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Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules
A Four Horsemen Enterprises Rules Set
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Mark Stone
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 Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 6:51 pm Post subject: Cold Wars 2012 AAR |
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Chris Damour and I were victorious in the 25mm team tournament, running Wallachians. I'll provide more detail on the event as a whole and some of the battles, which was lots of fun and very well run. But Chris and I had a truly epic final game against Rich Kroupa and his son (they were running Vikings). To spice things up a bit, here's a fictionalized acocunt of that final battle:
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The Count's men said this valley had been prosperous farmland long ago when it was a Byzantine stronghold. The Turks had long since driven the Byzantines out, and only a few of the Count's peasants had ventured back in. But today Bhatu was not here with the army of Vlad "Tepes", Dracul, Count of Wallachia, to fight Turks. Today they would confront a large band of raiding Norsemen.
Ongadai, Bhatu's commander, had signed on his Mongol mercenaries with the Wallachians three years ago. When Bhatu inquired what sort of man the Count was, Ongadai shrugged, and said, "I heard that when the Turks threatened a village of his with overwhelming force he took his own men into the village and slew every peasant there. Then he impaled their bodies on the road leading to the village." A wolfish grin spread across his face. "It was a move of ruthless pragmatism worthy of a Mongol. The Turks were so frightened they turned their army back." Bhatu had nodded. From the Caspian to the Danube he had seen many campaigns in which the Mongols used the cruelty of today to prevent the violence of tomorrow.
Today, though, would be violence. Bhatu and his men had been sent to scout ahead, and found the Norsemen arrayed across the mouth of the valley. At the eastern edge was a thick forest. Then a flat stretch of grassland, where the now abandoned farmland lay. To the west of that two hills projected out from the surrounding ridge line, and on the far side of the southern hill sat one homestead with a meager plot of tilled land. The Norsemen had occupied the northern hill, the forest edge, and the mouth of the valley between. It was a strong defensive position. Large bodies of heavily armored Bondi, with their axes and spears, were forming up the front line, while the smaller units household troops, the Huscarls, and theh wildmen called Berserks, were held in reserve. Archers and javelinmen most likely lurked in the woods.
Arrayed against the Norsemen the Count had Ongadai's two units of armored Mongols, and two smaller scout units, including Bhatu's. He also had a small contingent of Hungarians (two small contingents of knights, and some light cavalry) led by Stefan, a grim-faced knight who had once fought with Janos Hunyadi. The armed Wallachian nobility was present, six units of Boyars. They were of course accompanied by two units of the Vitej, the ferocious scout cavalry ever present in the Count's army. From the peasant levy they had three units of light archers, a ponderous unit of Voynuks with their halberds, and a small contingent of Rustici with their mix of axes, javelins, and bows. As often as not some of them were dispatched to dig ditches for defensive positions, but Bhatu did not think today would be a day for defense. The Norsemen held the only way north through the mouth of the valley, and were clearly waiting for the fight to be brought to them. Finally, the Count was quite proud of the small contingent of bombards that oxen towed at the rear of the army. Bhatu doubted they would prove of much use today.
The Mongols and the rest of the light troops were quickly deployed forward, with some of their own foot archers sent into the woods to harrass the Norsemen doubtless hiding there. The bulk of the light troops were on the wings, leaving the middle almost entirely open. Bhatu took his men towards the southern hill, riding next to Otep, who commanded Ongadai's other unit of armored cavalry. "No finesse today," commented Otep, gesturing back to where the Boyars, Hungarians, and Voynuks were forming up. As they rode up the slope of the hill Bhatu glanced over his shoulder and saw that it was true. The Count was clearly aiming to storm the two middle Bondi units of the Norse line, with the Voynuks and some of the Hungarian knights leading against the eastern unit, and with Stefan and some of the Boyars leading against the western unit. The Count would hold the rest of the Boyars in reserve, along with Ongadai's and Otep's men.
The Norsemen advanced slightly, but kept their flanks anchored on the woods and the northern hill. From the crest of the southern hill Bhatu actually had an excellent view of the battlefield. As the two armies closed to bow range, the entire Norse line formed up into their famous "shield wall" formation. It was a magnificent, and chilling sight. Each man in the front took a step forward and placed the left edge of his large roundshield over the right edge of the shield of the man to his left, angling his own shield back slightly to accomodate the man to his right. Carried by the breeze, Bhatu could hear the faint "ching" like a thousand bells being rung as the shields locked together. Visually, the whole maneuver created a rippling effect like a snake flexing its coils.
In response, the two lead Boyar units next to Stefan dismounted. No one expected a quick rout today, and much of the grim work would have to be done by men on foot.
As the dismounted Boyars were re-forming their lines, a loud "Huzzah!" went up the east, and the Hungarian knights rode foward at a charge, with the Voynuks surging forward next to them. There was a thunderous crash, and screams, as they slammed into the Norse shield wall. The Norse line bent back, and the very front of the line was in a bit of disarray where some of the Hungarians and Voynuks had fought their way through, but the Norse were far from broken, and fought grimly on. Somewhere to the rear, but visible over the front
lines, the dragon banners of the Norse stood firm and tall, the breeze unfurling them out to their full magnifence.
A unit of Boyars leveled their lances and charged into the fray to the east of the Hungarians. Suddenly Bhatu's attention was drawn to the base of his hill. Hoofbeats thundered as Stefan led his glittering knights in a charge, and the dismounted Boyars lumbered forward next to them. The results were similar to the Wallachian's charge against the other Norse unit: the shieldwall yielded, but by no means broke. With a closer view of the action before him, Bhatu could now see the craftiness of the Norse stategem. While Stefan's men and the Boyars provided good mutual support to each other, Stefan's other flank was open, and the Norse crowding in on that flank would wreak terrible damage.
The Count saw this too, and his own retinue surged forward at a gallop. There were no shouts or cheers from these men, just a silent, cold fury as they brought their lances to bear right next to Stefan's men. Again the shieldwall yielded, but did not break. In the dust and swirl of fighting across the valley it was hard to tell the outcome, but the results looked similar. It appeared the Norse were yielding, but not breaking. Bhatu saw the last of the Boyar reserves spur their horses forward, and disappear into the dust. A quick glance over the ridge showed Bhatu that the rest of the light troops continued to harrass the western flank of the Norse with their skirmishing. An uncomfortable realization came to him that here on the western edge of the fighting his men and Otep's men were the only reserves. Otep had obviously reached a similar conclusion, for he was riding up the hill to meet Bhatu. Scanning the fighting below them, Bhatu could see the problem by the time Otep had reigned up next to him.
The western shieldwall had now recoiled far enough back that instead of being anchored next to another Bondi unit on the forward edge of the hill, it was anchored on the back side of that hill. And that meant that the Huscarl unit sitting on that hill had an opening to hit the Count and his men on the flank. And the Bondi unit in front of it meant that the Huscarls could not be engaged directly. Meanwhile Dracul was now facing the same problem that Stefan had faced. Even if the Huscarls did not intervene, his open flank was at risk from the overlapping shieldwall to his front.
"Right," said Otep. "One of us needs to charge that shieldwall and aid the Count. The other needs to intercept those Huscarls." With a sly smile he asked, "Do you have a preference?" Bhatu had already done this calculation. To say that the shieldwall made him uneasy would be an understatement, but he knew his handful of lightly armed horsemen would simply be annihilated by the Huscarls coming off the hill. He replied, "I'll see to the Count."
Quickly it was done. Otep's men parted ranks in the Mongol way, and Bhatu and his men slipped through. There was a moment's pause as they regrouped at the base of the hill, and then with a dip of Bhatu's feathered banner they were off.
At 100 paces the Norse line looked intimidating. The men in the front were still shield to shield, and Bhatu's little steppe ponies lacked the shock of impact that the Boyars or Hungarians had. But at 40 paces Bhatu had hope. The ranks of men behind the front line had certainly thinned, and most of them had surged to the eastern end of their unit where the fighting was. And the dead and dying piled up among the men still standing were now apparent. Bhatu's men were few, but they were disciplined, and they were veterans. Their arrows flew, wave after wave, and at the last moment before impact their javelins arced into the front line of the Norsemen in a crisp volley. Spears flew back at them from the rear ranks of the Norse. Bhatu heard a horse scream behind him. The man to his left simply disappeared. One moment he was there, and an instant later the horse was riderless. Bhatu aimed his horse for where an axeman in the front line had been felled by a javelin. It was a small gap, but hopefully enough. At the last moment another axeman tried to step into the gap from behind, and Bhatu's horse reared up, nearly toppling him off the back. The horse's hooves flayed the air before it, and clipped the helmet of the warrior in front. He crumpled and fell like a sack of grain, and Bhatu's horse came down on all fours again. It had been a pause of but a moment, but already the battle had swept past him, as the Norse before them recoiled.
Now at the rear of his unit, Bhatu took a moment to glance around, and his blood ran cold. At the far end of the line the Boyars on foot who had originally led the charge were simply standing in place. The Norse continued to recoil before them, but the Boyars were clearly too exhausted to follow up. Next to them Bhatu saw a sight he had never seen in three years with the Count. Both the Hungarian mounted and the Count's own retinue had been thrown back by the Norse, recoiled off the line. The Hungarians were in considerable disarray. The Count, not 20 paces from Bhatu, was screaming at his men, "Hold and form up, or by god I will salt the earth of your farms with the meal of your bones!"
As Bhatu looked up and down the length of the Norse shieldwall, for as far as he could see, not a single Wallachian unit was engaged with the Norse except for his own small band of horsemen. He was now the tip of the spear. It was hold or fail. The moment of truth had arrived.
And then he saw the Huscarls charge, bearing down on the flank of his men with axes raised and murder in their eyes.
Where was Otep?
Nothing for it. His men had to hold where they were. He raised his javelin, and nudged his horse forward into the fray. As he did, he heard the Count's retinue charge forward again. No silent charge this time, the Count was still screaming, and indeed was a full horse length in front of the rest of his men when they reached the Norse. But the battle madness was on him now, and there was no stopping him. Bhatu dispatched the man in front of him with a sharp thrust, and locked in the back of his mind the small voice that was jabbering with fear, "But the Hurscarls!" Then he heard hoofbeats behind him, and saw Otep's men sweep past him on the right and into the path of the Huscarls. With a clash like thunder the two bodies slammed together with such force that each stopped the other in their tracks. Again Bhatu pushed forward, but his mean were spent now. They would not hold much longer. To his left it appeared the Count had nearly pushed through every rank of the shieldwall, his sword rising and falling furiously. He was still screaming. Behind him is men clawed their way forward, trying to keep the Norse from simply pulling the Count off his horse from behind. Stefan finally had his Hungarians regrouped, and one last time they charged in.
And suddenly it was over.
Out of the corner of his eye to the far distant east, Bhatu saw one of the dragon banners quiver and shake, and suddenly it was moving rapidly to the rear. The shieldwall unit before the Voynuks and the rest of the Hungarians had obviously broken, and men were streaming towards the rear. Before Bhatu, the fury of the Count and the last Hungarian charge had been too much, and the Norse were now fleeing. Several units of Huscarls and Berserks had rushed forward to try and fill gaps, and they were now being surrounded and destroyed in detail. A sudden booming sound surprised Bhatu. The Norse in the woods had at last chased the Wallachian archers all the way back, but as they tried to emerge from the woods the Count's bombards were waiting. The volley they fired was doubtless more frightening than damaging, but no more men came out of the woods. And the remaining Bondi units on the flanks of the Norse line simply retired. They had lost, this raid was over, and they would make their way back to their homeland.
Once again the valley belonged to the Count. Otep came trotting up, and though he was bleeding from several cuts on his right arm, he was still smiling. "Well, that was a close one. Who knew your men would be the fulcrum of our whole battle?" He paused, and then winked as he said casually, "I wonder where the Turks are right now?" |
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scott holder
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| Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 8:06 pm Post subject: |
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The Executive Summary:
A Mongol LC unit finds itself as the only unit in contact with a 12E unit of Vikings in Shieldwall. Not on either the end of the Viking unit but smack dab in the middle of the unit, which was in the middle of the entire army. Think Picket's Charge with far more color.
Kudos to Rich Kroupa for figuring out a way to utilize Vikings. In his second game, he was on the table with the major water feature and had a great Viking longboat cruising up and down "threatening" the Ghaznavids with a massive amphibious invasion consisting of 3E of LI.  It was a fantastic spectacle.
I'll have tourney results tomorrow but they'll pale in relation to this story. I'll have more comments on the spectacles of which there were many.
Also, this battle vaulted Bhatu and gang into first place in the Doubles competition so he went home with loot and a winners plaque. 
scott
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Ed Kollmer
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| Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:37 pm Post subject: |
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That was GREAT.
Bhatu has also led my Mongols.GREAT
Alexander Nevsky shares Bhatu's fame and glory.
Again, I loved it.
Kroupa's Vikings fame has reached the wilds of the Berkshire
Ed Leonidas/Kollmer |
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Mark Stone
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| Posted: Tue Mar 13, 2012 1:25 am Post subject: |
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I've uploaded some pictures from the weekend; enjoy:
Cold Wars 2012 Pix |
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Ed Kollmer
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| Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:10 am Post subject: |
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Bhatu showed how brave he was when Surena the Parthian(MattK) pushed into the Caucasus and Bhatu marched the Golden Horde to push him back. Unfortunately , Subatoi and Jemuga cracked in the center but Bhatu charged in and destroyed the Parthian Sub and shook another EHC unit and covered the Horde's retreat.
Love it Mark S. |
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Ed Kollmer
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| Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:33 am Post subject: |
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WOW Mark
The pics are great 
Jevon looks great. ScottH was right the trebuchets are great and the viking long ship looks great also.
I couldn't figure out how to make comments but I am computer challenged, just ask ScottH.
Chris D , I was glad to see him. I still remember his axiom : Never upgrade your troops. If they can't do it on there own, you need the extra points to buy more troops.
Mark, I also have your clinic on Skirmishing troops. Great Reference.
I could see ScottH in the distance. Good to see him also.
Ed the Leonidas Kollmer |
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Mark Stone
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| Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:54 am Post subject: |
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A few comments on the event overall and current framework for tournament play.
This was actually a pretty strong turnout for our group. A number of regulars at Cold Wars could not make it (Ewan, Dave Stier, Frank Gilson, to name a few) and yet we still had 22 people playing in the 25mm team tourney. Good to see.
And our games, as Scott has said, looked good. The pre-set terrain really makes for much more attractive tables, and we've always had some terrific painters in our group. Now the terrain doesn't detract from showing off their painting skills.
The variety of armies was really nice to see also. Japanese and Meso-Americans seem to have earned a regular place in our tournaments, as have Carthaginians and Nikephoran Byzantine. This is in addition to the usual mix of pike/elephant armies on the one hand, and knight armies on the other hand (sorry Dave Markowitz, but your way of running Ming is just a knight army disguised as Orientals; cleverly built, by the way).
And Rich Kroupa deserves special mention for schooling us all in the value of shield wall. I will be perusing Dark Age lists with new-found respect, and an eye to maybe bringing out some lists we haven't seen before.
I'm also satisfied with the pre-set terrain from a game play perspective. It certainly speeds up the game, shaving anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes off the setup time. And I felt the tables Chris and I played on were balanced. We had an army that was bought in such a way as to have no rough terrain troops to speak of, and yet we didn't feel disadvantaged. We certainly had to adapt to terrain, but did not feel handicapped by it.
And the new deployment rules are so good I found myself thinking over and over again "Why haven't we been doing it this way all along?" First off, deployment is fast. None of this tedious stepping back troops that have force marched too close to each other, no time taken to carefully sketch out unit by unit force march positions, and no arguing over force march placement. Removing the fatigue factors for forward deployed units is also a big positive. Now close order foot can deploy close enough to get in the battle without being penalized for it. Our Voynuks (HI 2HCT,Sh) fought in every game, played crucial roles in 2 of the 3 games, and we had no trouble getting them into battle. Finally, just because you can deploy all the way forward (to within 120p of center line typically) doesn't mean you have to. Its still important to have a good setup, to manage your spacing carefully, and to set reserves far enough back that you have flexibility in bringing them forward, but close enough forward that they actually get there. In other words, careful planning in the setup phase is still crucial; it just takes less time now.
Net result of pre-set terrain plus current deployment rules: games are faster without being dumbed down strategically. I didn't feel rushed in any game, but I also didn't feel any gameplay "tools" had been taken away from me. That's awesome.
So I want to extend my sincere thanks to Scott Holder and Bill Low who have worked so hard these last few years to breath new life into our game system, and to look for ways to make it a better and more diverse experience for all of us. I know there are others who have helped Scott and Bill behind the scenes, and my thanks goes to them as well. |
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scott holder
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| Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 12:11 pm Post subject: |
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Oh, this reminds me of a number of things.
*The* cutest moment of our little part of the show occurred when Dave Markowitz's son Ben showed up Saturday wearing Dave's 1986 NICT tshirt. I thought I had the oldest extant NICT shirt (1987) but clearly I was wrong. You can see Ben and the shift from behind standing next to me in one of Mark's photos.
It was beyond great to see Jevon there. On facebook, he's documented his recent battle with cancer (he rolled a lot of up 4s) and I really didn't expect him to be at the convention, thus, it was fantastic to see one of our own, alive and kicking and hopefully rolling well.
Yes, Chris D is back from his 3-year sojourn in Korea. Heh heh, Ed, that Chris adage about troops isn't one I'd heard before. Chris had no lead (it's still in storage) so used a borrowed army (good ole Bill) for the Mini and obviously made arrangements with Mark ahead of time in terms of Doubles play.
The "other people" who deserve thanks as Mark says are Eric and Rich. The deployment rules are Eric's and when piloted last year, I had no idea how they'd be received. He's been working on various deployment revisions for years now. Eric's also responsible for the ground cloths and more importantly, the terrain as it's setup at the conventions. If I laid out the terrain, I'd get it all wrong. Eric puts actual thought into it. How he laid out the minor water feature on one tabble was not just tactically nifty but it looked really good. I have a crapload of those stream sections that never get used so it's great bringing em back and having Eric figure out a way to make them work.
Be forewarned however: sometime in 2013, we'll most likely do a "terrain theme" event which is a fancy way of saying we're gonna have all the tables chock full of terrain. Why? To encourage, we hope, some useage of armies that don't otherwise see the light of day.
The hills and the major water features we use were all built by Rich and I think everyone agrees, they rock. As I mentioned in the Results thread, both he and I are working on modeling dunes and other desert-esque terrain so we can have one "desert board" at each show.
And remember that our ability to do pre-set terrain is only possible because Eric and Rich store and haul the stuff up to the conventions. It means everybody else can leave that stuff at home and just deal with lead.
One final note, Ted Furey was at Cold Wars...not playing Warrior mind you but instead DBA. After all these years, he and I finally got to meet on the table, yes, I was playing in the Matched Pairs DBA tourney with some of my Hybrid (15mm figs mounted on 25mm bases, double the number of figs, and you play the game in 25mm) armies. Ted had done up some Hybrid armies as well. We had a blast.
As has been the case the last two years, I'm really looking forward to the Theme. My Samnites look forward to casting Greek Colonists back into the sea so that we can focus our efforts on finally crushing the Romans and exerting our rule over all the Italian Peninsula.
scott
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Historian
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| Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 7:26 pm Post subject: Great AAR! |
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I like the "story"format AAR.
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Phil
Japanese telephones work pretty much like ours, except the person on the other end can't understand you. |
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Ed Kollmer
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| Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 1:48 am Post subject: |
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Scott tell Phil not to encourage me with the story AAR
ed Leonides kollmer |
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| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 8:23 pm Post subject: |
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But I liked the Leonides stories as well.
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Japanese telephones work pretty much like ours, except the person on the other end can't understand you. |
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Ed Kollmer
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| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:55 pm Post subject: |
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Phil
Stay tuned! Leonidas will soon be in action soon.
Ed Leonidas Kollmer |
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scott holder
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Location: Bonnots Mill, MO
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| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 12:08 am Post subject: |
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Given the theme this year, if you don't make it down to Fredericksburg.....
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Mark Stone
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| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:29 pm Post subject: |
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Here's some more conventional AAR from Cold Wars.
First, our list:
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Wallachian
Troop Type: Number of Elements
CinC w/Irr A HK L,Sh: 2
Boyars Irr A/B HK L,Sh: 2
Boyars Irr A/B HK L,Sh: 2
Viteji Irr C LC JLS,B,Sh/JLS,B: 6
Bombards Rg C crew of 4: 2
Archers Irr C LI B,Sh/B: 6
Archers Irr C LI B,Sh/B: 6
Sub w/Irr A/B HK L,Sh: 2
Boyars Irr A/B HK L,Sh: 2
Boyars Irr B HK L,Sh: 2
Viteji Irr C LC JLS,B,Sh/JLS,B: 6
Rustici Irr C LMI JLS,Sh / JLS / 2HCW / B: 4
Voynuks Irr C HI 2HCT,Sh: 4
Archers Irr C LI B,Sh/B 6
Ally w/Hungarian Irr B SHK L,Sh: 1
Hungarians Irr B SHK L,Sh: 2
Hungarians Irr C LC JLS,B,Sh/B: 4
Ally w/Tatars Reg B/C HC L,B,Sh/MC L,B: 4
Tatars Reg C HC L,B,Sh/MC L,B: 4
Tatars Reg C LC JLS,B,Sh/JLS,B: 2
Tatars Reg C LC JLS,B,Sh/JLS,B: 2
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Here's the idea: while SHK are great, in reality (a) HK, particularly Irr A HK, are often good enough, and (b) there's usually only one or two places in the initial engagement where you have to be SHK. The disorder resulting from those SHK attacks gives the HK enough of an opening. So Wallachian, with its 2 units of SHK, is more efficient than a more expensive army with lots of SHK.
You need a solid foot unit, something that can absorb damage more slowly than knights, something that takes missile fire better than knights, but something that is a threat in hand to hand combat. Hence the Voynuks.
You won't be taking any rough terrain troops to speak of, so you take the bombards, typically behind a ditch, as a way of refusing a rough terrain flank.
A reminder that all that LC, except the Hungarian LC, fights rank and a half.
Finally a bit of gimmickry that didn't work out so well. Note that the Hungarian ally is taken as a staff element. The hope was that if he needed to fight mounted, he'd just join an HK unit but that if we faced something like pikemen he'd dismount and join the Rustici, giving us a unit that is SHI 2HCW in the front and LMI JLS behind. That's a unit that will beat pikemen handily. The reality is it is difficult to orchestrate the combination of dismounting and joining, and it would have been better to dump the Rustici and just take another element of SHK.
On to the battles:
Round 1 - Christian Cameron and Jevon Garrett, Later Hoplite Greek.
Terrain: A series of woods down our left flank, a brush on our right flank.
They had plenty of rough terrain troops, a Scythian command, and a respectable number of Hoplites. We use a light cav unit beyond the woods on our left and the bombards behind a ditch facing the woods to refuse the left flank, concentrate our bow-armed cav on the right flank, and send the knights and Voynuks, under Chris's command, after the Hoplites. Jevon, commanding the Scythians, plays well and eventually bags a Mongol HC/MC unit by shooting it up, overall isn't able to advance much on our right flank because our cav is overall just better than his. On the woods flank, Christian never makes it past our bombards (not surprising). That leaves the Hoplites alone to fight our shock troops in the middle. The SHK and Voynuks get the first bound win, recoiling opponent disordered, and we eventually turn that advantage to break a couple of units. Wallachians win, 4-2.
Round 2 - Mike Kelly and Scott MacDonald, Catalan Company.
Terrain: Mostly open to our left and center, with one big hill straddling our right flank and right side of forward zone.
We set up the Voynuks on the hill, with the bombards behind a ditch next to them, and then plan to refuse the right while pushing hard on the center and left. Things go basically according to plan. Their lights are inferior to ours in that none of them have bow, but they are Irr B and by aggressively taking wavers in the face of shooting they are able to drive us back on our right. They have two problems, though. First, nothing in their army can tackle bombards behind a ditch, and they have no shooting to deal with the bombards either. So the bombards create a huge empty space in front of them that prevents their left flank from supporting their center. Second, our cav is just better. They have a mix of EHK and HK, while we have a mix of SHK and HK. We have some Irr A and they don't, and we have a lot of mounted with bows while they don't have any. So when it finally comes to the clash of knights, they are typically hitting tired, at lower factors, and often disordered and not impetuous. After routing a couple of knight units, Mike Kelly does us the favor of rolling 11 1s and a 2 on his next 12 waver tests. Wallachians win, 5-1.
Round 3, Rich Kroupa and son, Vikings.
This is described above, but to put some mechanics behind it:
The plan was to attack the two 48 figure HI/MI units (Irr B, 2HCW,Sh in the front, JLS,Sh in the back) in the center of the Viking line. In each case we'll send in a unit of SHK and some sturdy foot. Chris takes the left, and I take the right. Chris' "sturdy foot" is the Voynuks, and they perform admirably. To get my own sturdy foot I have to dismount 2 units of HK. This is fine, initially, but it means that I have fewer HK reserves than Chris does. A couple of bounds in my only remaining reserve unit is 12 figures of Mongol HC/MC. I then realize that if I send them in, I'm going to get them smacked on the flank by impetuous Huscarls the next bound, and that won't be good. The only other unit I have in the vicinity is 4 figs of LC, who aren't eligible to charge the Huscarls. It dawns on me that I can charge the LC into the disordered shield wall and hold the HC/MC in reserve to deal with the Huscarls. The LC might slightly win or slightly lose (the latter would actually be better for me, because it would then get them out of the fight), but shouldn't affect the overall outcome other than keeping an overlap from swamping my knights. So in they go. Here's the math:
Other cav vs. MI = 3. +1 (charging) +2 (fighting disordered foot) +1 (JLS) -1 (facing shieldwal) = 6. So I start out 3@6.
2HCW vs. LC = 4. Other vs. LC = 2. +1 (JLS for the back rank) -2 (disordered). So the Vikings start out 4@2 + 2@1.
The Vikings roll up 2 in combat, but so do the LC. So they win. Here's the thing, though. At the time the LC hit, they are one of four units fighting this particular Viking unit. All the way at the left I have a unit of EHI (dismounted HK), who roll up big and are Irr As. So they win big. However, they take enough casualties to be exhausted, and so cannot follow up. Next to them is the Hungarian SHK, feeling very outnumbered (6 figures following up tired fighting 12 figures). They lose slightly, and so recoil. Next to them is my CinC, an entirely Irr A unit of HK. They roll down 3 (so down 2 with the CinC), and given the up roll by the Vikings are recoiled (but not disordered). Then next to them is the LC.
Overall my 4 units win against the Viking unit, so it recoils disordered. But I have one unit that cannot follow up (exhausted) and two units that are outright recoiled. Only the LC follows up. So when the dust settles, we all look down and can only laugh, because I have 4 figures of LC, all by itself, right smack in the middle of a 48 figure Viking unit, recoiling it and following up.
And we have to win this fight. Chris is doing well against his 48 figure Viking unit, but it won't be enough if my guys come through. So the whole battle really hangs on this. Of course my CinC charges right back in next bound, and this time rolls up, and my remaining Mongol unit, then HC/MC, sweeps in to soak off the Huscarl charge, and the tide turns. But for that one moment, its just 4 figs of LC against 48 figs of Vikings, carrying the day.
Hence the inspiration for the fictionalized account above. |
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Ed Kollmer
Centurion
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
Posts: 1018
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| Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:46 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Mark
Nice review of the rounds. It was good to see your analysis of SHK as opposed to HK. I will need this with my Feudal Germans.
Ed Kollmer |
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