Bad List selections
Brilliant plans .... but will they survive contact with the enemy ?
NRELIABLE ARABS? naaah - they can be relied upon to perform according to the textbook every time! (added 21/8/03)
not so much a bad list, as having badness inflicted upon you by a list with a touch of evil (added 20/8/03)
JUST PLAIN POOR - A true example of "PANTS" erm... no comment really on this one.
MR PANTS MOST PANTS LIST EVER - It's all here for you to try out yourself go on - you know you want to...
EVEN A POOR LIST CAN DO WELL - Unless you drag it down with poor play! Don't get Tupi-ssed off by this story...the list was fine, the gameplay was less so...EVEN A POOR LIST CAN'T DO WELL - the Full Monty Hordes of crap.....
WHAT DAY IS THIS ? maybe the ferryman is coming today ?
Early Crusaders:
1 general plus 1 ally, with all the Kn, Sp, and Bow under the CinC, and 20 Hd(S) under the ally.
that's it.
(allegedly this really was encountered by "firefall")
Mr Pants at the IWF :
Dave Speaks...........Lets take something different, I fancy a medieval army, Hmm free companies chock
full of romance,4 regular generals, bit small though I'll play test it first.
Quite a lot of success, I'll go for it it will be a giggle.
Send my entry in find out its 30 points over the top lose 3 elements out of my
largest command. b.p drops to 7.
Game 1. Largest command breaks in last bound (10:0) loss . 1 more b.p would have
been fine.
Game 3. Versus Early Hungarian. Billiard table with some large areas of rough on
the right corner. Decide his LH will mince me if I come out of the corner.
Decide to go for a 5:5. However I can't do it I leave my Kn mounted at
deployment, cunningly move my baggage up so they can't recoil. Get fucked around
by Cv in the rough. Spend billions of pips dismounting when I have some targets
for my bow. Lose 10:0 in a cowardly dispicable manner.
Game 4. Again I lose because I don't have those extra 3 elements.
To summarise.
Play test at 430 ap
Decide to go for a draw for the first time in my life then do it in a half assed
manner.
Jesus I'm Pants.
Here's the List Of Pants:
1+1 german DBE
5 iKn(O)
4 iKn(S)
6 mounted Bw(S)
==
17/17
1 rKn(I) general
4 rKn(I)
6 mounted Bw(S)
4 Ps(S)
===
13/15
1 DBE general
1 DBE
===
4/4
1 rKn(I) general
8 mobile baggage
===
1/1
The 2000 Australian Championships - not many practice games but I took the Tupi
@ 350ap. After 4 rounds I was on 30 points & definitely at the top end of
the ladder. (The tournament winner finished on 49/60). I drew Communal Italian
(ably commanded by list member Doug Melville) in the 5th round - what should
have been a relatively easy matchup for the Tupi. Firstly I stupidly marched up
a road with Bw only to then roll about five 1's or 2's for pips for that command
& they were caught in column. My flank march arrived & took some
casualties but was almost in range of Bw(I) when I lost 1 more EE from that
command - game over army broken - or at least that's what I declared - it wasn't
& as I was close to Bg & Bw(I) - a little luck & it would have been
a big win for me (I'd already broken 1 command). Doh!!
But wait - there's more. In the last round I played comedian Richard Stubbs
& his Richard the Lionheart led army. To cut a long story short - we'd both
lost 1 command & were frantically trying to complete moves very quickly as
time was running out - I'd lost my cinc's command to 1 (or 2 I can't remember if the 1 was his cinc or 2 others) command/s of his when severe
fighting gave me an 8-2 win - then Richard pointed out that I'd held the wrong things in my cinc's command & therefore the mobile baggage has to flee
off-table (I'd only made them mobile because my 1st round opponent assumed they
were & I forgot - slightly under the influence of....). We recalculated the
results & worked out I lost 8-2 by 1EE _BEFORE_ all of the combats which
gave me victory. Double-Doh!!!! The Tupi undeservedly finished well down the
ladder on 33/60 - but it wasn't their fault - it was mine!!!!!
Have fun
Thanks to....Jason Williams
'CRAP AND
INEFFECTIVE!
Early Crusaders:
1 general plus 1 ally, with all the Kn, Sp, and Bow under the CinC, and 20 Hd(S)
under the ally. That's it.'
A couple of mates of mine who shall remain nameless played with a similar list (400pt) about 18 months ago - in a competition! Needless to say they came last. They actually came close to winning one game but were thwarted by Player No.2 (the Ally). This is what I saw and heard as I watched.....
Bound 1 - player 1 moves his command forward. Player 2 says 'Can I let them go then' (he wanted to let the horde go impetuous). Player 1 says emphatically 'No'
Bound 2 - player 1 moves his troops. This requires concentration as he has 3 pips and has light horse threatening his flank. Player 1 finishes and looks over to player 2. The horde have gone impetuous. Game over by bound 6 if I remember correctly.
from ...
Richard Young
A Tale of Total
Confusion
Last round of the World Teams this year. I am using Northern Dynasty (Penalty)
and my opponent is using Italian Condotta. I have been in the bar
until 5:00 am and have already gone down big time in the morning. The hangover
kicks in. I am attacking and put down a waterway. He sticks down
some rough ground and hills, the rough in his forward central sector, the hills
in his rear central sector, cutting the board in half. We deploy. He
has nothing near the waterway, his whole army is on his left. I have a flank
march coming on here!
To open the game I throw seven LH(F) at his three LH(O). One pair of bounds
later I have no LH(F) and I am a command down but my flank march arrives. My
opponent looks puzzled and then asks why I put down a waterway.
"I have half the boats"
"You have two"
"Thats half"
"No it is not, you can also have horse
transports"
"Can I"
"Yes"
(Check the army lists)
"OH!"
"I would have deployed differently, I thought you
were flank marching on
boats"
"Sorry, what can we do? Shall we get an umpire?"
"No, it is too late, lets play on"
"Tell you what, we will count my boats as lost"
"OK"
The game continues and at the end of one of my bounds I declare my army has
gone. He is happy and I am pissed off I gave him the boats but think this is
fair as I screwed up. A withering look from one of my team mates on the next
table makes me recount.
"Sorry, I was wrong, you need a half
element"
His go. Five attacks at all my stray psiloi elements later and Im still there. My one combat in that round kills his four based baggage. I win 9-1.
Game of skill!
I had the game well under control - good matchups, the EAP's mounted superiority neutralized by a skirmishing line and in the center the Persians were desperately rearranged their auxilia in the CinC's command to bear the brunt of my warband onslaught. When the lines clashed the auxilia were obliterated by some great dice rolls, leaving a block of spears fidgeting nervously barely more than a single move behind. And even better, the crappy old Cv (O) CinC in his chariot was almost engulfed in a rising tide of warband, spears, psiloi, Lh and elephants. Take him down and they would be on irregular pips - it would be all over!
However as the command broke in the Persian turn instantly the army increased in points by 4 as the "King of Cheeses" turned himself into a Kn (F). My shock was deep and profound, only to be bettered when I proceeded to roll nothing higher than a 2 on the next set of pip dice and had to watch helplessly as my warband gleefully rushed into the now demoralized but still rather scary general. Even impetuously we got overlaps in - but still he rolled better than us and 2 of them died.
I desperately committed light horse into the now jubilant "King of the World" and of course bounced. He charged on - not exactly sticking to the "changes into a Kn to retreat more easily across rough ground" part of the script - and manages to nail a light horse despite being overlapped again - taking another auxilia and psiloi with it. He has now virtually done more damage to my army in his "retreat" incarnation than the rest of his entire force! In one desperate last move I hurled warband into the spears, and attempted to mug some Cv (I) with a warband who had got lost. This was it. Beat 2 files of spears with overlaps and push back a double overlapped Cv (I) (who was unable to recoil) with a Wb (F) and the game was ours, 10-0 still.
I rolled, I killed the spears. half way there!
The final combat - possessed by the spirit of his leader, we lost 5-1 to the Cv (I) - and the warband command broke exactly - and with more than half its 8.5 casualties caused by the fleeing King Of Wishfuil Thinking" !!!!!!! 6-4. If only I hadn't killed the CinC's command it would have been a comfortable 10-0 to me !!!!
PRIDE
COMETH BEFORE A FALL
My Christian Nubians were suitably buoyed up after beating your Later
Carthaginians on the practice day for Britcon and I was ready for the serious
stuff.
In the first round of the competition, I drew a Serbian Empire army.
I was the invader and by my third move there were no casualties either side and
I was well set up with my Wb(F) lined up against Bw(I) and Cm(S) ready to
trample a single line of Ax(O) and all the Serbian knights were well back
from the front and doing nobody any harm.
I manoeuvred a Lh(O) to protect my General's flank from 2 Lh(F) who were buzzing
around aimlessly in the middle of the table. Only, I messed it up and the Lh(F)
got onto the flank of my Lh(O) which could not complete a recoil and my light
Horse and General were destroyed!
Still, not too bad - I only needed a 3,4,5 or 6 to save the command and the
troops were all set up to go impetuous anyway. Well, I threw a 1 and the
c-in-C's command with the Cm(S) became demoralised.
We'll fight on. The Warband will save the game.
But, no. What I have not mentioned yet was I threw a 1 for my Arab Allies in the
first move and they were currently unreliable. Well, of course, they now changed
sides - 2 Elements lost, but 50% gone - GAME OVER.
Cheers,
Hugh
My Plan was brilliant - only the enemies failed to stick to it !
Sometimes
the Pants moment occurs after deep thought and long before the wargames table is
approached.
a)
Heavy in LH ( particularly (F)); and
b)
Include either Kn or Cm(S).
But
I wanted something different. I had a bunch of Arab figures painted for an LPIA
army ( which I had found too difficult for my skill set) and had played Abbasid
a couple of times a few years back. I
went for that. And so my Pants moment arrived. I cunningly thought out my lists.
List A was mainly mounted, a mix of Cv(S) and Cv(O) with LH(O), with a couple of
blocks of Bw(X)/Bw(O). The plan was to shoot up the Kn and Cm and hunt down the
LH with the Cv. List B was to deal with WWg and heavy foot. Two commands of Sp (
mostly Irr Sp(I)) backed by 6 ( don’t laugh) Wb(F) and a mounted command (
because of the minimum of 8 Cv(S) in the army). I then sent this in without any
practice or play testing.
Chris