ADLG: Northern League Round 2 (Manchester, 07 May 2023)

Introduction
It's fair to say I had to force myself to attend this round: I have a lot going on at the moment.  Not least the residual upheaval surrounding my recent relocation.

When this year's themes were announced I thought I'd be able to field a new Arab army in this round.  No chance: I've still got to finish the heavy cavalry.  I had to borrow four bases of heavy cavalry from Gareth Jones: thanks Gareth.

Kevin Johnson at the day's organisational nerve centre.  Thanks Kev.

I was surprised by how long it took me to get ready on Saturday.  Nothing was in its usual place.  I'd unpacked things in new places and everything took longer to find.

Of course I forgot a few things (play sheets etc) which was annoying.  Then I ended up with one too many army lists (see below).  To cap it all, I didn't realise that my camera wasn't set up properly until right at the end; so apologies for the quality of some of the photos.

The match to decide first place.  Or was it?

Event Summary

Event	Northern League Round 2
Date	07 May 2023
Rules Version	ADLG 4
Theme	Dark Age & Feudal (194-1329 AD). No Heavy or Foot Knights.
Venue	Magdalene Centre, Eccles, M30 8JD
Army	Andalusian Arabs
Army list	133.0.01
Army date	800 AD
Entrants	17 players in 16 teams.
My results	10th of 16 with 157 points. 1 win, 1 draw & 1 loss.
All results	Final placings.

Mea Culpa
After the event I discovered I played with a list that wasn't the one that had been checked.  The differences involved only the generals.  The checked list had Brilliant, Competent, & Unreliable generals.  The list I used had Competent, Brilliant & Included generals.  Thankfully, this doesn't change the points values.  Both are legal.

In my defence it turned out I'd printed two lists: the one that was checked and an older one that I ended up using throughout.

The checked list was printed after I'd been messing about with my list writing spreadsheet: it now produces a "packing list" of units to take to the competition.  Part of the messing about involved switching the attributes of the generals to check that it calculated the right number of generals.  Clearly, I forgot to switch them back when I'd finished testing the new feature.  Doh!

Strategy & Review
This was my very first Dark Age list: for any rules not just Art de la Guerre (ADLG).  It contains a lot of infantry and deliberately so.  I wanted something different from my usual choice of medieval cavalry based armies.

It has one heavy infantry command with supporting archers and javelin men.  One command of medium infantry spearmen to contest rough going and an all cavalry command with elite impact heavy cavalry for punch on a flank.

Amazingly, for an army I'd never used before, this approach worked reasonably well and I scored heavily in the first two games.  The medium foot command did almost nothing all day; except die slowly.  I may have to rethink this command.  The javelin armed light horse in the cavalry command proved very effective when they had enough space.

Where I had problems it was usually due to command and control issues.  The "Competent, Brilliant & Included" set of generals is sub-optimal: the "Brilliant, Competent, & Unreliable" set of generals will be better.  I may have handicapped myself: serves me right.

Overall, a pleasing set of results.  It was my best ADLG performance in a long time.  I even won a competitive game!  Onwards and upwards.

Game #1

Opposition	Martin Routh & Paul Carter
Army	Low Countries
Army number	243
Army date	1297
Initiative	Won
My Posture	Attacking
Terrain	Plain
Game time	Timed out.
Attrition Scores	10/24 to 20/24
Decisive	No
Points	52 to 40
Result	Draw

This was the most relaxed and enjoyable game of the day.  The mug shot above sums it up nicely.  Almost wall to wall mediocre pike; quite a challenge.  My all cavalry command worked the only open flank and completely destroyed an enemy command: much to my surprise.  Elsewhere the bowmen in the enemy battle line proved an easy target for the heavy infantry.  I was four points from my first ever ADLG V4 victory, and 2 mm from the enemy's camp, when time was called.

Game #2

Opposition	Thrasyvoulos Drakoulis
Army	Qara-Khitan
Army number	228
Army date	1210
Initiative	Lost
My Posture	Attacking
Terrain	Steppe
Game time	Not recorded.
Attrition Scores	18/24 to 25/24
Decisive	Yes
Points	85 to 25
Result	Win

It didn't surprise me when Thrasyvoulos opted for steppe terrain.  It worried me though: my record in the steppes is poor despite fielding many steppe armies.  He had a small flank march which arrived almost straight away.  My javelin armed light horse did sterling work against this command killing their included general.  Elsewhere my elite heavy cavalry did well against the enemy heavy cavalry; the heavy infantry did the same against their mediocre opponents while the LMI archers and javelin men, seriously damaged the enemy's elite heavy cavalry and light horse.  Under pressure everywhere Thrasyvoulos began to rue his luck with the combat dice.  My first competitive ADLG V4 victory duly arrived.

Game #3

Opposition	Chris Tofalos
Army	Feudal Scots
Army number	184
Army date	1297
Initiative	Lost
My Posture	Defending
Terrain	Mountains
Game time	Not recorded.
Attrition Scores	25/24 to 13/26
Decisive	Yes
Points	20 to 90
Result	Loss

Another wall of mediocre pike.  This time with an ally of bow armed swordsmen.  They attacked me in the mountains to boot.  I was optimistic at first but had terrible luck with my command and control dice not helped by losing my included general.  This left me frozen in place in some very dodgy tactical situations.  Where I did make progress I couldn't seem to create a big enough opening. I worried Chris in a few places with the cavalry command but elsewhere his pike fought well.  When most of my heavy spear had died I knew it was over.  The one saving grace: it took Chris a long time to grind me down.  A loss but not a walkover either.

Closing remarks
The second photo above shows Rob Taylor and Mike Bennet engrossed in the battle for what they hoped would be first and second place.  This turned out not to be the case.  Thanks to my heavy defeat to Chris Tofalos, and Mike and Rob drawing their third game, Chris claimed first place.  Mike and Rob were second and third respectively.  This was a surprise and an interesting twist with which to end the day.