King Arthur on Crusade, Part 1

A Headless Body Production

Venue:  Ferrell Fire Company Hall, Monroeville, NJ   
Event:   Kozcon 2019
Players:  Phil Gardocki running Nikephorian
                Bill Hawkes running Mongol Empire
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.
Scale: 25mm

KozCon is held in memory of our good friend and avid gamer Dave Kozlow who passed away in 2012.  If you've ever had the opportunity to play in one of his many games at HMGS events you know that he was not only a great person but also a notable credit to our hobby.  In light of Dave's five year battle with cancer ALL proceeds from KozCon are donated to the American Cancer Society.

One of the great looking games being played at KozCon

Whats' with the title?  I painted up a few figures from Medieval Mayhem this year of King Arthur and his knights from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  They are seen in the Varangian Guard.  I am justifying this in that he is on crusade after failing to find the Holy Grail in Britain.  Why Varangians?  Pretty much all mercenaries from the North and West were placed in the Varangians.

Why is this important?  I intended to bring the Anglo-Irish army to Kozcon, to which the new figures are a colorful and humorous add.  But to the Byzantines, they are ... odd. They Anglo-Irish did poorly in playtesting.  Current tactics and force mixes defeat their strengths handily.  So I decided to change armies, and after pondering for a while, I  came up with 25mm Byzantines.  My first painted army.  And I was freshly practiced with them as I brought 15mm Byzantines to Barrage.  There was a frantic rebasing and flocking effort.  And I didn't even have to change the list.

Recipe for good looking flocking.  This is some of the best flocking mixes I have made.  Start with the standard store bought 100% homogeneous green, add a cup of dark chocolate, 2 oz of past due Taragon, 6 bags of tea, (3 green, 3 Lipton) an oz of pepper corns, and a handful of grit from the driveway. My wife commented that this was the most expensive flocking material known to man. Glue down with brown tempra paint.

Bill Hawks and I have sat across the table a few times.  I found one in Nov, 2017 at a previous Kozcon.  I was running Timurid Persian against his Crusaders.  There are Elephants, Stampeding Cattle, and totally worthless Levy.  If you want, it can be found here.


The Forces:

Nikephorian Byzantine

Nikephoros, the Brilliant, Adidasphoros, the Brilliant and Pumaphoros, the ordinary, and somewhat unreliable.

      4 Thematic Kataphractoi, Medium Cavalry Impact

      4 Petchnegs, Light Cavalry, Bow

      1 Turkomons, Light Cavalry, Bow, Elite

      2 Varangians, Heavy Swordsmen 2HW, Armor, Elite

      8 Skutatoi, ½ Heavy Spearmen ½ Bowmen

      4 Light Infantry, Bows and Javelins

Breakpoint of 24

Mongol Empire
All cavalry bow, some elite, some impact, some heavy.  I can't tell them apart by looking at them, so I just rely upon my opponent to keep the straight.  Breakpoint of 19.

The Mongols win the initiative and elect to be attacked in the steppes.  They select two hills, one of which was discarded due to lack of fit and a brush.  Nikephoros selects a brush strewn hill, and a gully.

The Board:

Light cavalry to the left, Medium/Heavy cavalry to right.

6 more cavalry before their well fortified camp.

7 more to the far right.  That's 19, and each looks like a compete force unto itself.

Pumaphoros gets the job of holding the Byzantine left.  four little Skutatoi, all in a row.

Nikephoros commands the center.  4 more Skutatoi interleaved with Varangians.

 

Adidasphoros is given the right flank. 

Looking out numbered, the 5 units of Petchnegs, are also mostly ordinary before the mostly elite Mongol horse.

 Turn 1:

Larry takes the first march, as the Darryl's will need to line up on him.

 Because with Mongols, it's all about the flanks.  If you have a flank, you will have Mongols.

Darryl had an abundance of command points and was able to do a triple march, with right step, move, left step, March!

An ambush is revealed.  4 units of Thematic Lancers.

The Mongols begin their right flank sweeping move.  Pausing only to see two small boys waving their sticks in the air.

The center command splits in twain.  It's lights go to the right flank, the medium/heavy/bow/maybe lance to the left.

Typical cavalry tactics for the Mongols.  Ignore the heavy foot in the center, and go for the softer parts on the flanks.

Their left flank horse archers approach to bow range and loose arrows.  Today, the Petchnegs shoot well, and the Mongols take 3 hits of 5 shots, with nought to show for it.

The Mongols have 3 points towards their breakpoint of 19
The Byzantines have 0 points towards their breakpoint of 24

(is zero plural, or singular?)

Normally I don't include a running count this early in the game, mainly because it's usually zero-zero, but 3 points is about 15% of the Mongol total.

Turn 2:

The Kerns are recalled, and Darryl approaches to long range.  Their arrow fire is desultory, and ignored.

Larry shifts left and is also in bow range.

Darryl's lancers advance and shift as well.  The Mongols are now in charge reach.  The Petchnegs continue their bow fire, but mostly are dodging arrows at this point.

The Mongols pull out of missile range.

So to, the center command.

On the right, each sides arrows score but once.

The Mongols have 4 points towards their breakpoint of 19
The Byzantines have 1 point towards their breakpoint of 24

Turn 3:

More Byzantine archery.

Since the Mongols are kind of split left and right, so to will Nikephoros's command.  Sending 2 Skutatoi and a Varangian each way.

With one Mongol command largely in the rear, more bow fire can be focused on the Mongol left wing.

More than replacing the disordered Petchneg recalled to rally.

When possible, I rather pull a unit out of the line and rally them outside of 4 UD.  In cost, its about the same, may be more so, as you certainly are going to pay 2 command points to do it, and the unit will be out of action for 2 turns.  But leaving a disordered light in the line can have permanent and fatal consequences, like with the Mongols above.

A Tribal horsemen test the ambush marker and finds a Psiloi with Javelins, on a fielded hill.

More recalls by the Mongols.

Status quo in the center.

Having lost one tribal horse, the Mongols don't want to lose more.

The Mongols have 7 points towards their breakpoint of 19
The Byzantines have 2 points towards their breakpoint of 24

Turn 4:

The Mongols have withdrawn way out of range.  Time for an adjustment of the line.  If his center decides to play, I'll have more bowfire, and the centers flank will be covered.  If his right approaches, then it's one command point to turn. 

What I am not going to do is try to chase him down.

Two Psiloi in the hill.

Nikephoros also has a lack of targets and runs up to play flank guard to the other half of his main line.

Adidasphoros decides to go for position.  The archery is doing wonderful, so why change tactics now. 

The Petchnegs probe deep, and are behind the lines of the Mongol Medium Cavalry, but they are safe, as the Mongols are all ZOC'd.  And there is a chance they will destroy the tribal horse with bowfire alone.

The Mongols see their chance.  A wide open field between Pumaphoros's Skutatoi and the hill  They leap at the chance.

Reinforced by their center command.

Trading space for time, their left flank pulls back.

The Mongols have 9 points towards their breakpoint of 19
The Byzantines have 2 points towards their breakpoint of 24

Turn 5:

I actually left that gap on purpose.  The Mongols are a small army and I have many points trapped already and I am willing to sacrifice Pumaphoros's command of 8 points to win the game.  I figure, at best, it will take 3 turns to encircle and kill the Skutatoi, and the game won't last that long, either we were going to run out of time or Mongols.

Pumaphoros turns to face the Mongols.

Nikephoros likewise turns and looses arrows.

Time to end the fight on the right.  Charges all round.  3 Mongol units leave the board.  The remaining Mediums have two hits each.

One Tribal horse decides on Death before Honor, and finds Honor. 

The Mongol column squeezes on by.

The second column of Mongol horse takes position out of bow range.

A Mongol horse slips away.  The other was shot to death.

Leaving him the to be the last of his corps on the table.

The Mongols have 11 points towards their breakpoint of 19
The Byzantines have 2 points towards their breakpoint of 24
Turn 6:

The shoot out on the hill.  The score is 15-love.

Pumaphoros decides he is not going to let the Mongols get through.  He traps a light horse and kills it.  Even though this leaves that Skutatoi vulnerable to a flank charge.

The Nikephoros's Center command has two targets left.  A Medium Cavalry with it's general, and the camp.

Adidasphoros is now assembling his corps for a run across the board.

The Mongols put a hammer and anvil attack on the vulnerable Skutatoi

Their center command approaching to prevent too much chicanery. 

The last vestiges of resistance is shot away.  But the General escapes to safety.

The Mongols have 14 points towards their breakpoint of 19
The Byzantines have 4 points towards their breakpoint of 24

Turn 7:

The Byzantines pull another flank attack

Their remaining 2 Skutatoi stand before the Mongol horde.

The massive redeployment in operation.  One center corps Skutatoi is already in range.  Adidasphoros's cavalry will be able to charge in 2 turns

The fool on the hill races for the crest, but fails to get there.

The Mongols launch another hammer and Anvil attack.  And to support it, a frontal charge to lock down the remaining Skutatoi. 

The Frontal charge fails to pin the Skutatoi, so another flank chard is offered to the Byzantines.

The Mongols have 17 points towards their breakpoint of 19
The Byzantines have 5 points towards their breakpoint of 24

Turn 8:

Another flank charge by the Byzantines, dispersing the cavalry to the winds.  But the turn has it's losses, as one Skutatoi is also destroyed.

This took the Mongols to 19, and their breakpoint. 

Final shots.  It wasn't going to get any better for the Mongols.

What went right.  I think the ambush on the right set the tone.  Where the Mongols were going to attack, suddenly they were outnumbered.  Admittedly with inferior troops.  They went on the defense then, allowing the Byzantines to set the tempo.  Once the center command was able to lend two foot bow to both flanks, the Mongols were faced with superior missile fire from which they didn't recover.

It helped that on the first set of shots, the Petchnegs scored 3 hits on a line of 7 cavalry, and receiving none.