ADLG - Game Report 302

Taifa Kingdom (204) vs Zapotecs (285)

For my second game I was confronted with a large army of Meso-Americans; Zapotecs to be precise. I won the initiative and decided to attack in the plains. The terrain we arrived at couldn't have been more conducive for a defender, but what ever happened I needed to take the fight to the enemy and try and get my Knights into contact with the Zapotec swordsmen in order to win the battle.

My plan, for what it was, was to use the foot on the right to occupy and delay the enemy force I suspected to be in ambush on the enemy left. While this was happening I move the cavalry, led by the Knights around both sides of the marsh in the centre. A bold and courageous plan.

So far so good, the foot commander has moved his light troops to the left to screen the marsh. On the left the Light Cavalry seized their opportunity to attack the flank of the enemy as they moved into the field in column and were successful. However, the CinC was a little dilatory in moving up in support!

So we have positioned ourselves where we think we need to be to execute the plan. Although the CinC on the left should be further forward, and besides this problem the gap he was is too narrow to adequately deploy his command for the full effect.

In the marsh the light troops have occupied the enemy to their demise, but hopefully it should buy us sufficient time to achieve the goal. On the right of the marsh the Knights, supported by the Heavy Cavalry, have shown their full potential against medium swordsmen. On the left we have yet to make contact. To overcome the problems of the narrowness of the gap, and the threats that could come from the field, the Light Cavalry and one Heavy Cavalry unit are moving into positions to threaten the field; a few Javelins might we upset the Zapotecs.

And indeed the Zapotecs are being roundly punished by the Javelins. But to their right the CinC rather botched getting his troops in line to exploit the gap and the Heavy Cavalry units made contact without the Knights in support; silly CinC! On the right of the marsh the Zapotecs don't know when they have been beaten and refuse to just run away. While the foot have doing what they need to do by buying time and space by dying for the Kingdom.

Another costly mistake from the CinC meant that he failed to spot that his Heavy Cavalry were to far from the enemy to be able to make contact with then, and as such their colleagues fighting to the left of the marsh were caught in flank. To the right of the marsh the enemy are still refusing to do what they are supposed to do. Time and space are being traded by the lives of the Kingdom foot.

Outcome

With the temperature rising at Entoyment in spite of the fan, and not because of us, we both agreed that the Kingdom conceding on 22 out of 24 with the Zapotecs on 20 of 29 was a sound move.

Lessons Learnt

It was always going to be difficult to take on such a large army in terrain of their choosing.

In a competition I might well have played the game very differently, but this game was not that!