Get your own Free Homepage The terrain on the Omani right flank was mostly filled with a
series of gentle, brushy hills, mainly on the Arabian side. There was one
very small brushy hill on the opposite flank, in the middle.
The Arabians deployed Yusuf's Yeomanry on the left, revealing only
the camels, poised to capture a central hill. On the right, in the
open, most of the auxilia from Kavad's Kickin' Krew were deployed forward.
Behind them were the 15 camels in column, parallel to the baseline, facing
left. The third command, Nasr's Light Horse Ranger Battalion, weren't revealed,
they were in ambush behind the hills, ready to provide support to wherever
I was going to get hammered!
The Omanis deployed Alayyub on their outside right, facing the hills
with the camels and PsS. On the outside left, Hikmat's fast blades and
Light Horse fancied their odds against the auxilia in the open. On the
inside left, Maurikos's Rashness was appreciated by the 22 warband nutter
elements, who has open ground in front of them and, not too far off their
preferred attack direction, was my baggage. On the inside right, the Craven
scum that was C-in-C Ismail led his assorted troops, including camels facing
50/50 open ground and brushy gentle hills.
I was of course keenly looking forward to a swift charge by these camels
to take the 'unoccupied' brushy hills. My ambushing PsS would have
loved odds of 3S to 2O...!
This ambush unfortunately didn't get revealed. No matter, my massed
bow ambush certainly did. Uphill against camels, light horse and
psiloi. It took a while, but the casualties soon mounted up against Allayub.
Their problem was insufficient PIPs to run away.
I followed this early success with a camel charge. I was pleased when Tsimiskes two LH went beserk and charged them! This flank was to decide the battle, but turned into a long, dangerous slog. On the other side, there were very few casualties. That said, any major mistake in manoeuvre would have swung it decisively for either side.
The WbO were charging relentlessly forward down the centre. From the off, I had run the Ax as fast as their little legs would carry them onto the tiny brushy hill on the far right. However the Irr BdF were still approaching apace, if they couldn't have the Ax they'd settle for the camels. I'd had to break off a small platoon of camels to scare the massed LH into staying put, and my own LH command came racing up to refuse. This was quite amusing actually, seven LH and four camels holding off two huge, dangerous commands.
In the penultimate last bound, I had a clear-cut opportunity to kill the C-in-C after a gap appeared where some impetuous WbO had previously been. Unfortunately I was forced to spend the two PIPs I had on retreating my LH out of range of the blades. The LH that could kill the C-in-C (via a ZOD), needed 2 PIPs due to the range. The reason it was so far away was because its mates and its general, my very own Nasr, were firmly nailed into the bottom corner. I couldn't risk having the bulk of the command getting fled off the board the following bound!
Nick did come worryingly close to breaking back, but time saved me.
Indeed, with indefinite time it would have been an easy 9-1 to him.
However, for the first time in a long time, I totally outdeployed him,
and in general I outplayed him. It can't last though!
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