Another Hangover of Hungarians

A Headless Body Production

Venue: A secluded fire house at the edge of the dark and forbidding Pine Barrens of New Jersey, home of the New Jersey Devil.
Event:  Kozcon ADLG organized by Don Manzer.
Players: Phil Gardocki running Medieval Polish (254)
              Walt Leach running Medieval Hungarian (249)
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.
Scale: 25mm

The Forces:

Medieval Polish: Commanders Larry'ego (Brilliant ), Darrellem (Competent), and Darrellem (Competent and Unreliable).
4 Winged Hussars, Medium Knight, Impact, elite
2 Followers, 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

Medieval Hungarians:
This is all guess work from the pictures.

6 Heavy Knight, Impact, elite
5 Heavy and Medium Cavalry, ???
4 Light Cavalry, ???
6 Light Infantry, Crossbow and firearms
Breakpoint around 21

Display Conventions: When you see a word bubble like "Ouch!" or "Auć!" or "Jaj!", 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 event is Kozcon. And I draw Walt Leach in the first round. He was also my opponent for my last practice game two weeks earlier.

The Board:

The Hungarians win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.

Deployment: 

The Hungarian right has a field and an ambush protecting his exposed camp.

Their center is 6 heavy knights, mostly elite, and well protected by skirmishing lights.

Which has the added effect of raising his break point by 6 for just 24 points.

The Hungarian left is 6 cavalry, 2 heavies, 2 mediums, 2 lights.

Larry'ego holds the Polish left.

His brother Darrellem, the right.

Their other brother Darrellem cannot be seen.

The brave Hungarian lights race towards the Larry'ego's left flank.

The rest of the Hungarian horde marches forward in lockstep.

Their lights peek into the gully, and see the end of a barrel peeking back.

Seeing the need to delay as long as possible for Darrylem's flank march to come on, Larry'ego orders a tactical retreat.

Darrylem's war wagons advance. Front, back, side, they don't care about cavalry.

War Wagons are +2 vs mounted, +3 if battle ready. Mounted also lose impact against them.

A view from the clouds.

Turn 2:

Now knowing for sure a flank march is running, the Hungarians parse of a single light horse to intercept.

Their knights continue to advance.

Their numbers are great enough that 3 of their cavalry is held in reserve.

Larry recalls his flank guard.

While Darrylem "races" his wagons to intercept the line of knights.

Turn 3:

Dust on the horizon! Darrylem will be arriving soon!

I was hoping the Hungarian lights would charge my rear facing heavies, but they didn't fall into that trap, electing to shoot from afar.

The Hungarians continue to advance, and are just out of charge range here.

They also withdraw their disordered lights, but advance their shooting cavalry.

Larry'ego's right is well covered by wagon lager's, so his lights have been sent to cover the left.

The shooting is just generating so much noise.

But the Hungarian bow proves very effective.

Turn 4:  

This turn is going to prove to be very active, with the massive charge of knights, an equally massive flank march arriving. And as Walt and I are geezers, now would be a good time to divest all that coffee drunk on the long drive in.

And take some photos of games that look far more interesting than ours...

Some kind of western.

And some great looking lateen rigged sailing ships.

The invasion is on!

The invaders have reinforcement arriving.

The view from the mountain top.

Computer! Magnify! Enhance! (it really doesn't work that way...)

;) Ok, maybe it does work that way :)

Alright bladder, I'm going...

.

...

.....

.......

Don't get old.

The trumpets sound, but are barely heard over the sounds of galloping steel shod hooves.

Considering that the Poles are facing heavier opponents, losing 2 to nought is pretty much an expected result.

Hungarian archery is at its finest. Finding holes in the wagons and scoring hits.

The Polish flank guard of heavy spear, 1/2 crossbow is ground into the mud.

The Hussars Zielony i Czerwony are defeated. Routing through their followers.

Darrylem has arrive. He sends his Lithuanians towards the camp, the remaining horse will descend upon the Hungarian rear.

If Larry'ego can hold on long enough.

Darrylem's wagons continue to be ineffective shooters.

Turn 5:

The Polish final reserves are committed. The Hussars Żółty i Zielony are defeated.

There will not be much for Darrylem to save at this point.

The Polish camp is being threatened.

Darrylem's troops shoot well, disordering 2 Hungarian units.

The third Hussar is destroyed, taking Larry'ego with them. But he did not die alone! The included general in one of the Hungarian knights also is killed, taking his body guard with him.

The Lithuanians sack the Hungarian camp

Turn 7:

Those victories were too little, too late. The Polish camp falls, The Polish hit their break point and offer their parole to the noble Hungarians.

The final score was 21 to 12.

What do we call a plan that will cause you to lose, even if successful? A bad plan.

I was too tempted by the camp and send a flank march, hoping for luck. I was really running on hubris, since I beat this army 2 weeks ago. Overall, a flank march is not a bad idea, but it is when it involves 8 units of your army. Even as executed though, the flank march scored 6 points of the final score of 12 against the Hungarians. But then, how many losses were there because of it's absence.