Larry of Arabia

A Headless Body Production
Venue: On Military Matters Book Store, Hopewell, NJ
Event: Preparation for Historicon
Players: Phil Gardocki running Gallic
              Dennis Shorthouse running Tuareg
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

The Forces:
Tuareg (list 210)
Commanders, one brilliant, two ordinary
A whole lot of Warriors on Camels, all Impetuous, some elite
1 Scout, Light Camel, Impact
2 Scouts, Light Camel, Bow
10 Foot Warriors, Medium Swordsmen, Impetuous
6 Light Infantry, Javelin
Breakpoint around 29

Gallic, list 89
Led by the Larry, the competent, His brother Darryl, the competent, and his other brother Darryl, the ordinary, included and somewhat unreliable
24 Warriors, Medium Sword, Impetuous
8 Lights, 4 each Javelin and Bow
3 Chariots, Javelin
Breakpoint of 35

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!", this implies a disorder from missiles. Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is s for strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent and o for Ordinary, u for unreliable. 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, HKn Heavy Knight, HC Heavy Cavalry, Md Medium, Sgt Sergeants, LC Light Cavalry, Chr Chariot, Cat Cataphract, Pa Pavise, LI, Light Infantry, HG Hand Gun, FKn Foot Knight, Hvy Spear, Heavy Spearmen.

"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.

The Board: The Tuareg wins the initiative and elects to defend in the desert.

The weather is good.

Dennis Shorthouse is the proprietor of On Military Matters book service. A delightful book store in Hopewell New Jersey that specializes in military books.

Deployment:

The Tuareg right is filled with camels.

While their right is filled with impetuous swordsmen.

Larry takes his position on the left. Is brother Darrel's chariots is compressed between Larry and a steep hill.

Bad positioning, I know. I didn't want the chariots on the end where the camels can just catch and obliterate them. And I forgot the chariots don't "do" difficult terrain.

His other brother Darryl takes the position on the right.

The troops on the right are an exact match, but Darryl has two more than the Tuareg.

Turn 1:

Larry advances towards the camel horde. His front and rear ranks sliding alternately to present a wider front.

Darryl has no patience for such elaborate maneuvers, and heads straight for his foe.

The Tuareg have no better plan than the Gauls, but they have more and are better.

The Tuareg foot advance just a little. They will wait for the camels to do their work, then finish off the Gauls.

Turn 2:

But advancing is the only plan we have, so advance we will.

Darryl calls a halt. If he advances, the camels will be on his flank. He is too far away from Larry to be supported, and his other brother Darryl fled the center to deal with prospective flank march.

The flank march arrives, and being light camels, is in range to charge the Gaul left most unit. In a thunderous and epic moment, the camels charge, winning 6 of 9 encounters.

The Taureg foot advance half their force.

Turn 3:

Larry holds his reserves for one final charge.

While Darryl finally gets his act together and advances.

His line may be a bit fragmented, but it's solid.

The Turareg lights turn to face Darryls chariots, off panel below. The remaining camelry are in "clean up" portion of the battle.

If Larry can keep the camels distracted with his 3 remaining war bands, he can still win this battle, but beating the yet unengaged Taureg swordsmen.

Who, despite their impetuous nature, hold their line.

The score is Gaul, with 14 (out of 35)

To 8 out of 29

Turn 4:

Darryl exchanges missiles with the Taureg lights.

Larry commits his last reserves. In an amazing steak of luck, destroys 3 camels

Darryls swordsmen charge. Winning most of the battles.

The Gauls are at 19 losses. This army can't win if it doesn't lose at least 24 points.

The Taureg are at 15. So both sides are just over the half way point.

An adroit move turns Darryls Chariots.

While the Taureg clearly won this fight, they paid a high price for their victory. Of 10 Camels, only 5 are left. (one those in the picture is a commander)

The remaining camelry are chasing lights.

The hope that Darryl might pull this out is becoming unlikely.

In a surprise move, Darryl charges into the brush. One of Larry's last warband units is in range and flank charges a light camel, destroying it.

Leaving the last warband to be surrounded and destroyed.

Darryl finally gets all his warbands committed.

The Tuareg count is at 26 of 29

But the Gauls are at 32 dead, 3 disordered and so meet their demoralization level of 35.

There is a lot to be said about what went wrong.

Deploying the chariots in the center. Where they would have met medium camel and lost. And so they needed to redeploy. But on the other hand, they tied up the flank march, and with some help killed a few of them.

The left racing across the board was just a mistake. I did it so the right could advance with it's flanks covered.

I did not think the Taureg would not commit to battle with impetuous troops on the right. But being in sand, they were not required to charge. And so they waited. So when that fight did occur, it was too little, too late.