Burgundian Ordinance vs Teutonic Knights

A Headless Body Production
Venue: Fall In 2019

Event: L' Art de la Guerre, Theme
Rules Set: L'Art de la Guerre
Theme: Open Tournament
Players: Phil Gardocki playing Burgundian Ordinance
               Allen Kaplan playing Teutonic Knights

The Forces:

Burgundian Ordonnance

Commanded by Lawrence, the Competent, his brother Darryl (Which turns out to be French in origin) the Competent and his other brother Darryl , the Ordinary, and somewhat unreliable.
5 1/2 Heavy Spearman 1/2 Longbowmen
3 Foot Knights
3 Men-at-Arms, Heavy Knight, Impact, 1 Elite
2 Light Cavalry, Crossbow
2 Demi-Lancers, Heavy Cavalry Impact
2 Light Handgunners, Elite
2 Crossbow, Mediocre

Breakpoint of 20

Teutonic Knight

6 Brother Knights, Medium Knight, Impact, Elite
2 Crusader Knights, Medium Knight,Impetuous
2 Turcopoles, Medium Cavalry
2 Turcopoles, Light Cavalry, Javelin
2 Brothers with Spears, Heavy Spearmen, Armor
2 Brothers with Crossbow, Crossbowmen
2 Balts, Light Infantry Bow
1 Livonian, Medium Spearmen, Mediocre
2 Bowmen
2 Levy

Breakpoint of 23

The Board:
This is the third round of the tourney, and Al and I are playing for first place. The Teut's win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.

With the Rhine securing their flank, the Teut commander deploys with an his Elite Knights. He dismounts one as a heavy swordsmen..

His center is a mix of spearmen, bowmen, crossbowmen, militia. All over the place. If you look at the book list you will find they don't get a lot of any single troop type.

Except knights, lots of knights, two are impetuous, the rest elite.

Lawrence has his forces arrayed as a mix of spear and sword.

His brother Darryl holds the center and right.

The other brother Darryl, cannot be seen.


Turn 1:

The Teutonic Knights advance at a measured pace.

Only slightly getting ahead of their infantry supports.

The same with the left wing of knights. Turcopoles following the road which leads to the far right flank of the Burgundians.

Lawrence advances to the fortification line.

His brother Darryl advances to supporting position of Lawrence's flank. His job is to delay, not hold.

But, his other brother Darryl rolls a six, and will arrive on turn 2!

Turn 2:

The Teut right flank has the impetuous knights and he does not want to lose control of them, and so orders a halt on their current position.

The massive infantry is pushed forward to take the early hits.

While the Teut left begins to wheel right to fall upon the Burgundian right.

Lawrence does not advance.

Darryl positions his forces to refuse the right and goes for delay tactics.

Darryl arrives with a force of 3 Heavy Knights, 2 Heavy Cavalry and 2 Light Cavalry.

Turn 3:

The flank march has arrived, it is time to commit the knights to combat

Missiles fly. The Burgundians taking more than they dish out.

The Teut left flank ignores the flank march and advances onto the Burgundian right flank.

They leave two units of Turcopoles behind to delay Darryl's Knights.

The Teuts stopped just out of range, so Lawrence orders his bowmen to take a step forward.

Missiles continue to fly, several knights have taken hits.

Darryl cants his main line towards the Teutonic Knights, but sends his lights to raid the camp.

The Teutonic Knights have 5 points towards their breakpoint of 23
Lawrence's Burgundians have 3 points towards their breakpoint of 20

Turn 4:

The Teut right flank screens his line with his Turcopoles, while withdrawing a brother knight that has picked up two hits.

The Teut Armored Spearmen are well screened. The Teut Bowmen continue to rake the Burgundian lines to soften them up for their knight charge.

Which started... Right now! A crossbowmen unit is routed, taking their fire arms lights with them

The Teut Turcopoles pick their points, both on Darryl's right and left flank.

Lawrence is content to continue to shoot it out.

Darryl's command is not looking healthy.

His other brother Darryl has had to fracture his formation to deal with the Turcopoles and is advancing slower than the Teutonic knights are advancing.

This is a big deal. Not only have two units of Turcopoles delayed the advance of a much superior force, that force is now in 4 bodies, which creates a lot of command control problems later.

The Teutonic Knights have 6 points towards their breakpoint of 23
Lawrence's Burgundians have 6 points towards their breakpoint of 20

Turn 5:

The Teut's commit their heavy spearmen to combat, and rally their knights.

Their archers continue to rake the Burgundian lines. Their knights continue to charge, and by a miracle, the Crossbowmen hold.

In the last great act of defiance, Turcopoles loose their javelins, disordering the Demi-Lancers on their flank.

Lawrence isn't going to wait for the combined arms charge, and assaults the line of spearmen. He has armor, 2 handed swords and overlaps. And he has a number of 1's on his dice.

Darryl has lost his last ablative crossbow, and sends his foot knights to play with the mounted knights.

His other brother Darryl is advancing, but is still at least two turns from engaging his enemy.

The Teut camp is looted.

The Teutonic Knights have 11 points towards their breakpoint of 23
Lawrence's Burgundians have 10 points towards their breakpoint of 20

Turn 6:

The Burgundian main line is collapsing

Darryl's holding action is still holding.

Lawrence takes position with his last foot knight.

Darryl's foot knight is also still holding out.

The Flank march is almost ready to make their charge.

The Teutonic Knights have 12 points towards their breakpoint of 23
The Burgundians have 17 points towards their breakpoint of 20

Turn 7:

The Teut right flank is performing clean up. They only need 3 points for the win

Their bowmen advance to knife range of Darryls spearmen, and turn. Keeping out of charge reach of the Burgundian knights.

A brother knight challenges Darryl's line.

Lawrence has two effective units fighting. His foot knights destroy their opposing spearmen, while their longbow/spear keeps shooting.

Between Lawrence and Darryl, they have 3 effective units in combat.

The Teutonic Knights have 14 points towards their breakpoint of 23
Lawrence's Burgundians have 19 points towards their breakpoint of 20, the game is still on!

Turn 8:

In baseball parlance, it's an out at any base. But Al isn't content with that. He wins on the left, he wins in the center.

And he pulls two more points on the right.

And just for good measure, he rallies his Turcopoles

The Teutonic Knights end the game with 14 points towards their breakpoint of 23
Lawrence's Burgundians end the game with 22 or so points towards their breakpoint of 20.

So what went wrong? I think the game was well in hand till turn 5. Then Al had set up matchups that were not in my favor. I leaped forward to keep that from happening, but it didn't work out. Also, Al masterfully dealt with the flank march, largely keeping it out of the game with a minimal number of troops. This gave him about a 1.5 -1 advantage on the main line.