses, between them.
The Byzantines had some spearmen in their center, much like mine, but they had two units of armoured horsemen that were both more manoeverable and better armed than mine (they carried bows as well as lances). They had two small units of light horse (Asian horse archers) on the flanks of their army, and one unit of skirmishing foot archers accompanied their infantry.
Our light horse chased each other back and forth on my right; that battle never led to anything much. I tried to move quickly on the left to press his two units with my three, but he was too nimble for me and defeated two of my unit s with his two, leaving my third to get sandwiched. In the center, I wasn't able to win either one of two battles--my best unit against his foot and my second foot unit against his best unit.
My mistakes: First, as always, is the choice of army to play. I always pick armies based on what seems the most interesting, colourful, etc., not which one fights best. I don't maximise the advantages I could have with them either. In this case, my light horse unit was much larger than it neeeded to be, and my cataphract unit was too small to be of much value. I should have punched up several units by giving them better leaders, and I didn't spend the points on having an army standard bearer, which would have helped with morale. My general stayed out of the fight, which let him slow the collapse of the army, but he could probably have been more use leading the cataphracts in combat. And, also as always, I don't sit back and let the enemy come to me; I rush forward to come to grips with him. Sitting back might not have been the best thing to do here, since every unit in his army had bows, but my foot could have gone into shieldwall and msot of the arrow would have bounced off, plus my skirmishers would have been of more use holding the woods on my flanks instead of moving out into the open.
