As Bob & I play our (almost) weekly games with no time limit we always get a win/loss result and I'm not on the win side anything close to the 50% mark. Luckily this doesn't detract from the enjoyment one bit.
However, on the other hand, pulling off a 24-1 victory when engaging the same army is one of those special "smile like a Cheshire cat" events. When Bob didn't blog this battle promptly I threatened to write my own (after a crash course in learning how it works) bloggy thing starting with the words "Yeeeaaaahhhhh!!! Take that you illegitimate usurpers"!!
But I'm too much of a gentleman to do that.
So here instead is my view of the 2nd Kushan Civil War Battle (I think its allowed that battle reports are one-eyed).
After the first battle I noticed Bob's troops flags and pendants looked better than mine and I also had in mind to have the generals fly flags that matched their PiP dice colours. While scrolling around google images looking for Kushan flags, banners etc I got plenty of images of steppe horsemen and their HATS. They didn't look like mine.
Those who have read some of our earlier battle reports on the DBMM yahoo group may remember the Cursed Sythians, the original ally command of my Kushans who were unreliable, switched sides or died on the spot so often that they were relegated to the bottom draw never to see the table again.
They were figures for Saka that were painted in shades different to the Kushans and with bronze hat/helmets so that they were visibly different on the table.
They were released from the bottom draw recently to represent the latter Chionite allies and had gone back to their poor performance tricks!! Anyway in a moment of inspiration (tea leave reading after beer consumption - maybe) I decided to repaint their hats to more realistic colours. Or it could just be that I was bored that night and have run out of figures to paint!! (Viking & Rus on order).
So the King of the Kushans arrived with his troops correctly attired, new flags on all general's elements and re-coloured dice. All essential to obtaining a victory - ohhh, and we did a small army selection revamped to deal with massed elephants. The King got off his elephants and back onto an armoured horse ceding the elephants to his 2nd wife's cousin to lead our massed elephant group.
We arrived with all the elephants, except one, massed with an elephant borne general to lead them plus as many anti-elephant auxiliary and psiloi as we could fit into the list. The plan was to block/delay the opposing elephants with the foot while starting our own from an unexpected quarter and use the two light horse commands, including Chionites, as fast redeployment options to fill gaps or exploit them.
Deploying second allowed me to maximise the match-ups I wanted but I had also already got the initial plan and command location correct to match my intentions. The usurper's elephants didn't feature much in the game and mine locked the opposing cataphracts on the hill while still doing damage.
On my right the Chionite on Chionite impending action was less pleasant to see initially. While we were equal in numbers, Bob's supports were more numerous and closer than mine after his first move. I made the decision to force the fight early as any delay would just make the situation worse for me and better for Bob. So in we went, giving up the first hit but ensuring we were not going to be hard flanked for the first bound or two, and also aimed our solo elephant (with his own supports) at the Chionite flank.
The elephant never got to the Chionites but spent the whole game smashing his way through the various elements put in his way to protect their flank. It caused damage anyway which contributed to the victory.
With the Chionite battle we held our own in Bob's first attack bound, had combat dice just to the good side of average in our return bound so after two sets of combats we were on top of the situation. Lh on Lh is always somewhat of a lottery, the dice and overlaps being both unpredictable and influential to the outcome.
On the day we were wearing the right hats and won the lottery!!
The rest Bob has explained well, I set about exploiting the advantages we had across the field without taking any real risks and while we had to work hard to stop one enemy elephant and lost some support players in a few places, generally we were making progress towards the goal.
You always want more PiPs but on the day I didn't feel PiP starved, which is so un-common with the unmanuvourable brick that is Kushans, and even when I got the PiP roll of 2,2,1,1 I was able to stay on course. While I hadn't upset the dice gods for a change neither had I overly endeared myself and 6-1s went both ways.
As always a fun, action based game.
A final observation - unfortunately, as the enemy C-in-C escaped the field alive I guess we'll have to do this all again in the near future.
Wayne
Still the biggest Kushan on the Sofa
(& now seemingly able to post bloggy things)
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