Later Polish vs Seleucid at Fall In

A Headless Body Production

Venue:   Lancaster Host, Lancaster Pennsylvania.
Event:    HMGS's Fall-In
Players: Phil Gardocki running Later Polish
                  Scott McDonald, running Seleucid.
                 
Game System: Warrior Ancients 1600 point Tournament, Round 3


The Forces:
The Pole's:

  Commander with 2 SHK, L, Sh and 3 HC, L, SH
Sub General with 2 SHK, L, Sh and 3 HC, L, SH
Knights Zielony I Czerwony, 6 SHK, L, Sh
Knights Zielony I Ugier, 6 SHK, L, Sh
Knights Pointa Z Lanca, 6 SHK, L, Sh
Lithuanian Sub with 5 HC, JLS,L,SH
Lithuanians 12 Irreg'B' LC,JLS,B,SH
2 Wallachians LC,JLS,B,SH
2 Heavy Cavalry, CB
2 Bombards, with 8 crew.
2 Polish Ax-men with 8 HI, 8 MI, 2HCT, Sh
1 Bowmen 12 LMI, 2HCW, B, Sh
Hand-gunners 12 LHI,HG
1602 points, 50 scouting points


Seleucid
Some Pike,  
Some Cavalry,
Some Lights,
3 Elephants,
and 4 Scythed Chariots 


Special General's Rules.
For Fall In, the usual General's characters are supplemented as follows:
A General with a character roll of 5 can be Bold or re-roll on Special General’s table. The CIC can choose to roll regardless if he wants to.
1 Bleeder. General has a physical defect that makes him more prone to a catastrophe. In Hand to Hand, if the Bleeder's unit takes 2 CPF or more, and makes  a unmodified melee roll of -2, -3, or -4, forces a catastrophe.  In  preparatory  shooting,  if  the Bleeder's unit is takes 2 CPF and the missile fire die roll is +2 or higher, forces a catastrophe.
2 Inattentive. General is sick or wounded. General gets only 10 prompt points a turn.
3 Efficient General gets 20 prompt points
4 Brave, General’s unit always adds an additional +1 in melee (So a down 3 roll for a Regular B General is even).
5 Inspirational. Unit with general is never uneasy. If the General is the CIC then all units within 120 paces are never uneasy.
6 Great. General is Efficient, Brave,  and Inspirational. 

The Polish CIC is Great.  The Lithuanian General is Rash, and the Sub General is unreliable.

The Board:

On the left flank was a gully, on the right fields and a hill.  But the dominant piece of terrain was in the center rear of the Polish deployment zone.  A large wooded hill combination.  This gave the Poles a very significant defense.  Which considering the Seleucids have Scythed Chariots, they almost were required to attack.

Deployment:
Overall, the board is was good for a cavalry army, except that I knew the open spaces would be filled with Scythed Chariots and Elephants.  Since I lost the first two rounds, my standing in the tourney was shot anyway, I decided to go with a flank march of my main Knight command.  My main Command of 8 units, and all my foot was going to be set between a large wood and the left edge of the board.  The Lithuanians were deployed on the right side of the board, just to bolux up the works.  In retrospect that might have been a mistake.

The Seleucid deployment was very symmetrical.  With Elephants and Pike dead center of the board.  The Scythed Chariots were two a side, and escorted by various lights.

On the Polish right the Chariots start to advance. 

Elephants and Pike in the center.

On the left more Seleucid Chariots and lights.

The Polish line on the Hill.

The Lithuanian command on the Polish right.  2 units of lights, and a unit of Heavy Cavalry.  Their mission is only to slow things down.

Turn 1:

Lithuanian LC approach the chariots.

On the left, the Poles threaten an on-board flank march to support their off board flank march.

Heavy Infantry 2HCT supported by SHK, facing Companion EHC and LC.

The Bombards are standing ready, but cannot shoot on turn 1.

After the game Scott revealed that these are 30mm chariots.  They didn't quite fit on their stands and looked very intimidating. 

Turn 2:
The Polish Flank march fails to arrive.  I rolled a 5 initially, but it was "cracked" and re-rolled.

The Lithuanians are quickly surrounded.  Their counter forces them to compress into a column.  I did not handle this well.  If I had deployed in a line, I could have avoided being surrounded.  Also, I was too fixated on the chariots.  So I am spending 121 points trying to defang 48 points of expendables.

Bombards fire, doing 6 cpf to a chariot.  Because of target priorities, the other is unharmed.  An ambush is revealed.  The Hand-Gunners have a LMI Bow unit covering their flank.

Heavy Cavalry Crossbow confront Light Cavalry Bow.  This is a bad exchange for the Poles, but the Heavy Cavalry Crossbow is good for nothing else.

This is an odd situation.  The Wallachian LC declare a charge on the Seleucid LC, but are also charged by the Heavy Cavalry.  I thought, and argued that the Wallachians charge is canceled and now evade.  But couldn't find it in the rules, and the judge ruled the charge goes through.

The Wallachians fight a rank and a half, and roll a +3.  Breaking the Seleucid LC and recoiling the HC.  This threw a number of waver checks but the only fail was the Irreg'D' LI bowmen in the woods on the hill.

The Lithuanians flee the Scythe Chariot charge.

Turn 3:
The Polish Flank march fails to arrive. 

The Chariots are moving at cross purposes. 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures for a while.



Turn 4:
The Polish Flank march fails to arrive. 

Shades of Circus Maximus!  The Chariots collide.  Maybe having a couple of units here wasn't such a waste.  The rest of his army on this flank are in a traffic jam.

On the left flank, Seleucid cavalry charge the LMI Bow, and in turn were shot in the flank with 12 Hand-Gunners.

By consensus, we were going to allow the Scythed Chariots to run into the Bombards.  More curiosity than anything else.  The unit that cannot deviate, lined up on a unit that cannot move.  In the end I made a mistake.  Bombards can either shoot prep fire OR support shoot.  I chose support shot, and as a consequence, one of the Scythed Chariots was able to make an impetuous charge.  Gaining a +3.  The support shots only threw a -2 on each chariots, and the end result was the chariots did 12, to the bombards 4, more and 1 per, the bombards were destroyed.  But it was a near thing.  Having the chariots score "more" was almost a certainly, but the "1 per" was in doubt, and frankly was achieved only by a + 1 roll (for a + 3 net) for the fresh chariot.  Chariot horse, 0, +1 charge, +2 impetuous, + 3 die roll for a +6.  Minuses were 2 for the hill and 2 for shooting, for a total of 4@2 for 8.  The tired chariot did 4 more in their turn for a total of 12.  In response to the destroyed Bombard, the Hand-Gunners and the Halberdiers shook, throwing the CIC command into retirement.

That blank spot on the hill was the Bombards.  It is possible, with the right die rolls, for the Chariots to reach the camp.

Turn 5:
The Polish Flank march arrives!

The flank march arrives!

This whole time the Seleucids have been dreading the arrival of the flank march, and was slowly building up their forces to deal with it.  The Companion Cavalry and the Light Horse were reinforced with a Pike and a Light Infantry.

Knights and supporting units flood the flank.  Surrounding the Companion cavalry, and pinning the lights against the gully.

I was waiting all game for this moment, I am going to get a few pictures of it.

Scott ponders the decision to reinforce his right flank, and now realizes he just threw points away.

With a thunderous charge, along with a "Me Too" attitude from supporting shooters accompanying the flank march, two Seleucid units are destroyed, and two shake.  It was still a clear win for the Seleucids, or was it?  With the haphazard nature that Scott bolstered his right flank, the Pike and the Light Infantry unit came from a smaller command, and it turned out that command was now also in retirement.  Add 96 points for the Scythed Chariots, and the score was much closer than thought.  It ended in a 4-2, but only barely.  If the game had gone another turn, the Pike would have broke, and probably the LI and the score would have gone to a 3-3.  A good game all round.