Ice and Fire 2025 - Buyids Day 2
So after two successful games on the first day of Ice and Fire 2025 the second day arrives with the Buyids riding high, although there is a pack at the top of the leaderboard that will get thinned down.
To see how the Buyids fared in the next two games, read on ...
A quick reminder of the list I used:
The draw matches me up against Southern Dynasties Chinese. A bit of an odd army based around a fairly static core of warwagons; not for everyone, but Paul who plays it has got it down to a fine art and has been very successful. This was a tough match up.
I felt that I would need some terrain in this game as this would help limit where the warwagons could operate, but not necessarily too much. I won the initial dice off and defended so as to be able to better dictate the terrain, and we ended up with a few bits on the flanks but the centre open.
I then heavily outscouted the Chinese (80%) and so got to see pretty much their whole deployment before I had to put any troops on the table. To say this was useful is an understatement 😁 It allowed me to tee up my main attacks how I wanted and meant the Chinese had to try and cover all the bases.
After deployment the table looked like this:
My plan is (obviously) to attack down either flank whilst threatening in the middle whilst relying on the immobility of the warwagons to essentially hold the centre in place - and as there are a couple of good units there this can only be a good thing. The attack on the left is stronger than the one on the right, but I am hopeful that even on the right I can cause damage as there is a weak Chinese unit in the front line, albeit with a good unit in support.
The first moves proceed to plan with my wings advancing as fast as they can with the centre mostly holding back. On the left I run a Bedouin cavalry unit around the flank in the hope of causing mischief later. On the right the good Chinese unit supporting the poor one inevitably moves up to position itself to take the brunt of the fighting (paul isn't stupid).
However, I spot an opportunity for one Bedouin armoured cavalry to attack the exposed end of the poor unit and so charge in. Whilst they look a bit isolated with their left flank uncovered and a good Chinese infantry unit lurking, they are in fact relatively safe as the warwagons cannot charge them and if the infantry try and exploit they will themselves be vulnerable to the other lurking Bedouin cavalry units.
The cavalry attack is a little disappointing and I decide to break off leaving the Dailami infantry on that flank to do the killing. This was facilitated by using the option to do MF1/MF2 moves at the end of the combat phase which allowed me to expand the Dailami to fight where the cavalry had been. This caught Paul out as he had expected the break off but thought that this would mean the poor infantry were not under much pressure.
On the left my attack goes in shortly afterwards and starts to chew through the Chinese infantry, albeit a bit slower than I had hoped and I have to throw both units of Ghilman into the fray - I had hoped to keep one back as a reserve. I also attack the weak infantry unit in the middle of the Chinese line - it is directly in front of the camp and so any break through there should reap the reward of sacking the camp (hopefully).
I take out most of the Chinese right, but a counter attack by the single unit of Chinese catafracts breaks a weakened unit and both my Ghilman units are broken as well - which was rather annoying; losing one was expected but both was painful. The general commanding the Ghilman was also killed and as all his units were broken no replacement arrived.
However, on the right I break the poor infantry and in the centre the cavalry break through and can now charge the camp.
I was now in a bit of a race to finish off the Chinese as time was running out. The camp was sacked, although the unit doing so was shot up badly by the warwagons shooting into its rear. A Bedouin cavalry unit attacked a damaged unit of crossbowmen but just failed to break it. The KaBs from sacking the camp gave me two chances to break the army, both on Green dice. Alas they both failed - either one would have done.
The game ended 12-9 to me. A very good game; hard work.
The afternoon game was a top table fight against a Qin Chinese army. Made three Chinese armies in a row. Tough match up (again) - however, a win should see me top the table so everything to play for.
As I felt that I had the more mobile army I was aiming for a reasonably open table, but the odd bit of terrain would be OK. I again defended so could influence this and it did indeed end up mostly open. I slightly outscouted the Qin (10%) which at least let me see their deployment unfold so allowing me some degree of tailoring of my deployment.
It looked like this when we had set up:
I am hoping that I can weasel my Dailami into at least some of the weaker Qin foot (although they are not that weak) and maybe get some advantages on my right using my cavalry manoeuvre. I am not expecting to be able to manufacture anything spectacular as my opponent (Paul) is a very good player.
I am a little held back by poor cards to start with, but nothing desperate; it does mean that I can't try anything too clever on my right. Partly because of this I have a bit of a speculative punt with one of the bedouin armoured cavalry against a crossbow unit which is a little exposed. Alas, whilst the crossbow shooting is not great they seem to have reserved their vigour for melee and I am forced to break off somewhat bruised. I was possibly a bit over-eager but the reward could have been quite good.
As you can at the same time the Qin have moved a chariot unit behind the flank of my Ghilman on the right. However, this was OK by me as the Ghilman can skirmish and I am planning to use the Bedouin cavalry on the right to join in any combat and hopefully despatch the chariots. Elsewhere, both sides infantry and manoeuvring to get into position and I am hopeful that I will be able to get to grips with a couple of the lesser Qin infantry although their better stuff cannot be avoided.
The chariot flank attack was avoided as planned and, thanks to a spawny two Skulls on two Green dice they are soon broken allowing my Ghilman and Bedouin armoured cavalry to duke it out with a Qin infantry unit where I hope weight of numbers will tell. In the centre and left both sides infantry set up for a fight.
We now entered something of a slogging phase of the battle. Despite their numbers the cavalry on my right cannot get rid of the Qin infantry and will both be broken, but will reduce the infantry to a single Wound from breaking. The infantry fights sway back and forth, but numbers and the odd better unit are a bit against me; I was failing to get past the hard crust of the weaker Qin infantry and get to the more killable ranks behind. Paul had effectively managed where his units were so all credit to him here.
I do tee up another cavalry charge on an exposed crossbow unit; however, these are Skilled shooters so it is a tad risky ... But as I feel the game is moving away from me these things must be tried and if they break through there is nothing behind the crossbowmen.
The cavalry charge survives the shooting but the crossbowmen are not going down without a fight. I will break them, but it takes a bit too long for me to be able to exploit this.
On my right the Qin infantry break my cavalry as mentioned, however, I will (just) break them with the Bedouin cavalry - but the exchange is heavily in favour of the Qin.
On the left my other Ghilman unit is hsot away in a hail of crossbow bolts. Possibly a bit unfortunate, but certainly not an extreme result and they had been shot at for a few moves and you can't expect to just shrug that off forever.
I finally break one of the "weaker" Qin infantry units after getting into their less effective ranks, however, in the time the fights in the centre have taken the Qin have been able to get units around my flanks. These will pile in and break my army.
In the end it was a 8-15 loss. Paul played a good game and there can be no complaints, but a few "if only" moments 😉
This left Paul as the deserved winner of the competition with a maximum possible score of 60 points from winning all four of his games.
I placed 5th which is not shabby - and could have been 2nd if either of the KaB rolls at the end of the game against the Southern Dynasties had gone my way.
The full results were:
All the lists used can be seen HERE
Comments
Post a Comment