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(Jan 24, 2010)Sunday morning, after a late night and some (but not too much) drinking. At least I got to go home and enjoy a warm, soft bed... unlike last years camp-out at the venue.Now I've drawn Mitchell with a Later Crusader army. Oh..lookee...knights...
aaaaaaand... another billiard table. At least, on my side.So I put all the Heavy Weapons together, ready to drop their Portable Defences at the first hint of Knights. To their right are my Swordsmen, hoping to fight into the Rough opposite, then the Cav and some Crossbow to try to hold the flank.To the left stretch my Heavy Chariots, then more Crossbow and finally on the far left my Light Horse and the Psiloi.He sets up mostly in the middle. Defensive spear and mucho mucho Knights. Naturally, it's the knights that come out to do the most damage. My heavy weapons behind the PDs are mostly ignored, the cav come undone quickly against knights and my swordsmen are caught and flanked long before reaching the rough. My light horse are way out of the picture, trying to make threatening advances on the left flank that are mostly ignored. I have some luck though, getting my chariots into some knights while they are trying to deploy across my front to reach the crossbow. The chariots kick arse and take names.But the damage is being done mostly on my right, and the cavalry, swordsmen, and crossbow all quickly fall and the end of my Heavy Weapon line is exposed and hit by knights.So the army crumbles and thats a 6-19 result.
(Jan 23, 2010) (even my catch-up posts need catching up!)Saturday afternoon, after a kebab and a quick walk around the vendors. Now I'm facing Daryl from Sydney and his Early Arab Dynasty. The usual good fortune with the terrain setup leaves my medium foot with all the cover a putting green would provide. Dazza has heaps of good cavalry, and of course the camel cataphracts. Eeep.
I staggered my pointy foot and my shooty foot and then had my mounted on my left flank. Happily I had a longer line, so it was a good feeling to know my swordsmen were not exposed on their right, unless Dazza was going to make some sudden moves later on.
We got to it and developed into a simple run-em-up-and-smash-em game. I was rapt in being able to pull out my surprise Portable Defences right in the face of the cavalry, leaving them the tough option of backing off and redeploying or trying to get across them - Dazza decided to try to get across them, and got into a hard fight.
The Ch'in Heavy Chariots kicked arse and took names - simple as that. But, the losses mounted and my light horse and cavalry did not fare so well, finally the Ch'in army broke.
Got some points this time, a 9-16 result.
(Jan 23, 2010)
So game one, Saturday morning was against Aleksander from Sydney using his Later Medieval Serbians. Not exactly what I was hoping for, lots of Knights and certainly not a historical match. The terrain was better suited to a mounted army than a medium foot army, so my crossbow foot all bunched up mostly on my right, between two steep hills. Then my chariots extended out to my left and a second block of heavy weapons foot and crossbow beside them. Finally my light horse and cavalry was on the far left.
Not a good result though, my cav broke and the light horse fragged against Serb light horse and lancer cav. The heavy weapon block broke, although the portable defences detered the mounted and the crossbow there were untouched. The greatest damage was the crossbow between the hills though, who shot very poorly and then folded when the Serb knights got into them. The heavy chariots aquited themselves very well, seeing off all comers.
But it wasn't enough, and I ended up handing over a 0-25 result. 
(Jan 23, 2010)So - for the first time in a few years now the first Cancon morning didn't start with a furry-faced psychopath bangin pots together and screaming "WAAAAKE UUUP!"So that was good.Cancon is nothing if not consistant - the doors opened bang on time, and the FoG comp area was ready to go in the usual spot at the rear-middle of the venue, a short stroll from the vendors.For a very good reason I now forget, the organiser was unable to get the usual spreadsheet setup for determining the draw and ladder, so he ended up doing it all the ol' fasioned way. As a result period matchups would have been to complicated and I end up facing some 15th century Late Medieval Serbians.Great.
(Jan 22, 2010)"Twas the night before Cancon, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except the gamer who had realised he needed an extra 7 Portable Defences stands since he'd re-jigged his list at the last minute" Ah well, it wouldn't be a Cancon if there wasnt some last minute modelling to be done... They came up alright I think.
I decided I needed these as I was fairly sure I would end up facing knights, who would love nothing more than to slam into my medium foot standing out in the open - and you know my terrain rolls are going to be bad enough to leave plenty of open for them to stand in.
Cancon was a month ago now, so I'm playing catch up here.First off, the list:Warring States Chinese (Qin) 221 BC (799/800 points)Command:CinC - Field CommanderSG - Field CommanderSG - Troop CommanderBattlegroups:6x Heavy Chariots - Superior, Drilled, Crossbow4x Cavalry - Armoured, Average, Drilled, Lt Spear/Sword6x Close Combat Foot (Medium Foot) - Armoured, Average, Drilled, Heavy Weapon6x Close Combat Foot (Medium Foot) - Armoured, Average, Drilled, Heavy Weapon6x Close Combat Foot (Medium Foot) - Armoured, Average, Drilled, Heavy Weapon6x Crossbowmen (Medium Foot) - Protected, Average, Drilled, Crossbow6x Crossbowmen (Medium Foot) - Protected, Average, Drilled, Crossbow6x Crossbowmen (Medium Foot) - Protected, Average, Drilled, Crossbow6x Skirmishing Crossbow (Light Foot) - Unprotected, Average, Drilled, Crossbow6x Swordsmen (Medium Foot) - Armoured, Average, Drilled, Swordsmen6x Tribal Allies (Light Horse) - Unprotected, Average, Undrilled, Bow, Swordsmen12x Placed Spears (Portable Defences)Ok, lets go...
Game 5 - against Stephen and his Early Macedonian Successors.
Still had fun though. I'm in it for pushing lead and dice rolling, so I definitely got lots of that!
