As the BadCon competition entered the final stretch I am drawn against an Early Iranian army - so loads of shooty stuff a bit like the Persians I faced in the first game.
I did OK against the Persians, can I do better against their ancestors? Read on ...
The Early Iranian is sort of a larger, if more poorly armoured version of the Achaemenid Persian army, but with some Skilled shooting cavalry as opposed to the Skilled shooting Immortals of the Persians. Being cavalry these are much more dangerous to me as my infantry based army will struggle to catch them whilst they can shoot me up. They were being run by Roger Whittam.
A reminder of my list as usual:
PBS saw me defending with a Depp Water secure flank - which was nice. We also had a couple of Villages on table, and nearly had 3 if it were not for a 6 rolled by Roger allowing him to remove it. Whilst Roger's army is mainly cavalry he was not unhappy with some terrain in which his slightly vulnerable infantry could operate in - especially as he would have more terrain capable infantry than I would.
However, a lot of the table was still very cavalry friendly 😣
I was, unsurprisingly, outscouted and by 80%; so most of my army went down first. I basically deployed a solid line of infantry from the Deep Water extending inland - African spearmen, Spanish, Sacred Band, more African spearmen, Spanish javelinmen and Ligurians. Behind the javelinmen I deployed the Greek cavalry - if anything tried to bully the Spanish the cavalry could (hopefully) deal with them. The Campanian cavalry and the Balearic slingers were deployed in the rear as a reserve. I placed the hoplites and chariots on my right to cover the end of the line against being outflanked. Quite tough troops including one of my Shield Cover units, but I felt the flank needed it otherwise it would get caved in.
Roger deployed a mass of cavalry, half Skilled shooters in front of my left, filled the village in his centre with his infantry then deployed more of each on his left with a couple of cavalry units poised to sweep round the flank. He had 2 more skilled shooters amongst his left.
My plan was to push and keep pushing as much as I could as I had against the Persians in game 1. My hope was that on my left I could push Roger's cavalry up against the table edge. The right was most likely to be something of a stand-off as the terrain was against me. Roger, of course, was looking to shoot me down 😁
After we had deployed the table looked like this.
The first move saw me advance as planned. A little to my surprise Roger brought his relatively weak infantry through the village in the centre which looked a little like a target to me. I think he was hoping to be able to pull them back if I committed strongly against them, but they were Tribal so would need a Red card. Not a lot happened on the right flank which suited me.
Roger's initial shooting with his cavalry, including Skilled shooters, was not very effective and I was able to push up close to his cavalry on my left - which would usefully allow me Free charges the following move. I also positioned my Campanian and Greek cavalry to be able to charge Roger's infantry - they had failed to get the cards they needed to pull back into the village. For what it is worth, on reflection I thought it was an OK risk for Roger to take - even losing a couple of the units would not be too bad for him as his army was large.
Roger sent more infantry into the second village and 2 units of cavalry on a march around the village to threaten my flank. I was OK with this as my hoplites and chariots should, I felt, be able to contain this.
The cavalry charge the following turn was much less effective than I had hoped. After the melee the infantry had lost 2 bases and each of my cavalry a base each - that wasn't the script I was working to 😓
I did, however, bring up an African spearmen unit to be able to join in next move. and keep the pressure on.
The charges against the cavalry on my left forced them back and I only lost 1 base which was good. It also allowed me to bring up the slingers to shoot next turn.
The following move my cavalry again made slow progress and, as they lost a second base I pulled the Campanians out of the combat. The African spearmen also made slow progress. All a bit frustrating, however, as I had now removed the best infantry bases from 2 units I was into Unprotected, Combat Shy ranks so was hopeful of better progress soon.
On my left flank we had something of a repeat of the previous round although my Sacred band were slowed by shooting even if they took no losses.
The next turn was deja vu really. I advanced a bit and took an infantry unit to near breaking, but they were holding on quite unreasonably in my view 😉 My Spanish on the left are starting to look a bit vulnerable as shooting finally takes its toll.
In the next move we finally get some units breaking. My Spanish on the left break under a hail of arrows and 2 of Roger's infantry finally break.
I have units to cover the loss of the Spanish but my victorious Greek cavalry are free to do what they want to some degree - the advancing Sacred Band is covering them from Roger's cavalry.
Despite some movement on both sides on my right we more or less have a stand off. Whilst they are an expensive and effective unit, the chariots are doing a vital job just be existing as they are enough of a threat that Roger cannot go too close to them.
The next (and last) picture shows how my Greek cavalry were able to exploit their position with a turn 90 and move to within charge distance of the remaining infantry unit. Next move they will charge it in the flank and break it putting the cavalry in a position to work with my right flank infantry to pressure Roger's left.
Unfortunately the next move is the last and we time out. Whilst my cavalry is breaking the infantry my depleted Campanians are broken by the unit they are facing - these stood to fight but the combination of their shooting as my cavalry charged and combat broke my unit. However, as you can see I have 2 skirmisher units ready to tackle the cavalry - as the latter are Unprotected and one of my units are the Skilled slingers I was reasonably happy I could deal with them.
The other advanced cavalry unit on Roger's right end up in combat with my African spearmen and is broken.
So the game ended 10-7 to me and once again had been thoroughly enjoyable.
The final placings are below and as you can see I ended up 5th.
Really nice to see an Achaemenid winning the competition as it is an army that can really struggle in out of period games.
Overall I felt the theme was a success and allowed armies like the Achaemenids and hoplite based armies a theme in which they could be competitive. I'd happily play it again.
Lastly, as previously some pictures of the armies at deployment, but close up.
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