Sapa Inca expands his empire worldwide (or he fails trying)
Early Inca army, figures from Lurkio
My club has organized a club tournament, a pool open to 400AP armies over four games. I have decided to use an army that probably I will never use in other competitions, the Incas.
Inca lacks shock troops, and is very weak facing mounted in open terrain. The good point are the excellent command and control, and the ability to swarm and possibly dominate bad going.
Looking at the army list, there are basically two option: The early incas have a lot of RAxO and IPsO, and can use a mixed field of fortifications. The later Incas have more troop options, with lesser IAxI and bolas wielders, IPsX and allied noble shock troops IBdF. The general is on a litter. The later army is much more colorful and varied, but more fragile in my opinion. Furthermore, being the event list checker, I must show my army to every opponent, and this rules out the hidden obstacles option.
I have decided to try a list that relies a lot on field fortifications. I have never used them in such large number, and it will be a challenge.
This is the list:
C1- CiC RAxS, 6 RAxS, 12 RAxO, 8 IPsO - 24ME
C2- SG RAxS, 16 RAxO, 8 IPsO - 20ME
C3- SG RAxS, 12 RAxO, 4 IPsO, 11 FO - 16ME
C4- SG RAxS, 4 RAxO, 4 IPsO, 4 TF - 12ME
C5- 8 RBgI - 16ME
The army will use more difficult going as possible, wooded area being the best because will hamper enemy shooting. In defence I plan to use the compulsory paved road, a small Bua, a small compulsory difficult hill and two large woods. I will not choose craggy hills to not give opponent light troops an uphill advantage.
The tactic will be based on the excellent command structure and the fortification use. I will try to defend the fortification line in a battlefield sector, and attack trough difficult going to hit weaker or lesser enemy light troops, hopefully creating some gaps to exploit. Flank marches are also an option with four corps.
I have played two times this army, and realized that also when Incas have a favourable tactical position, they still struggle to inflict losses, so the games will be tough. At the moment I have never won a game using Inca, so I want try harder. My goal is to score at least 51 VP out of 100.
I finished the tournament with a satysfing score, 64 points and second place. Incas are not an army well suited to aggressive tactic, but are solid, excellent in defence and different from the armies I usually play. I enjoyed the tactic combining fortifications, terrain use and manouver. Imho another prove of the solidity of DBMM game system and of the wide range of balanced armies. I though RAxO were awful troops but still they proved useful, inside a tactical doctrine that exploits their strenght and reduce the many weakness they have.