This was my first proper game of ADLG (I had played one previous "training"
game). Using all the models that I have painted I could field a 100 pts list. It
is not completely legal as it exceeds the maximums at 100 pts for Spearmen and
Heavy Cavalry, but Thomas (my opponent) indulged me.
Thomas' Han Chinese list.
Carthaginians won initiative and chose to attack. I chose Plains. The resulting terrain didn't hamper either sides deployment and left a large open area in the middle of the battlefield.
As I was attacking the Chinese had to deploy first. Being a 100pts game mean that he had to deploy his entire force before I deployed anything. The Chinese deployed the chariot and heavy cavalry aligned to the left flank of their foot troops. The light cavalry were further forward as a group of 3.
I aligned my battle line to his, with light infantry in front to protect my Spearmen. I deployed two units of elite Heavy Cavalry and two units of Light Cavalry as a group which I felt would be able to deal with his two units of Medium Cavalry and three of Light Cavalry. I wasn't familiar with chariots, so I didn't worry about it (I was thinking of Scythed Chariots as anti-infantry units rather than Heavy Chariot as anti-cavalry). I deployed a single unit of Light Cavalry on my left flank intending to take it around the Chinese right flank.
My battle plan was to move ahead at maximum speed and get into combat as quickly as possible, just to see the combat mechanics in action. This also had the advantage of minimising the number of turns he could shoot at me.
The first turn both armies advanced towards each other. The Chinese Light Cavalry moved ahead of their army into shooting range and the Carthaginian Light Cavalry lost one hit.
In the second Carthaginian turn the cavalry group charged the Chinese light horse, which evaded. The charge then continued on to Chinese medium cavalry. The light infantry moved full speed ahead so as to get the slingers in range of the Chinese main battle line. The light troops came worse off in the exchange of fire with the crossbows. The light horse on the left flank got around to the flank of the Chinese battle line, which suffered one hit. In the cavalry melee one Chinese unit lost two cohesion points but the other battle resulted in no losses.
The Chinese mixed unit on their right flank turned to face the light horse, and the rest of his foot advanced to face my troops. Another round of shooting ensured.
The Chinese light horse performed a half turn and charged the Carthaginian light horse. The charging units could not slide to avoid their own cavalry as they had performed a half turn, so they wheeled and charged at an angle. The Carthaginian light horse evaded and the Chinese light horse ended up to the flank of the Carthaginian heavy cavalry but angled away of them.
The heavy chariot advanced along the flank of the Carthaginian heavy cavalry. In the cavalry melee the disrupted Chinese medium cavalry was routed.
In the Carthaginian turn the light infantry fell back and the spearmen charged through the Chinese foot. The right most heavy cavalry unit had dispatched its opponent in the previous turn so was able to turn 90 degrees and charge the Chinese light horse in the flank. The light cavalry group split with one unit going to support each combat. On the Carthaginian left flank the light horse was in the mixed unit's ZOC so I decided to charge in rather than just being shot at.
After a couple of turns of rolling high it was looking good for the main battle for the Carthaginians, with one Chinese mixed heavy infantry unit dispatched and no Spearmen having taken hits. The light horse unit had lost its battle against the mixed heavy infantry unit, and this unit about turned and was trying to plug the hole in the Chinese battle line but didn't have enough movement. The Carthaginian light infantry had also moved up to support the spearmen.
In the original cavalry melee the Chinese chariot had taken the Carthaginian heavy cavalry in the flank and both the heavy cavalry unit and the supporting light cavalry unit were lost. In the other cavalry melee the Chinse had lost one light cavalry unit. Overall then the Carthaginians had lost one heavy and one light cavalry unit and taken out one Chinese medium and one light cavalry unit.
After two turns of rolling high it looked like the Chinese were about to break. The Carthaginians only needed to take out one more unit. I then had two turns of rolling low (law of averages in operation) and both forces broke in the same turn.
We then had a second game when I won initiative and chose to attack in a Forest setting. There were three forests, a lake and a marsh, which completely stuffed up my deployment zone. I put the light troops in a forest on the left flank (where they ended up achieving nothing) and separated my cavalry and infantry into two separate groups separated by terrain.
We had a cavalry battle in front of my battle line. The spearmen got involved but I still lost more units than the Chinese and my battle line was disrupted, whilst the Chinese battle line was still advancing intact. With time running out I conceded the game.
The Chinese main battle line was mainly units that were 1/2 Heavy Swordsmen 1/2
Crossbowmen. The rule for mixed units like this is that they fight one level
lower in melee (ie ordinary units fight as mediocre), though they do have
supporting fire in the first turn. Bottom line is that the Chinese units were
more expensive than my Carthaginian Spearmen, but worse in melee.
So it turns out that advancing as quickly as possible to get into combat with
them was the right thing to do. This also reduced the amount of time that they
had to shoot at me, because with a range of 4 UD I couldn't afford to hang
about. Using my light infantry as a skirmish line meant that my battle line
arrived without being disrupted by shooting.
It was suggested that I had too many light troops to be useful. I made the
javelin LI elite to use up the points, but the only thing they achieved was
soaking up shooting. It may be that I could have achieved the same effect with
less units of ordinary LI. I will look at replacing at least one unit with MI.
With respect to the second game I obviously can't cope with a disrupted
deployment so the main thing I have learnt is to choose to fight in plains!
From the Chinese player
The Chinese light horse had to charge at an angle to avoid my own cavalry who
were in the way. I could not shift to avoid them as they did a half turn. In
retrospect it put them in a terrible position. I should have charged with only
the outermost 2 joining the existing battle instead of chasing your 1 light horse.
In melee the 10 pt heavy mixed units fight as 6 point mediocre heavy units which
is not great. I still have to work out how best to use these. Their shooting can
be fun though.
It is likely that much the same effect could be achieved for the Carthaginians with less light
infantry and instead getting a medium unit, though in the first game they were
decisive in the infantry fight.
My Chinese list had no LI and if i played it again I think i would switch one heavy
mixed unit for a LI and another Light horse
Further reflections
Thinking about the mixed units - the crossbows have a range of 4 which means that when dealing with an approaching enemy you will probably have four turns of shooting at HI and two turns of shooting at MI. (Remembering that in ADLG you get to shoot both in your own turn and in the opponents)
Average units shooting at average targets with protection 1 has a 28% chance of victory (according the the game aids on the ADLG site). That means if you have a mixed unit shooting at an opposing unit for two turns (eg MI) then you have 52% chance of no hits, 40% chance of 1 hit and 8% chance of 2 hits.
If shooting at Heavy Infantry you would hope to have four turns of shooting, which would give you 27% chance of no hits, 42% chance of 1 hit, and 31% chance of at least two hits.
What we experienced was that the 4 Carthaginian LI (admittedly elite) in front of the 4 Chinese mixed units ended up 2 units untouched and 2 units with one hit each. Note that the Chinese line advanced, so this may have cost them 2 turns of shooting.
I would have thought that a unit of Halberdiers would have been better value for the Chinese main line than a mixed unit. I can understand the appeal of the mixed unit at the flanks to be able to shoot at any light units trying to get around your main battle line.
With my Carthaginian force, I spent 20% of the 100 points on light infantry and another 18% on light horse. That means that over 1/3 of my army was light units. If I went to just two units of light infantry and two of light horse that would give me 18 points to spend on combat units. Time to get painting!