Highland Games.

 A Headless Body Production

Location:  Dave's House

Event:       Saturday Winter Follies

Players:    David Boor, playing the Scots Isles and Highlanders
                  Phil Gardocki, playing the Swiss circa 1400AD.

Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.

Scenario:  I am not going to try to make up a story on how or why Scot's Highlanders were invading the Swiss Alps.  Could be English chicanery, could be aliens, certainly large amounts of whiskey was involved.
 

The Forces:

The Swiss were running with two Brilliant and one Competent commanders.  Their forces consisted of 15 Halberdiers (Medium 2 Handed Swordsmen), 4 Light Infantry Crossbow, 2 Light Horse Crossbow and a fortified camp.  

     

The Scots brought three Competent commanders.  Their forces consisted of 8 Heavy 2 handed Swordsmen, 6 impetuous Medium Swordsmen, 7 Medium Swordsmen, Bow, 2 Levy units and a fortified camp.

Deployment:

The Swiss win the toss and elect to receive!  They select 3 steep hills, an impassible lake and the road.  The Scots select two pieces of brush. 

The Swiss deploy their largest command on their right flank, but on the table this extended only to just right of center.  They are relying on steep hills, ambushes and field palisades to prevent any flanking maneuvers on that side.  Their left flanks have the two smaller commands splitting 7 halberdiers, 2 Light Infantry and 2 Light Horse units between them.

The Scots deployed on their right a command of 4 "Islanders" with Heavy Two Handed Swords and 3 "Highlanders" with Sword/Bow.  Their center command is 6 "Galwegians", Medium Infantry Impetuous Sword, and on their left a command of 4 more "Islanders"and  4 more "Highlanders".

The view from the center.  The over sized Swiss flag is challenging the invading Scots.

The Swiss left flank taunt the Scots.

The Swiss right flank looks evenly matched.

Turn 1:

I see an opportunity to work the Scot right flank and wheel my LI CB off to the side, while aggressively approaching with two commands of halberdiers. 

The LI wheels left, while the LH runs forward and shoots a hit on the Island Warriors.

The LI of the large command run forward, hoping to ding something.

Turn 2:
The Scots are not going to play the skirmish game and immediately charge.

Fire once and run away.  The Light Horse think their day is done.

The Highlanders ignore the halberdiers and move to negate the LI.

But the when you have Brilliant commanders, there seems to be command points to spare, and the LH are send right back.

Turn 3:

Still mainly skirmish games.  Lots of shots, no hits.  The Scots charge with their Highlanders, running a Swiss LI off the board.

Turn 4:

The Scot left flank, which has a large number of bow units settles into range on the Swiss right flank.  The Swiss cannot let this stand as eventually they will be shot up.

The Swiss abandon their palisade and reveal an ambush to run down the Scots Highlanders.

Most of the Highlanders have fled the approaching halberdiers, but one is hanging out uncomfortably on the far flank position.

Turn 5:

The melees have started as the Swiss main command moves forward to engage the Scots.

The rest of the halberdiers join in a line. 

Destroying a Highland Bow/Sword unit.  The Swiss on the hill takes a hit from archer fire, and opts to rally instead.

Its blade on blade action as Heavy 2 Handed Swordsmen engage Medium 2 Handed Swordsmen.  There is a tie, and one of the Scots units takes two hits.

On the left the melee is joined as well.  The Galwegians and Island Warriors both take multiple hits.

A sun beam illuminates the fight on the right flank, as the Swiss position is eroding.

Turn 6:
Unpictured, but a significant event, one of the impetuous Galwegians has broken through the lines, and was currently surrounded by a collection of Light Foot and Horse.

The men from Bern have broken their enemy, which routed through one of the Islanders.

They push forward in turn causing much damage.

The Swiss center takes a lot of hits.

While the Swiss right is failing rapidly.

Turn 7:
The Swiss main command is suffering badly.  Most of the Halberdier units have 2 hits.
The breakthrough Galwegians, ignored all missiles has approached the Swiss camp. 

The hill still ours, but cannot stand.  The Halberdiers in the valley have been routed.

But the same problem exists on the Scot's left.  The Island Warriors have been routed, and only a couple of Highlanders survive.

 

The Halberdiers from Bern turn the Scots center flank.

The men from Lucern are wrapping up the last Highlander on the left. 

Turn 8:
The breakthrough Galwegians, have charged the Swiss camp, which resisted the initial assault.  

View of the Scot's dead pile.  14 points

And of the Scot's dead, 20 points.

The Scots have turned the Swiss Center flank as well.  Off camera, the Halberdier on the hill is shot away.

Outnumbered, the Highlanders fight on.

At the end of turn 8 the points were counted and the Scots had hit their 23 point Army Break point compared to the Swiss 16 points.  The Swiss have defended their homeland again!

Invasion of Switzerland by the Armenians?

A Headless Body Production

Location:  Dave's House

Event:       Saturday Winter Follies

Players:    Robert Nedwich, playing Cilician Armenians
                  Phil Gardocki, playing the Swiss, circa 1400AD.

Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.

Scenario:  The Cilician Armenians have been on a rampage, heading west looking for conquest and loot.  Seeing a chance to solve two problems, an invading army and a province in revolt, the Hapsburgs provided a few guides, had a few road signs changed, and directed the horde to the Swiss Alps. The Swiss Confederacy, thinking this was another attempt of the Hapsburgs to reign them back into the empire, which was true, called out the muster of the cantons Zürich, Bern and Luzern to repel the intruders.

The Forces:

The Swiss were running with two Brilliant and one Competent commanders.  Their forces consisted of 15 Halberdiers (Medium 2 Handed Swordsmen), 4 Light Infantry Crossbow, 2 Light Horse Crossbow, 3 palisades and a fortified camp.  

The Cilician Armenians commanders were  one Brilliant, one Competent and one Ordinary.  Their forces consisted of 8 Medium Knights (a mix of impetuous and impact, mostly Elite), 4 Light Medium Bow, 2 Heavy Infantry Spear, 2 Light Foot Bow, 4 Medium Spear, 2 Light Horse (impact) and a fortified camp.  

Deployment:

The Swiss win the toss and elect to receive!  They select 3 steep hills and an impassible lake.  The Knights opt to stay on their road, even though they now suspect it is not leading to Budapest like the signs say.

The Swiss left flank is anchored to a lake. Their two weaker commands are on the right flank.  The Armenians are running a flank march.

Swiss right flank.  Visible are 6 Halberdier units and 2 Light Horse.  In ambush are 2 LI CB, and another Halberdier.

Turns 1  and 2
The Swiss decide not to meet the invaders.  Let them come!  The Armenian flank march fails to bolster the Armenian left flank so they are looking a little thin there.  The Swiss LI in ambush are revealed and start playing skirmisher games.

The lines approach.  The LI CB hopes to ding a knight before fleeing to the main line.

The Swiss Skirmishers degrade rapidly facing the shooting power of real bowmen.  But the Halberdiers have the steep hill and are not likely to yield it.

I have to get a tripod.  This is the best of 3 pictures.

Turn 3:

The main battle lines begin to engage as the knights charge one of the smaller Swiss commands.  Matching the halberdiers element to element.  This is the worse lineup the halberdiers have to face as they lose their +1 combat advantage against knights.  The knights also have "Impact" to amplify their effects.  But all is not lost as the Swiss have some staying power due to their Elite status.

The shock of impact.  The Armenians commit their general to fighting in the front line.

The end result is pretty much a wash.  One halberdier unit takes two hits, but a knight also takes a cohesion hit.

The Armenian bowmen retreat before the Halberdiers on the hill.

The LI CB take another hit. 

The Swiss rally one of the halberdiers, and add two more halberdiers to the scrum.  Two knights have cohesion hits while the whole Swiss line is damaged.

The main battle lines are about to engage.

Turn 4:
The Armenian flank march failed to arrive.  The Armenians  have tested the meddle of the Swiss and found them wanting.  The knights have an inherent advantage of +1 in general melee.  With that, the knights do not wait for their infantry support and commit themselves to combat.

The knights have +1 and impact on contact, but the Swiss have elite and a flank.  Largely the die rolls ran for the Swiss and the neither line took many hits.

And things went very bad for the Armenian left side strike force.  They rallied their center knight, but another was routed.

Followed rapidly by their Light Horse supports, and then another another knight, and their general! 

But luck runs both ways, as in the center the Swiss lose two halberdiers, while two others are almost spent with two hits apiece!

Well, at least the LI CB have something to shoot at.

Turn 5:

The Armenian flank march fails to arrive.  The Armenian left flank doesn't have many actions as their General died in a rout.  But one Swiss command is heavily damaged and is effectively combat ineffective, while their command is two dead, and two walking dead.  The Swiss are teetering at the brink, and just need one more shove to get to the 22 point army break point.

The Armenians have forces on their left, but having no commander pretty much limits their actions to 1 thing.  So the spear unit gets pushed forward, while the bow units are facing the wrong way.

The Armenians commit their only general to the front to good effect as the Swiss lose another halberdier unit.  But the Armenians also commit their bow unit to hand to hand combat, and take a hit.

The Swiss commander attempts to rally one of his few remaining units, but is ignored.

Poor picture here, but important.  The center Swiss command is successful in both rallying and peeling off units to support the other commands.  The Swiss command on the hill comes off the hill to attack the Armenian Spear Infantry.

Turn 6:
The Armenian flank march fails to arrive.  The Swiss center command, having totally routed their foes are sending units left and right to support their other commands to good effect.

On the Swiss right, the Armenians have the numbers, but not the quality.  As 2 handed weapons have an advantage over spears, and the bow units just are lousy in hand to hand.  That and the Swiss elite status giving an extra +1 when the dice are bad comes into effect again and again. 

The Swiss main command has lost 6 out of 8 of their halberdiers, but still resists being totally destroyed. 

Turn 7:
The Armenian flank march fails to arrive.  The turns are moving fast here.

What?  There are more of them?  An ambush is revealed!

Even in defeat, the Swiss fight on, routing the bow unit through a freshly arriving blade unit.

Both the Armenians and the Swiss lose a unit here. 

The knights continue to apply pressure to the Swiss line.

But the final blow falls in a dramatic fashion.  The last two halberdiers of the Swiss main command, manage to attack the flank of a flanking knight, destroying it and taking the Armenians over their break point first!  The Swiss win 20-18.