Game 4 - vs Spartans hiding in a wood
The Spartans deployed with only one visible on table command - and quickly threw out their skirmishers....
We were expecting a flank march of some magnitude, and had resolved to counter it by, erm, crossing our fingers and trying to eat the baggage !!!! But, imagine our surprise top find out that the rest of the Spartans were hiding in a huge orchard - and immediately burst out to surprise us !...... however, as part of our plan, we had resolved to "leg it!!", and our bowmen had already got to the top of the nearby hill / rough hill / elevated section of the Bow Motorway tm giving them a great opportunity to have their hilltop picnic and birdwatching expedition diusturbed by more Spartan Spear and Auxilia than you could shake a hamper at.........nice...
The Landestroppen had just decided that fighting anything in front of them was the best bet - no tactical subtlety - and after a dangerous run-in (or, to be more precise, a "run-over") with the Achean League's light horse, the started to apply the sort of pressure to the Spartan baggage that they probably hadn't been used to since their last battle against a Welsh army. This was ably aided and abetted by a 2 element raiding party, who had sailed 2 feet along the waterway, landed, run another 3 feet across the table......so didn't particularly want to fight anything that serious !!!Meanwhile, back at the picnic site, the Spartans were struggling manfully to overcome the three disadvantages of Enemy Uphill, New Bow Rear Support Factors and Good Dice From Mick - a nasty combination by anyone's reckoning. The bowmen had well and truly forgotten the picnic, and were by-now firmly entrenched and going nowhere.
Unable to get their forges to clear the hill, the Spartans were in dire trouble - as time drew on, the raiding party ate nearly all the baggage, and the ambush must have been wishing they had stayed hidden in the woods !!!
Finally they were overwhelmed - a combination of baggage losses (7 elements = 14 EE) and the encirclement of the initial on-table command, plus some losses inflicted by the bowmen meant half the army was down. 10-0
So, another year, another trophy - we ended up 2nd, on goal difference, and got a very nice (but metric) set of brass measuring sticks for troubles.... can't wait for next year !!
