captain correllis mangonel  !

The night before had been a quiet one after the excesses of Friday. 

Just a Greek pizza at 11pm, followed by the odd glass of wine in 3 separate bars (including Scary Clown Thing Stuffed life sized doll World - see picture left !) , before finally we fell into the hip, happening 1970's disco inspired bar 2 doors down from our hotel.

With a DJ who presumably had stolen the record collection of all 5 of the original Village People, we were in a World of Disco - and were clearly far too un-hip for Western Greece's leading port based town.

As we cowered in the corner, avoiding the disapproving glares of the doorkeeper - a strangely attractive butch lesbian version of Gwyneth Paltrow but with Madonna's hair from the early 80's and a matrix-style long black leather coat, and Billy Idols sneer permanently attached to her lips - we saw no reason to leave, until it was time to hit one more bar before retiring at a very sensible 2am.

A startling transformation for the delightful Mrs Chris Martin

Later that night an earthquake shook the hotel - only noticed by 50% of the group.... Greek red wine has lots to answer for...

"scenic"

Game 3 was the next morning - after braving the sleet and rain, we pitched up at the venue to find me playing a Mithraditic army!

  The Pontins Redcoats had again, like their Bactrian cousin's chosen to send out a skirmish screem out reasonably cautiously  - although to be fair my map isn't particularly good at being to scale, and there wasn't a huge gap in their line.

This is probably a better representation! 

Yet again, having cluttered part of the table with terrain I was able to create a concentrated line of spears, WWg (X) and bowmen - and yet again I had been surprised by the unusual (for the UK) composition with Wb (O) posing a grave danger to my army. 

Then again, the skirmish screen was looking increasingly like it was in the wrong place at the wrong time 

Pinned by 2 WWg (X) the lone light horse retreated nervously, backwards, as the Pontians struggled to co-ordinate their irregular CinC and his two regular subs and hold the Wb (O) under control at the same time.

Finally he found himself trapped, and fled in panic from the advancing man pushed spikey wagons thingys.... through all of the warband and a good slice of the pikemen ! 

This left a rather messy hole in the middle of the Pontic army, into which knights and spearmen rushed joyously. The action then turned to the other flank of the spears, as the scythed chariots entered the fray, having been commanded around behind the army by a sub general, looking for the right spot at which to be unleashed!

They charged on through the Pontic lines, and crashed down on the Italians - who stood steadfast against the beasties, and repulsed their attack!

On my left the Italian spearmen were attempting to close with the Pontic levy bowmen, as archery fire poured down on their stylishly couiffured heads, causing substantial attrition on what was still my smallest command.

With the scythed chariots eventually despatched, and LH fleeing in fear from the Bw(X)/WWg (X) combo the coast was clear for the irregular knights to make a bee line for the exposed auxilia on my right - forcing a Pontic commander to put himself into the breech to save the day!

But he was not the only general involved - the warband had by now made their way back to the front lines, leaving a good number of rather irritated pikemen in their smelly wake - and even despite their extensive maneuvers, they still swept away the first Italian spearmen and War Wagons they encountered ! But, then the CinC stepped in, and the warband were removed swiftly from play.

With this threat finally consigned to the dice bin of history the  tide had turned decisively against the Greeks - they were almost in danger of losing all three commands across the board as the army finally crumbled - 10-0. 

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