216 BC World Cup

[Dreddradish]

Group A

Dreddradish (Greek) defeats Karvon (Parthian) 44 - 17

The Greeks took up positions in a broad semicircle of patchy rough terrain anchored on two houses in the deployment area and dug in for the Parthian siege. The Parthians for their part prepared a main attack with cataphracts deep on the left flank with one command sent to harass the opposite side of the Greek formation. Preparatory arrow fire was unable to create any lasting cracks in the Greek line and penetrations by cavalry were quickly surrounded and destroyed, similarly Greek units that sallied were isolated and routed. Thus when the cataphracts launched their assault they faced well ordered spearmen that held position. With the cataphracts engaged the Greeks surged forward overwhelming the smaller Parthian agglomerations and breaking the armies morale before the cavalry could beset the opposite flank.

[deeter]

Group D

Deeter (Carthaginian) defeats random27 (Carthaginian) 60-47.

A bloody battle (a civil wars tend to be) that featured plenty of elephants on one side. Ultimately, the newer armored spearmen of Carthage turned the tide.

Deeter

[Janohito]

Div B

Janohito playing as Gauls defeated Questar17 playing as Seleucids troops. Final score 42-7.

Battlefield proved to be one of the main factors in this duel. Deep stream split the map in half, giving both sides an easily defendable line. There was also a forest on Seleucid's left flank, ideal for ambush.

Seleucids brought troops that were hard counters to Gallic forces - maximum available number of elephants, veteran pikeman and Xystophoroi along with a lot of regular pike formations. No medium troops were seen, but Gauls suspected that they were hidden in the forest.

On the other side Gallic army looked just like what you would expect - a lot of warbands and cheap cavalry with some skirmishers. Seeing the deployment of Seleucid force in the open field before the stream, it was clear that Gauls would be routed if they charged straight ahead. Instead the decision was made to just hold the bank of the deep stream. Since this was the last battle of the tournament, at the time it looked like the Gallic victory over the Spartans was certain so just playing from the defense in this case was a good idea.

Seleucids were not happy with a bloodless draw so they choose to attack. Their ambush forces came out and advanced on the left flank, opposed just by a single superior warband and several units of cavalry. But the ferocity of Gallic charge completely destroyed their plan. Single charge from a warband along with 2 cavalry units managed to break a large hole in their formation, routing 2 units and allowing more mobile Gallic cavalry to pin and flank remaining medium troops one by one.

Seeing the risk of their flank collapsing and allowing Gauls to charge over the stream unmolested, general order to attack was given by Seleucids. Unfortunately, fighting in the deep stream nullified any advantage that pikeman would have, warbands not only held firm, but gradually destroyed the charging troops using their superior numbers. Elephants proved to be ineffective in the deep stream as well, only a single unit managed to break through but there it was flanked and routed by Gallic reinforcements.

In the end, both of Seleucid army flanks were routed with their attack on the center achieving only limited success despite suffering severe loses. That proved to be enough for Seleucids and Gauls came out of this battle as victors.

[angusosborne]

Group B is the first to finish: Janohito wins, and Questar17 is the runner up. Well done!

[Aetius39]

Aetius (Greco-Bactrian) defeats mberisso (Galatian) 42-7

Tough map for the Galatian warbands, but they bravely came forward to fight. After a harder fight than the score shows though, the Greeks routed the stubborn opponents. GG!

[mberisso]

As my games are all played, I wish to thank all my good opponents: it was a pleasure to fight (and to loose, of course !) with you!

[angusosborne]

Aetius (Greco-Bactrian) defeats mberisso (Galatian) 42-7

Tough map for the Galatian warbands, but they bravely came forward to fight. After a harder fight than the score shows though, the Greeks routed the stubborn opponents. GG!

Aetius39 takes the lead in Group D with the first decisive win, and mberriso is eliminated. Both qualification spots are still there to be taken by Aetius, deeter or random

[Aetius39]

As my games are all played, I wish to thank all my good opponents: it was a pleasure to fight (and to loose, of course !) with you!

Thanks, nice playing you too!
Aetius

[angusosborne]

Group C
Angus Osborne defeats Bodhran 51-21

I sheepishly finish 2nd in the group thanks to my decisive win here. Apologies to Holien who only narrowly missed out on decisive wins in two battles. I think that if I run this again I will change the scoring.

Our battle had large woods which virtually all the Thracians hid in. The battle split into three distinct areas, One on my left with some hoplites defending a hill next to a lake, which I won, but not decisively,. A second on the other side of the lake where Bodhrans out-numbered warbands were broken,. And a third where a large Thracian cavalry ambush arrived a bit late to turn the battle.

Thank you for an interesting game

[tyronec]

I sheepishly finish 2nd in the group thanks to my decisive win here. Apologies to Holien who only narrowly missed out on decisive wins in two battles. I think that if I run this again I will change the scoring.

Our battle had large woods which virtually all the Thracians hid in. The battle split into three distinct areas, One on my left with some hoplites defending a hill next to a lake, which I won, but not decisively,. A second on the other side of the lake where Bodhrans out-numbered warbands were broken,. And a third where a large Thracian cavalry ambush arrived a bit late to turn the battle.

Thank you for an interesting game

I like your system, it is simple and scores a proper victory above two draws. - which gives the incentive for players to attack.

[Kroche]

Group A

Kroche (Macedonian 260-148BC) defeats anderarcos11 (Ptolemaic 217-167 BC) 50:8

Forces were divided by a large stream and each had hills they could occupy on their side.

Macedonians packed their right with pike with mainly spearmen holding the hill on the left.

Ptolemaic forces occupied their high ground with forces fairly evenly spread. The Macedonian right advanced and majority of pike pushed onto level ground as a detachment screened the flanking Ptolemaic cavalry.

Macedonian pike used their superior numbers on the right flank to win the day. Ptolemaic forces moved to support their left and threatened to break through the flank of the Macedonian right but the flank held under severe pressure and the battle was won. GG

[Kroche]

Group A

Kroche (Macedonian 260-148BC) defeated Dreddradish (Greek 227-146BC) 42-15

Macedonians packed tightly onto the high ground available to them on the left side. Greeks deployed on the central high ground. A valley was in between and both sides moved to face each other across the valley. Macedonians pushed some forces to occupy a small hill to the north while the Greeks proceeded to stretch their line to the south - both looking to flank the opposing line. Macedonians had an advantage in cavalry to the north while Greeks deployed a greater number of medium spearmen moving south.

Both armies had pike units in their centre and it was here where the first serious melees took place. Macedonians were getting harried by Greek light troops which caused a pike unit to break formation in chasing the Greek lights and expose its flank to the enemy main line. This setback led to the Macedonians feeding units into the centre to try and retrieve the situation. Both lines were holding until the Greek C-in-C unit pushed back a Macedonian unit and followed it up which caused it to lose touch with its own line and face charges from the Macedonian second line. The Greek C-in-C was killed in action and the whole of the Greek centre were panicked into disruption.

The game was up and the Greeks could not recover from such a huge blow. GG

[angusosborne]

Kroche's upset win over Dreddradish (3rd seed vs 1st seed) throws Group A wide open. I think this is the scenario

Karvon will only qualify for the quarterfinals if he gets a 3 point win over Kroche, and could win the group if the percentage point difference over Kroche is more than 31.

Kroche will win the group if he avoids a 0 point loss to Karvon, but could fail to qualify if he suffers a 0 point loss and Karvon's losses are 7 or less.

Dreddradish will
- be knocked out if Karvon gets the decisive win over Kroche and Kroche inflicts at least 7 point losses,
- will finish second to Karvon if Karvon gets the decisive win and Kroche inflicts less than 7 points of losses,
- will finish second to Kroche if Kroche gets the 3 point win, or if it's a 1-1 result.

How's the battle going?

[Karvon]

Karvon - Parthians drew with Kroche - Macedonians 34-21 for a score of 1-1.

Initial Parthian probes on the wings failed due a combo of poor shooting, unfavorable terrain and good counterplay by Kroche. We withdrew our survivors from our left and shifted back to the right wing. The Macedonians could not redeploy as quickly, so we were able to surround and pick off a few isolated units to pull ahead in the score, but dusk fell before either side could force a decision.

[angusosborne]

The first two quarter-finals are set, for both the main competition and the repecharge.

Kroche v Questar17
Janohito v Dreddradish

and

Karvon v ZeCid
markleslie v anderarcos11

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Please don't start your challenges yet. Wait for the last two Group D battles to finish.

[Holien]

I sheepishly finish 2nd in the group thanks to my decisive win here. Apologies to Holien who only narrowly missed out on decisive wins in two battles. I think that if I run this again I will change the scoring.

Our battle had large woods which virtually all the Thracians hid in. The battle split into three distinct areas, One on my left with some hoplites defending a hill next to a lake, which I won, but not decisively,. A second on the other side of the lake where Bodhrans out-numbered warbands were broken,. And a third where a large Thracian cavalry ambush arrived a bit late to turn the battle.

Thank you for an interesting game

I like your system, it is simple and scores a proper victory above two draws. - which gives the incentive for players to attack.

Nope it doesn't FYI I won 2 games and Angus won 1 so if that happened in a World Cup you could imagine the fans response.

By winning one game by a large margin it overrides winning 2 games by a smaller margin.

Good luck in the next round Angus and I think the scoring needs to be reviewed. I accept the competition is as it is as I paid no attention to scoring rules.

BTW If I did my game vs Tyronec would have been very different and he would have been complaining about me being camped on a hill back on my base line. Luckily for him I had not bothered to check the scoring system

[angusosborne]

Yes I think I agree with Holien. Doesn't feel right that he beat me, and it wasn't far off a margin of 25 points, but I'm the one who qualified.

[Aetius39]

Aetius (Greco-Bactrian) defeats random27 (Carthaginians) 63-57

Greco-Bactrians managed to come back from early disaster with two elephants losing their charges, although heavily favored to win, to ultimately scrape by a win. The Carthaginians put up a hard, stubborn resistance till the end, and in fact the game was in doubt till the last round. GG!

[angusosborne]

Aetius (Greco-Bactrian) defeats random27 (Carthaginians) 63-57

Greco-Bactrians managed to come back from early disaster with two elephants losing their charges, although heavily favored to win, to ultimately scrape by a win. The Carthaginians put up a hard, stubborn resistance till the end, and in fact the game was in doubt till the last round. GG!

One game left in the group stage. random27 cannot win the group now, but could still qualify for the 2nd round depending on the result of the last game between Aetius39 and deeter

[random27]

i am now a great supporter of aetius39