Game 3 vs early Carthaginian - Britcon, 10th, 11th and 12th August 2012
My third game was with jan van Embden, Britcon winner in 2011. He used a well balanced version of early Carthaginian with four corps including a small Numidian ally. He had the full heavy chariot allotment, supported by AxS, skirmishers and spearmen.
I attacked again and as planned used a river.
Jan set up several terrains that granted him a very strong defensive position. He deployed his army well back, with flank protected and partly behind a gentle hill crest. My plan was to use my superior skirmishers to outflank both his flanks once the lines were engaged.
My initial manouver was to position the light horses out on the flanks
The Carthaginians didn't move forward, sitting inside their terrain fortress. I tried to attack the IPsI in the wood. If succesfull I would have tried at least to kill the 10% of the army. After several rounds of manouvering and fighting, I lost 1 RLhS for a couple of psiloi. I pulled the Lh back and sent in the CvS
The CvS first attack was a failure. The Carthaginian was not willing to come out of its position, and I decided to not charge in with both flanks exposed. So in the end we agreed for a 13-12 for Ottoman.
I was a little bit frustrated. I expected some corner sitting of course, but I hoped this game could be a real battle. Round three was early in the tournament and there would be a lot of possibilities for a come back, even suffering a defeat. Probaly this game was a lost opportunity for both of us.
By the way me and Jan had time to relax a bit. I liked very much Jan's army, it was very well balanced and with all the right tools to fight a tournament like Britcon.