A Mongst* of Mongols

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Kaplan and Bookbinder, just across Highway 9 from Wet Willies!
Event: An Afternoon at Al's
Players: Phil Gardocki and Dennis Shorthouse running Mongols
               Alan Kaplan and Richard Jarosz running Alexandrian Macedonian
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.
Scale: 25mm 

We gathered at Al's to play Spearhead. Despite the name, the game was not ancients related. With 1/285 scale figures, the infantry units were had a braille like consistency. 

 

The scenario is 1941, and the Russians are counter attacking the Nazi's, in an attempt to retake the Nicholas Chain Bridge on the eastern approaches of Kiev. Any similarity between this scenario of 81 years ago and current events are just an amazing set of coincidences. 

 

One of the jokes in the panel is very topical, and in a year or two will not be funny anymore, if ever.

 

And Al, that is the name of the bridge, I looked it up. Destroyed in 1941, rebuilt as Kyiv Metro Bridge now.

 

One side surrendered 3 hours in, so it was decided to run a team ADLG game with 2 lists Al had hanging around.

The Forces:
Taken from memory, and so once removed from reality.
Mongols: Commanders one Strategist, and two included ordinaries. For all you new players, don't do that.
About 9 Medium Cavalry, Bow
9 Light Cavalry, Bow
3 Heavy Cavalry Impact, Bow, Elite
4 Levies
Breakpoint...22

Alexander the Great!
A Strategist and I don't know what else.
6 pikemen
1 Hoplite
2 elephants
2 Agrianians, LI Javelin
3 Thracians, Medium Swordsmen, 2 handed weapon
1 Thracian, Javelinmen
2 Companions, Heavy Cavalry, Impact, Elite
1 Other cavalry of unknown quality
2 Light Cavalry, probably javelin

Breakpoint around 21

There won't be any dead unit markers this time around.

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "Auć!", 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.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

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

Players Commands(Spoilers)

The Great Khan and Flank March--Dennis Shorthouse
Idiot Nephew -- author
Alexander the Great-- Al Kaplan
Nameless Macedonian and Flank March -- Richard Jarosz

The Board:

Alexander wins the initiative and elects to attack in the steppes.

Deployment: 
With clever machinations, Alexander managed to remove one of the steppe hills over night, leaving the board with just one hill, a gully, and a brush

This battle is already in progress.

Turn 1:

The Macedonians are trying to go for the rush across the table and deny the Mongols much room for their shoot and scoot tactics.

Their second command deployed 2 elephants, and 4 units of Thracians in ambush.

Their third command cannot be seen.

Still on their deployment line, the great Khan (a Strategist) has 16 units.

His idiot nephew has 10 units.

4 of which, cannot be seen.

The Mongol's third command, also cannot be seen. The music has just gone to a lower tone (the plot is about to thicken)

With an abundance of command points, the great Khan sidesteps the main Macedonian battle line.

While his idiot nephew has 2 command points. And so must use them to good effect.

Turn 2:

The pike parse off their hoplite unit to shield the flank.

And split off two Taxis of pike to support the Companion cavalry.

Confident the Mongols are over matched, the elephant command and Thracians race across the board.

The Great Khan's moves resemble a Don Maddon football plan.

While the Idiot nephew has 2 command points to spend on troops other than himself. This is 1.

And this is 2. The Medium Cavalry get to take a "spontaneous" charge for a third action.

In ADLG, if units are too close to each other, then one unit can charge without the commander spending a command point. If it wasn't for the Thracians getting so close, I would have had to make a tough choice on which units to move.

The Thracian on the left, which was disordered by bowfire the previous turn, was predictably destroyed by just 1 point advantage on the dice. The next one fell to a 1-5 dice pairing roll which becomes 2-7 with modifiers for +5 and 3 hits.

Turn 3:

Dust on the horizon, the Macedonian flank march is arriving soon.

Pike and Hoplites charge.

Elephants charge Mongol lights. The Elephants roll + on pursuit, while the Mongols rolled -, and so the elephants are breathing heavily right behind them.

The Great Khan, plays his army like a 8 fingered virtuoso!

Also, the Mongol flank march arrived. A Medium Cavalry, Bow and a Light Cavalry Bow unit.

Even fools have their day. The Elephants have charged too far forward. Idiot nephew rolls a 1 for command points for a total of 2, his personal and one other unit. He orders his units to turn and FRONTALLY CHARGE THE ELEPHANTS. Then sends a message to his nearest Minghan to charge the elephant rear! The Agrianians, who were covering the elephant, but being only light infantry,  flee, leaving the smelly parts of jumbo vulnerable.

Lets be fair, all of the elephant is probably could be classed as "Smelly Parts".

Medium Cavalry vs supported elephant? How does that work? Normally the Medium Cavalry is +1 Mounted and -1 for panic, totaling a  big fat zero. With the Elephant starting at +2 against mounted, +1 for Impact and + 1 for Support or a 4 in total. With a differential of +4, the Medium horse only wins this fight if the elephants roll a 1 to their 6

But attacking the rear at the same time? Medium Cavalry is still +1 and -1 for panic.  He is supported by Idiot Nephews guard for + 1, and MELEE support from the Minghan in the rear for another +2. A total of +3. The Elephant is now fighting two sides, and so starts at a zero, -1 for disorder, +1 for support, Swinging the differential to +3 in favor of the Mongols.

As it was, it was a near thing, the Mongols rolled poorly and nearly were defeated.

The Thracian Javelinmen defeat one of the Minghan's facing them.

Turn 4:

Once again, the pike run off their taunting lights.

A companion unit attempts to drive off a pair of Mongol skirmishers.

An elephant is defeated, rampaging through a Mongol Minghan.

A Companion sets itself up for a flank charge.

The Great Khan's forces have almost encircled the main phalanx.

If it wasn't for conforming, idiot nephew would have accomplished nothing this turn.

Bu with conforming, he accomplished a lot. On the elephant, he conformed both front and rear. Causing a cohesion hit, but then muffed the dice in combat, and was disordered by the elephant. His private Minghan barely crosses the hill, it is brush covered and reduces his movement by 1, and just misses being able to charge the flank of the companions.

His other Minghan, far right, conforms onto the last Thracian foot. But both are fighting at a + zero and tied the roll.

I rolled a 1, and then my foe picked up my die. "You don't want that, it's no good." He rolled it anyway, for another '1'.

You try to help people.

Turn 5:

A Taxis of Pike is flanked and killed.

Another 2 Taxis are bearing down on the hostages.

The hostages are "Levy" and are + zero against Pike, which are +2 against them. And the Levies only take 3 hits vice 4, and are Mediocre, subtracting 1 from the die if they roll a 4, 5, or 6.
But they do NOT count against the Mongol break point.

A Light Horse from the Macedonian flank march arrives.

Their other unit, a cavalry unit of unknown quality, takes a Minghan in the flank, saving the Thracian Javelinmen for imminent destruction.

Despite a disadvantage of 3 points, the elephant hangs on.

Another Taxis falls

The Hostages face their doom.

Idiot he may be, but brave also. Nephew makes a sandwich of the companion cavalry, narrowly avoiding destroying it for 19 points of demoralization of the Macedonian break point.

The last elephant breaks, and then rampages, through the Minghan that the last one rampaged through. Taking the Macedonian demoralization to 20.

And a Mongol light horse, loosed a volley of flight arrows, disordering the newly arrived Greek light horse for the final point of demoralization of the game.

Final score was 21 Macedonians of 21, and 9 for the Mongols of 22. Note worthy here was the Great Khan's command took no casualties. All nine were from Idiot Nephews Command. 4 from destroyed units, 2 left the board, 3 disordered.

*Mongst: Yes, that is a real word.  A poetic word for among.

 

The Anglo Polski Rebellion

A Headless Body Production

Venue: On Military Matters Book Store, Hopewell, NJ
Event:   Practice for   Kozcon 
Players: Phil Gardocki running Medieval Polish (254)
                 Alan Kaplan running 100 Years War English (236)
                 
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.
Scale: 25mm

The Forces:

Medieval Polish: Commanders  Larry (Ordinary and Unreliable), Darrel (Brilliant), and Darrel (Brilliant).
      4 Winged Hussars, Medium Knight, Impact, elite
      2 Heavy Cavalry, Impact.
      4 Medium Cavalry, Crossbow
      2 Tartars, Light Cavalry, Bow elite.
      2 Lithuanians, Light Cavalry, Javelin
      2 Serbian Hussars, Light Cavalry, Impact, elite
      2 War Wagons, Crossbow
      1 Heavy Spearmen, 1/2 Crossbow
      2 Light Infantry, Firearm, 1 elite
Breakpoint...21

100 Years War English
If memory serves, the commanders for the Hundred years war English army was a Brilliant, a Competent and an Ordinary.  But memory is fickle...
A wide variety of Longbowmen.
    Some are Mediocre
    Some are actually Swordsmen with Longbow
    Some have stakes, others not.
    Your guess is as good as mine.
2 Knights on Foot, one elite,
2 Heavy Foot, Polearm (and I think armor)

I'll try to keep them straight for the report, but I can't promise anything. Consider the lack of precise information part of the fun.
Breakpoint around 23

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "Auć!", 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.

Inappropriately capitalized words are used to highlight terms that are specific to the game. For example Brilliant, Competent and Ordinary have specific game values for the commanders.

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

The Board:

The Poles win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.  The English select 2 fields and a fielded hill.  The Poles select a gully (lower left corner and not really impacting the battle) and a road down the center of the board.

Deployment: 

The English line was almost board edge to board edge, with a mix of longbowmen and men at arms.  But there was about 4 UD's of space on the English right flank that could be exploited by brave lights.

One day, in the middle of the night...

Two armies came out to fight...

Back to back...

They faced each other...

Then drew their swords...

And shot one another.

Turn 1:

If you do not believe my story is true, ask the blind man, he saw it too.

And enough of the Gothic font.

The field is a problem.  Not too much though, as the left most cavalry are skirmishers. 

The brothers Darrel and Darrel march forward in perfect sync.

Brother Larry proves his reliability and double marches his wagons to cover the right flank.

 

The war wagon command is by far, the Pole's weakest command.  It's goal is to screen off as much of the English line as possible.  It looks like about 6 shooters and 2 heavy foot.   And as it turns out, it was facing the weakest English Command of 4 mediocre and 2 ordinary bowmen.

The English right parses off one longbow unit to keep the lights honest.  But otherwise marches forward at quick step.

Anchoring their line to the forward field on their right is a good tactic against a mostly horse army.

What's this?  His force of mostly mediocre troops are coming out to play?

 

Turn 2:

3 light horse from 3 different nations challenge the English flank guard.

Darrel is not liking the line up and the terrain and calls for a full retreat.

His brother Darrel kind of agrees, but only withdraws half way.

Larry brings his militia out and advances his lights onto the hill. And begin pelting the English line with crossbow and arquebus balls.

In an attempt to run off the lights, the English bowmen charge, but neither nation wants to look bad before the others and hold their ground.  The Tatars are dispersed, but the Lithuanians hold, disordering their attackers.

The main English battles cross the A612.  Not as poetic as the Rubicon, but the dice have been thrown.

The skies darken and men start dying. 

Turn 3:

The Lithuanians decide they have done their job, and break off.

The Serbian Hussars have a lance, and the flank against disordered bowmen.  Their charge destroys their opponent, causing routs through their adjacent brethren.

 

Why did I do it this way?  If the Lithuanians stay, and I flank charge the bowmen. The battle will be Lithuanians starting at a zero with + 1 for support.  The Bowmen are 1 vs LH, +1 support, -1 for disorder for a total of +1.  An even fight.  And the Lithuanians will need to win by 3 to kill the bowmen.

 

By breaking off and letting the Serbian Hussars go it alone.  The Serbs are zero, +1 impact, +1 flank for a total of +2 and they get furious charge.  The Bowmen +1, disordered for -1 and a total of zero. So the net battle is +2 to zero, and any win destroys the bowmen, and disorders their partner.  

 

True, I lose the use of the Lithuanians this way, but the side benefit is a much more exciting narrative!

With the English line clipped by three units, the Darrels come to a consensus as to where to draw the line.

Larry's war wagons deploy their battle Accoutrements. 

One of the new things with LADG 4.0 is that some war wagons have a "Battle Ready" state. It represents setting up stakes and chains and dismounting some of it's infantry. They cost 2 extra points per wagon, and getting Battle Ready takes a command point.  In combat, a War Wagon in this state gets an additional +1.

The English reform their flank line to face the sudden onslaught by the Serbians.

The rest of the battles advance to long range and loose arrows.

Causing some havoc on the Polish line.

On the far right, the war-wagons return fire.  And in a surprise exchange, an English bowmen is lost to the Polish lights on the hill.

Turn 4:

The Serbian hussars race of for better hunting

The Polish Knights advance into charge range

Larry's War Wagon command is having great success.  Two more longbow units are destroyed.

The Polish camp is named "Thinking about it".  A Turk is thinking about crossing the stream after seeing what happened to the first guy that tried it.

The English commander assigns one longbow unit to follow the Serbians, and recalls the other to support his main line of battle.

In the center, only one longbow unit gets to shoot, as the others are supporting battles against the Polish heavy and medium horse.

The Polish support on the right is a bit "light", and the Tatars and Serbs evade the charges of the English heavy foot.

On the right, Larry's crossbowmen are having surprising good accuracy.

The Polish are over half way to their break point with a score of 11 out of 21.

The English are also over half way to their break point.  14 of 23.

Turn 5:

 

  It is the moment of decision as the Darrel, leading from the front, commits his knights to a charge.  Serbians attacking the rear of the English foot knights.  The Polish knights tilt well, causing 3 cohesion losses on each heavy foot.

His other brother Darrel also leads from the front. bit with far less effect.  This dice off counted ALL the factors.  The Poles with a final total of +6 (KN vs LMI, Impact, Commander, Elite, Armor) vs +2 (bowmen vs mounted on contact, 2 supports, Mediocre.).  The roll is 1 vs 5 for a tie.

 

Larry's War Wagon command is extending their good day.  2 more longbowmen units destroyed, and even a lucky hit with lights shooting at heavy knights.

 

 

 

English shooters let out a whoop of triumph as they destroy a Polish mounted crossbow unit.

The Poles have their first breakthrough, as English Billmen fall to Polish knights.

In the center, the English shore up their lines, sending the Serbian Hussars and Tatars fleeing again.

On the English left, missiles continue to fly.

The Poles are now at 12 of 21

The English are at 21 of 23.

Turn 6:

Fortune continues to favor Darryl's horse.  His left Knights Biały i Czerwony destroy the opposing foot knights.  Giving the Serbians a chance to exploit a flank.  When the Billmen fell last turn, the other Knights Biały i Czerwony conform onto the adjacent longbow unit.  Heavy Cavalry is then brought forward to penetrate the lines.

Darrel's Knights Zielony i Czerwony destroy their opposing longbowmen, but his flank is exposed.

The Polish Militia, disordered, tired, but who are having a very good day, line up on their third victim.

For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee.

But it was not to be, as the English hit their break point of 23, while the Polish hold firm at 12.

The Militia Spearmen get the nomination of MVP for the game.  Killing 2 units and getting an assist on a third.  Narrowly edging out the lead War Wagon, which also killed 2 units with missile fire alone, and dominated the right flank with just its presence. 

What went wrong?  There was almost no strategy in this game.  Other than the lights working the one flank, it was all tactics of fine maneuvers attempting good match ups.  One the Poles had some advantage with, but it really took a series of poor die rolls by Al for the Poles capitalize on.  On average die rolls, this game would have been a losing draw at best.

A problem with this army is that it is too complected.  3 different types of light horse, 2 different types of cavalry.  Throw in war wagons, militia and light infantry.  9 different types of units.  If things line up great, then fine, but there is a lot of minutia to manage.  And Al was having the same problem.  I think there was only one spot where he had 2 units of same type together.  You can see he had each unit labelled on the back so he could keep track of them.