A Headless Body Production
Players: Phil Gardocki running Anglo Irish (pre 1300)
Dave Ray running Feudal Germans
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm 200 points per side.
Theme: A rerun of last weeks game. Since it came to an such an exciting 3-2 conclusion.
6 Medium Knights, Impact, 2 elite
2 Sergeants, Heavy Cavalry, Impact
2 Hungarians, Light Cavalry, Bow
2 Mounted Crossbowmen, Light Cavalry, Crossbow
2 Low Countries Pike Mediocre
2 Mercenaries, Heavy Swordsmen, Armor, 2HW
2 Heavy Spearmen
2 Crossbowmen
2 Light Infantry, Crossbow
Breakpoint of 22
Deployment:
The Anglo-Irish win the initiative and elect to defend in the mountains.
The Germans are at the top of the screen.
Note on annotation. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary. For troops it is e for Elite, and m for Mediocre. Other abbreviations, Hvy Heavy, XB Crossbow, LB, Longbow, Jav Javelin, 2HW 2 Handed Weapons, B Bow, Kn Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry
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| The German right wing is a solid force of heavy infantry, with pike, spear and 2 handed weapons. Supported by two kiels of crossbowmen. On their left are dismounted knights, as Heavy Swordsmen, Armored. Mounted knights are on their far left, ready to ride down any hapless Irish cavalry foolish enough to tilt with them. |
Facing the German foot is a smaller, but more elite group of men. Led by Darryl, the brother of Larry, The Galloglaich are swarthy in appearance, compensating for their inadequate manhoods with outsized weaponry. To their right is Larry, with a mix of longbow, heavy cavalry and lights.
But what of the other brother Darryl?
Turn 1:
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| The Germans are fearless and advance as quickly as ground will allow. Darryl is known for his mercurial nature, and he may never show up. |
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| Or not. That is the problem with incompetence, they sometimes show up early as well as late. Dust on the horizon reveals that the flank march will not only show up early, but in greater numbers than expected. Darryl mimes "Yes" and pushes his forces forward. Larry throws away the plan of just sitting on the hill and shooting, and descents for some archery practice. |
Ambushes are revealed to be just lights. One takes up a position behind a hastily constructed wall of stick. The other advances to support position for the Galloglaich.
Turn 2:
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| Wulff's command of knights races down the road to intercept. But Luitpold rolls a 1 for command points and has limited options. He turns one XB unit to face the flank march, and advances his main line. |
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| The other brother Darryl arrives with an odd mix of troops. Longbow, Javelinmen, Heavy and Light Cavalry, supported by Kerns. |
Darryl advances the Galloglaich to charge reach. He is hoping Larry's Long Bow and Heavy Horse can distract the dismounted knights and prevent his flank from being overlapped.
Turn 3:
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| Luitpold continues with his plan to engage and flank the Galloglaich right. But fortune is not with him, as his troops lose 4 of 6 fights. Two of them by virtue of 2HW beats spear in a tie. |
One piece of luck. Wulff's Mounted Sergeants, win their race down the road, and successfully charge the Welsh Archers before the stakes could be laid.
The score is Irish with 5 lost to the Germans 7.
Turn 4:
What happened to the bottom of the 3rd? Copy paste error. It went missing. So the arrows reflect moves of both the bottom of the third and the top of the fourth.
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| At the top of the board, German Sergeants eliminate a unit of Longbow, then ignoring the others, turn left and charge the Irish Nobel Heavy Cavalry. Who turn tail and run like the marrowless cowards they are. |
Similarly, the other Irish Noble Cavalry finish off their German Crossbowmen.
The fight of the mainline of heavy foot was brutal and short, 5 German units are destroyed in exchange for the Irish Lords on the far right.
And just that quick the score is now Irish lost 8 (of 23) to the Germans losing 17 (of 22).
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| In L'Art de la Guerre, the sometimes arrives a problem where you totally blow away a command, but then what? Oft times that command is out of the game. Do you dribble it into other combats, or go for rallying the damaged and proceed in formation. |
This is a difference between a game and reality. In reality, the line of Galloglaich would start to wheel into the Germans, engaging the dismounted knights on their right, and the mounted knights on the left.
But the other reality is the Irish only need 5 points to win. And can afford a couple of unfavorable exchanges to get it.
On the left, Irish Horse charge the Sergeants. They have support, and the Sergeants are disordered. But fortune favors the Sergeants this round and they hold their ground while their knights continue to advance.
The Galloglaich Clan Ramsay conforms right. They only need to hold for two bounds as Irish Javelinmen are set up for a flank charge! Clan Ramsay is Heavy Sword, 2HW, Elite against dismounted knight, Heavy Sword, Armored, Elite, Disordered. Clan Ramsay makes a devastating attack causing 2 points of damage! It looks like they will more than hold!
Odds Interlude:
The numbers are against the Galloglaich actually winning this fight. Their goal is to just hold on, and they got very lucky.
The odds are 65/35 in favor of the knights, here, winning in an average of 5 combat rounds.
The score is now Irish lost 8 (of 23) to the Germans losing 19 (of 22).
Turn 5:
Vas ist los? What is this? Is the narrator confused? (verwirrt?) Why are the Germans suddenly screaming in French?
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| I stopped editing on turn 4, and came back later thinking this was another game. |
Knights advance on a longbow unit, and are disordered by yard long shafts of arrows. Other knights approach Irish Heavy Cavalry to support their beleaguered Sergeants, who seem to have things well in hand, with a tie and a win.
In the center, GerFranic dismounted knights rally! The Galloglaich clan Ramsay failing to find any more chinks in their armor. But the GerFranic situation is some what dire, down 9 points in the game, and their shortage in command points has left their positions vulnerable.
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| The Anglo-Irish exploit several targets of opportunity. On the far left, Darryl advances to the flank of the Sergeants. Clan O'Lyre charges the flank of an Heavy Spearmen, scoring 3 hits. Javelinmen flank charge the dismounted knights in the center, poughing them under with both wit, woad, and wiles. |
The game was down to 1 point, and it was in the upper right. Irish Nobles catch an enemy light horse in the rear. And roll a 1-6 and tie. (Alcohol may have been involved)
Turn 6:
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| The end was not in doubt, but the GerFrancic's are not going down without a fight. |
The Sergeants defeat their foe, while a knight blindsides a longbow. Light horse swarm the stalled Heavy Horse, only to have the dies reverse 6-1 for a total defeat. The final score is 22-13, a win for the Anglo-Irish!
So what went wrong? Larry's command, the one on the right, was initially broken up into too many pieces. The thought was to try to prevent flanking on that side, but with the terrain, that could have been handled with an LI and an LC. Allowing the HC to operate together. When running a command with that many parts (bowmen, horse, lights) command control is a problem. Having only a competent means not all the parts will be movable in a turn. Anything that can be done to mitagate this is crucial.
The Flank March came as good as you could want. But it's ultimate goal was not achieved, the camp! Once again, too little force was spent on achieving the camp, and in the end, it failed. This wasn't covered much in the AAR, becuase most of it was in the top of the board, and under the graphics of Table Top Simulator. The LH cam on, and was in charge reach of the camp on turn 2. But the Germans got a knight to throw a ZOC in the way, and made the camp inviolate. Command points were at a premium, and the Irish LH never got into the fight. The end result was the knight drove off the LH, turned, and took a Longbow in the flank.
The secondary mission of the flank march was a total success. Javelinmen eventually making 3 flank charges that caused cohesion lost of the enemy main battle line. Coupled with good dice, and the Germans just collapsed.
The third mission of the flank march was also a success, but had a price. To cause the Germans to spend command points diverting a command to deal with it, when it could have been flanking my main battle line. Despite my best efforts, only 1 crossbow was killed, 1 disordered, and a Heavy Horse (Sergeants) had been disordered, at a cost of a Heavy Horse and a disordered LI. If the game had gone another turn, the mounted knights had easy prey available to them.
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