The annual "SkullRollers" MeG competition was held at Battlefield Hobbies, Daventry, UK over the weekend of 25th/26th October. As ever it was an "open" competition and was 4 rounds of games.
As I'm not a fan of "open" comps I wasn't planning to play but said I would if it would ensure even number to avoid any byes. As it turned out I did end up playing on the first day, but not the second as one player took ill and had to drop out.
So to see how I did in the 2 games I played, read on ...
As it was a bit last minute that I was needed I just went with the a list I had not used for some time, Angkor Empire. It was:
As a list it is something a bit different and I have had quite a bit of success with it - in fact I won Britcon a few years ago using it, although there have been some changes to the list since then which have weakened it a little. In some ways it is quite a "shooty" army. I tend not to go too heavily into the elephants which I've seen other players do; I think too many more elephants upset the army balance. Of course, I always include the elephants with artillery 😁
The first round saw me matched up against Early Achaemenid Persian in its satrapal guise, but the less common eastern version so without the popular hoplite ally. So a big shooty army with an effective mobile component. The first dice roll was going to be quite important as I would want to defend and go for cluttering up the table with terrain, whilst the Persians would want as open a table as possible.
Fortunately I did win the dice roll and got to defend and played a high card to be able to choose the territory type. We ended up with 2 large woods on my side of the table and a marsh and hill on the Persian side. Worked for me 👍
I was outscouted but not by as much as I thought likely, but to be honest it didn't make much difference to how I was likely to deploy. I set up with some infantry in either wood and the rest of the army between the woods with skirmishers ahead. The elephants were mixed in with the infantry. The Persians mixed infantry and cavalry along their line opposite and included a good number of skirmishing cavalry with Cantabrian so could have some useful Skilled shooting.
The first moves saw both sides push forward shooters to contest the ground and see if any advantage could be gained. I had some initial advantages as I could get some of my infantry shooters into action whilst keeping just out of range of the Persian mounted shooters. I also wheeled up the elephants with artillery to take advantage of them being able to shoot overhead, albeit on Black dice if against skirmishers whish was most likely at this stage - but more dice, whatever type they are, is usually good.
The initial shooting was quite heavily in my favour (dice, don't you love 'em 😏) and shot off some bases and caused wounds for almost no return damage, The artillery even got 3 wounds on 3 Black dice 😋
However, the Persians were not deterred and came on although their shooting remained poor. The terrain also meant that a couple of units with Cantabrian could not get into play at this stage. I do wonder if the Persians over-committed some of their Iranian cavalry here and would have been better getting the skirmishers in - but that is a bit of hindsight knowing how the shooting went. On my left I did push infantry out into the open to put some pressure on and get more of my own shooting in play.
This had the result that some of the Persian skirmishers were destroyed or pulled back as not achieving much. In the centre an Immortal unit advanced and I pushed my guard infantry up to take them on. Elsewhere the Persian 4 base cavalry units took some damage with 2 units reduced to 3 bases which is starting to get vulnerable - these would soon be withdrawn for safety.
The Immortals were quickly destroyed by the guard but the latter were reduced to half strength. As mentioned some Persian units were pulled back to avoid being broken and I did push up a bit on them right to see if I could get anything more. With the Immortals gone the Persian chariot unit was wheeled up to take revenge.
The chariots did their job but then pursued into an elephant unit. Elsewhere the Persian shooting improved and I lost a number of bases rather quickly.
However, we ran out of time before anything more could be achieved by either side. The game ended 6-7 with most of the destroyed units being skirmishers. An interesting game and good to get the Angkor Empire in action again.
The afternoon game saw the Angkor Empire loading its army onboard ships and invading England during the reign of Richard III 😂 Richard had brought along a couple of Stanley's - would the risk pay off, or would it all go a bit Bosworth?
Both sides wanted terrain and we ended up with woods on my side of the table and hills and tall crops on the English side. I outscouted the English which was useful. King Richard deployed with some of the Stanleys on his right and his reliable troops in the centre with another Stanley on the left including longbowmen on the hill. I deployed my whole army right of centre to leave the Stanleys a long walk to get to me. Richard himself led his cavalry bodyguard as a reserve.
I massed a good chunk of my better infantry to take on the longbowmen and screened them with skirmishers to hopefully take the arrows before we got to hand to hand combat. All the elephants were massed together with an eye on massed billmen in Richard's centre with other infantry covering their left flank. It looked like:
First important thing in the game was that both Stanleys were reliable - although the one on the right was only just and couldn't do much to begin with - something that would continue through the game.
I started with an unsubtle rush forward on my right accepting the incoming shooting, whilst pushing the elephants up in the centre; the left I held back. The English were a bit card limited but did wheel towards my line and so we would be advancing on each other fairly quickly.
The first English volleys on my right blew away most of the skirmish screen and allowed damage on the guard infantry in the following move. The first shot included 4 Skulls out of 6 dice - it goes that way some days 😕 Elsewhere we sort of lined up with my elephants facing billmen and my Ph'kak-men facing off longbowmen. The plan was to shoot the billmen and hopefully force them to charge me, or weaken them enough for me to charge them. I had hopes for the Ph'kak-men against longbowmen as well but I was forced to hold the left of my line with archers who would not stand up too long and then I'd have to try and distract the English with the small cavalry unit.
The combats over the next couple of moves were mixed shall we say, and I felt I did not get the rub of the green - but not to any major degree, just a bit. My guard failed against uphill longbowmen. but did badly damage them, but shooting reduced a second longbowmen to almost broken. Shooting from my elephants did a bit of damage and the Ph'kak-men were slowly making inroads into 2 longbow units - that could go either way quite frankly. As a bonus the archers held up another billmen unit quite well which had the effect of not allowing a reserve cavalry unit to intervene. All quite balanced really, maybe just in favour of the English but a bit knife edge.
The eagle-eyed will not that the Stanley on the English right has basically contributed nothing - very poor cards has left him plodding slowly towards my left. This was very useful for me. Because of his tardiness I was actually able to push up an infantry unit in the woods on my left to look like a bit of a threat on the flank which would have a useful consequence.
Things proceeded along these lines the next move. I broke one longbowman unit on the righthand hill with one infantry unit pursuing into a Poor longbow unit whilst the already badly damaged longbow unit fell to half its bases following the KaB for the rout. My elephants caused a bit more damage especially to the bill unit nearest the hill and my Ph'kak-men got a longbow unit to 1 wound from breaking but were themselves suffering - but I could hope to swap units here. The archers finally broke but as I'd brought up the infantry in the wood the English reserve cavalry were forced to face them off to stop them charging the flank of the victorious billmen. Stanley still plodding on the left ... 😂
There was then almost a pause for breath, but there weas still some action of note. My Ph'kak-men failed to break the longbowmen and whilst getting close my infantry fighting the Poor longbowmen also failed to win - but at least here they reduced the longbowmen to a wound from breaking. On the left Stanley finally got some useful cards and wheeled round and became a proper threat for the first time in the game.
At this point it was time to throw the elephants in, there was no time left for shooting attrition - and so they all charged together. Results were initially not too bad but then things bogged down a bit. To their left the small cavalry unit were doing as much as they could to distract English billmen but were being pushed towards the table edge where they would not last long. Stanley on the English right also loomed through the woods towards a badly outnumbered infantry unit. However, on a positive note the remaining longbowmen on the hill were broken - thus finally vindicating my attack on that flank albeit taking longer then hoped.
Then the elephants got their second wind and broke 2 billmen units, although 1 elephant unit was lost as well. One outcome of this was that the surviving elephant unit pursued to a position where they would be able to charge King Richard and his bodyguard ... Still everything was tight and could still go either way.
However, in the next move King Richard was flattened by the elephants and the other remaining elephants broke the billmen they were fighting and the round broke the longbowmen who had been reduced to 1 wound from breaking. This tipped the English into defeat with the score being 15-10 to me.
Damned close game and, to be honest, if Stanley on the English right had had better cards and been into play before the very end I think I would have lost, and sooner than when the game actually ended.
So my haul for the day was 21 points but, as noted, I was not needed for day 2 and so that wrapped it up for me this year.
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