"The Weekend" Round Three. Anglo-Irish vs. Florentine Condotta

A Headless Body Production

Venue:   Continental Inn, Lancaster, Pa

Event:    "The Weekend" LADG team tourney.
                  Round 3 
Players: Phil Gardocki running Anglo Irish
                  Kevin Swanson, Florentine Condotta
                                
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.
Theme: Medieval team


The Forces:

   Anglo Irish circa 1400: Commanders  Larry, Darryl and Darryl, all barely competent.
      4 Galloglaich, Heavy Swordsmen, 2HW (Elite) 
      2 Billmen, Heavy Swordsmen, 2HW (Mediocre)
      1 Foot Knight, 2HW (Elite)       
      4 Longbowmen,stakes 
      2 Longbowmen (Elite)
      2 Irish Nobles, Heavy Cavalry
      2 Light Cavalry, Javelin 
      4 Kerns, Light Infantry, Javelin
       1 Javelinmen

Breakpoint...22
       The Corps will be called "Battles" as that was the naming convention for England in Medieval times.
    

Florentine Condotta, 1432.  Niccolo de Tolentino (brilliant), Micheletto Attendolo
(brilliant), Rudolpho Raisu (Ordinary)

    4 Men-at-Arms, Heavy Knight Impact

    2 Longbowmen, stakes  (Elite)

    1 Handgunner, Light Infantry

    2 Pike, Mediocre

    2 Mixes Heavy Spear, Crossbow, pavise

    1 Foot Knight, 2HW (Elite)     

    2 Mercenaries, Medium Swordsmen, 2HW

    2 Levies

    2 Mounted Crossbow, Medium Cavalry

    2 Hungarians, Light Cavalry Bow 

       Break point, 21

 
The nature of this tournament is teams of 4, each team member will only play other team members in his specific time period.  The Anglo-Irish are in the Medieval period.  The dominant troop type of this period are Knights.  The Anglo-Irish, however, could be described as an anti-knight list.  They can only have 2 units of knights themselves, but have large numbers of longbows to draw upon.  

As it turns out, 7 of 10 of the teams Medieval period players were playing similar anti-knight armies.  3 of the were Anglo-Irish, to which I think I can personally take the blame for promoting them heavily this last year with writing 24 battle reports and counting.  Another was Yuan Chinese, with 3 Elephants, a real Knight buster.  It was into these buzz saws that Kevin stuck his armored gauntlet into.

About a decade ago, Otto Schmidt and his wife started organizing, "the Weekend".  Emphasizing game play at the expense of vendors and admission fees.  For the price of the hotel room, and delivering a couple of bags of snacks, you can play.  Games available run the gamut, from prehistoric dinosaur mayhem to Vietnam.  Possibly beyond, I have only attended two of them.  He also has a yahoo group, The Society of the Daisy, dedicated to polite discourse on gaming. 

I don't know what this game was but it was great to look at in the sidelines.

Last year Otto asked me and Walt Leech about running a L'Art de la Guerre tournament, and while I thought about it, Walt jumped all over it.  

And boy did he. 20 cut foam boards, about 12 plaques, and a shrine to LADG with columns and helmets.  

The Scenario:
"The Weekend" team tourney, Medieval period.

The Board:
The Florentine Condotta have won the initiative roll and will attack in the plains.  The Anglo-Irish select a field, a fielded hill and a gully.  The Florentines select a road and a field.

The Florentine right flank starts in the center of the board.  Pike, Crossbow with Pavise, and Knights, oh my.

In the left are more Knights.  Hidden in ambush are Longbow.

To the far left, is a skirmish command.

The Anglo-Irish are following their standard layout.  Heavy foot in the center.  Longbow on the flanks.

There will be a pig roast later.

The hill has a field on it.  Just perfect placement for Darryl's longbow units.

Turn 1:

Darryl does not possess any punch, but he dominates the flank with an overlap.

Micheletto Attendolo's Heavy Infantry advances without fear. 

Darryl reveals his ambush.  Longbow take to the crest of the hill and loose arrows.

Turn 2:

Micheletto Attendolo pulls back some of his infantry.  Presumably to deal with the potential flanking attacks of the Irish Nobles.

Shots are exchanged.  The Florentines have a couple of crossbow/spear hybrids, and a brace of Longbow units.

Darryl's Longbow get into an arrow exchange with Florentine skirmishers.  The hits are one off each so far.  One of the Florentine Light Horse has turned the hill, only to find Kerns in the field, and Irish Light Horse to bottle it up.

Florentine Foot Knights also take a hit.

Larry recalls his skirmishing Kerns back.

Darryl offers soothing words to his English Longbow, successfully rallying them.  Florentine Knights and Mounted Crossbow take more hits.

Turn 3:

Three flights of arrows and 3 hits.  One unit of Mounted Crossbow is destroyed.

Pikemen turn to face off the flanks, and get pin cushioned instead.

Florentine Knights line up.  They are somewhat protected from enfilade fire by their own Longbow, which are currently positioned to be a higher priority target to Darryl's Longbow on the hill.

Rudolpho Raisuli decides to stop trading shots with the Darryl's Longbow by maneuvering around the hill instead.

The Irish are not going to wait for the knights to coordinate with their foot and charge them first, taking advantage of the overlaps.  Luck was not with them though, as they lose 2 and tie on the third. 

On the left flank, Darryl's longbow continue to darken the skies.  However, their fusillade this turn is ineffective.

Behind all these lines is also an assault by Darryl's Javelinmen and Irish Nobles upon the Florentine Longbow.  But the dice were not in favor of the Irish here either.

The battle for the hill gets complected.

Turn 4:

The Florentine's decide to go for the soft parts, and have a dice reversal.  The levy is destroyed on contact, and the Elite Longbow break even against Foot Knights.

Florentine Pike (mediocre) vs English Billmen (also mediocre) produce a mediocre result.  They are just place holders anyway as the Knights have almost destroyed their opponents with 3 hits on each.  In the background Irish Nobles are destroyed by Florentine Longbow, but another Florentine Longbow falls to the Irish Javelinmen.

Florentine cavalry successfully charge their way out of the pocket.

Only the Light Horse is left protecting the vulnerable Camp.

On the left, the Anglo-Irish-Welsh coalition has a clear victory, destroying a Foot Knight.

The Boys from Stafford and Clan Ramsay charge the Florentine mixed spear crossbow, disordering both.

The Welsh on the hill can harass, but not stop the flanking Florentine cavalry.

Turn 5:

While there are highlights, things are still looking pretty bad for the Anglo-Irish.  This is not unexpected because Kevin and I have played a number of times, and I have never beaten him.  Then we added up the score, 14-6 in the Irish's favor!

The Florentine's attempt to fill the gap left by their destroyed Knights.  But those units are both Mediocre.

In the center, casualties on both sides.  Clan Donoghue is dispersed, but so is a Florentine Knight.  The Irish pull a switcharoo on the far right, the Billmen charging Florentine Longbow, destroying them.  Their flank support replaced by Irish Light Horse.  In the background, Florentine Knights destroy Irish Javelinmen. 

The Score is now 16-9.

The Florentine's have totally disengaged from the hill.

Center left, Longbow come up to support the main line.  Just in time as the Billmen took two more hits this round and are barely hanging on.

Clan Ramsay destroys their opponent, now flanking a Florentine Knight.  The Boys from Stafford however are being ground down by Florentine spears.

The Irish Light Horse, no longer needed for flank support, turn and charge the Mounted Crossbow in the flank.  They have pluses for Javelin and Flank, but the Crossbow rolled two points higher for a tie.

Then, it was the bottom of the 6th, and Florentine's were at 20 points of 21, and the realization that the Anglo-Irish could not avoid getting that point.  With several flank charges available.  At this point Kevin surrendered. 

Final score 21 - 9, the Anglo-Irish pull off a convincing win!