Speaking with the Spanish

A Headless Body Production

Players: Phil Gardocki running Indians
              Kevin Hatch running Feudal Spanish
Event: Day 2 of HMGS's Cold Wars.
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.
Theme: Round 3 of the L' Art de la Guerre, Open 15mm tournament. Since the previous days 15mm tournament excluded pachyderms, I figured they would be sorely missed, and brought a few.
Venue: Valley Forge Casino Resort, a minimal amenity gaming resort offering 100,000 foot of meeting facilities, high priced food, Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, and no room service. But the parking is plentiful.

The Forces
Classical Indian Are commanded by King Porus, the Competent, Prince Porus, the Ordinary, and Shitake, the Competent.
4 Elephants, Elite
10 Bowmen, 1/2 Medium Swordsmen, 1/2 Bowmen
2 War Wagons with blades
1 Medium Cavalry, Mediocre
6 Light Infantry, Bow
1 Levy
Sacred Camp
Break-point of 25

The Feudal Spanish are commanded by the Brilliant Peter III of Aragon, King of Aragon and Valencia, Count of Barcelona. He is Allied with the Competent, and somewhat unreliable Italian, Bonifaciao de Camerana, Captain of the People of the City of Corleone. Joining them is the Ordinary, Commander of the Almughavars, Ramon de Montcada. Who killed my father, prepare to die.
6 Caballeros, Medium Knight, Impetuous
2 Communal Knights, Medium Knight, Impact
2 Feudal Knights, Medium Knight, Impact
2 Mixed Heavy Spearmen, Crossbow
4 Heavy Spearmen, Mediocre
4 Almughavars, Medium Spearmen, Impact
2 Light Infantry, Crossbow
Break-point of 23

A note on annotations. When you see a word bubble "Ouch!", (¡Ay!, "आउच!", "Heus!") this implies a missile hit.

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, 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" marks a unit killed in that location on that turn.
"????" is an ambush marker, and so it is unknown at this time.

Scores are presented in a confusing manner. This is because it is measured in number of points towards the demoralization. If I say the score is 15-8 in favor of Milan, that means the Burgundians are have 15 points towards their demoralization level of 19, while Milan has 8 points towards their demoralization level of 20. But saying 15-8 is just more intuitive. 

Misleading descriptions or lack of specificity as to who/what is being referred to is to be considered part of the fun, rather than memory problems with the author.

Deployment:

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

On the Spanish right is a force of Almughavars. Well positioned to take advantage of the near by field.

King Peter of Aragon orders his knights to dismount. Not only does this protect them from "Elephant Terror", it also improves their Protection from in coming missiles. Of which, the Indians have a lot.

How much improvement? I haven't made an odds observation in while.
Ordinary shooters, with a +1 bonus against Mounted with a protection of 1, will score 15 in 36 shots.
Ordinary shooters against Ordinary, with a protection of 1, troops, will score 10 in 36 shots.
Ordinary shooters against armored, with a protection of 2, troops, will score 6 in 36 shots.
And for the Mediocre Spearmen with a protection of 1? The odds are 12 in 36 shots.

So the knights being armored foot, are significantly more resistant to Indian bow fire.

The mass of Spanish foot line up to the coast. With two troops of knights not getting "the word".

Prince Poros's War Wagons are set up to defend a flank attack, but ready to move closer to the center if need be.

Commander Shitake takes the center command.

King Poros's command takes the point of honor on the right.

Turn 1:

The War Wagons tighten up the gap between them and the center command.

 

The Indian plan is simple. Advance to missile range and hold, and hope for lucky shots.

It worked last game. But last game did not have armored troops to shoot at.

The elephant commands advance in sync.

Shitakes and the Kings commands differ by the King having 2 additional medium sword/bow units that are to be used as flank guards.

As expected, Ramon de Montcada orders his Almughavars into the field.

The King of Aragon and Valencia, orders his foot forward at the double.

Bonifaciao de Camerana advances what foot would fit. Leaving his Mediocre Spearmen behind.

His Knights see a great opportunity here. Knights vs Medium Swordsmen, Mediocre. Meat on the table. 

And what are those odds?

What do you know? I never set up a troop type of Medium Swordsmen, Mediocre in my combat calculator.  The odds are so bad, that it was never worth calculating. But the combat calculator is data driven, so a minute later there was the answer:

The odds of the knights winning are 99.6%. In an average of 2 rounds. Furious charge is a factor in 790 out of 1000 engagements. Armor save a factor in 235 times.

If the knight takes a missile hit before combat, the odds are reduced to winning 92.3% of the time.

So the flank guard are truly, dead men walking.

Turn 2:

A war wagon further tightens the gap.

The Spanish stopped just out of bow range. The Indians spend extra command points to be just in range.

Italian crossbow score a hit. But the Indian flank guard archers, who must have heard that "Dead Men Walking" comment, were motivated. Arrows fly, disordering both mounted knights. A 17.3% event.

Turn 3:

I missed taking pictures for the Spanish turn 2. So below is the Indian move at the top of the 3rd.

The Almughavars charge out of the field into the first War Wagon. The result is a tie. But their flank is exposed to a counter attack by an Indian swordsmen.

The rest of the Spanish line advances. The separation is around 1.75 UD's.

The Indians are happy to hold the distance and shoot.

And to good effect. A mounted knight is destroyed.

On a side note. I did not realize that crossbows, which count all targets as having a protection value of 1, had an exception for elephants. Which are still counted as zero.

A knight flank charges an Indian swordsmen. With predictable results. But the War Wagons now have 2 hits, and so are creaking.

Peter III of Aragon orders an advance to just out of tusk range.

Bonifaciao de Camerana's last mounted knight charges, and is halted in its tracks. He holds the rest of his line to bring up his reserve spear-men.

Turn 4:

The War Wagons pull off a rally, and a win.

King Poros orders a step charge of his two left most units. Shitake's command does not charge, but continues to shoot.

On the far right, Poro's command orders an all out charge. Two Italian foot fall.

The Almughavars continue to advance. Fulling engaging the Prince's War Wagons.

The Spanish king refuses to fully engage in the center. The arrow is actually marking the two units actually in combat.

Bonifaciao de Camerana throws in his heavy spearmen as his last reserves.

Turn 5:

A War Wagon is set aflame.

The MVP of the last game, the Medium Cavalry (Mediocre), finally gets orders to flank the Almughavars. The reason this took so long was their commander was "Ordinary", and they were out of command range, and he just didn't have enough command points to do it.

Shitake orders a charge of 3 of his units. One is destroyed on contact, but the elephants win through.

The Italian line is penetrated, and flank attacks start.

The Spanish have 19 points towards their demoralization level of 23. The Indians are at 12 to their demoralization level of 25.

Almughavars challenge the Indian horse.

A foot knight attacks the flank of Shitake's elephant.

The Italians are down another to 2 units.

The Almughavars almost run off their taunting horse.

An elephant is taken down.

Bonifaciao de Camerana, Captain of the People of the City of Corleone, flees his command and requests asylum with the King of Spain.

The Indians are at 16 of 25

Despite the victories on the Spanish right and center, the complete destruction of the Allied Italian force, adds 16 to the Spanish break point, takes the Spanish to their break point of 23.