Battlecry 2014 has finished. Another 3 games of FoG completed today. One win again today, but the results results still left me 4th overall (out of 8) which I'm pretty happy about. Something that was a very nice surprise was that somehow I also managed to win best sports! :)
Onto the games....
Game 1: vs. Richard and his light spear armed Light Chariot force.
So Richard had decisively won all his games on day 1. He's a very good player and knows his army and the rules very well.... whereas I don't really know the rules or my army :) Suffice to say.... I was figuring it would a short brutal game that wouldn't be in my favour..... I shouldn't underestimate myself!
This was my favourite game of the tournament and it ended up being very, very close.
I deployed in a tight line in one corner to try and prevent the chariots from flanking. I knew that if they got behind me.... then it would all be over. My mounted troops deployed a little further out. Richard had given me initiative so that he could go first. The chariots closed rapidly. In my turn one of my Velite units charged his javelin armed skirmishers. My Velites got lucky as they managed to chase them down (Richard evaded, I rolled a 6, he rolled a 1). First blood to me. This placed the Velites in front of one of his medium foot units. After disrupting them, my Velites retreated having done their job. This opened up a space for my Illyrian foot to charge and they eventually broke Richard's medium foot. Meanwhile... my Cavalry had caught one of the Chariot units and broken them giving me 6 points. From here, things started going downhill. I'd already lost the other unit of Velites and the Light Horse ended up being forced to evade off the table. My Cav were now in the middle of the table and surrounded. They soon broke. One of my Legion battlegroups got into combat with his impact foot and eventually broke them, but another Legion battlegroup found itself surrounded.... breaking not long after. It came down to this.... the Illyrians and remaining unit of Legionaries had been chasing a unit of chariots. Right to the table edge. If I could fragment them or force them to evade (where they would have to leave the table), then I would win.... Alas. It was not to be. I failed my rolls and my Illyrian foot fragmented ending the game.
Great game. Very bloody. Lots of fun, but still a loss. Richard is also a great guy. Happy to impart plenty of good tactics and advice (after the game of course! :) ).
Game 2: vs. Steven and his shooty chariots.
This was going to be a tough battle. My force was slow, but armoured. Steven's force was fast and shooty. Steven gave me initiative, so I tried something a little different - I chose hilly instead of agricultural for a change. It didn't help. Again I deployed in a tight corner to stop the chariots getting behind me, but that didn't last long as I started chasing after thems. So, how did things go? Well, early on, my Illyrian foot (the workhorse of my force!) caught a unit of chariots and broke them. That left the path to Steven's camp open which I eventually took. The armour of my units were fairly impervious to all the shooting. But... my Cav got caught in a position where they could be charged on 2 flanks. That saw the end of them. The chariots were then able to chase down all my light units breaking them and ending the game. My legions were had spent the whole game futilely chasing after chariots... another loss.Not much I could have really done differently. There was nowhere to really hide my light troops.
Game 3: vs. Rob. And his Vikings.
Last time we played, the Vikings slaughtered Rome. Revenge would be sweet....
We thought we'd have a bit of fun and Rob chose mountainous terrain as something very different. This meant we ended up with a village in the middle of the table, some steep hills on the flanks and some impassable terrain. Not good for 2 armies with loads of heavy foot. Long story short, we got into combat. My Legions quickly broke a unit of Freeman and Huscarls (Rob was very unlucky here). The Legion next to them should have been broken by Freemen, but managed to hold on until a supporting Legion could flank charge. The other unit of Huscarls also broke after a straight up combat with the remaining legion (took a few turns though). A final unit of Freemen was broken, thus ending the game. A pretty decisive win for Rome. I made things hard for myself by forgetting about my armour bonus though..... Not that I really needed it.....
A great weekend and good fun as always. Thanks to the Battlecry organisers for arranging everything (Check out their website here), to Battleline Minatures for sponsoring the FoG tournament (Battleline website), Kevin for being TO and all the great players.In regards to force selection... I think the army composition worked really well. I know I have moaned about the Cavalry in previous posts. Had I dropped them... then I would have really missed their mobility. They didn't do much overall, but they kept enemy units tied up and broke the odd unit. It's all they needed to do. I just need to do a better job of keeping them alive! The best unit by far was the Illyrian Foot!! These boys just did an awesome job in most games. Hitting well above their weight and well worth the points spent.
Next year sounds like it is going to be themed around the time period my Romans are from, so maybe I'll have another crack in a years time.
During the breaks, I went for a wander again to check out some of the other games. Here's more photos (some are similar to yesterday.... I took more photos of them since they looked so cool :) ):
And because it was so awesome.... I took more photos of the Lego display. This time there was no barrier rope.... so I got a little closer and got some much better composed shoots:
Enjoy :)
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