Historicon 2016 Medieval Tourney Round 2

A Headless Body Production

Venue:   Fredericksburg Expo & Conference Center
Event:    Historicon's L'Art de la Guerre's Medieval Tournament, Round 1,
Players: Phil Gardocki running Anglo Irish
                  Walt Burgoyne, running Berber.
                 
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.
Theme: Medieval.  No Heavy Knights, No Foot Knights, No Elephants. 


The Forces:

   Anglo Irish: Commanders  Larry, Darryl and Darryl, all barely competent.
      4 Galloglaich, Heavy Swordsmen, 2HW (elite)
      2 English Longbowmen (elite)
      2 Medium Knights, Impact (elite)
      4 Longbowmen
      2 Irish Nobles, Heavy Cavalry
      2 Light Cavalry, Javelin 
      2 Kerns, Light Infantry, Javelin 
      2 Irish Foot, Javelinmen, Javelin
Breakpoint...21 

Berbers, you see one, you have seen them all.  They all look alike.
Breakpoint...22


The Board:

The Anglo-Irish win the initiative and elect to defend in the mountains.  They select a 2 steep hills, the impassable and a gully.  The Berbers select a road and a hill.  The impassable, gully and a hill are on the Berber side of the board.  Two steep hills are on the Anglo-Irish left flank.

Deployment:
The Berbers set up most of their forces on their extreme right flank.  On their left are 3 Light Horse and an ambush marker.

The Anglo-Irish have one of their "Swiss Army Knife" commands on the left, with 4 units in ambush behind a hill.  The other "Swiss Army Knife" command is on the right with several fortifications.  In the center are 8 units, Galloglaich and Longbow.

Turn 1:

Staking out a claim on Stonehenge.

The Anglo-Irish commander has not done his research.  He was expecting a whole lot more cavalry, not all those foot spear.

A very small command in shadow of Cerro Las Minas.

Drastic overkill awaits them.

The Anglo-Irish center is facing a lack of enemies.

The left is none to happy though.

The view of the Gods.

Turn 1:

Ok, that is an unpleasant surprise.  4 Medium Camels hiding in the ditch.

The rest of the Berber Army are moving and sliding.

Another ambush is revealed.

Javelinmen at the barricade, Longbow on the hill.

The Irish right flank is trying to even out its lines.

But there is only so much you can do with one command point.

Turn 2:

Darryl joins the left barricade, to help with the rallies.

Berber LC attack, and draw blood.  The Camels stop just out of range of the Longbow.

Anglo Knights charge, running off one Berber LC, but the other stands fast, destroying the Irish Light Horse.

There is a long line of heavy foot coming down the pike. Time for the other Irish Light Horse to charge, if only to get out of there.  They miss contact by about 1/4 inch.

Turn 3:

The Camels charge, running down a Longbow unit and damaging the Knight.

But the Berber left is taking a lot of hits from missile fire.

The fight for the hill is one the Irish cannot win, but can they get away from it.

The Irish left flank is not looking good.  There is quality there, elite Longbow and Knights, but the camels cancel that advantage with panic.

On the left however, despite their numerical advantage, the Berber main line is being held up by excellent shooting.

We can't hold the hill, but we can make you bleed for it.

One of the dead horses was the Irish Light Horse, the other the Berber LH that trapped it.

Turn 4:

Two Berber Camels destroyed, traded for the Irish Nobles Heavy Cavalry.

The grand melee in the center.  Mostly goes in favor of the Galloglaich.

Elite Longbow should be able to take Berber Light Horse, but not this time.  But this takes the pressure off of the Anglo Knights that the Berbers were flanking.

Clan O'Lyre has 3 hits.  Next to them Clan Jordan has caused 3 hits.  The boys from Ulster destroyed their foes with the help of a flank charge of Longbow.

The Berbers climb the hill.  The Irish Nobles are lining up a shot to save Clan O'lyre.

Turn 5:

Bad die rolls and finally a rear charge, the Anglo Knights breath their last.

The Irish Nobles, true to the end, never get their charge in as the Anglo-Irish hit their break point.

Final score 21-13.

A rather pathetic performance.  

My main problem was not understanding the character of my opponents army.  I was deploying to deal with a mostly cavalry army.  And instead faced a primarily infantry force.  His force of horse and camels was larger than mine but not but much.  I should have been in a line, and marched up the the impassable taking on all comers.  Instead I was trying, and failing to piece it together with low command point rolls.

On the left, I realize the hill battle was not going to go my way, but once again the lack of command points to deal with it.  Often my decision was do I rally off a point, or move a unit.  Still a tough choice.