Embroidered Sorcery

So here we are at the final game in the mini series, with Nash eliminated last game and Bob and Wayne both on their last lives - winner takes all, the title, the plunder and mostly bragging rights.

Under our the campaign's rules of engagement (view here) Bob as the recently reinstated King of Kings (KoK) has the option to chose to defend and does so to prevent me fielding a 30 element iPsI (amateur javelinmen***) swarm of elephant killers, that are only available if I defend with a BuAf (fortified town).  Thus I needed a different anti-elephant plan.  With a weeks delay in the game due to Nash's travel schedule**** I had too much time to second guess my own plan.

In general the Kushan and Parthian armies are very similar, core heavy cavalry as cataphracts supported by more numerous fast light horse so they are quite evenly matched.  Except the Kushans get optional elephants (very effective cataphract killers) and some pikemen which the Parthians don't have access to so these must be expected, and countered in the plan.  Both sides have access to numerous allies, of differing abilities, although the Parthians have better graded bow armed allies than the Kushans.  There needs to be a far amount of second guessing as to what allies will be bought to the fight and how to counter them.

My decision was that while some Kushan allies might discomfort me, none were battle winners so I'd use tactics set on the night to deal with them, my sole concern being how to keep the expected elephant corp out of my cataphract line.

As a symbolic marking of the demise of Whatagases the Indestructable (view here) I had removed the orange with yellow sunburst flags and banners from the CinC element and went in search online for

Whatsamarjiqu* the Chosen Second** the New Parthian Ruler

* = a name that will inspire distant descendants (in 7 centuries) in the Antipodes 

** = A auspicious omen as the 'Chosen One" turned out to be a dismal failure.

suitable Parthian replacement emblem(s).  Having developed the 'Publisher' skills to construct my own 6mm flags and banners I found enough Parthianque emblems to do the same for the Parthian CinC but then thought to rebanner the entire cataphract corp in line with a artistic representation (and quotation) on Carrhae I chanced upon during my search.

With the past ability of new colourful upgrades changing some models performance (see the magic hats upgrade here) this became a cunning plan.  Then Bob posted (here) about the magic millipede bite and it became a fixed plan - SORCERY!!  So the minions were tasked with embroidering the silk banners with diabolicly imbued glyphs and designs  [OR I used a Canon Inkjet].

The carnivorous magic inducing strange multipede.
(Originally identified as pre-fang highly poisonous baby snake)

So the night's battle winning tactic was to use the new colourful banners as a magic omen to ensure the dice gods looked on us favourably.  Not complex (nor in line with our usual style of plans).

Magic Banners in 6mm just completed.
(including the Aramenian Cataphract in the rear)

But to deal with the elephants three of the four commands had mixes of about eight AxS, PsS, and PsO (all light troops able to avoid elephants thus delaying them) so we could hold the elephants up across a majority of the table.  Nothing cunning in it at all.  For terrain we wanted one flank secured so took a Oa (Oasis which is difficult going) and a couple of small SF (scrubby area which are less rough that difficult but ignored by elephants) which hopefully Bob would forget our psiloi (very lightly armed and unarmoured) troops could ambush from.

The Parthians all laid out and getting ready to transport to the game.  Hatrene allies to the fore, three Parthian
commands behind, left is the CinC with the cataphracts, centre and right are light horse with light foot support.
The dark green based figures were swapped for correctly based figures on the night.

On the night the oasis fell (location is dice roll determined) as required, Bob adding two marshes, one each before and after it, but the scrubby areas fell to the enemy's side but only just.  Bob added a gentle hill almost between the oasis and his sides marsh as well as a BuA (unfortified town) on the flank opposite the oasis.

After deployment both sides had setup heavily towards their own right flanks so the main heavy troop concentration ended up in diagonally opposite corners of the table.  This was not good as the Parthian plan (set between Nash and I) was to run hard and fast with the light troops up the right flank but this would now meet a mass of Indian bows (bowmen) and blades (swordsmen) which would have taken up a position on the hill by the time we reached them.  Then we realised that actually that Kushan command would have it's flanks exposed if we attacked it via the oasis and marsh, something we were able to because we had a multitude of light foot troops in the area.

Deployment was almost diametrically opposed.  This was not going to be a clash of battle lines.

So Nash was given orders to get around the enemy flank as fast as possible, close up the Hatrenians to engage in a bow duel and then hit them front and side at the same time.  After that we'd have the inside running of being behind Bob's front line once he moved across the table.  We would stall on our left flank and centre.

My left flank command was in danger of having its foot troops overrun by the Kushan cataphracts so they rushed forward into the scrub where their numbers and quality would keep out the few Kushan light troops and the lone elephant accompanying them and where the cataphracts are usually

"Having captured the scrub & being surrounded by
cataphracts, there is no way we are coming out again!!"

disadvantaged in a straight up fight.  This they succeeded in doing quickly, killing a enemy psiloi in the process but then spent the rest of the game standing around watching what went on around them, they never left the scrub and no enemy challenged them.

The rest of the command being fast light horse (archers) but in large numbers were to harass Bob's cataphracts to slow them down but not actually engage them frontally.  As we outnumbered Bob's light horse on that side of the table he'd most likely only fight if he could catch us with the cataphracts at the same time.

Right centre table saw the CinC's cataphract command without much to do expect menace things that tried to move from our left to right to interfere with Nash's attack.  They did send their couple of light horse to assist the delaying tactics on the left, a decision that helped keep the left intact a couple of bounds longer.

On the right, Nash was in fear of being ambushed by enemy psiloi out of the marsh and was way to cautious for my liking (I'd have rushed past and dropped a couple of light horse behind to deal with any psiloi that emerged into the open - and no doubt died) and so our planned developed too slowly.  Bob got some of th Hyrkanian Rebel Parthian Ally and some light horse across to prevent Nash getting cleanly into the enemy flank.

At this point the game became focused on the battle for the one gently sloped hill.  We were weary of the fight going up hill and it proved to be justified as we made little progress, only chipping away

This is going to get messy.

slowly at Bob's troops although Bob did have to make some less than ideal stop gap measures to hold us back in places.  The hill turned into something of a disjointed mess for many bounds.  Both side feeding their PiPs (command control options) and troops into the confusion.

On the left I danced around and held Bob up as planned but also tried to take a few casualties off his light horse but only when I outnumbered him as the light horse on light horse lottery is a fickle (and oft scary) fight to pick.  Well, the lottery was a tame affair with few casualties to either side until Bob final got his cataphracts into the fight piecemeal and then, as expected, things started to turn against me.  I was now urging Nash to hurry up and get over the hill and into the Kushan's rear.

My cataphracts had pushed forward onto the area to the left of the hill fight and with the left flank becoming disheartened and it was clearly going to break and flee soon, plus the fact that a couple of

cataphracts and the Kushan elephant bourne CinC had got through on the left and were slowly (elephants & cataphracts aren't fast) heading behind our lines, meant that we needed some more drastic measures (read desperate) so the cataphracts took the risk and charged the bows uphill, passing through our Hatrene bowmen where required.

The risk came off and in a couple of bounds they had broken the command containing the Indians.  However our left command also broke, one of Nash's commands was an element away from disheartening (and disheartened light troops are as good as dead anyway) while the Hatrene general was fighting a Kushan general uphill while overlapped and his loss would break the Hatrene command and the Parthian army.

Breakthrough acheived - but the battle is still in the balance.

At this point it became a race to catch and destroy enough Kushan elements that were beyond the hill (the ally and an unbroken command) before Bob's elephant led his cataphracts through our cataphract command.  We could still take significant damage to the cataphract's command but not forever and if the enemy in our rear reached us we were doomed.

We couldn't stop the elephant stomping some cataphracts but we held up elsewhere and caught and destroyed enough enemy beyond the shambles left from the battle for the hill to break the Kushan army.  The new Parthian leader, Whatsamarjigu, on the last dice roll of the game personally destroyed the Indian elite cavalry to add to the victory [okay, they're CvI (inferior) but it sounds good].

Final Positions
Both CinC's in the front line for the photo opportunities even if they only fought one combat between them.

So ended the last game in the mini psudeo-campaign for 3rd century Persia, with yet another change of King of Kings (KoK). There were 11 games played, and in only the first two did the King of Kings see off the challenger and retain his throne.  The next 9 games were all lost by the reigning KoK and the challenger took the throne and preceded in turn to lose it in the next game.

However almost all games were close run things and while comment on the two player sides (challengers) having won 9 games only losing the first (using a brand new untried army) being a possible anomaly in our system, I don't think it's a very strong possiblity given the string of victories won by only a thread.  (Note:- the 2nd game was one player a side).

This game series was great fun!!  A few extra pre game decision points and a longer term goal both added more zest to our game nights in comparasion to casual pickup games we often play.  And the off table comments and 'trash-talk', by email and facebook where another additional part of the enjoyment.  The pre game challenges, threats, deceptions and decoys have worked their way into many of our games of late and can be hilarious at times.


** = What's a m'jig.  Close relative of Thingy m'jig, used to identify a known object for which the name escapes you at present.
*** = An attempt in this blog (& a bit in the last) to express the action in terms my non playing friends will understand.  A few of them whom I sent links too have said they like the story, pictures and prose but are lost on the technical stuff.  Hence an attempt to widen the audience and maybe, just maybe, draw some potential new players to the hobby.
**** = As noted by Bob in Zionist Collapse there's a tendency for the challenging ally generals to be unruly and it seems unfair not to take advantage of/be encumbered with Nash's efforts in the last game.