AztecvsSwiss

A Headless Body Production

Venue:   Regency at Providence Community Center, Phoenixville, Pa
Event:    Providence Gamer's Game Knight
Players: Steve Turn and Garth Parker playing the Aztecs
                  Phil Gardocki and Bruce Potter playing Early (no pike) Swiss.

Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, about 300 points per side.

The Scenario:
In an alternate reality, the Aztecs and Inca's squashed the Conquistadors, expanded their empires, crushing the Mayans in their wake, and now maintain an uneasy truce at the what we know of as the Isthmus of Panama.

The Spaniards, still feeling the lure of untold riches, and not seeing the obvious flaw in their plan, hires a Swiss mercenary company to conquer the heathen nations.  

But closer to the truth, was that Steve's Aztecs have been sitting in a box for a decade and needed an airing, and there was nothing historically compatible to run them against. 

The Forces:
The Aztec Empire, lead by Montezuma III, Ahuizotl, Takuba and Tezmeca lead a force of some 6 Jaguar and Eagle Knights (Medium 2HW Sword), 6 Priests (Medium 2HW Sword), 14 Warriors (Medium Sword, Atlatl) and 12 slingers(LI Sling).
Break point 38

The Swiss Contingent, lead by the beslubbering reeling-ripe barnacle, Larry, with the rank fen-sucked scullian, Darryl, Darryl who shall always art the best o' th' cut-throats, and he that is the loathed issue of his father's loins! Darryl, lead a force of 24 elite Halberdiers, and 9 Crossbow.
Break point 34

The Board:
The Aztecs win the initiative and elect to defend in the mountains.  The board is a two steep hills, two fields, an impassible and a a gully. 
 

Anchored to a steep hill, the Aztec line occupies one corner of the board.

Tezmeca has troops in ambush in a gully.

The Swiss left flank has an ambush hiding behind a hill.

The Swiss left command is deployed in a field.

The Swiss are encamped in the shadow of a large rock outcrop. 

While other Cantons are deployed on the other side of the same rocky feature.

Turn 1:

Montezuma III declares, "We threw out the Spanish, we will throw you into the sea as well."

On the left are Montezuma's Knights and Priests.  On the left are rank and file warriors with atlatls.

The Swiss reveal an ambush, and ascend the steep hill in the center.

While on the left and right, the Canton's try to catch up.

On the far left, Darry's on board flank march slowly moves onward.

  The battle lines take shape.  Not a lot of strategy here.

Brain fart here.  With no opposition, why am I moving on the difficult hill and slowing my march down?

Turn 3:
The Aztecs really do not want to yield the hill advantage to the Swiss.  But that is where their best troops are.  The Swiss are happy to have elite 2HW against ordinary swordsmen if the Priests and Knights don't want to play.

Slingers brought forward, the Priests and Knights slide to the right.

Aztec Warriors line up, but are still out of atlatl range.

Aztec Slingers hurl their clay missiles, but to no effect on the Swiss left.

Turn 4:
No contact yet, but that is about to change.

The Swiss on board flank march is almost in position to support the left flank.

The Aztecs charge and the the arrogance of the Swiss is severely punctured.  They win 2, and lose 2, one in a big way as the Jaguar Knights punch a hole right through the lines.

 Turn 5:

While not totally one sided, the Aztec's are tearing up the Swiss left flank.

While their patience is beginning to pay off.

The Aztec Warriors are content to shower the Swiss line with atlatl's while waiting for the results on the other flank.  And they are running an on board flank march of their own.

4-1 in the Aztec's favor.

The far left Swiss march has arrived.  With mixed results.

Darryl orders a general charge on the right, with good results.

Flanked on the left, the hill is no longer a tenable defense.

The only thing holding the Aztec back is command points. 

The Swiss Light Horse Crossbow try to support the flank, but one is driven off.

Turn 6:
It looks like the Swiss came a long way to die.

Another trade off. One on unit of each falls. 

On the right flank, a similar story is being told.

The forlorn hope.

Turn 7:

But what's this?  The Aztec far right is being distracted and the Swiss have managed to destroyed 3 units in a row.  Suddenly it is a matter of who can turn and organize their lines first.

On  the right, after pulling some internal supports up, 2 of Montezuma's Warriors and a Knight are destroyed as well. 

Turn 8:
A reversal of fortune has made this a game again. In a spectacular set of 5's and 6's, the Swiss manage to destroy 6 Aztec units, bringing their score up to 14, only a bit behind the Aztec's score of 18.

A blurry shot, sorry.  Both players have the same problem of turning their lines 90 degrees and forming up.  An Eagle Knight didn't get the memo and is running for the camp instead.

The hill position is still untenable, but the Aztec doesn't seem to have the command points to unhinge it, and neither do the Swiss any to abandon it.

On the far right, the Swiss line is turned.

The Warriors on the upper left ate distracted by a Swiss Kiel and two skirmishers, which are off frame.  Darryl seems to have gotten his act together first and is pushing with a united front.

Larry is reshaping his lines on the hill.  Darryl destroys another Warrior.  (next to the upside down 1)

Ahuizotl, starts to turn his line.

On the far left, after several favorable crossbow shots, Darryl (the rank fen-sucked scullian, not the best o' th' cut-throats Darryl) pushes in the last two fresh Halberdiers.  

Another Warrior is destroyed, routing through his friends.

Takuba gets his knights organized for the final push on the hill.

And in one of the final moves, Ahuizotl, manages to pull a flank shot that crucifies a Halberdier unit. 

With 8 turns and 3 hours the game was called on time.  The Swiss first had a strategic advantage with taking the hill with an ambush.  But the Aztec players played to their strength with missile troops and numbers and patiently bent the Swiss line before forcing the hand to hand.  The initial impacts when favorable to the Aztec, but not disastrously so.  The followup fights were a disaster, thou, losing 5 Kiels of Halberdiers on the left of the hill, and a couple more on the right.  

The Aztec then turned the flank of the hill and cleared half of it.  But then had a flurry of poor command dice.  The Swiss took advantage of that, destroying half a dozen warriors in one turn.  But it was not enough, as the Aztec break point was higher than the Swiss, and numbers do matter once things get chaotic.  In the end it was an Aztec winning draw 28-20.