Every game I lose, I win…..

What could be finer than sitting at the wargames table and playing a thought provoking, entertaining game for few hours against an old friend? Well how about meeting Wales’ most feared L’art de la Guerre player, Mr. X ( name removed for legal/ religious reasons) whilst Cardiff’s Firestorm Games is hosting a Pokemon competition for the ever-young? Mr. X had brought both armies for our death match and skillfully built his 1950s Hinchcliff figures up to the regulation 28mm with copious amounts of plastercene and hessian fibre. It’s hard to avoid Chris’ gaze when he is in competive mode but you really must make the effort……

This was my big chance to get ready for Big Don’s Bristol Bash, to be held in B.I.G. Gamestore this weekend. Now I some of you Alpha male gamers may sneer at practice games but just this once I thought I’d be prepared. It hasn’t helped! Chris is lending me his later Assyrians and on the face of it, it can give a potentially lethal combination of heavy chariots, bow armed cavalry and good quality swordsmen units.

I won the dice throw for deployment and went for a very open battlefield.Lucky dice throws meant that I could strip my opponents side of all his terrain pieces. My chariots were facing Wars of the Roses knights and men-at-arms. Accompanying the battle carts were three units of cavalry and, joy of joys, they can shoot! The dismounted English Knights and three units of pikemen would face my Assyrian swordsmen in the centre. I refused my right as five units of Assyrian horse were going to have an unhappy time against five units of longbowmen.

The great joy of L’Art de la Guerre is its ability to provide decisive results in a short amount of time. Whilst my skirmishing bowmen scored some hits on the mercenary pikeblock, the chariot wing struck. The bow fire from the cavalry gave the chariots all the more chance of a decisive break-through. The English general was struck down as I rolled a ‘one’ after a winning combat. Before two rounds were up, the English Knights were no more and the Assyrian cavalry tried to assail the camp.

Old hands at D.B.M. Will remember the joy of kinked lines. My opponent built on this unhappy tactic by attacking me at an angle. But, L’ADG handles this once nightmarish rules swamp with ease. In double quick time the mercenary pikes had massacred my horse and the English halberd so did for my wicker shields! Oh dear….

Could I wheel my chariots around to save my centre? My regular reader will know the answer. They set off on a huge turning circle but Chris’ Welsh archers disrupted my right wing horse and the game was his! Thank you very much for reading. See you at Bristol for more dice misery and thinly veiled insults! What could possibly go wrong?

Mike is how far  down the table??