Former Chin civil war

After having played and tested for a lot of time fourth period armies, due tournament commitment, me and Paolo decided to have a classical game. We secretely prepared an army, and when we meet I said: I have a brand new army, never used by anyone. Paolo said: "me too! I'm using Former chin". I started laughing. I had the same army!

The lists by the way where very different, because Paolo used a large number of IBdI in the center, supported on one wing by massed Ax and on the other by KnX and CvO. The command structure was regular.

My Former Chin was irregular with 2 ally generals because I wanted huge corps. For this reason I used light horses fast and my opponent CvO.

As defender I had an extremely good terrain, but my plan was not the best one. My right wing was too weak. It would be much better to play with two auxilia wing with BwI in the center, supportd by KnX behind them in second line. In such a way I could use the LhF to outflank the enemy, while with the actual deployment I did not.

Thanks to good pips on turn one I formed a column sending my KnX to the right to protect the IBwI from the mass of enemy Ax. I attacked on the left flank, where I had better quality and more troops. With both the allies reliable a critical situation was avoided.

We discussed (being a friendly game) the two options Paolo had: press forward or manouver in column the IBdI shadowing my IKnX. He correctly decided to advance, because his center had the lower pip dice. This is the main reason because I choosed the irregular generals: the idea is to put pressure all over the line of the enemy, and this is difficult to do with the regular lower pip dice in an irregular army. My Former Chin is a swarm of low quality troops supported by some Kn, and cannot pick the sector to attack sending there the selected assault troops.

The rebels advanced and the main flaw of my plan was evident: My army frontage was very large, and I had two corps fighting against all the enemy army. My Ax command on the left was almost not engaged due also to bad pips. Next time it will be better to deploy deeper and use just the LhF on the outer wings. Just in case, they can redeploy or outflank fast.

My KnX were in the right position to protect the uphill IBwI. Unfortunately, I charged the AxS for five turns in a row killing a total of 4 enemy elements. This would prove fatal, because it gave them the time to logorate my BwI.

The enemy charge in the center. The rough hill gave me some help reducing the impact on the central Ax corps

The first of many unsuccessful attacks by my cataphracts

On the left wing Paolo tried just to gain time and protect the flanks. He had few troops there and aimed to delay me while he attacked elsewhere

The IBwI were attacked by AxS and IBdI. Initially my combat dice were good and I repulsed the enemy, but it was just a matter of time before archers started to die.

My AxS in the center were destroyed at the first impact by enemy KnX, and I sent in the RKnF reserve. The charge was unsuccessful.

The enemy cavalry manouvered to contain the push by my AxS from the brush.

Slowly the AxS started killing my BwI, that apparently were the tougher troops in my army.

My losses were mounting and my situation was desperate. I attacked hard, and finally a hole appeared in the enemy KnX line, made by a KnF.

The more critical moment for me was when I charged the enemy Cv with a KnF and Ax having the advantage of hard flank and rear over enemy. Another fail, and a RKnF killed by Cv.

The right wing and the central corps were both disheartened, and my army was near the breaking point.

My last charge finally made many casualties on Paolo's left wing, disheartening the corps and not breaking it by half element. It was too late, because he had several combats to eliminate the few necessary elements to win the game

The I BwI after a longer resistance that they should have opposed, finally were destroyed and I lost in sequence the corps and the army.

5-20 with rebels victory.

A nice game well played by my opponent. What was quite interesting was how long I was in the game thanks huge break points. Should I have planned a bit better my deployment, I could have won.