The start of day 2 of the Ribble Rumble saw me sitting about mid-table mediocrity. The draw pitched me up against James "Hammy" Hamilton who was standing in for Paul Cummins who, alas, could not make it.
Hammy used the army Paul was going to use, Khitan Liao. Read on to see how it went ...
Again to recap my army:
Whilst Hammy used the list he had been sent (and can be found HERE along with all the other lists used), it was not actually the list Paul had submitted. A bit of confusion here. I think it is fair to say that Hammy was not impressed by the list he used, and I would agree with him that it was a bit sub-par.Hammy won the initial dice roll and chose to invade. This was OK with me as I wanted to defend. In his position I may have defended to try and get a bit more control on the terrain, but I don't think there is much in it and it is just personal preference. We ended up with a Deep Water secure flank on my left and 3 pieces of other terrain - Rough Ground and a Marsh beside the deep water, and a Marsh on my right. This left the middle of the tabel nice and open for Hammy's cavalry - I'd have liked something there, but wasn't too bothered.
Hammy deployed his small (7 TUG) army compactly slightly towards the right of the table as I looked at it. Each end of the line was a unit of Fully Equipped Ordo cavalry with the rest of the army between them, a unit with Skilled shooting held at the rear to move where needed.
I deployed between 2 pieces of terrain. As was now traditional the Koreans were on the right with a single Japanese unit, the Guard, to their right. The rest of the Japanese troops extended towards the left with the cavalry held as reserves again.
It looked like this:
First moves saw a relatively cautious advance by the Khitans - partly due to poor discs if I remember correctly. I pushed forwards on my right with the aim of swarming the Ordo cavalry on Hammy's left wing - they were tough and I'd need numbers as I didn't have better troops. The guard, led by a general commanding only them covered the right.
Elsewhere I had good discs and could push forward quite substantially even though I was mainly tribal. I did, however, have to hold back a bit in the centre. Hammy moved the Skilled shooting cavalry towards his left.
In the next couple of moves I manoeuvred into a position to attack the Ordo cavalry on my right. This included the Guard infantry getting behind the flank as Hammy had been forced to move the Skilled shooter cavalry back towards the centre. His calculation was that even a flank attack by the Guard would not be devastating as the Ordo cavalry are tough. Right call IMO.
Elsewhere my spearmen units were heading at the other Ordo cavalry unit as they could take it on in combination. I was also moving troops to get round his right flank. All this did leave the Korean infantry a tad exposed to shooting, but I'd just have to live with that.
As can happen the Korean infantry them suffered quite badly from Khitan shooting losing 2 bases immediatly to 2 Skulls and a Wound rolled on 3 Green dice. It happens and I did feel I could cover the potential gap - but not quickly so I had to hope they held on in the next couple of moves.
The fight against the Ordo cavalry on my right was stodgy with little happening, although the Guard did kill a base when they contacted. This would take time.
Across the rest of the field it was manoeuvre to try and get an advantage or to counter a possible opponent advantage for both sides.
Next move was more of the same really. I chipped away at the Ordo cavalry whilst Hammy shot away a bit more of the Korean infantry. Elsewhere, nothing much to report really.
Next move we actually had a unit break. In a flurry of good dice I broke the Ordo cavalry, thus exposing the Khitan right flank, but we were getting close to time being called.
The Korean infantry were reduced to 4 bases out of 8, so just a Wound from breaking, but with the now exposed flank of the Khitan army that was not too much of an issue.
On my left Hammy had charged one of the archer units and had knocked a couple of bases off. Again, although I'd lose this unit I was not worried as I had it covered.
Time was called shortly afterwards but there had been enough time for Hammy to fail to get the required Wound on the Korean infantry despite quite a few shooting dice. A bit against the odds - 1 in 45 according to Hammy.So we ended up with a 4-2 to me. Disappointing score but still an interesting game in many ways, and many thanks to Hammy for stepping up to fill the gap using an army he really didn't like.
The third game report will follow shortly.
Finally, some pictures of the armies as deployed.
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