So Anton came up with a new level of Lunacy to match the Full moon. After randomly choosing which army book we would use, we each chose the other's army. That is right, we chose each others armies that we had to fight with. Anton chose The Patrician Romans for me. I selected the Arab Conquest Army for him. And to think we are decades old friends and we did such a thing to each other! At least we remembered to get a picture at the start. Neither of us wanted much terrain and basically none of it stuck anyway. My village (I pretty much always take one) stayed and so did Anton's woods he stuck in the middle of my deployment zone. Anton BADLY out scouted me 74:13 so I deployed first.
Anton's "Arabs" are in the foreground. My Romans are in the distance and from left to right
36 x "Germans" all IRG C, MI, 2/3 HTW & SH, 1/3 JLS & Sh
36 x "Germans" MI, 1/3 IRG B, HTW & Sh; 1/3 IRG C, HTW & Sh, 1/3 IRG C, JLS & Sh
36 x Legionaries REG C, MI 2/3 JLS, D, & Sh, 1/3 B & Sh
CinC EHC, L, B, Sh Anton loaned me his pretty new Roman to use for this battle
36 x Auxilia REG B, 16 LHI, JLS, D & Sh, 8 LMI, JLS, D & Sh, 12 LMI B &Sh
36 x "Germans" MI, 1/3 IRG B, HTW & Sh; 1/3 IRG C, HTW & Sh, 1/3 IRG C, JLS & Sh
36 x "Germans" all IRG C, MI, 2/3 HTW & SH, 1/3 JLS & Sh
Lurking in the rear 12 x Cavalry all REG C, 1/2 EHC, 1/2 HC, all L, B & Sh
I decided to make all the foot units 36 figures as it was the biggest size that allowed me six units.
Anton's troops, again from left to right, are as follows.
21 x "scraggly mob" (my term) 5 IRG C, LI JLS & Sh; 6 IRG, LI, B; 10 IRG A, LHI, 2HCW
18 x Bedouin, all IRG B, L & Sh; 9 HC, 8 MC, 1 MCam
46 x "mixed Arabs" 30 IRG C, LMI, JLS & Sh; 15 IRG C, LI B; 1 MCam IRG B, L & Sh
CinC HC L & Sh, PAS standard.
12 "Arabs" 11 Arab Citizen cav IRG A, HC, L & Sh; 1 MCam, IRG B, L & Sh
21 x Bedouin, all IRG B, L & Sh; 20 MC, 1 M Cam
Bedouin Ally General HC, L & Sh
18 x Bedouin, all IRG B, L & Sh; 9 HC, 8 MC, 1 MCam
For some inexplicable reason Anton thought I was going to take a lot of cavalry and so put a Camel in every unit. This action would have an impact on the battle, but fortunately a small one on the outcome.
Above we have turn One. My troops walked out of the offending terrain and our archers took some long distance shots. All of the fire was ineffective, but did result in some morale tests. Everyone passed, but my Auxilia's fire so affronted Anton second unit of mixed Bedouin that they went impetuous immediately. Note Anton's simple yet clever paper arrow to indicate the impetuous troops.
On turn Two Anton chose to disorder his Impetuous Bedouin by expanding them to increase their impact. Having rounded the corner o the right most of my Germanic Mob's my Cavalry opened fire on Anton's impetuous Bedouin and killed the camel. Meanwhile my Auxilia were forced to fire on Anton's infantry mob because they had been fired on by the mob on turn one. My Legionnaires opened fire on Anton's first mob of Bedouin and Anton's Scraggly mob shot ineffectively at my left most Germanic mob. The only new unit under fire was Anton's first mob of Bedouin who promptly joined their brethren in going impetuous.
On turn three Anton's first impetuous mob of Bedouin hit home against the right most two units of my Germanics. Meanwhile, the other Impetuous Bedouin crowd did not expand and instead closed rapidly on the second unit of Germanics from the left. Anton's first Impetuous mob did NOT enjoy making contact with my Germanics. The IRG C unit on the extreme right rolled up Three, while the IRG B unit rolled down one. Anton rolled an up one. The result was that Anton out casualtied my IRG B unit and it was pushed back, but my IRG C unit BADLY out casualtied Anton's Bedouin and broke them out right.
As turn Four dawned, I had planned to commit my general to the Legionnaires to avoid catastrophic dice rolling, but at the critical moment was forced to detail the Germanic mob on the extreme left to deal with Anton's "Scraggly mob" to avoid it turning my flank while the cavalry occupied my front. Anton's second unit of Impetuous Bedouin impacted on my IRG B Germanics. The results were inconclusive. Neither side gaining an advantage the fight continued to the next round as Anton could not retreat since he was Impetuous. As a result of my CinC's preoccupation, my Legionnaires without the CinC, and the Auxilia both charged into Anton's mixed Arab foot unit, who of course also charged. Anton rolled even. My REG B Auxilia rolled down one and my Legionnaires rolled Up Two. The result was a mirror of the previous rounds fight between my Germanics and Anton's Bedouin. Anton pushed my Auxilia back, but their efforts combined with my Legionnaires broke Anton's mixed Arab foot as my units doubled his total casualty output. While all this was going on, Anton's routing Bedouin blocked his IRG A Citizen (and camel) unit from charging because they could not clear the way. On the right Anton's massive medium weight mounted unit charged my cavalry, who also charged. I rolled up one, Anton rolled even and we ended up tied as I suffered the disorder effect of Anton's lone camel in his unit. So the fight continued to the next turn.
Turn Five saw Anton's "scrubby mob" and my IRG C Germanics charge each other (off camera to the left), while the ten Swordsmen put out a respectable 40 casualties, my HTW Germanics rolled up three (again) and put out 144, shattering Anton's "scrubs". In the second round Anton's second Impetuous Bedouin's again held their own and the fight was at a stalemate forcing another round of combat. In the center my Roman Auxilia reorganized themselves as the Legionnaires pursued Anton's Arab Foot. Meanwhile my Germanics on the right braced themselves for the impact of Anton's IRG A Arab Citizen Cav (and camel). On the extreme right Anton's Medium weight Bedouin mob managed to push my cavalry back, but not break them. Unfortunately for me, Anton managed to rally his broken mob of Bedouin (despite the routers right next to them) with a massive roll of 16!
Turn six saw my Germanics on the left finally able to push back Anton's second Impetuous Bedouin unit which broke their morale state and allowed Anton to rally them back out of combat. My Legionnaires reformed in their usual formation and cover the Auxilia forming up in wedge to assist their Germanic Mercenaries. This turn Anton sent both the reformed mixed Bedouin unit and the Arab citizen cavalry unit in against my two Germanic foot units, the first with his CinC attached! Both of Anton's units went Impetuous, but neither was able to break my Germanic foot units. Pushing my Germanics back forced both of Anton's Impetuous units to stay in contact. On the far right My cavalry managed avoid being pushed back as this fight on the flank was quickly devolving into a pillow fight with no winner in sight.
Turn seven saw my Auxilia Wedge charge into the flank of Anton's Bedouin unit led by his CinC. In the combats Anton failed to push back either of my Germanic units and my Auxilia wedge caused enough casualties to break Anton's Bedouin unit. Meanwhile on the extreme right Anton's Medium weight Bedouins again pushed back my Cavalry unit but did not break them. However, at this point it was time to determine if Anton's CinC had survived the fight which broke the unit he commanded. I had a D20 roll, on a one, Anton's CinC would die ...
And down went Anton's CinC! My Germanic mercenaries will get the honor of capturing the Arab Personal Army Sacred standard. Anton Conceded the game.
However in a final bit of silliness, now Anton has talked me into switching sides. In the next game I will be stuck with the Arab Conquest Army, and Anton will get the Patrician Romans, tune in next week to see how this madness turns out.
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