TTS World Championships 2024: Game 2: Venetians vs Tang Chinese
/The consequence, or course, of having had such a good first game meant that in round two I was once again up against Peter - winner of many, many tournaments and a regular opponent - and his Tang Chinese.
To my shame, I must admit that I did have a minor temper tantrum at the news: but, in my defence, I was very tired after a very long week’s work, and who would want to face Peter in a tournament…charming chap that he is, he does have a tendancy to win!
Anyhoo, tantrum over, it was time to settle down to the game:
As you can see from the picture, above, things did not start off very well for me!
Peter’s Tang outscouted my Venetians, and a superb deployment on his part and some good cards to begin saw his light cavalry, soon to be followed by heavier cavalry, all over my right flank.
This move to the (his) left, also meant that a third of my army was effectively facing thin air: not a good situation.
Some good manouevring on my part, however, brought the left hand contingent of my heavy knights back into the action and, in fact, got them into a great position to flank charge some of his central units.
Unfortunately, my new specially-bought,Venice-backed playing cards chose that moment to wobble, and my flank charges and moves across the field failed to happen as I had planned: disaster!
This meant that rather than putting the battle on a more even footing with some locally good superior numbers and flank attack possibilities, Peter had the time to turn to face my troops coming at him from his right flank to block my advance there. He was effectively where I had been at the start of the battle on my right, but also in an echelon formation that further prevented me using my superior numbers to advantage.
Meanwhile, of course, he had already achieved superiority of numbers on my right flank, and was able to use them to bash me up there before I had the chance to do the same to him on his right. He was (as ever, some would say) one step ahead of me.
Now it was just a matter of time, and Peter was soon able to start to sending my troops fleeing from the field, meaning that I suffered a very bad 2-12 loss!
A superb example of how to wrong-foot your opponent from deployment, and although I was a trifle unlucky not to be able to at least partly rescue the situation in the middle part of the game, as we all know, a plan that depends on luck is not a plan at all!
