Chaos Tourney

[Schweetness101]

I think mismatches are part of the Chaos brand. Its a good way to learn how to deal with a bad roster and makes a win a little sweeter. I think the only way to ensure no impropriety in selection is to have the organizer make the selections using the platform and post the matches.

makes sense, I guess that's what makes it chaos. It's just that a match can take a very long time and be a serious commitment and it's a major drag to just be sitting there clicking through a game that is a foregone conclusion. Learning to deal with a below average roster or unfair matchup is one thing, but there is nothing to learn from a battle where you don't really do anything because the enemy army is superior to the point of being untouchable (like good heavy inf, heavy cav, skirmishers, and horse archers out in a big open field and all you've got is rabble or falxmen and loose warband).

Perhaps, making a list ahead of time of the handful of close to genuinely useless armies, like a rebel army that is almost all rabble, or an almost all loose order warband army, and mandating a reroll in the event that one of the factions is on that list? Dunno about if both factions were on the list lol.

[SnuggleBunnies]

SnuggleBunnies (Byzantine) defeats Schweetness (Ancient British) 49-0

Although craziness is kind of the point, I would advocate for Mirror Matches in the future, so both players have to work for their points in these sorts of situations.

[Karvon]

In response to a few questions and comments made....

1. While obviously, someone posting a challenge could reroll until they were happy with the results, we've been working under an honor system thus far in this first season. If people would be more comfortable, I could roll up the remaining matches offline and then post the results which then one opponent could use to create the challenge in each pairing. In the case of my own matches, I'm happy to trust my opponents to create the challenges for those games. This would only affect matches which haven't been posted already.

2. Mismatches are part of the game in the Chaos League. Making the best of a bad situation is distinctly part of the challenge/fun. Also, not everyone has the same view of a particular army, let alone a match. Different people have different preferences and "one man's junk might well be another man's treasure." The terrain might easily turn a junk army into a great one in some cases.

3. Please post results as per DL practice. A brief summary of the battle is always a welcomed addition IHMO.

4. I have no interest in mirrored matches myself. I definitely prefer playing a potentially wider range of lists and battlefields.

Karvon the Chaotic

[Challenge1]

Thanks for acknowledging that General but I was also outplayed.
As it seems to be a discussion, I understood from the start that there would be matches like this but it’s swings and roundabouts in the chaos world and I enjoyed the fight anyway.

[Schweetness101]

Schweetness101 as Carthaginian wins 19-47 against General Sharpur as Graeco-Bactrian

Edit: I see I am supposed to describe the battle a bit. It also seems to be the standard for the winner to make the outcome post?

I deployed at first in a relatively ordinary formation of carthaginian spear infantry with some medium foot backup and a lot of cav w/ 2 elephants and skirmishers.
General Sharpur sent a large force of lancers with some accompanying irregular infantry on a wide right flank, some cavalry on a wide left, and a combination of medium foot, skirmishers, and cataphracts on a hill in the center. I sent light horse up the hill to goad the cataphracts into pursuing, which they did, and I ended up being able to engage them with a combination of offensive spearmen and an elephant. They eventually routed but it took awhile because they're cataphracts. His medium foot came down and engaged my heavy foot in the open to support the cataphracts, but were also routed when the cavalry from my right flank returned, speaking of which I sent the other elephant + cavalry and one spear unit to my right flank to engage and rout his cavalry there which were outnumbered. My skirmishers were able to rout his because they were pursuing the elephants rather than shooting back at my skirmishers. His irregular foot engaged some of my heavy foot on my left, and finally his lancers made it around the wide right flank to engage, but by then the battle was almost over and they were unable to contribute much (but they were very close to routing the few cavalry units I had sent that way to delay them). gg

[Challenge1]

result (should we post them like the other Tourney?)

General Shapur (Jewish revolt 66-135AD) defeats Challenge1 (sas-Persian 629-651AD). 41-8

This was Challenge1's challange, and quite unlucky to to go up against one of the stronger armies. Thanks for the game.

Thanks for acknowledging that General but I was also outplayed.
As it seems to be a discussion, I understood from the start that there would be matches like this but it’s swings and roundabouts in the chaos world and I enjoyed the fight anyway.

[SnuggleBunnies]

SnuggleBunnies (Welsh 477) defeats Schweetness101 (French 888) 60-18

GG

[Challenge1]

Challange1 (Bulgur 675-1237) Defeated General Shapur (Byzantine 740-903) 60-47.

As the score shows, this was a bloody encounter with both (all cavalry) armies charging and counter charging while the horse archers harassed whenever possible. An almost featureless plain was the perfect terrain for these armies and the Bulgur Lancers only took the day because of their unshakeable self belief and ability to reorganise themselves, seemingly at will. A good fight that could easily have gone either way.

[General Shapur]

Challange1 (Bulgur 675-1237) Defeated General Shapur (Byzantine 740-903) 60-47.

As the score shows, this was a bloody encounter with both (all cavalry) armies charging and counter charging while the horse archers harassed whenever possible. An almost featureless plain was the perfect terrain for these armies and the Bulgur Lancers only took the day because of their unshakeable self belief and ability to reorganise themselves, seemingly at will. A good fight that could easily have gone either way.

Yes, a gripping game. The rallies made pinning you down like catching soap in the shower. But a solid close game where i couldnt really see anyone make a mistake. Well done.

[General Shapur]

General Shapur (Greek 227-146BC) defeats Schweetness (Thracian 350-281BC):- 60:58

A very tight game. The thracians dominated in the early stages seeing off the greek cavalry and light infantry with few losses. However, the skirmishing allowed the Greek phalanx to find good defensive terrain to spring from if the opportunity came up. And it did. In 2-3 turns late in the game almost every thracian foot unit was destroyed after getting too close to the phalanx that charged out from their defenses. Great game.

[Karvon]

OK here's a current record of completed games as of today and scoring.

2019=09-03 chaos league 1.jpg (183.44 KiB) Viewed 464 times

SnuggleBunnies is off to a perfect start with 2 straight wins.

General Shapur and Schweetness101 have already completed 4 of their 10 matches; impressive grinding!

Let the mayhem continue!

Karvon the Chaotic

[General Shapur]

For the record - i think this is a great idea for a tournament. It just the think for trying out new stuff in the off season.

[SnuggleBunnies]

SnuggleBunnies (Ancient British) defeats General Shapur (Ghazvanid) 40-12

GG

[Karvon]

Karvon (Fatimid Egypt) defeated Schweetness101 (Dacian) 45-0. 4-0

Fatimid horse encircled massed Dacian warbands who formed up in a square of sorts in response. Arab skirmishers concentrated fire to disrupt several warbands then lancers charged in to break them. Dacians eventually responded with an all out charge from the square scattering skirmishers and engaging lancers a few getting disrupted for their efforts. Fatimids send in more lancers on now exposed flanks and disrupted warbands to sweep enough away to break the army.

Karvon (Irish) defeated General Shapur (Scots) 62-32. 4-0

Facing superior heavy foot and horse, the Irish deployed their medium foot into a small woods in the center and into a larger woods along the right flank. The Scots flanked the smaller woods position and were making quick work of my troops, so I pulled out what I could and redeployed to support a flanking move through the large woods on the right. While the Scots finished off the rearguard, the remainder of the Irish halted the Irish assault into the larger woods on the right and turned the flank. This eventually led to collapse of the Scots just as night fell.

[Karvon]

Karvon (Babylonian Revolt) drew with Schweetness101 (Antigonid) 0-0

Babylonians deployed their nearly all medium foot army into several large patches of woods in the middle rear of the field and a few light bow in a small woods on the left to await the expected Antigonid steamroller. The Antigonids appeared with lots of pikes and lancers, some assorted medium foot and some token light horse scouts. The light horse poked around a little and then got chased away by the Babylonian light archers. Unhappy that the rebels would not come out to get slaughtered in the open, the Antigonids retired (surrendered). I'm marking this down as a draw, as that’s what I’d mentioned to him earlier as on option in the ingame chat we had prior to that.

[Karvon]

Karvon (Egyptian 570BC) defeated Challenger1 (Nabatean) 56-10 4-0

The Nabateans deployed a horde of bowman screened by irregular foot on a series of hills on their left. They deployed some lancers supported by camels and light horse on the plains on their right. The Egyptians deployed offset to the Nabatean right with armored spears screened by skirmishers and mixed horse. Some poor spearmen followed up in the rear and the right was screened by some bowmen supported by heavy chariots. The Egyptians advanced and drove the opposing mounted back, routing some and scattering a few survivors. They then wheeled right towards the hills. The Nabatean foot redeployed to face the advancing Egyptian spear from higher ground. Egyptian bowfire disrupted several foot units which then advanced down to the plains to be slaughtered to avoid potentially disrupting the masses packed behind them on the hill. With the screening line disrupted, the Egyptians charged up the slope and in a brisk fight, broke up the defensive line further. The heavy chariots swept in to exploit and flank, leading to the collapse of the Nabatean army.

Karvon (Greek 680BC) defeated SnuggleBunnies (Germanic Horse Tribes) 48-22 4-0

Greek hopolites supported by skirmishers and a few peltasts advanced to face off vs a mixed line of German lancers and warbands. Greek right was anchored by a large river and the left by some rough ground. Skirmishers disrupted a few horsemen. Germans effort to turn Greek left was repulsed and the Greeks began turning the German right instead. Warbands individually pushed thru the Greek line in several places but then were flanked and ground down.

[Schweetness101]

Schweetness101 (Sassanid Persion 350) defeats Challenge1 (Dabuyid 642) 41-7

Both sides of the deployment zone were in a bit of a depression with enclosures. To my left and the center was a slightly raised, flat plateau, and to the right on my side an even higher plateau, and to the right on Challenge1's side a yet higher plateau with rough ground.

To the left and center there was a horse archer skirmish, while on the right my heavy sassanid foot, massed archers, light archers, some armored horse archers and a few cataphracts were at a standstill at the bottom of a hill held by Challenge1's light archers, massed archers and a great mass of dailami foot. Given that each of us had the terrain advantage on their respective side, we only exchanged lots of ranged volleys on the right, disrupting and even fragmenting lots of units, but neither side would attack in melee because of the mutual disadvantage. Meanwhile, my horse archers on the left were greater in number, backed up by a few levy spears, a massed archer and cataphracts, and what horse archers were on my right I moved to the left to support in the horse archer skirmish once the right had become a standstill. Challenge1 moved to support as well, but his army was slower foot, and I had wrapped up the left before they could get there. Some of the dailami foot did come off the hill, moving towards the center, but were held up by some cheap heavy foot of mine on open terrain, and then flanked by my cataphracts going the same way. Was an interesting battle with lots of moving pieces.

Here's a picture of the final result:
https://imgur.com/a/pprS0kG

GG

[TheGrayMouser]

TGM Phoenicians defeats General Shapurs Georgians 34-61

The Georgian host spread from lake Placid on one flank to the edge of the world on the other, leaving us no choice except for a frontal assault. We had high hopes that our new Mark II “Baal Will Eat You” heavy chariots would cleave thru the Georgian rabble, but they failed to do anything significant. Worse, our own ponderous battle line prevented our light foot from getting many shots off. So it came down to a battle of attrition along the foot battle line, cracks forming in both sides, and then suddenly the Georgian infantry collapsed. Great game that was in the balance until last couple turns!

[Karvon]

Challenges posted to...

General Shapur
Challenger1

PM sent

pw karvon

[TheGrayMouser]

TGM (Armenia) defeats Schweetness (Byzantium) 18 v 47.

The byzzies maneuvered to a good hilltop position, but the Armenian lancers were able to exploit a crack or two and unleashed chaos behind the byzzie defenses. Good game!