After being overlooked for over a year I brought my Huns out of the box for the "Classical" period competition Derventio VI at Boards and Swords Hobbies in Derby.
Last run out in Preston they won the competition, so how would they do this time? Read on ...
In fact, this wasn't the same army as used in 2022. In the intervening time I had sold the army I had and redone it in different figures. The army list was also slightly different, mainly in that it now has a Fortified Camp instead of a Mobile one.
The list I used was:
As is my preference the army is wholly mounted. Infantry are available in the period of the Hunnic Empire (think Attila), but I don't rate the army with them. There is another (nearly) all mounted version I like with an Ostrogothic ally, but for this time I was staying with just Huns.
Obviously this army will rely heavily on its shooting, however, the 2 units of nobles are very combat capable and can take on a lot of possible opponent. The Shoot & Charge give options as well for horse archer units trying to finish off a weakened enemy.
The first round draw matched me up against Pete Bettany who was using Early German in its Chatti version - this one allows the German infantry units to have a Superior front rank which takes the edge of my Skilled Shooting. It is also a large and wide army which can cut down the Hun's manoeuvre options.
Pete won the initial dice roll and wisely chose to defend so as to avoid the Plains which would have been the result if I had won. However, after the PBS sequence I had moved the terrain such that we ended up with pretty much a open plain anyway. The terrain was a single steep hill on the Germans base edge on their right.
I outscouted the Chatti by (IIRC) 50% which was useful. Pete deployed with a couple of Chatti cavalry beside the hill and all the infantry extending the line from there. His left wing was a Sarmatian ally with 2 units of Lancers, one SUperior, and 2 units of skirmishing horse archers.
I decided that this cavalry wing was the point to aim for and so threw out a couple of the small horse archer units on my left and massed everything else on my right; this included all the Skilled Shooters.
Things looked like this:
The first move was pretty straight forward with nothing clever going on. The Chatti advanced cautiously all along the line whilst the Huns advanced to ensure the Chatti could not advance too quickly and also got within shooting range of the Sarmatians - but only 1 units did so with others angled back a bit so if the Sarmatians felt the need to charge they could shoot but were at less risk of being caught if they rolled bad on any skirmish response.
The Sarmatians chose to charge, possibly a bit hasty in my view. The Hunnic shooting was rather effective with bases taken off both Sarmatian units, mainly off the Average unit as you'd expect. Both Sarmatian units were slowed significantly and during the movement phase the Huns moved back up to shooting range once again hoping to do the same again next move.
The Chatti infantry advanced as best they could but again the Hun cavalry moved to keep the moving as slowly as possible.
On the Hun left the 2 small units were distracting the Chatti cavalry in a satisfactory manner - as far as I was concerned these were out of the game for the next few moves. This should allow me to destroy the Sarmatians and turn on the Chatti infantry flank which would then be exposed.
In the following move a Shoot & Charge by a unit of the Huns Skilled Shooters finished off the heavily weakened Sarmatian unit, however, the Superior unit survived charging again but did lose another base. I felt it's days were numbered.
To my satisfaction the Chatti infantry line started to break up this move. They had charged to drive off the Hun cavalry in front of them, but the effects of Slowing meant they were no longer a line.
Had a bit of frustration in the next move as the remaining Sarmatian Lancer unit refused to break. Wasn't an extreme result though, just one of those things.
In the centre things continued in the same fashion as the previous turn, although my horse archers who had broken the Average Sarmatian Lancers turned in to be behind the flank of the end Chatti infantry unit. Not only did this mean a flank charge was on the cards, but any shooting would be at the more vulnerable part of the infantry as well. Pete did, however, move a unit of the Sarmatian skirmishers close behind them which could be painful.
On my left one of the Chatti cavalry was now back in the game getting close to one of the small horse archer units. However, nothing I was concerned about even though the horse archers would almost certainly be lost soon - it should not endanger my army which is pretty untouched.
The next move was quite a good one for me. The tenacious Sarmatian Lancers finally broke and my cavalry pursued taking them somewhat towards a unit of Chatti infantry who are marching from the other flank to try and shore up their left wing.
Additionally, the infantry unit that had my cavalry to its front and rear was charged from both directions and was mercilessly cut down in a single move - not bad as it was an 8 base unit.
On my left as expected I lost a horse archer unit. Ah well, couldn't be helped.
The next move was relatively quiet. I was developing things for the end game by getting troops into position to hopefully charge and destroy isolated Chatti infantry units on my right.
I got one of the 2 isolated units the next move, but needed a bit more movement to properly tee-up the other. The destruction of the unit I broke did cost me a weakened horse archer unit, but again these things happen and it had done its job.
On my left I also managed to engineer a position whereby I could possibly get one of the Chatti cavalry but again may well lose another unit. However, as I was well ahead at this point it was acceptable to me.
The final move of the game before time was called, left me just short of breaking the Chatti. The infantry on my right were charged front and flank but ended the charge phase 2 Wounds from breaking, whilst one Chatti cavalry was 1 Wound from breaking. Alas, there was no time for the melee phase and so I had to be satisfied with an 11-6 to me.Was good to get a proper horse archer army on the table again. I've been staying away from them a bit this year for variety.
Game 2 can be found at - https://gamer-at-the-end-of-time.blogspot.com/2023/11/the-huns-are-back-in-town-derventio_6.html
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