Warring States Chinese vs Gauls

A Headless Body Production

Venue:   Walt's house
Event:    Weekend at Walts
Armies: Gauls played by Phil Gardocki and Mike Kennedy
                  Warring States Chinese played by Walt Leach and Kevin Swanson

Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, about 300 points per side.
Theme:   Open Team
This is the Second round of L'Art de la Guerre at Walt's house, late Jan, 2017.

The Forces:

Vercingetorix made the call and the tribes responded.  Beyond count and numbering, their names and histories will be unknown to posterity. 
        As a note, this Gallic Army is running all Heavy Infantry units.  Despite the fact that many are mounted as Mediums.

       Break point around 40.

Chinese:
The Gauls, being largely illiterate, didn't write down what they saw, and the Chinese, being inscrutable, did tell.  

 

The Board:

The Chinese win the initiative roll and elect to attack in the plains.

Both sides went terrain light.  Just 3 fields, a coastal, and a road.

Deployment:

On the "right" side of the board, two ambushes face off on each other.  

On the "right" side of the board, two ambushes face off on each other. 

On the left, the field is littered with hexagon shaped poles.  Possibly a precursor to crop circles?  Or early practice for Nazca geoglyphs?

Oh, Pizza!

Some time later...

Now that the generals have finished off their late breakfast of pizza and chips, the game can begin. 

Despite how it looks, the Gauls here are actually being run as Heavy Swordsmen, Impetuous. 

The Chinese are a mix of Mixed Spear Bow.  And Bow only.  Good Medium foot for the Heavy Cavalry to go after.

Backed up by Heavy Chariots.

A lot of them...

As a player, I like Heavy Chariots.  They are classed as Knights and so have distinct advantages against Medium Infantry. 

But, in this case, the Gauls have no Medium Infantry. 

The aerial view from the Gallic right flank. 

Turn 1:

On their left, the Chinese Infantry double time it forward.  The Chariots lag behind a bit.

On the Chinese right, the chariots advance normally, but the infantry not at all.

On the Chines far left Bowmen quick march forward.

The Gauls reveal their ambush.  3 more Heavy Cavalry.

Defend?  What is that?  We don't do defend.  The Gallic line advances in it's entirety.

Another shot of the long view.

Turn 2:

Neither side here is showing a single wit of subtlety here.

No subtles here either.

Or here.  FYI this is a different portion of the line.  It just looks the same as the one above.

Thank goodness for the ocean.  Or this board would have gone on forever.

Turn 3:

What is this?  Tactics?  The Chinese are putting bends in their line to protect their vulnerable Light Medium Foot from a Cavalry charge.  But the Gauls look at it as an opportunity to engage Mixed Mediocre Mediums, with flank support.

Everywhere else on the line, this is just unimaginative one on one match-ups.  The Gauls only have one tool in their tool box, Heavy Swordsmen.  So if your only tool is a hammer, all your problems look like nails.

Yep, it's all hammers and nails all the way down.

A thunderous charge all down the line.  The Cavalry gives only a little more than it got.  One of the chariots, however crushes his opposing Heavy Infantry like a carton of eggs.

The Center Right command is not doing well, but is getting some licks in.  And it has two units in reserve to fill in the holes.

Down by the seashore, the results are mixed as well, but in the Chinese favor.

Wait, what did the Chinese do in their turn?  Pretty much nothing but rally attempts.  On to the top of turn 4.

Turn 4:

On the far right, the Gallic Cavalry scores a couple of hits, with its disordered cavalry holding on.  The Chinese Chariots have broken through.  The Gauls have reserves.  Which should keep the chariots from turning and crushing the line for two turns, maybe.

It looks like the Heavy Chariots are going to punch through before the Gallic Warbands can crush their opposing Spearmen.

I am not sure what is going on here.  Both the Chinese commander and Vercingetorix seem content to stare at each other through two walls of troops.

Actually they are playing the same game, and waiting to see who wins on their flanks before committing.  On the far left, both sides have broken through.  But the Chinese are doing it better.

Gallic Cavalry try a new tactic and break off.  This gives them a new chance at a "Furious Charge" next turn, and keeps the chariots off of their flanks, but it also gives the Chinese a chance to rally.

Both lines continue to degrade.

"Ding!  Bring out your dead! Ding!"

The last commands commit to combat. 

On the coast, another Chinese unit falls, another is flanked. 

Turn 5:

The center right Gallic command is totally fragmented. 

Oh and breaking off also subjects the Cavalry to more missile fire. 

The left center Gallic command went pants very quickly.

On the far left, we can only call this one a tie.

It is rare to see Heavy Infantry just disappear in 2 turns.

On the far left, it is a tie.  Both sides have exactly 2 units of Heavy Foot, a Light, and a general. 

The left center is still holding, but the Chinese dominate the position.

The Gallic Cavalry gamble of breaking off and recharging paid off on their end, destroying 4 Chinese Infantry in one turn.  Too little, too late though.  One Gallic horse was run down by a Chariot taking the Gauls to their break point.

The final score was  40 to 20.  A decisive win for the inscrutable orientals. 

I am not sure what went wrong here.  With the sheer volume of match-ups, it is unlikely luck was a serious factor.  The Chariots certainly were a factor, contributing 7 kills personally for 14 points.  While that is good, this also means the rest of the army did its job of wearing down the swordsmen and killing them. 

One problem when your army goes board edge to board edge, is that your opponent can pick his point where he wants.  You will be there.  

Makes me want to rethink the Early German Army I currently have on the painting sticks.  But they are 3/4 done, so I am committed there.

But it looks glorious.