Nationals 2001 - The Lithuanian Odyssey Continues

Well, we all thought I'd given up, kicked the habit, and managed to wean myself off the Lithuanian drug. LH(O), oh no sir!

But, then again, what do you replace it with ? Trying to find something different had failed at the IWF's , where my Sicilians had done OK, but also come badly unstuck by dint of their failure to deal with any form of massed bowmen. So - I needed something that I was comfortable with, and that was capable of running in the post 494AD (Knights!!) period, and could deal with Bw.  Oh - and was bizarre, unusual, and likely to make me the only person using it !

So - maybe we can play with the Lithuanians - as they are still a superb anti-knight outfit, and definitely fit the bizarre and unique categories.

But - if you take them in the later version, I could drop the Crim Tatars, as I wouldn't need as many Cv(S) and LH (S) as before, on account of LH (F) being the new rock and roll, and Cv being a dying species. Then I could use the War Wagons that I had bought at the dead end of 1.0, before they had got emasculated. They also filled my new magic criteria of "troops who can start on factor 4 are very hard to kill". Add in a Teuton ally - with a regular ally general, it can't change sides, and you have a small (but very sharp) cutting edge. perfick !

Again I decided to prepare perfectly - a work trip to Denmark, a late night, lots of Tuborg larger and then a 4 hour trip from Stanstead Airport to Loughboro.

Its late, I'm tired, I've lost nearly all my practice games with the army - so what do you want in your fist game....?

Well, not really a Leidang army! Blades, Blades and more blades presumably. What else could go well? however, just to add insult to injury my opponent then asked me what I'm using, and when I told him "Lithuanians" he says "oh, I practiced against one of those on Wednesday" - not exactly the "what book is that in/I've never seen that before" reaction one would want !!!

With a defending dice roll, I end up fitting my terrain around a WW - which is promptly filled with a waterborne command. The Vikings line up with tow major commands on table, and then a substantial 16 element Medieval German command, with 2 DBE Knight wedges, pushing down the side of the waterway. I'd managed to get a hill into the center of my central sector, and open space in most of the rest of the table, so I decided to make a stand on the hill with the blades and some double ranked auxilia, and to use the Teutons to carve a path through basically the entire Leidang army, starting with some Ax who had got hung out to dry in the open plains of Lithuania.

Well. it was a good theory, and unlike most theories, it survived contact with the enemy ! The Teutons pushed forwards, and supported on their left by the famous micro command and their auxilia who were hunting bowmen in the open, they smashed through the Nordic line, and started to roll up the remnants - of which there were many indeed - it was a big command !

However on my right things were starting to look hairy - the center's had clashed, and I was being slowly pushed back towards the crest of the hill - and my flank was defended only by some LH, who were also trying to prevent the DBE knights getting into play!

The command on my left collapsed - but time was running out - would I get enough elements for a decisive victory? The central Viking command was actually pushing me over the hill, so there were no chance of a victory there - but the DBE's were being drawn onwards, and soon found themselves swamped by LH and wagons! With minutes to spare, the German general found himself isolated, a LH jumped behind him, the wagon fired - and he was gone.... and with him the army!

10-0  /   32-0  (with just 3 of my elements dead)

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