KIngdoms in the East - Round 2

Empires are developing

Map status after 3/4 games are played

Great excitement is brooding around the campaign and round two was kicked of in two weeks

after the kick off. Read on to learn how it went down...

Games & Results

Theodore Goths (Mikko) vs. Abbasid Caliphate (Marko) - Goth victory

Novgorod (Jaakko B.) vs. Baltic Pagans (Matti) - Novgorod victory

Kiev (me) vs. Seljuqs (Jaakko S.) - Kiev victory

Teutonic State (Sami) vs. Swedish KIngdom (Tommi) - Teutonic Victory

Map & statistics after Round 2.

Kiev (me) vs. Seljuqs (Jaakko S.) - Battle report

Jaakko was leading the campaign, so I decided to take the bull by the horns and challenged him! As the leading empire gets some bonus points to his army, I had to spend all my remaining gold to equal our armies.

I had bought a new battle mat and putting together some new houses, so these were the basics to build the gaming table with.

Game was about breaking the enemy army, but for the fluff, I had sent Jaakko a note telling, that Sultan's daughter had been caught prisoner and was about to be burned in a bonfire...

  

Deployment was drawn to maps and then units simply placed on the table

Skirmishers took their vanguard moves

Round 1.

Left flank moves

Round 2. 

Enemy cavalry skirmishers seemed to be everywhere, but my Junior Druzhina

and Steppe Mercenaries drove them off  

Positions at the beginning of Round 2.

Disaster struck!

Jaakko had placed his Army General in his elite unit - I had commented, that I wouldn't 

take that kind of risk... then I shot at the unit and proceeded rolling double sixes and killing

his sultan!  

 Many units where within 12" of this dramatic event and many cohesion tests followed...

Leading to most of the Seljuq units skirting away in panic!

Only 2 units of allied infantry stayed put!

Shooting and several charges against enemy skirmishers had gained me

plenty of momentum tokens (first time we learned, that one starts with 5 tokens), so I was pretty

confident at this point, facing only few enemy units. 

 Even though some enemy skirmishers had outflanked me now

 Round 3

With the help of 3 momentum I won the initiative and charged with my archers(!) ...

 ...and then moved with my fighting infantry to form a battle line. On the flanks my cavalry units were now flanking the enemy

Battle line and 3 momentum tokens kept my archers from breaking (they lost a base).

Round 4.

I won the initiative (3 momentum tokens) again and charged the enemy infantry units in the middle - with my Junior Druzhinas charging them in to the rear (one of them failed their cohesion test and was destroyed as they had nowhere to flee).

My Senior Druzhinas also charged enemy cavalry (whom had rallied)  in the left.

Overview

The lone enemy unit in the middle was unsurprisingly beaten in the melee and destroyed in the following pursuit

With this Jaakko's army was very much broken and I had won the day. The loss of his general made me feel almost sorry - as if I had cheated the victory from him. Then again, I was very decisively leading with momentum tokens - chasing away his skirmishers and even catching one of them with a charge had gained me a lot. We agreed, that in SP it's very hard to come back to the game, if you're clearly behind in momentum tokens.

Vladimir Nurja and his son Adar Hurja celebrating the victory and the 

hoard of gems (momentum tokens) they had gained!

I must also say, that now the game has started to flow very nicely,

only few times we had to double check rules  

With my campaign points and event benefits I claimed one

of Jaakko's territories, built a castle and a mine there, this gives

me new prospects to try out Ghavnazid army, as I had palnned... (some painting to do)

Pictures from other games on round 2.

Theodore Goths (Mikko) vs. Abbasid Caliphate (Marko) - Goth victory

Novgorod (Jaakko B.) vs. Baltic Pagans (Matti) - Novgorod victory

Last game of the round:
Teutonic State (Sami) vs. Kingdom of Sweden (Tommi)

Miniatures I had finished for this round