First game up vs Bob & Bruce. A top of the table clash where they guessed we would be using our usual Rus army. Unfortunately we weren't and were using Medieval German pre 1150 Free Canton version, to give us a good range of anti knight (F), Kn (X) and elephant troops.

An interesting design tweak with the Tibetans army was the "sacrificial" general in the small command – working (I guess) on the assumption that he and the two n (X) with him could be committed (and lost), yet with 3 regular dice it would be unfortunate not to score at least one "4" to save the command.

In the game Bob & Bruce piled all their knights into a narrow gap between a rough hill and the compulsory marsh, hoping to get into the auxilia prolonging our line, but in reality hitting the spear in our CinC command and most of our small (city) ally command with waves of troops – all of whom we killed for very few losses. This poor luck (i.e. achieving nothing for 14 Kn losses) was counterbalanced by Bob & Bruce successfully saving the two commands who managed to lose generals in the melee (one needing a 4, one needing a 6), and with the scattered LH surviving every single combat with marauding psiloi from the large ally and leidang commands. In the end it was absolute 17-15 pasting for Bob & Bruce, with all 4 Tibetan commands within either 1 or ½ an element of defeat, so any single element loss would have taken the army down for a 10-0.

Game 2

Again a waterway on one flank, and a rough hill on the other narrowed the board considerably. The unreliability of a small ally general command meant the Carolingians were able to launch a major attack on our CinC, both with the Bretons moving across the hill and the large command of irregular knights attacking the spears. The CinC fought manfully against the onslaught with generally poor pips, but the ally came reliable just as the knight line hit home. Once started playing he was able to lend a hand, cutting down (and shooting) enough of the impetuous knights to leave them a largely impotent force as our CinC and that flank collapsed.

In the centre the Vikings and Clerical ally had been slowly and inexorably advancing, chewing up several LH on the way. As the two small packets of knights redeployed to exploit the gap caused by our CinC failing their attention was distracted and the Leidang and Heerban started munching up Sp (I) near the Carolingian baseline. As the time limit approached they finally killed enough spearmen to take down the 2^nd command, and cumulative losses took the army for an 8-2 win to us!

Game 3

Similar terrain, similar deployment, similar story with this time the Clerical (large) ally being unreliable, and a major impetuous knight charge being launched against the Leidang (probably the weakest point of our line). On the open flank Bw (X) redeployed quickly to shoot at the CinC’s auxilia and spears and achieved astoundingly good results preventing us closing. The Kn (F) mucked around eventually getting into 2 lines to attack the Vikings, who were protected by Sp (I) and Bw on either flank.

The bowmen achieved nothing but still the Kn came in penny packets, bouncing but not dying. Eventually, after several rounds of combat the initial 3 were reduced to one, who then proceeded to go through on a 6-1! The leidang redeployed to put another 3 ranks of troops into him, and lost again ! When the rest of the wave hit they lost every combat and were almost eliminated instantly, creating a massive hole in the army – but by now the Clericals were rolling, shoring up the gap and harassing the Cv (S) command in front of them. On the left the CinC and other ally were causing problems for their opponents, but the ally was being battered back, and soon was 6 elements down out of 6.5 and on the brink!

Finally a bit of Leidang revenge, as 2 demoralised blade took down a lone Kn (F) to overturn the allied command – it was now a tie ate "dead-all" in the middle, and us on the brink of losing our other small command. The Clerical ally launched a frantic attack throwing Ps into LH, and Ax into Wb (F) and suddenly, as if by magic, the Tang were at exactly 50% losses – 9-1 to us (somehow!).

Game 4

Khitan Liao & Former H’an

Again a game dictated by the unreliability of the Clerical Ally General. We deployed exactly the same way, this time without waterway but with each flank cluttered by H(rough) and a marsh and with a wood further closing down the table in the middle of one flank sector in front of the Clericals.

The unreliability of the Clerical command left the Leidang flank somewhat hanging as the army advanced towards the screen of Hd (I). However the Kittens had only 4 Bd (F) from the ally to threaten it, whilst having to be aware of the possible re-invigoration of the Clerical command facing them. After the Hd (I) were despatched in about 2 turns we were rapidly closing on a 6 Bf (F) line with Leidang and a large part of the German army, but became becalmed as the Leidang ran out of pips to both advance and deal with the flank threat, leading to their demise, slightly hastened by us forgetting that the CinC was Kn (F) not a Cv and charging him with a Blade (well, he was exactly the same figure as the cavalry we had been fighting moments before!). The Clerical ally came reliable just as the Khitan flank march arrives to harass our CinC and started to steam towards the H’an, then rolled 3 successive "1’s" for pips. With our CinC and the knights from the other ally managing to contain the rather toothless flank march this delay in the Clerical advance prevented him turning the tide and as time ran out we closed our account 4-6 down.

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