With the TwoTheStrongest (2TS) competition fast approaching, Peter and I have been practicing with our new army: the Northrn Dynasties Chinese. For this game, I would field the Chinese and Peter would command a late Roman force.

The Chinese won the scouting and, after deployment, my plan evolved as follows:

on the left flank, a command of light cavalry would keep the expensive Roman right hand cavalry force occupied
on the right flank, I would overwhelm the Roman cavalry there then sweep in to take the rest of the enemy army from the side
I would move my centre gradually towards the right, seeking to beat the enemy infantry by bowfire and sheer weight of numbers

Well, that was the plan, but how did things actually work out?

The left flank plan worked exactly as it should have done: my three light cavalry units kept the whole Roman cavalry command occupied for just about the whole battle, tying up double their number in points terms thus giving me a points-advantage in the clashes in the centre.

On the right hand side, a slow start by my heavy cavalry meant that the Roman troops managed to get forward in time to prevent me lapping around their left flank.

My heavy cavalry, however, pinned the Roman infantry in place in a Mexican standoff as superior numbers of cavalry and lights dealt with the enemy horse on the far right, but effectively this flank was a stand-off until the end of the battle when my cavalry and lights finally managed to win their fight and start to lap around the Roman flank.

It was therefore in the centre that the battle was decided, with my plan working well as the advantage I had given myself by tying up his cavalry on the right with lights proved successful.

To summarise the action, we went head to head, unit by unit, but I had more decent fighting units that I could deploy and the extra numbers eventually overwhelmed the Romans in the centre.

There were obviously a few dicey moments, but the combination of my heavy cavalry with lance and bow and light horse archers worked very well: shoot with the bow until the enemy becomes disordered, then charge in with the lance to finish them off.

The coup de grace actually happened on the right flank, when some heavy cavalry charged into the rear of some retreating Roman horse, taking Peter’s last victory medals and giving me the victory!