ADLG Tournament Murcia 9th May 2016
During my time off from writing on my blog, one of the new periods and rules I have started and played in abundance, is the French "L' Art de la Guerre" (ADLG) . In the last two years I have played in quite a few tournaments all over Spain from Malaga to Barcelona with an ever evolving army(s) lists and strategies. This journey to where I am now with the game, I will write in a seperate post but for this one I will just concéntrate on the latest tournament we played in.
This Tournament came as a bit of a surprise when it was announced, due to the fact that nobody actually plays ADLG in the city of Murcia. However Angel who owns the Wargaming Shop "Strategos" in Murcia and in partnership with some of the guys in Alicante. Decided to put on the tournament for the local Wargamers so they could see the merits of the game in action. A bit like when FIFA hosted the Football World Cup in the USA to gain more interest (obviously this was on a smaller scale).
For this Tournament only Ancient armies could be used, no medieval so I went with an Army that I first started gaming these rules with, but lost heavily. The Romans, but with a twist they had Arab Allies as well. Usually Roman units can be expensive in points so there are less units in the Army. making it easier to reach their breakpoint. After the great mistake of taking an elite but very small Roman Army to my first tournament with very poor results. I have always gone with large armies with the máximum of 36 units in a 200 point tournament. After a few changes my army was as follows:
Altogether 26 units including a fortified camp.
All packed the night before ready for an early start on Sunday morning.
My first game was against David from Alcoy, he had a 42 Selucid Army which consisted of:
Right Flank
Commander Ordinary
2 LMI Bows Mediocre
1 Elephant Mediocre
1 Light Infantry Bow
Centre
Commander Brilliant
4 Heavy Infantry Pikes
2 Heavy Infantry impetuous
2 Medium Infantry 2HW
Left Flank
Commander Competent
2 Light Cavalry Bow
4 Heavy Cavalry impetuous
2 Medium Camels Bow
Unfortunately I only managed to take a couple of quick shots of the first game as I was fully concentrating on the game. David's right flank was pretty weak and I was able to take out some of his units including his Elephant.
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| My left flank |
David had his first kill on my right flank with me going into melee with two of light cavalry against one of his. However my other cavalry faired better pushing his left wing back and letting me gain the high ground. In one turn David lost about 4 or 5 units and it wasn't long after the main bodies clashed that David had reached his Break point and my first game ended in victory.
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| My centre advancing up to the hill. |
My next game was against Rafa from Alcoy, also with a Selucid Army, this game was going to be a lot tougher due to him being currently second in the world rankings. I won the initiative so I chose to defend and was able to choose the terrain. It seems Rafa had never come across this before, because he disappeared for a few minutes to fetch his French book to make sure this was possible in all three languages. I had a field and a hill in my sector also once again we had a coast on one side. I usually try to get a coast because if an opponent tries a flanking attack you know for sure where the attack is coming from. Also you can place your baggage train there where it is more secure.
Rafa's army was as follows:
Right Flank
Commander Ordinary
1 Light Cavalry Javelin
1 Light Cavalry Bow
2 Medium Camel Bow
Centre
Commander Brilliant
3 Pikes
4 Cataphracts
Left Flank
2 Pike
1 Pike Elite
1 Elephant Elite
2 LMI Bows
2 Javelins
1 Light Infantry
Rafa went first and slowly advanced his Pikes, then to scupper my plans of my two mounted Corps forming a grand manouever around his left flank, I threw a 1 and failed to activate my Arab Allies. Rafa spent next few moves carefully advancing his troops making sure that none of his troops came within 4UD of my Arabs. I also spent several turns sending valuable command points from my commander to attempt to activate them, all to no avail.
On my left flank things were becoming a stalemate, Rafa did not want to advance his cavalry into the fields against my light and medium infantry. I didn't have many command points to use to take advantage of the situation due to my commander having to waste them on trying to get the Arabs activated.
However one light archer of mine was exceling in his ability to shoot arrows and was hitting Rafa's pikemen with every shot.
My Arabs were finally activated on about the third attempt. I decided to carry on doing a wide sweep, this I realise was a mistake and I should have gone and attacked directly his troops to help my Roman cavalry.
His Elephant and archers were able to advance and get closer to my camp, luckily it is fortified. His archers chased away the rest of my archers and his pikes were getting the better of my legions. Also my flank attack was held up by a single Pike unit. Then disaster struck his lowly archer unit attacked my camp and he threw a six, immediately capturing it and breaking my army's morale. So after two games I had one victory and one defeat.
After about an hour break for dinner we headed back to the venue for the last game, with me needing a win to be in a chance for a medal position.
My last game was against Javier from Benidorm this was going to be a Roman Civil war game because he was using Patrician Romans although there wasn't any actual Roman legionares in his Army. His army consisted of:
Left Flank
Commander Brilliant
4 Heavy Cavalry Impetuous
2 Heavy Cavalry Bows
3 Light Infantry Javelins
Centre
Commander Competent
5 Heavy Infantry Impetuous
2 Cataphracts
1 Medium Infantry Mediocre
Right Flank
Commander Ordinary
4 Medium Impact
2 LMI Bows
1 Light Cavalry Javelin
Once again a coast was diced for and this time my Arab allies were activated and faced off against his cavalry next to the coast.
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| My left flank |
My main infantry forcé faced off against his Foederati infantry with their blue wode painted bodies.
Javi had moved his Light cavalry within 4UD of my unreliable Roman cavalry and so automatically activating them. Which was lucky because I threw a one for my command points. This was his most vunerable forcé, as long as they didnt move into the field next to them. So I quickly charged to bring them into contact.
In the centre his barbarian infantry moved ever closer- Surely my well drilled legions will smash through their chaotic ranks.
Oh dear, due to the fact he had furious charge and my armour didnt count in the first combat, my legions were shattered, funny enough my médium infantry faired better on the right of my formation.
My Roman cavalry destroyed both of the archer units in the first combat and destroyed a médium infantry unit in the second.
On my left flank my Arabs were fairing quite well to, with the camel archers actually destroying a Heavy cavalry bow unit with their arrows (must have been the height advantage on those humps).
On the last turn we were both 2 points away from destroying eachother. I managed to rally 1 unit, but failed on the other. I destroyed another couple of his units breaking his army and in the final combats I managed to hold on just losing one unit, However when we came to count (including several recounts) I had actually lost 26 points and so my army was broken as well. This meant we had drawn to the delight of Miguel who knew that he had secured third place.
Rafa once again came in first place.
Javi came in second place.
Miguel once again came third
All the players who participated in the Tournament.
Official results and placings for the tournament.
This was actually a very good Tournament and even though most of the players were from my club, I played against two new players. The venue was good with lots of other games and tournaments going on in the hall. Also in the foyer/café área all day there was lots of board games being played with people of all ages. Thanks to Angel and Salva for organising it.
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