Bayou Wars-2018 Game #4 Timurids vs Greco-Bactrian

Game #4 Timurid Persians vs. Greco-Bactrian of Bill Sierich

Another quality opponent, and super nice guy.  Bill fielded Greco-Indians, which comprised of some Greco type pike, cataphracts, and support troops.  The Indian contingent had elite elephants, bowmen, and spear men.  Bill went for max terrain on this, and as luck would have it, all remained.  I tried to move or remove a couple of pieces that were really cluttering up the battlefield, but to no avail.  So, I deployed the elephant corps on the open flank, and I thought they would be faced off against the Greco-Indian elephants.  

But it was clear at the outset, that Bill's strategy was to hide in the terrain with his Indian contingent, and try to do his damage with the Greeks [pikes and cataphracts].  This did do some damage to the Timurids, but as it turned out, not nearly enough damage.  Bill decided to keep his Indians in terrain [medium foot], to protect them from my elite heavy impact cav, which was probably a good idea.  However, it made for a somewhat desultory game.  Bill used a lot of his command pips to rally his units that suffered disorder from my shooting.  Since he did not need the pips for movement, he could allocate most to keeping his units alive.  I could not kill them with this tactic, so half the board essentially went into siege warfare.

The other half was my elephant command, and supporting troops hitting his pike and cataphract command, with predictable results.  I had to force action in places that I normally would try to avoid or finesse, but seeing how the game was going to evolve, I was trying to make something happen.  

As it ended up, the result was a winning draw for the Greco-Indians.  10-5  

I was unable to make the 5th round, since my wife came down with the flu bug the day before, and we caught an earlier flight back to KC.  

The entire experience was great, and I really appreciated the Gulf South guys with their useful and insightful mentoring.  And overall, just being a great group of guys.  Final tally for the Timurids for the four games, was 1-1-2 [which was more than I thought I could accomplish, going into this].  Both losses were pretty close, as was the lone victory.  Pictures were sparse in this game too.  I am sure I will take more as my comfort level goes up with the rules. 

The Timurids won the initiative and elected to attack in the plain.  

The Timurid left flank [which was the only flank not cluttered with terrain]

The Timurid center command had the elite heavy and light cavalry.

The Timurid right flank had the Turkomen and Georgian light and medium cavalry.

The Indian contingent occupied the center and left flank.

The Greek portion of his army was comprised of cataphracts, pike and a few light support units. I really did not want to have to deal with those, but this is where I deployed my elephant command.  I was hoping Bill would put his elephants and Indians here, which would have been a better match-up.

So, in we went.  

This was actually part of my elephant command, so 2 units of heavy cavalry, elite with bow [not impact], and 1 unit of Elite Turkomen LC.  I knew I could not do much damage here, and so it was just a matter of time before they would have to duke it out with the Bactrian tin cans.

Over on the other side of the board, my impact heavy cav stopped at the edge of the forest, and tried to wage a war of attrition with the medium foot of the Indians.  I saw that Bill was not moving his elephants out of cover, which I thought was a real waste of points.  But, I am glad I didn't have to face them.

As expected, my elephants impaled themselves on the Greek pike block causing little damage.  My brilliant commander was left commanding a unit of bowmen, a couple units of hand-gunners, and of course, the hostages and prisoners.

Finally, I decided to go into the forest, since the Indians were not coming out.  Had there not been so much terrain, this flank could have dished out some damage.  

Time was dwindling, and I tried forcing some action, and in doing so, I gave up some army demoralization points.  Bill played his army to its strength, and it gave him a winning draw.

Bayou Wars 2018- Game 3 Timurids vs. Medieval Germans

Game 3-Timurids vs Medieval Germans of Brett Stiefel

2 games and 2 defeats.  Pretty much what I anticipated.  And, as lady luck would have it, my 3rd round draw was against another very good player from the Gulf Coast, Brett Stiefel.  Brett is a mathematics professor at a local college.  So, no calculators needed for him.  He told me most of his students go on to medical school.  Geesh, that part of my brain never matured.  Algebra and Geometry fried my brain more than the adult beverages in college.  Brett, again, was helpful, but in this game, we had 2 observers [not from the UN].  2 of the convention attendee's were interested in the rules, and so asked questions throughout, as they watched from the sidelines.   This may have thrown Brett off a bit, since I managed to pull out my first ADLG win, and first tourney win [since the days of Armati 2 at Historicon].

Brett played Medieval Germans List #227.  He fielded Heavy knights, spearmen, crossbowmen, and other support troops.

I was allowed to reconfigure my list if I wanted to, and based on Tom's feedback from the game before, I moved all the Heavy Cav, Bow, Impact, Elite to one command.  So my elite cavalry command had 4 HC, Bow, Impact, elite and 2 LC Turkomen, bow, elite.

The Timurids win the initiative and decide to attack in the plains.

My elite cavalry command was deployed on my left.  The goal was to smash Brett's right flank command and threaten the heavy spear block that he fielded in his center.

My center command was my skirmish command.  I anticipated that Brett might deploy his infantry in the center, so I countered that with my Judy skirmish command.  Plus, we ended up with a wooded hill in the center of the deployment area, so there was that too,

My elephant smash command was placed on my right flank this game.  My plan was to counter Brett's advantage in heavy knights with my elephants. I had hoped that putting this command on one of the flanks, I might be able to get favorable matchups.

I was able to have some success on this flank, and the Persians caught some cavalry trying to evade away. 2 Units of nobles have broken off and are trying to threaten the flank of the spear/Xbow block in Brett's center command.

The elephant command is taking aim at some German panzers, while my Georgian and Turkoman lighter cavalry units try to grab a flank.

The Persian left is doing some damage to the German right, while my center skirmish command is tying up the spear/Xbow central German command.

The elephant command goes in and blows are traded on both sides.  Also, the Turkoman LC race for the unguarded camp of the Germans.  I swung the Georgian MC around on the flank of the knights.

My Nobles are about to get flanked, but they have done their damage, and will have to fight their way out of this.

The German right flank vaporizes from the elephant charge and flanking action. The German camp falls, but not without loss on the Timurid side.

End game.  With the German camp falling and the German left flank melting away from the elephant command, I was basically able to execute my pre-game strategy of enveloping the flanks, and skirmishing the German center command.

Final score was:

Timurid-16/19

Medieval German-22/22

Woohoo.........my first victory.  The lessons learned in the first two games helped.  I wish I would have been able to take more pictures, but as I get more comfortable with the rules, I will probably be able to take more pics, and not spend so much brain power on trying to remember factors/matchups, and other rule nuances.

Bayou Wars 2018-Game 2 Timurids vs Scot's Isles and Highlanders

Game 2 pitted me against Tom Devers, another great guy and part of the Gulf Coast crew.  He fielded a bazillion Medium and Heavy foot.  Many that were dual armed [Medium Swordsmen with Bow].  Normally opposing an all foot army, I would try to outmaneuver them, and hope to concentrate fire on a weak area and try to exploit that.

I won the initiative, but opted to defend in the plains, since Tom's only terrain choice was mountains, and didn't fancy the idea of a mostly mounted/elephant army dealing with mountainous terrain pieces. So, Tom had the first move and covered most of the board, which rendered moot my strategy vs an all foot army.

Tom's army was large and I think his breakpoint  was 24 or 25 compared to my 19.  He could afford to wage a war of attrition.  I hoped my quality would even up the odds.  Of course, he was an experienced general and I am a raw rookie, so there is that.

The elite Timurid left command was commanded by a brilliant sub-general, 2 units of Persian HC bow, impact, 2 HC bow, all elite, and 2 elite light cavalry Turkomen.  

Right flank and some of the center of the Scot's

Left flank of the Scot's

Timurid Right flank

Timurid center

Opening move on the Timurid left

Center command moves into the plantation, and a Turkoman unit races to the enemy camp.

Right flank action.  I learned in this game about the danger of angles with light troops, close to the edge of the world.

Persian nobility charge.  I can't remember what the factors were here, but I think it was about even.

The center charges.  When in doubt, which was quite often in this tournament, I charged.  Some were obviously ill advised.

Right flank comes off badly in exchange of bowfire.

Tom teaches me a valuable lesson in making sure you don't let an enemy unit sneak in behind you, if you want to break off or evade.

My center crashes in and actually does quite well.  

The left flank command breaks off.  

....and again charge in.  Mixed results here.  

At this point, time was winding down, and we both were approaching army breaks, so I focused on trying to salvage the game instead of taking pictures.

I end up winning in the center, but both flanks were bloodied, and finally pushed me to my army breakpoint of 19.

Final score-Timurids- 19/19

Scotts Isles and Highlanders 22/25 [I think, but it might have been 22/24]

Close fun game, and I am sure if Tom had not been instructing me throughout, he would have trashed me a lot more.

Sooo........2 bloody noses, in 2 games.  About what I expected.  But I met and played a couple of great guys.  My thanks to them.

Bayou Wars 2018-Game 1 Gino Agnelly fielding Syrians

Gino was my first opponent, and a really great guy.  He fielded Syrians, List #197.  Its been about 3 weeks since the game, and I might be a little off in details.  Heck, I have a hard time remembering what I had for breakfast.  

The Syrians had some elite cav, Crusader knights, assorted infantry and some Turkoman light cavalry.  A nicely balanced force.  I believe he had an army breakpoint of 22 or 23 compared to mine of 19.

My left flank command.  My home made gully in the distance! 😀

My elite command of heavy cavalry and light cavalry head out to face the unknown.

Gino's right flank Syrians.

The Timurid center command.  Elephant death star [Tim Porters classic description], backed up by heavy and light cavalry.

Timurid Right flank command consisting of medium and light cavalry.  This was my skirmishing command.

First blood.  The light cavalry archery exchange go the Syrians way.

One of the first brain cramps of many to come.  I moved the elephant units to the hill and left their archer supports behind [to eventually get picked off one by one]. The elephants failed to make a dent in the Crusader spear, and ended up dying a painful death impaled on spears and crossbow bolts.

The Timurid right is skirmishing the heavier Crusader knights, which is what they were designed to do.

The beginning of the end of the Persian archers, Doh!

Of course it helps to roll a 6, which allowed the archers to hang around for a couple more turns.

My goal was to take pictures of each turn and particularly pictures of game turning events.  Of course, since this was my first game, I was pretty much like a deer in the headlights, and trying to absorb guidance from Gino, and thinking through all the stuff.  So, naturally, I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the match.  Gino basically clobbered me by eliminating  my center command damaging my other commands enough to push me to my army demoralization of 19.  

So, the final tally was 

Timurids 19/19

Syrians 14/22 or 23.

 Had to get a picture of my mediocre levy/hostage unit.  

At least it wasn't a whitewash!  😃