A Headless Body Production
Venue: On Military Matters Bookstore. Owner Operator Dennis Shorthouse
Event: The first of a monthly gaming event.
Players: Phil Gardocki running Anglo Irish
Don Mamser, Low Country
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.
Theme: Open, no restrictions
The Forces:
Anglo Irish circa 1400: Commanders Larry, Darryl and Darryl, all barely competent.
4 Galloglaich, Heavy Swordsmen, 2HW (elite)
2 Heavy Knights, Impact (elite) 6 Longbowmen,stakes
2 Irish Nobles, Heavy Cavalry
2 Light Cavalry, Javelin
2 Kerns, Light Infantry, Javelin
2 Irish Foot, Javelinmen, Javelin
Breakpoint...20
Lords Louis of Nassau, Jean de Montigny and Adolf of Nassau
3 Burgher Men at Arms, Heavy Knight
3 Mercenaries, Heavy Knight, Impact
2 Pikemen
5 Pikemen (mediocre) 2 Halberdiers, Heavy Swordsmen, 2HW
2 Organ Guns
2 Handgunners, Light Infantry (elite)
Breakpoint...20
The Board:
The
Anglo Irish have lost the roll and must attack in the plains. Louis of Nassau selects a gully, a hill in addition to the mandatory field. Larry, who hasn't had to attack, possibly ever, takes a page from every opponent he has faced and selected only 2 pieces, a road and the plantation.
The Low Countries left muster area is protected by a gully.
The Anglo-Irish right flank had the lion's share of the terrain, with a field, a plantation, a hill and the road. The gully, after much adjusting, was safely on the left flank of the Low Countries camp. The hill and the plantation are on the Anglo Irish left side. The road is largely decorative.
Deployment:
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| Adolf of Nassau's Knights are separated from the rest of the Low Countries by a gully. With an open field they are free to operate as they see fit. |
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| The center is littered with Pike, Organ Guns, and 5 elements of fortifications. The right are more Pike. Nothing is there that Darryl's poorly placed Cavalry Command can deal with. |
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| Darryl's Cavalry Command is showing only two Light Horse. |
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| The main battle line has the Longbow interspersed with the Galloglaich. |
Turn 1:
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| An ambush is revealed. Plenty of command points to start moving and expanding. |
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| Larry advances his command straight forward, but he doesn't have enough command points to double-time. |
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| Darryl is going to face off against the Knights. |
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| A bit of flank support here as well. |
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| The Burghers and the Mercenaries split their forces. |
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| The Mercenaries decide they were not paid enough for this job. |
Turn 2:
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| This looks like a good opportunity to kill a couple of skirmishing hand gunners. |
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| Darryl can't force the Knights to come out and play, so he leads his men to the comfort of terrain and fortifications. |
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| One handgunner down from shooting. |
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| The other puts up a hell of a fight, and wins against the Irish Light Horse. |
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| Having been reminded that they have not actually been paid yet, Mercenary Knights decide to advance. |
Turn 3:
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| Larry tilts the main battle line. |
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| Darryl turns his right flank longbow to shoot at the Burghers. A unit of Galloglaich is sent to bolster the force. |
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| The Burgher Knights charge the Kerns defending the forts. A pair of 1's and the Kerns hold! |
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| The Mercenary Knights do another rethink and retreat. The Anglo Irish line up a shot and tag an Organ Gun. |
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Jean de Montigny, seeing he is faced only by a horse command divided, march his Pike and Halberdiers forward.
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Turn 3:
What has gone off camera so to speak was the redeployment behind the lines of most of the Irish Heavy Horse and Knights. They have been double timing to the right side of the board to harass the Knights.
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| The Kerns assess their situation and bravely run away. |
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| The Burgher Knights run the Kerns off the edge of the board. I regard this as a win! |
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| Larry has few command points to fix the problem, but all his troops near the Pike are skirmishers. |
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| The Mercenaries turn around again. |
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| Pike charge, Lights evade. |
Turn 4:
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The shoot out at the line continues. The Organ Guns rally, but the Anglo Longbow do not.
|
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| Forcing the issue. The Mercenary Knights are out of command range. Darryl is no longer worried about being flanked by the Burgher Knights and is going to challenge the Mercenaries. They can charge or be shot down or flee. I don't care. |
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| Speaking of the Burgher Knights. Two are looking for trouble, the other one is being hunted by a Galloglaich. (off panel to the right) |
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| The Lowland pike continue to charge skirmishers. |
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| The first real Hand to Hand. The Knights lose by 2, and take a hit. Off in the distance, a Burgher Knight takes a hit from the Longbow. |
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| Not close enough to charge, but close enough to get in the face of the lights |
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| The Anglo Longbow have been disbursed by the Organ Guns. Clan Jordan is next. The Lowland Halberdiers are lining up on the flank of the firing line. |
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| The Mercenary Knights decide to go for it, and so out come the stakes. |
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| Very bad die rolls, and a Burgher Knight falls. In the background, a damaged Burgher has been charged by a supported Anglo Knight. |
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| The Burghers lose by 3 and die to man.The |
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| The Irish Foot are recalled and fill in the line. |
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| Tilting the whole line again. |
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| The Halberdiers lose by 3 and take 2 hits. The rest of the Pike leap the walls to engage the much smaller main battleline. |
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| The Mercenary Knights charge. One is routed by a rain of arrows, another only takes 2 hits. Clan O'Lyre, does not have the benefit of stakes, and relying on the strength of their thews, (an 2 handed axes) fail to stop the Knights. The Anglo Knights falter in their charge, take a hit as well. |
Turn 6:
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| In a confluence of good fortune, the Irish Light Horse scored 2 hits on the Low Countries Pike units. So they are faced with the choice to halt and rally, or continue to push. |
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| The Low Country Halberd holds their line, while their Pike take missile hits. The Organ guns keep pumping out rounds, but Clan Jordan is ignoring them. |
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| Half the Low Countries Knights have been routed. The rest are either flanked or about to be. |
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| The Pike charge, and catch both their targets. |
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| Four more points for the Lords of the Low Country |
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| The assault on the Anglo Irish's main battle line is also faltering. Being Mediocre played a part in this. |
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The game was called on time here. The score was 16-10 in favor of the Anglo Irish.
So what went wrong? I was uncomfortable in the role as the attacker. My last 11 games as Anglo-Irish were all defense. Don Mamser had the audacity to to run fortifications. Not just "I'll space them all over the place and confuse you" fortifications , but real "I'll just line these up and man them with cannons" fortifications. Then he refused to be ashamed by his choice.
My first plan was a bad one. To approach the fort line and shoot it out. I have 6 Longbow vice 2 Organ Guns. Those Mediocre Pike were not going to come out from behind them. This was a bad plan because it ignored the Knights. Once I pulled enough troops off to deal with the knights, I only had 3 shooters trading shots with 2 behind cover. Bad Plan!
With my cavalry looking at engaging nothing but pike, even mediocre pike, also looked like a bad plan.
So I decided to adapt. Don seemed determined not leave his forts, and his Knights really had no targets they really wanted to fight, I seem to have the time and the command points to pull most of my cavalry command out and run them to the opposite flank. By only engaging his fort at long range I was able to screen the horse and in two turns of double time, moved them 20 inches just in time to intercept his mercurial knights.
Then seeing a weak left flank, his pike decided to engage, but faced mainly skirmishing lights. Those that did connect did poorly in the dice offs, somewhat hampered by being mediocre, otherwise by lack of flank support.
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