Sung at Milan 2013

FWIW an account of my progress at the 2013 ITC team event organised by Lorenzo
in Milan last weekend.

We agreed that I would play in the third pool (DBMM book 3) so I went with the
South China variant of the Sung Chinese, 1066. Rejoicing in the name 'The Wild
Geese' the other members of our team were Mick (Bk 1 - Urartians), Richard (Bk 2
- Tamil Indian) and Tony Bergin (Bk 4 - Catalan Company). My list comprised:

C1 (30 ME): Reg CvS sub, 4 x Reg CvS, 2 x Reg KnF, 1 x Reg CvI, 9 x Irr AxS, 1
x IrrPsO, 1 x HdO
C2 (27ME): Reg CvS CiC, 4 x Irr BwXO, 2 x RegWWgO, 1 x IrrBgS, 2 x Reg ArtO, 2 x
Irr BdO, 2 x Irr AxI, 2 x Irr BwI, 6 x HdO
C 3 (30ME): Reg CvS sub, 4 x Reg CvS, 1 x Reg CvI, 2 x Irr BwXO, 1 x RegWWgO, 1
x IrrBgS, 2 x Irr AxI, 2 x Irr BwI, 9 x HdO
Baggage (9ME): 3 x Reg BgI, 3 x Irr BgI

Our experience at last year's inaugural ITC event was that people tended to
employ a very direct style of play, so I decided to go with the Sung on the
basis that they are very strong frontally, so well set up to cope with head-on
attacks. On the down side, they are clunky, with relatively few regulars to
benefit from the free PIPs offered by the Regular generals. I tried to solve
this problem by putting the CiC in charge of C2's high firepower but low
maneouver BwX/WWg/Art combo, leaving the two subs to command a block each of
regular mounted troops. As the attacking wing, C1 got a decent number of AxS. As
the defensive wing, C3 had lots of poor quality padding to bulk up its ME.



Round 1 - vs. James Cheung/Yellow Dragons (Sui Chinese)
I invaded with second deployment advantage so optimised match-ups. As a result
C3 and C2's war wagons, artillery and archers lined up on my left and centre
(with mounted in reserve) against the opposing Sui BwX and Art (25ME). On the
right, C1 had a frontline of AxS backed by its mounted against KnX on the Sui
left wing (25ME) , supported by LHF and PsO. A third Sui command (19ME) of CvS
and CvO was in reserve.

James countered my match-ups by successfully redeploying the KnX to his right,
where they formed up to attack the Sung war wagons and BwX, but at the cost of
masking his artillery. His right wing BwX simultaneously began redeploying, if
rather less speedily, to his left. This was to support his reserve Cv, which
moved out to fill the space vacated by the KnX. Alas for James these were
crippled early on when the very first two opening shots by the Sung artillery in
the centre destroyed two elements of CvS. After further losses disheartened this
command, James exectued a 180 degree turn to withdraw them, opening space on
their right to allow BwX arriving from his right to succour them, but it wasn't
enough and the Sui Cv broke when C1's mounted caught up with them.

On my left, the Sui KnX failed to break through against the WWg and BwX, with
the wagons serving as effective bastions projecting forward to create overlaps
against KnX reaching the Bw. Combined with attritional losses elsewhere to the
commands other elements and the odd dead KnX, this command eventually broke when
it was tipped over by the rout of the Cv command, breaking the army and making
it 22-3 to me.

Round 2 - vs. Sergio Monteleone/Zeneixi (Normans)
Sergio opted for the William the Conqueror version so the year was spot on in
this one, even if the geography was not. I again invaded with second deployment
against Sergio, who deployed with the emphasis on his left. As a result, C1's
mounted (soon to be reinforced by those of C3) faced a 21ME Breton command
comprised mostly of CvO (12 elements including the sub) plus a 12ME command of
Norman KnF on their inner flank. Further in was a 25ME foot command comprised
mostly of BdO (15 including the sub), facing C1's AxS across a batch of scrubby
ground. On the Norman right (although in the centre of the table) was a 32ME
command led by Duke Bill himself, comprising a large block of KnF padded out by
LHI, BwI, Hd and sundry other bits and pieces.

Even with C1 and C3 mounted combined, my massed mounted were still outnumbered
by the Bretons and Norman on Sergio's left. Admittedly I had a qualiatative
advantage, but the lottery like nature of mounted fighting tends to make me
nervous, so I decided to hold back and let him come to me. In any case C1's AxS
were significantly outnumbered by the opposing BdO, so it was better to hold
back and attack on my left, where the big Norman mounted command presented an
ideal target for the BwX/WWg/Art combo. Sergio was well aware he would have been
much better off dismounting these KnF as BdO, but unfortunately for him, he
didn't have the necessary foot figures with him so was unable to use this
option.

The game unfolded in two phases.

On my left, faced with being shot to bits if he stood on the defence, Sergio
attacked promptly but without success at the KnF broke up against the Sung
bastion line and eventually routed.

On my right, the biggest mounted battle in which I have played for a long time
got underway as 17 Norman/Breton elements took on 14 of Sung. I waited until
they came within range before charging to get the S advantage but it did me no
good as I lost two 2ME elements in exchange for just one CvO (underlining my
prejudice against mounted fights). As the battle went on however, the
compulsory pursuit by Norman KnF proved their undoing, breaking the 12ME command
and exposing the Bretons' inner flank. As a result these too broke when as they
accumulated losses and were tipped over by the rout of the Norman right, making
it 22-3.

From chatting with him, I learned that Sergio is an experienced player but has
only played about four games of DBMM. In this context he played very well and
certainly left me feeling anxious by forcing me into the mounted lottery on my
right which I didn't really want to play. I think his only mistake was that by
attacking as soon as he did with his mounted, he did not allow enough time to
develop his BdO attack against C1's AxS on my inner flank.


Round 3 - vs. Denis Peroni/Condotierri I (Central Asian Turk)
We both did our best to achieve a result in this one but the assymetric nature
of the match-up meant that after 90 minutes which saw lots of manouvering but
virtually no fighting, neither of us was getting anywhere. In the best
traditions of Denis's team name, we therefore agreed to a bloodless draw (13-12
to him) and played out the rest of the game for fun.

Denis's decison not to fight competitively was vindicated when his massive 28ME
left wing of LHS gave a good account of themselves against C1, the latter with
the advantage of having its Ax in Rgo, but ultimately the LH got the worst of
it, prompting Denis to break off with feigned flight when the command was
disheartened. Elsewhere there was delsultory fight in a BUA on my left with
honours fairly even, and Denis even managed to sack my baggage with an isolated
elemement of LH before the Sung KnF disposed of them through the cunning
expedient of allowing the raiding LH to bore their way far enough through the
baggage so that they could be attacked in the rear. It's the only way to use Kn
Fragile if you ask me!


Round 4 - vs. David Houston/Old Contemptibles (Dailami)
Dave and I know each other well from the Irish competition circuit. There was
also a certain irony to be playing against each other in an international team
even as we had been team-mates in the old DBM ITC event in Lisbon few years ago.

I invaded but had to deploy first anyway. Strong winds shortened shooting ranges
and left my Art at a disadvantage, prompting me to leave these out of the front
line. I went with C1-3 in that order from left to right, mostly in my left half
of the table. On my left, C1's Ax would be required to contest some scrubby
ground on the side table edge. On my right was a ridge shaped difficult hill
which I screened with C3's Hd. The rest of the army deployed to attack along the
line between the scub and the hill, with WWg/BwX to the fore supported by the
mounted in reserve.

David deployed with a big mounted command (33ME) comprising CvS, LHO and a
single ElO plus some PsO on his right, facing C1. In his centre, facing C2 and
C3's WWg/BwX was a 28ME AxS command, supported by a 16ME Kurdish Allied KnI
command behind it. On his far left was another 28ME AxS command, set to attack
over the ridge. As the game unfolded, C3's mounted reserves and the leftmost Ax
command pretty much cancelled each other out, with only minor skirmishing
between them. This left the focus of the game on the centre and my left.

In the centre, the Sung war wagons and BwX ground slowly forward against the
AxS, eventually bringing them under fire as I brought the BwX elements up flush
with the WWg to compensate for their weather reduced range. However this was at
the cost of abandoning the usual bastion formation, which proved a mistake as
David now hit the BwX with the Kurdish KnI, charging through the AxS and killing
all of C2's BwX in a couple of bounds. I killed a couple of the KnI on the
counter attack and eventually broke the Kurds, but at the cost of losing the CiC
exposed to a successful QK attack by the Kurdish ally-general, which broke C2.

On my left, C1 was involved in a long and drawn out attritional fight with the
Dailami right. Although I had the better of things on the outer flank, where
C1's Ax and Kn eventually broke through after wiping out the opposing Ps, David
had overall advantage as he slowly overwhelmed C1's inner flank, causing it to
be disheartened. At this point I figured the game was lost and that my only
remaining option was to destroy as many opposing elements as possible. Alas for
me low PIPs meant the only new target in reach was the El, which I attacked with
overlap with a CvS and improbably killed it after rolling 4-1. As an aside, it
was interesting to see that CvS are not as bad against Elephants as one might
think, the S offensive factor still counting.

It was a nice bonus but I didn't think it would make much difference as on the
following bound David had a 4 vs -1 combat, with a CvS against a disheartened,
flank locked and rear attacked AxS. All he had to do was win it to secure the
game. We rolled.... I scored 5 and David scored 1, which was just enough for the
AxS to hold on! The unexpected reprieve allowed me to carry out two rear
attacks by C1's sub and his remaining CvS wingman on my turn following, which
broke David's right and with it his army. In the same bound, he broke me back by
overwhelming the heroic AxS after it failed to defy the odds a second time. So
the game ended with that most strangely enjoyable of results, a mutual
destruction - 13 -12 to David.

It was a funny old game. Between having to invade but deploy first, suffering
from adverse weather and some poor combat results with the BwX against the
Kurdish KnI, for a long time it looked like fortune was against me in this one,
but in the end it balanced out in spectacular fashion to give me a most unlikely
get out of jail card at the very end. To be fair to David, he was very gracious
about it and was the first to say the luck had evened out.


Conclusion
So in the end I accumulated 71 points, which much to my surprise was enough to
give me first place in the Book 3 Pool. Equally surprisingly, the Wild Geese
Team total of 240 was enough to get us second place in the team event. With the
third placed team on 239, it really was a case of every point counting, which
made me even more grateful to that heroic element of AxS!

Thanks again to Lorenzo for his prodigious organisational skills, to our Italian
friends for being such exemplary hosts and to all of my oppponents for great
game, the last one being truly memorable.

Jan