Another practice game for To The Smallest: I would use the Khurasanians I’m using for the competition, John would use my newly painted Han Chinese army, and had even chosen a t-shirt to match their colour scheme!

As the Chinese had no cavalry on their open left, my first move was to send a command of Ghilman cavalry down that side of the table in an attempt to outflank the enemy’s main line. Despite having the right cards and manoeuvring into the perfect position, the attack itself was underwhelming, inflicting only a single disorder. Still, I had turned the Chinese flank and was well placed to build on the position.

On the opposite flank, I had managed to get my other cavalry command tangled up in the woods bordering the stream. Although they outmatched the Chinese in both numbers and quality, the rough terrain kept them tied down for the rest of the battle. The enemy units they eliminated were welcome additions to my coin tally, but the price was that my cavalry never made it back to the centre to influence the decisive fighting there.

Meanwhile, in the centre, John had sent the rest of his infantry, both regular and his tribal levies, forward to try and break my main line.

With some of his troops still having to react to my flank manouevre, I was able to contain the Chinese foot soldiers…but only just, especially after their heavy chariots (Assyrian proxies!) joined in the fun.

But it was back to the flanking attack to finish John off, despite an unfortunate encounter with the Someone has Blundered stratagem, especially as some success in the centre had freed up a couple of infantry units to help.