Horribal Goes to Milan

An account of my recent participation with the Irish team (what else but the
Wild Geese) at the ITC Team challenge in Milan. As the designated Book 1 period
player, I went with an Early Carthaginian Army circra 525BC.

C1 - Abomnibal (28ME): Reg Cv (O) Sub, 4 x Irr Ps (S), 2 x Irr Ps (O), 2 x Irr
Ps (I), 6 x Reg Ps (O), 6 x Reg Ax (O), 12 x Reg Sp (I)
C2 - Horribal (28ME): Reg Sp (S) C-in-C, 5 x Reg Sp (S), 12 x Irr Ax (S)
C3 - Unbelievabal (18ME): Reg Kn (O) Sub, 3 x Reg Kn (O), 1 x Reg Cv (I), 6 Irr
Hd (O), 4 x Irr Ps (I)
C4 - Makai Libyan Ally - Big Mak (16 ME): Irr Cv (O) Ally-General, 1 x Irr Cv
(O), 12 x Irr Ax (I), 7 x Irr Ps (I), 3 x Irr Ps (O)
Baggage: 6 x Irr Bg (I), 6 x Irr Ps (I), 1 x Irr Ax (S)

Delayed Stratagem
Total ME: 100/Break 50.5

As this was the period when Punic armies were not renowned for the brilliance of
their commanders, it seemed appropriate to allocate command to a trio of
Hannibal's lesser known ancestors.

The basic plan was to field an army that could cope with small but high quality
Kn (S) chariot armies that seem to be so popular in this period and also those
huge light troop monsters that are also prevalent. Early Carthaginians with
their combination of regular spear and massed Ax (S) seemed to offer the answer
and so it was that Horribal set out for Milan.

Round 1 - v Paolo Viganó (Condottieri), Sargonid Assyrian
I defended, which was just as well as this enabled me to engineer a nice
defensive position against the many nasty Kn (S) chariots in Paolo's army.
Abomnibal was on the right with his Psiloi in a wood supported by the Ax (O),
while the rest of his infantry, together with Horribal's Sp (S) held a large
gentle hill in the centre. Horribal's Ax (S) were in a large area of rocky
ground on my left, while Big Mak was on the far left. Unbelievabal was in
reserve behind the hill.

As you might expect Paolo's army was smaller than mine but with a higher
proportion of regulars and three regular sub-generals, he had superior command
control. Notwithstanding this, he opted for a frontal assault by his main Kn (S)
command and micro spear command on the hill, supported by an Ax (s)/Ps (O)
command on his left attacking the wood and a Cv (O) command holding his open
right, where he faced strategic overlap by Big Mak.

Paolo got off to a good start, with his Ax (S) getting the better of my Ax (O)
after I moved them up to support my Ps in front of the wood, while his chariots
bowled over a few Sp (I). However, after a few bounds the odds against attacking
uphill into spearmen began to prevail, while I was also able to mount an
effective counter attack with my own chariots moving up through the infantry.
The critical moment came when Paolo lost two chariots in the only place where he
had no reserves to cover the gaps, enabling me to carry out a series of flank
locks which first disheartened and then broke his chariot command and his micro
sprear command to boot, the latter have suffered the particularly painful loss
of double ranked Sp (S) in a single combat. The domino effect was crucial here,
with loss of the chariot command breaking the micro and then the cumulative loss
of both breaking the Assyrian Ax command to break the army. 22-3 to me.



Round 2 - v Fabio Pizzocri (Foo Fighters), Early Libyan
I defended and did not wish to fight Fabio's enormous (150+ raw elements) army
frontally. In particular I did not want to go anywhere near his numerous Wb and
Bd (F) with my Sp (I) or (S). I therefore planned to avoid presenting him with a
head on target and concentrate against his flanks. Accordingly, Horribal was on
the far left where a convenient road facilitated a rapid march by the Sp (S) to
the side table edge on the outer flank, to be reinforced by Abominibal, arriving
by flank march. On the far right, Big Mak occupied a wood while Unbelievabal
prepared to lead his chariots around the far side in support of his ally. This
left a screen of poor quality infantry from C3 and the baggage to defend the
line between the wood and my rear table edge, at 90 degrees to the table edge,
guarding the baggage behind them.

Fabio deployed his four huge commands in line abreast. From right to left was a
Wb (F) command, then a mixed command of Ps, Ax and Bw (all I), then a Sea People
Ally (masses of Bd) and then another mixed command. As a result of these
dispositions, a large part of Fabio's army started off facing fresh air, which
obliged him to spend a lot of the game wheeling his Wb command (on his right) to
face Horribal's Ax, while his centre right mixed command set off an a long
journey to attack my rubbish troops defending the baggage. Unfortunately for
Fabio the Sea People were unreliable, which meant his left wing mixed command
was on its own against Big Mak and Unbelievabal's chariots. As a result of all
this, the battle broke down into three distinct components.

On my left Horribal's Ax (S) engaged in a long and hard fought battle against
the Libyan Wb (F) and its supporting Ps (I), from which they just about emerged
by a nose to leave the Wb disheartened and just half an ME off breaking. While
Horribal's men were also in poor shape, I had a distinct advantage here thanks
to the arrival of Abominibal's fresh troops (finally arriving after eight
unsuccessful attempts), who were perfectly positioned to break the Wb.

On my far right, Big Mak emerged from the wood to take on their cousins in the
opposing mixed Libyan command. Here the support of Unbelievabal's chariots
proved decisive, eventually disheartening and coming close to breaking the
opposing command.

Behind the wood, Fabio's centre right mixed command eventually came within
shooting distance of my baggage and started inflcting losses on the poor quality
screen of Hd (O) and Ps (I) that I had set up to defend it.

At this point the game timed out for a draw, which was a pity as in another
bound or two, Abomnibal would have broken the Wb which would in turn have
triggered the still unreliable Sea Peoples to change sides and secure me a big
win. As it was though honours were even at 13-12 to Fabio but definitely one to
file under "Ones that Got Away." In retrospect, even though Fabio's army was
huge, there would still have been enough room to squeeze Abominibal up the left
rather than send him on a flank march, but that's hindsight.



Round 3 - v Richard Darby (Old Contemptibles), Mycenean
Richard defended and deployed another monster army comprising two commands of
massed Sp (I) supported by light troops and chariots, fronted by a smaller
command of single ranked Wb and Bd (O) led by Achilles himself. Richard's
squeezed all these was into his left half of the table, anchored on their right
on a small wood in the dead centre of the table and a BUA on their left. His
fourth command, comprised entirely of Cv (O) chariots, were the only troops he
deployed to the right of the woods.

As in the previous round, I didn't fancy fighting his main army frontally, so
deployed Abominibal and Horribal to the left of the centre wood, soon to be
reinforced by Unbelievabal and his chariots. The Libyan ally lined up on the
inner flank, with the Ax (I) ready to attack the wood and the Ps strung out to
the right to delay his main force. The baggage and Unbelievabal's rubbish troops
deployed on a convenient difficult hill directly opposite the main Mycenean
force. My plan was to use my superior mobility and command control to bring the
bulk of my army around the central wood and attack his main force from the flank
and (hopefully) rear.

As a result of this offset deployment, most of the fighting focused in the
centre wood where Big Mak (initially unreliable but brought back on line after
his Ps were dispersed by Achilles) eventually cleared the wood.
On my right, Richard advanced against minimal opposition but with no light
troops in the vicinity was not well equipped for attacking the difficult hill.

On my left, Abominibal and Horribal made painfully slow progress pushing back
the Mycenean Chariot command, which although broken up, frustratingly always
rolled sufficiently high PIP dice to avoid getting into trouble. They even
managed to destroy a Sp (S) and a couple of Ax (S) in straight up combats
(ouch). Worse,forgetting that Mycenean Cv (O) chariots can dismount as Bd (O), I
had carelessly placed Horribal himself in the front rank. Richard duly
dismounted a couple of heroes, attacked and inevitably quick killed Horribal and
disheartened his command. Even more painful ouch!

With C2 now on the verge of breaking, I was on the back foot for the rest of the
game, which happilu was not long as it timed out soon after at 10-15 to Richard.


Round 4 - v Vincenzo Sarracino (Los Yetis), New Kingdom Egyptian
Vincenzo defended with with three commands. In his centre was a command of Cv
(S) chariots with Bw (O) to their left. On each flank were virtually identical
commands comprised of Cv (S) chariots and Bd (F) supported by a few light
troops.

After two unsuccessful attempts to attack my opponents from the flank I was
suffering from Borodino syndrome and determined to go for for a head on attack
in this one.

This was completely successful in the centre where Horribal's Ax (S) made heavy
weather of getting to grips with the Egyptian Bw but Unbelievabal's Kn (O)
successful moved through Horribal's single ranked Sp (S) to smash the Egyptian
chariots and break the opposing centre.

My attempt to swamp the Egyptian left with superior numbers of Libyans proved a
complete failure, as a result of which Big Mak was broken and shattered in short
order. This left Vincenzo's triumphant left and my victorious centre to
reoroganise and square off against each other for the rest of the game. Horribal
was more battered and scattered than the Egyptian left, but by way of
compensation, I managed to roll enough PIPs to rally Unbelievabal from pursuit
and dispatch him to reinforce Horribal.

On my left, Abominibal's Sp (I) squared off against the Egyptian's right wing Bd
(F), who were constrained from moving in for the quick kill by the collapse of
the Egyptian centre. This left Abominibal's Ax (O) and Ps (O) to fight six or
seven elements of Egyptian Cv (S) chariots and a lone LH (I) on my outer flank,
resulting in a drawn out contest which eventually went went Vincenzo's way.
Swamping tactics again proved a complete failure here when his lone LH (I)
killed five Ps (O) - and remember that LH (I) don't QK Ps!

As a result of of all this, the game was definitely going Vincenzo's way as we
approached full time. In fact, on the very last combat of the game he had a 3-2
QK combat with Bd (F) in Rgo against disheartened Sp (I) (they had finally got
into contact) which had it come off would have broken my army to give him a big
win. We rolled, Vincenzo got 2, I scored 5 and I survived to tie the game at
13-12. This time it was Vincenzo who was left to ponder the one that got away.

I would like to thank all of my opponents for four great, challenging games
played in good spirit. Special thanks to Lorenzo for organising a fantasic
event, to all our Italian hosts for their tremendous hopitality, and to Ricardo
for his great patience (after all, he was playing his own game) with translation
in game two, in which Fabio had no English and I had even less Italian.