Battle Report - Early Tang vs Patrician Roman

Blood Valley
3rd April vs Peter Dunne

Pu Ki speared another Roman knight with his quill*, and whirled around. No other romans were in reach, but another band of knights and skirmishers were forming up to threaten his flank, so he urged his bodyguard left, to join a ragtag mob of Samarkhandi lancers and Ugrait skirmishers. He swore to his aide "By Buddha's left foot, this battle has been a cockup from the start! Where in hell is Lo Fat now?". His aide murmured "Surely the good general is on his way - look at the way the Roman right is roiling in turmoil. Kung fu tze says that the rice grows fastest where noone watches the paddies." "And Sun Tzu says that only a fool trusts a Samarkhandi. Ever since those fool lancers came barreling up the middle of the field, splitting my command in half, I havent heard an ancestorless word from the light horse, or the
pudding-bowl-men." [trans> cataphracts]

Pu Ki stared incredulously at him, then clutched his saddle as he felt his guts rumbling again. For the first time ever, he'd made it through most of the battle without being ill - those korean herbs must have worked, after a fashion - but at the price of an inexhaustible supply of wind. He stood in his stirrups to peer around, trying to work out what was happening in this Dragonbait of a battle. To his left and ahead, he could see the Romans being driven back by swarms of Lo Fat's cavalry, a boiling melee that was pressing hard against the wooded slopes the Romans had originally emerged from.

Ahead of him, the Roman centre was riven in shreds by the impetuous charge of the Samarkhand lancers. Alas, so was the Samarkhandi line, with blobs of them charging around like drunken oxen, crashing into all and sundry, and letting the Romans pierce their line. To his right, he could see that his light horse and cataphracts had pinned back some more Roman auxiliaries against the sheer wooded hills that divided the battlefield in half, and who were in turn slowing the progress of the Roman Legion. He wondered briefly what had happened to the Turks that were holding the other half of the field, beyond those hills - but they might as well be in Beijing for all the bearing they would have on the battle.

He dropped back into his saddle, but the jarring set something loose, and he was almost blown out of his saddle by another eruption from within. Glaring at his smirking bodyguard, he summoned them with an imperious jab of his quill, to join the lancers in another charge against the shattered lines of Roman knights. They sallied forth, crushing more of the Romans beneath their swords, and of a sudden, had a clear space around them.

Pu Ki could see two Roman generals tangled in mortal combat, to left and right of him, and realised that the Roman reserve line was now committed, while half of his cavalry still stood with him, ready for orders. A messenger dashed up - "Compliments of Lo Fat, honoured sir, and the Roman right is now eliminated - he will be here to assist you forthwith." "Tell our beloved leader there is no need to hasten - we hold the centre. As Kung Fu Tze says, Dont add the duck to the soup until the last five minutes." The messenger, suitably confused, galloped off.

Pu Ki's aide flung up an arm, and cried "Look". Pu Ki peered at the Roman rear, where he could see hundreds of turbanned and robed Arabs pouring down towards the camp. Another internal explosion jolted him higher, and of a sudden he could see a mass of Turks behind them, chasing them towards the camp. As he watched, agog, the Arabs struck against the Roman camp, ravaging it from end to end. All around, he could hear the Romans cry surrender, and he saw the legion breaking its' eagles.

He smiled in satisfaction, and turned to his aide. "Now to find that - brrrrrrrp - quack of a Korean and fillet him!"

*thus showing the pen is mightier than the sword

Notes:
The field was very constricted, divided in half by a line of wooded hills the Roman attacker placed (he also had more of these in his deployment area). On the right, my Turkish ally raced off to face his Unreliable Arab ally, and sat there for virtually the whole game - until a Roman command broke, and the Arabs turned coat & attacked the baggage.

THis was the first time I'd tried KnX, and in the constricted field, I wound up in 3 lines - CvS+LH front line, CvS+KnX second line, and irr KnF ally third line (actually a march column).

THe result was, as I brought the KnF forward, after marching it to where I wanted it to attack, it split each of the other commands in half. Not too bright, but fortunately I never lacked too seriously for pips (the generals managed to keep within 1200p virtually the whole time).

Peter Dunn, my opponent, was somewhat unlucky with his combat dice, and that I had the opportunity to pick my matchups: but he also got fouled up a bit by the amount of terrain he had placed - his right wing wound up dangling in the air, because his LH couldnt find a gap big enough to get through & get into support. This was - eventually - fatal.

The other thing that surprised me was the effectiveness of the irr KnF - they tore through his Reg KnF very swiftly, despite an equal frontage. I suspect that was just good luck, tho I did have a second line of KnF & CvS ready to plug holes.


Lessons learnt:

For the Chinese:
1.    Dont split commands in half by deploying in 3 lines - having each command 2 lines deep would've been wiser
2.    Dont get too casual once you've broken an enemy command (haven't I said this before? <s>)

For the Romans:
1.    Leave enough room to deploy
2.    You cant afford to leave all your terrain troops tied up in terrain - they must be used aggressively.
3.    Keep your Ps support up with your Legion - if KnX kill the Bd, then the Ps still dont die (if Bd are 2 deep)