Tommy's Wargaming blog

 This was a game against James Hamilton, aka Hammy. I chose the Neo Assyrian army and Hammy chose Nubians. The first event of importance was that the Assyrians invaded after winning the invader defender roll. Then I placed 2 open areas, luckily rolling 2 6s to remove both features that Hammy tried to put down. The end result was a completely bare table, which was part of the Assyrian plan. My Assyrian army outscouted the Nubians and did fairly ok in getting good matchups, mostly Chariots against squishy bows and tough Infantry against Egyptian infantry and Bows. My army was I believe a Competent CinC, a Talented Sub, a Mediocre Sub and a Competent Libyan Egyptian ally. 1 6 of Exceptional Chariots, 1 4 of Superiors, 2 4s of Average Cavalry, 1 4 of Egyptian Chariots, 1 8 of Meshwesh, 2 6s of Superior Assyrian infantry, 1 6 or 8 of Tribal Averages, and 2 8s of Drilled Averages. The Nubians had loads of Bows, an Egyptian ally and some Axemen. The Assyrians did a full scale attack again...

 My opponent was Ian. In this game, I used a very unusual Sassanid army with a Kushan ally to maximise the Cataphracts. My tactic was limit the terrain by invading in Coastal terrain and just have a deep water secure flank. That worked because I won the PBS phase very decisively. The point at which my plan failed was when I got outscouted by 110% ( 3 reds and a green for Ian, 2 greens for me). The net result was, Ian deployed his entire army, barring 2 units, on his left flank, whereas my army was in my left and centre. I did eventually get into combat, after loads of manoeuvring but, it took so long because of the Cataphracts having a slower movement than Ian's Cavalry. My flanks did get exposed and I lost a couple of units, however i killed one of the units that Ian out on his right wing. Eventually (read as, they were able to kill a base, and while they should have broken at Impact, they were instead at half strength post the first impact phase.) Clearly red dice don't alway...

 This game was against Olivier Joucla. No pictures unfortunately. Basically the Loyalist Samurai (mine) opted to defend in Coastal terrain and won the PBS phase decisively. The only terrain, after a piece of rough was removed from the centre by me, was a maximum sized waterway. I lost scouting by 30% overall. My deployment was 3 Spear units, 3 Bow Units and 3 more units of Spear, from left to right. I will describe the exact composition in a future blog post. Olivier deployed most of his army in reserve, save for 2 Cavalry units, a Bow unit and a Spear unit. All his Spears were in 6s and all mine were in 8s. In the game, I was slightly over cautious, and too worried about my shooting failing against Olivier's Cavalry. So I didn't advance very much with the Archers on my first move, especially as 2 units were 4s of Loose Infantry. Secondly, I didn't take an opportunity to hit a couple of units in the flank. My rationale was that, had my flank attack failed completely, I'...

 The Qin is a very appealing army to me, mostly because of their Polearm Devastating Charger characteristics, and their somewhat peculiar optional rule of throwing their armour off, and thus gaining the Melee Expert and Fleet of Foot characteristics. They do however also become unprotected. The first version has 3 9s of 3 Average Tribal Flexible Polearms, in front of 6 Tribal Loose Average Unprotected Experienced Crossbows. 9s are a sort of necessity because the Polearm doesn't work against Infantry post impact, being only in 1 rank, and of course, it gives the units extra resilience, as well as more firepower. These units should try and avoid combat as long as possible, and let opponents come to them. 4 6s of Polearm Devastating Charger units, 2 of which are Superior. These units are probably the ones who will beat most opponents frontally. In 6s they are slightly vulnerable, but given that when fielding these units in 6s I get the maximum amount of Superiors in the army, this is ...