MT58 Roman-Persian Wars

Finals Part 1: 414 Hormuz (226 AD)
MichalK (Persians)
Banners won: 6
Blocks lost: 22

Sharpe08 (Parthians)
Banner won: 4
Blocks lost: 20

I must admit Mark have chosen nice scenario for a final! It was very tense, close and gave us a lot of fun!
Game started with very good shooting by Michael (4 rolls, 3 hits) which prevented my LB from harassing him. Fortunately, that LB survived till the end of game (as another 2-3 one block's).

I have tried to close with Parthian lines, but was under constant range fire. When I did, Michael marvelously (I will not use other word) played Mounted Charge and game started to turn towards Parthians. I was preparing my attack so my front HC and HCC were able to respond - I managed to set-up couple of traps for LBS, which even if they managed to evade first attack, they were cut in second.

What was astonishing is that Michael was couple of times in situation when many of his units were at the board game, ready to be swept by my HC and HCC, but he managed to move them and fight on.

The game finished after - always tricky - roll of Spartacus and my LBC pushing Michael's LBC out of map.

The score is very close and everything can happen in our second game...

For all interested, we are playing second game on Saturday, March 18th, 06:30 GMT.

Finals Part 2: 414 Hormuz (226 AD)
MichalK (Parthians)
Banners won: 4
Blocks lost: 20

Sharpe08 (Persians)
Banner won: 6
Blocks lost: 16

Well this was it, part of 2 of the finals. Michal had won the first game by a score of 6-4 so I knew I was going to have my work cutout for me to try and emerge victorious. The game opened with Michal consolidating his lines on his R flank while I started to move my 4 foot units up in the middle so they could try to apply some pressure through range fire. Michal had a ton of rolls where he was shooting at me but not hitting any of my units which allowed me to advance in the center.

After a number of turns that were mostly range fire/movement of units I was in a position to start hammering on the Parthinans LBC. Michal however (and I think correctly) decided it was time to try and seize the initiative. He played Mounted Charge and by the time the dust had settled he had eliminated 3 of my 4 foot units as well as 1 of my HCC for a total of 4 banners. I had zero banners at this point and thought that game might be over since the only way I could win at this point was to have less blocks lost overall between the two games plus I needed to get 6 banners immediately before he could get 1 more.

I had been holding my own copy of Mounted Charge that had been in my opening hand and figured I might as well play it now. Fortunately, there were 5, 1 block units that I could go after and I went all in since there was nothing to lose. Ultimately my rolls ended up being perfect and I was able to eliminate 5 units as well as a leader for a total of 6 banners.

When the final count of losses was totaled I was able to squeak by 36-42 since we had both tied at 10 banners for the two games. Really a crazy final two turns to wrap up the tournament since it seemed like we were each on the ropes at different points in the final sequence. Michal played quite well (as usual!) and was an excellent opponent.

Thanks to Mark for organizing as always and making sure everything runs smoothly!

I'm not participating in the open tourney but I'll see if I can perhaps jump back in again when another mini tourney shows up. Hopefully I'll see you all on the battlefield again soon!

Indeed, that was very nice game, with all what you would like to see in final: emotions, twist in how game progressed, big charges and being on verge of victory just to be on verge on defeat in a moment. Good scenario for such game!

Thanks to Michael for great game and Mark for organizing!