ADLG Sui Chinese v Sogdians

Gordon wanted a practice with his Roll Call Sogdian army so I agreed to use my Sui Chinese. I went with the usual composition for this army of mixed commands of foot and mounted with an heavy artillery piece thrown in mainly as they look good!

The Chinese won the initiative and decided to defend in the forests. The terrain went well for the Chinese with an impassable swamp anchoring the right flank and a large wood on the left, though the wood did have a road running through it:

As expected the Sogdians were mostly impetuous heavy cavalry with a few foot archers. Their plan seemed to involve some sort of devious move along the road through the forest. The Chinese heavy cavalry on the right moved across to counter this plan:

The Chinese cavalry arrive in plenty of time to block off the sneaky Sogdian plan:

The Sogdians advance in echelon, the Chinese artillery is worrying them and they seem unwilling to move into range of it:

The Sogdians quicken their advance and the first command of cavalry charges home:

One Chinese cavalry unit has been destroyed but the Sogdians have taken a few hits:

While the Sogdians hold back in the centre the Chinese foot charge home on the Sogdian archers:

On the left both sides take hits and losses:

On the right the Sogdians attack the Chinese medium foot and archers in front of the Chinese camp. An archer goes down at contact and a swordsman is badly damaged:

The damaged swordsman is finished off and there is nothing between the Sogdians and the Chinese camp:

On the left and in the centre the Chinese have inflicted heavy losses on the Sogdians and brought them close to their break point:

Worried about the potential fall of the camp the Chinese commit their commander on the left to combat. Both cavalry units are badly damaged and disastrously the combat results in the Chinese cavalry being destroyed and the general killed!

The Sogdian's morale has broken but unfortunately the loss of the camp has tipped the Chinese morale so they break as well resulting in a mutual destruction:

This was a quick game in that Gordon's plan was to charge everything into my army and my plan was to let him!

I put my camp next to the impassable marsh thinking it would be safe there but that was a mistake as the medium foot in front of it were very vulnerable to the Sogdian cavalry especially once I committed my reserve cavalry from that flank to the other flank.

The other thing that lost me the  game was putting my general into combat when perhaps I didn't need to. Adding him only made a marginal difference and, if I'd not got him killed, I would have won the game. Such are the choices you have to make...….

ADLG Sui Chinese v Christian Nubian

Another ADLG game, this time in 15mm against Peter's Christian Nubians. Peter wanted to practice for Roll Call so I decided to use Sui Chinese, an army I have not used in a while.

Peter won the initiative and decided to defend in the desert. The terrain fell quite well for the Chinese with an impassable oasis anchoring the left flank and some brush the right. The Chinese deployed their heavy foot and supporting cavalry in the centre and left with the medium foot and a large stone thrower on the right. The Nubians had two commands of camels and impetuous swordsmen and one of light horse:

The Nubians flood forwards. The stone thrower promptly lands it's first rock on the advancing camels!:

The match up looks good here for the Chinese with the cavalry mainly facing the impetuous swordsmen and the mixed spear/bow the camels:

The Chinese advance to shoot. Unfortunately I failed to take into account the ability of lines to slide a base width before charging unless you are very close so what looked like a good match up for the Chinese was about to go badly:

On the right more rocks land on the camels:

The Nubians charge home. Due to the incompetence of the Chinese general (me!) the camels are fighting the Chinese cavalry and the impetuous swordsmen the mixed spear and bow. These are pretty bad match ups for the Chinese:

On the right one camel has been shot down and the others have taken some hits but are now in charge range:

The poor match ups result in many losses for the Chinese. They do have some overlaps though:

On the right the surviving camels go in:

Two Chinese bases go down at contact rather unluckily:

The Nubian camels and swordsmen are making holes in the Chinese line. The Chinese don't really have anything to plug the gaps:

The Chinese right flank is looking rather outnumbered. The cavalry need a quick breakthrough:

The centre continues to collapse though the left flank puts up a fight:

Things are looking grim for the right flank Chinese:

Most of the Chinese army has now collapsed and they break. The Nubians have had quite a few losses but with a 30(!) break point are nowhere near defeat as the battle ends:

Until I made the mistake of allowing Peter to slide his battle line (which I could have stopped him doing) the outcome looked good for the Chinese. Once I'd made that mistake it became inevitable the Nubians would triumph pretty much. Special praise goes to the Chinese stone thrower crew who shot down a camel and inflicted several more hits in a great display of shooting!