Anglo Irish vs Hungarians

A Headless Body Production

Venue:   Walt's house
Event:    Weekend at Walts
Armies: Anglo Irish played by Phil Gardocki
                  Feudal Hungarian played by Kevin Swanson

Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, about 20- points per side.
Theme:   15mm Feudal Era 1000-1299 AD, Lists 134, 148, 151, 172-218 and amended as follows: no elephants, no Heavy Knights, and no foot Knights.

This is the first round of L'Art de la Guerre at Walts house.

The Forces:

Anglo Irish: Commanders  Larry, Darryl, and Darryl (all Competent).
       6 Longbowmen (two elite)
       2 Kerns, Light Infantry  Javelin
       4 Galloglaich, Heavy Infantry 2H Sword (all elite)
       2 Light Cavalry, Javelin
       2 Irish Foot, Javelinmen
       2 Anglo Medium Knights, Impact (both elite)
       2 Irish Nobles, Heavy Cavalry
       5 Fortifications

Feudal Hungarian: Commanders Janos (the Brilliant), Raisuli (the Competent) and Zsa Zsa Gabor (the merely Ordinary).
       4 Nobles, Medium Knight Impetuous (elite)
       4 Szekler, Light Horse Bow (elite)
       6 Hungarian Horse, Light Horse Bow
       4 Hungarian Bowman
       4 Slavs, Heavy Infantry Spear
       2 Hungarian Light Foot, Bow
       2 Croats, Javelinmen

The Board:
The Hungarians win the initiative roll and elect to attack in the plains.
The Anglo-Irish select the Hill, the Gully, a Plantation, the Road and get a Field for free.  The Hungarians selected 2 fields.

The Anglo-Irish like a bit of terrain, and get none of what they selected on their side of the board.

The 2 fields they do get, are placed by the Hungarians.

Deployment:

The Hungarians have only deployed 2 Battles on the board.  One Battle are Knights and Light Horse, supported by Bowmen, the other is a lot of spearmen.

The Anglo-Irish left Battle looked OK until it was forced to deal with a flank march. 

The Anglo Irish left is looking flush.

The center looks good too.

Turn 1:The Hungarians check their flank march, and rolls a 6.  It is coming on Turn 2!

With an early arrival of their flank march, the Hungarians are looking at being defeated in detail.  His right side Battle only gets 3 command points to advance though.  The Anglo-Irish left Battle, only gets one command point, and doesn't want to push hard either.

The Hungarian Spearmen double time it.

The Anglo-Irish right flank forces are too close to the edge, and will be forced to flee when the flank march comes on.

The Irish right Battle gets two command points.  Javelinmen take up positions behind the barricades, while the center Battle moves it's Longbow to the other.  The Cavalry and Knights turn to get away from the panic zone.  The Irish Light Horse races to meet the advancing Hungarian foot in hopes of slowing it down.

Sorry for the poor picture.  The Anglo-Irish's center Battle, advances only a little bit.  We will see how the flank march goes before committing to a general melee.

Turn 2:

Having a considerable advantage in Light Horse, the Hungarians run up to the Irish Light Horse.  They are looking to pick up a quick two points there.

The flank march comes on.  What a mess, 4 Light Horse and a pair of Javelinmen.

Hungarian Spearmen and Bowmen advance.  Their arrows fly, damaging the Irish Horse.

The Szekler Light Horse also let fly, damaging the Kerns.

At this point you would think the Anglo-Irish flank command, consisting of 6 units, a Knight, a Heavy Cavalry, a Light Infantry, a Javelinmen,  a Longbow, supported by a pair of fortifications, would be able to deal with this flank force.  But this is not the case, as I was poorly deployed, and separated.  I just can't get the command points to turn things around.

The Irish Nobles try to run the Szeklers off the board, but lose the initial round of combat.  Lacking the command points to move it, the Irish Light Horse is shot to death.

The Anglo-Irish left, with only one command point, rescues it's Light Horse.

Turn 3:

The Hungarian missile men advance and shoot well, scoring 3 hits out of 4.

One Hungarian Spear is left behind to rally from being shot at.

While on the right, another exchange of arrows is happening. Both sides take hits.  The Irish Nobles are flanked and destroyed.

A poor picture.  The ambush marker is removed to reveal a Light Foot unit.  It will absorb the arrows while the Irish Nobles and Knights rally.

The Knights and Javelinmen charge the Hungarian Javelinmen.  The Knights rolled for two hits, and furious charge make the third, taking out a Hungarian Javelinmen.  The Irish Javelinmen just rolled a 6-1 and destroyed their opponent as well.

Turn 4:

Taking advantage of their numbers, the Szekler Light Horse charge the Anglo Knights in the flank with 2 supports. They have +3 to a +2 advantage, and didn't roll well.  And so lose the initial fight.

More missile fire exchange.  Spears and Longbow taking hits.

The view from the Hungarian left flank.  There are a lot of hits on the board.  The score is 11 to 11.

Turn 5:

Total confusion.  The Szekler Light Horse broke off from the Anglo Knights.  Another Szekler Light Horse attacked the flank of the Irish Javelinmen, but were destroyed.  A third Szekler Light Horse navigated the gap between the barricades, attacking the Longbow.  Hungarian Knights commit to their charge against the Galloglaich.

Surprisingly the Szekler destroy the Longbowmen.

The Impetuous Knights charge.  The dice ran pretty much average with two Galloglaich damaged to only one knight.

The view from the Anglo-Irish left.

Hoping for good dice, the Anglo Knights charge, but only get a tie.

On the left flank, there are just too many missile men, and the Anglo-Irish keep spending all their points rallying, instead of going out to kill things.

At the end of turn 5 the Anglo-Irish hit their break point. The Hungarians with a very convincing 21 to 14 win.

So what went wrong?  First, Kevin just played better then me.  He had read my earlier battle reports on this army and formulated a plan to deal with it.  My deployment on both flanks was poor.  I was complacent with my fortification positioning and Kevin took advantage of that.  My flank command mission statements is too "not lose".  Which lead to Kevin occupying a full Battle of 53 points with just 28 points. Giving him a 25 point advantage where the fight was really happening.

On the right flank, my deployment was totally disjointed.  6 units split into 4 pieces.  It was OK when the enemy was coming from straight ahead, I can react with 1 or 2 units, but when I had to turn it 90 degrees to deal with the flank march, it's weakness was revealed.

The fortification position was careless.  The Szekler Light Horse was able to maneuver and to shoot from behind the barricades, denying their cover advantage.