A Hundredweight of Huns

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Wyndom Lancaster Resort nee Host
Event: HMGSs' Fall In(tm) Open 25mm tournament, Round 2
Players: Phil Gardocki running Timurid
               Carl Stefanelli running Huns
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.

The Forces:

The Hun (list 110)
The Hun are commanded by unnamed commanders.
3 Nobles, Heavy Cavalry, Bow, elite
6 or 7 Horsemen, Medium Cavalry, Bow, elite
8 Horsemen, Light Cavalry, Bow, mostly elite
2 Bowmen
Breakpoint of 19 or 20

The Timurids, list 273, are led by Lram, a Strategist, his brother Darian the Brilliant, and his other brother Darian, the Ordinary

4 Nobles, Heavy cavalry, impact, bow, elite
3 Horse Archers, Medium cavalry bow
4 Turkomans, Light cavalry, bow, elite
2 Turkomans, Light cavalry, bow
2 Archers, Bowmen, Stakes
1 Afghan Archer, Light Infantry, bow
2 Persian Archers, Bowmen, Mediocre
2 Elephants, one with armor
1 Naffatun, Light Infantry, Incendiary
Break Point 21

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "痛い!", this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

Commanders are rated s for Strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent, o for Ordinary and u for Unreliable

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

Any confusion between commanders names, or mislabeled units or conditions is to be considered part of the fun.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Deployment:

The Timurids win the initiative and elect to attack in the steppes.

The Huns have only a light presence on their right side command.

The center has a strong force of horse

A nearly identical force takes their left.

Other Brother Darian and his micro command of two light horse hides behind the hill.

Brother Darian and his elephantry take the center.

Lram takes the right command

Turn 1:

Other Brother Darian continues to hide. Brother Darian advances with his elephantry

Lram advances to tactical range.

The Hun exposes a rather pathetic ambush

Their left flank advances. Providing a screen to reposition the center command.

The Hun strategy is clear. Using the road and their superior mobility, they will try to overwhelm Lrams command, while distracting the elephant command with their small command of 3 lights and a heavy.

Turn 2:

Brother Darian splits his command. One troop will try to get the Huns to evade off board.

The other force will support Lrams command

Lram cant's his line and engages with bowfire.

The first volleys of arrows are favoring the Timurids.

With all ambushes revealed, and the count is made. The Huns only have 19 units. Having 14 elites has it's price.

The Hun commander on their right is not going to wait to be charged off the board, nor is he going to exchange arrows with formed foot.

More archery exchanged. While in the favor of the Timurids, it is not much.

The Hun left command charges in mass, while their center command is ready to follow up.

Currently the score is 5 to 2 in favor of the Timurids. It may not seem like much, but with a break point of just 19, the Huns are a quarter of the way there.

Turn 3:

Other Brother Darian reveals him self. His light horse will be valuable in trapping the Hun right flank forces.

Brother Darian's elephants are covering Lram's flank, and lining up a camp kill. If only his archers were more effective.

Lram pushes forward just a bit. His archers also seem to be ineffective.

But his Turkomans return after their evade. More arrows are exchanged.

One Hun horse gets out of arc of fire from the foot bow.

The remainder run to defend the camp.

Playing cagey, only a single Hun heavy horse charges. The Timurid unit receiving the charge is only a medium, bow, evades.

The Hun left orders a charge of their mostly disordered forces. The Turkomans are ordered to stand. All in all, a bad decision there. I was relying on elite and more luck than I deserved.

This brings the score 9 of 19 for the Huns to 7 of 21 for the Timurids.

Turn 4:

Other Brother Darian surrounds the Huns on the hill.

While Brother Darian presses forward with his elephantry and bow

Lram orders a general charge

Another Hun is destroyed.

Surrounded but not defeated, the Huns charge down hill, but are rebuffed.

While their disordered lights go for the rear.

Lram's line loses a troop of Noble horse.

Lram himself is engaged 2-1 and is losing. He has friends that can help, if he can scrape together the command points to do so.

Turn 5:

The battle for the hill has concluded. But was it worth the forces involved?

One troop of Elephantry advance on the flank of a pair of disordered horse.

The Hun camp was just out of range of Timurid archers. Which would have put the Huns at 16 of 19 if taken just now.

Lram has just enough command points to order his Nobles to attack. But his flank is still exposed.

The Huns have finished cleaning up their left flank.

An "exit ZOC" move by Hun Light Horse. Which also counts as "exit bow reach"

Another Timurid Noble falls.

Along with the Great Lram. A routed included strategist is worth 6 points towards demoralization. Not many armies can take that kind of hit and not break.

I'm not sure what the final score was for the Hun. Scanning the pictures I see 15.

What went wrong?

First the design flaw in the army. I thought an included Strategist was "ok", because he would be in the center of 7 units, and once in combat, all those units would be fighting anyway. And he would always be able to command 1 extra unit, even in combat. But here, he needed to command 2 units minimum to save himself. And 4 to be effective.

This allowed Carl to eventually work a flank shot that killed Lram for 6 points.

Also a mistake of holding disordered lights to receive a charge. When they were gone, then they allowed free range of all those Hun units on the edge to turn on to the center.

Also, when it became clear I could take the camp, I should have focused on it. A slide left on turn 3, instead of a straight forward move would have put the archers 6 UD's away, setting up the camp to fall on turn 5. Which would have led to a mutual distraction instead of a loss.

A Triumph of Romans

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Wyndom Lancaster Resort nee Host
Event: HMGSs' Fall In(tm) Open 25mm tournament, Round 1
Players: Phil Gardocki running Timurid
               Tod Creasey running Triumphant Romans
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side. 

Tod was nice enough to preregister his list. But the spell checker changed the name of his list from "Triumvirate" to "Triumphant". 

Close enough for naming purposes.

The Forces:

Triumphant Romans, list 83
The Commanders were unnamed and of uncertain qualities
4 Horsemen, could be heavy or medium, or elite. Who knows?
6 Legionaries, Heavy Swordsmen, Impact, possible armor, possible elite
3 Thracians, Medium Sword, 2 handed weapon
4 Arab Warriors
1 Numidian, light horse, javelin
1 Syrian, light horse, bow
2 Arab Scouts, light camel, bow, mediocre
2 Cretans, light foot, bow, elite
3 Greek Archers, Light Foot, Bow
Breakpoint of 29

The Timurids, list 273, are led by Lram, a Strategist, his brother Darian the Brilliant, and his other brother Darian, the Ordinary
4 Nobles, Heavy cavalry, impact, bow, elite
3 Horse Archers, Medium cavalry bow
4 Turkomans, Light cavalry, bow, elite
2 Turkomans, Light cavalry, bow
2 Archers, Bowmen, Stakes
1 Afghan Archer, Light Infantry, bow
2 Persian Archers, Bowmen, Mediocre
2 Elephants, one with armor
1 Naffatun, Light Infantry, Incendiary
Break Point 21

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!", implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

Commanders are rated s for Strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent, o for Ordinary and u for Unreliable

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

Any confusion between commanders names, or mislabeled units or conditions is to be considered part of the fun.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

Deployment:

The Timurids win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.

For Romans, this is a strong force of horse on their right

With only 6 units of Legionnaires in the center, supported by 3 units of Thracians.

If memory serves, the left was taken by an Allied Arab force.

Lram takes his Nobles on the left.

Supported by Turkomans in the center.

Brother Darrian takes the right flank with his elephantry.

The other brother Darrian's command is not visible.

The Romans were relying heavily on terrain. The hills with plantations were his choice.

OK, now that I am writing this up, the terrain is impossible for any terrain type available.

Lets assume the hills with plantations are just plantations.

Turn 1:

Other brother Darrian emerges from the plantation and heads for the Roman right flank.

Lram swings left and advances.

His Trukomons advance to pin down the foot line.

Brother Darrian advances his elephantry to the ambush in the field.

Romans divert their lights to deal with Darrians command.

The rest of their line advances in a highly organized fashion.

13 elements in a perfectly straight line.

Turn 2:

The lights trade hits

While the rest of the Timurid horse bow fail to find their targets.

Turkoman archery is more successful

An ambush is revealed. Arab archers were hidden in the chaff

Light on light action. Darrians horse proves victorious.

However, fortune is not kind to the Timurid horse.

That one single hit was from Roman routing lights, not from the actual charge.

Despite elite and impact, none of the Persian horse win the opening bounds.

Arab camels charge off the Turkomans. But charge through the arc of fire of Persian archers.

Fortune saved it's luck for Darrians command. 3 out of 4 hits.

A late photo, per doctrine, Roman Legionaries advance into the gap.

Turn 3:

Though a strategist, Lram has limits when engaged in combat. He doesn't have enough command points to disengage his line.

Just enough for a brace of horse.

The Turkomans return with fresh arrows

Darrian's elephants charge into the field. The Arab lights evade.

Lram defeated his enemy on the top of the turn. Giving him the option to evade when charged in the flank.

3 cohorts advance on the wounded Persian horse.

While Roman legions and Thracians begin to run down and flank the rest of the Timurid army.

This has been a disastrous few turns for the Timurids. They already have 15 points towards their break point of of 21. The Romans are at 7 of 29.

Turn 4:

Lram charges of a Roman scout

While issuing commands for his other lancers to retreat.

Turkomans continue to harass

Darrian's other elephantry turn the flank of the Arab line.

Another Persian noble is flanked and routed.

Roman foot continue to march towards the Persian camp.

Elephants defeat a unit of Arab foot. But lose their supporting Persian archers.

The Timurids now have a demoralization level of 18.

Turn 5:

Isolated, Lram does what he can, charge. Almost making it to the boards edge.

Since Lram is an embedded strategist. That one element is worth 6 victory points to the Romans, only 3 if it leaves the board. Which in this case, is still enough for them to win.

In a last great act of defiance, Nobles turn on their pursuers.

Turkomans score another disorder.

Another Arab foot falls.

The last camel takes a fresh set of arrows.

Lram runs off the board. Effectively ending the game.

Persian Nobles score a point

As does an elephant and Persian archer

The last camel is tomorrows Shish ka bob.

It was a tough fight though, 6 points for the Timurids raised the Roman demoralization level to 22 of 28.

What went wrong?

Over committing too early.  I was in a hurry to engage the weaker Roman cavalry. And then had a string of defeats or ties.  Which can happen.  I was going for a decisive win, then roll up the legions flanks.

You pay a lot for bow armed troops in this game, and should take advantage of the shooting whenever possible.

But the real reason was the committing to combat when the Romans charged when not enough, actually none, of them were disordered by bow fire.  

To paraphrase Clausewitz, "If your strategy in war is to set up for THE decisive battle, you are screwing up".  There are just too many random variables to guarantee a win.  Your strategy must have a positive result when you either win or lose a battle."

And of course, having a strategist that is also an included general.  Again that has come to bite me.  Once in combat, he didn't have enough command points to disengage the line.