A Blot of Inca

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Lancaster County Convention Center.
Event: Historicon 2023!
Theme: Pre Columbian America, Round 2.
Players: Phil Gardocki running Aztec, list 289
               Mike Kelly running Inca, list 291
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.
Font: Georgia Normal

The Forces:
The Aztecs are led by Larryzotl, the Brilliant, his nearly as Brilliant brother, Darrylzuma, and their Competent Brother, Spare-Darrylzuma
6 Otami or Cuachic, Medium Swordsmen, impetuous, 2 are Elite
4 Knights, Medium swordsmen, Impact, Elite
12 Warriors, Medium Swordsmen, Atlatl
6 Slingers, Light Infantry, Sling
Breakpoint...28

The Inca
Led by an unnamed, but reputed to be Brilliant commander and two other commanders of uncertain naming conventions and qualities.
20 Warriors, Medium Swordsmen, Various weapons, various qualities
2 Bowmen
7 Quechua Skirmishers, Light Infantry, Sling
Breakpoint...29

More Pregame Historicon Pictures...

On the Warrior(tm) table, Elephants are about to trundle across the table.

One of the things I like about L' Art de la Guerre is the logistics of army portage. The clear box is just the lead. The blue box has terrain and dice.

But some have to pack heavy, no matter what. This was the Hawaiian army's transport.  Comes with active volcanoes.

But back to the game.

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.

Commanders are rated s for Strategist, b for Brilliant, c for Competent, o for Ordinary and u for Unreliable

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.

I intend to run the Aztec commands 6 wide, with two impetuous units in the center. Atlatl armed warriors on their flanks, and a reserve force of 1 to 2 elite knights. The line is 18 wide, and with shooters for every UD. With that kind of missile power, at least a couple of enemy units will be disordered before contact.

The previous battle against the Inca went well, but it was nearly a mutual destruction. For this battle, I am changing nothing.

 Deployment:

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

I don't have Mikes list. But other than the bowmen, I don't know which of his troops are elite, 2HW, Impact, Atlatl or Javelin-men. I am pretty sure he had a mix of them.

It was about this point I began to see a problem.

His army was wider than mine, on both sides.

 My line is 18 units wide, his was 20. He had 2 units in reserve, I had 4.

 But I still want my reserves to act as hole pluggers, because units are going to die. And counterattacking with elite impact units against probably disordered troops seems like a good idea.

Brother Darrylzuma takes the left command

Larrizotl the center.

Spare Brother Darrylzotl takes the right.

I spent too much time trying to decide to go left or go right. Either way I will be looking at overlaps on both sides. Eventually, for no particular reason, I went left.

Nothing much to see here. Just more of the same. You might just want to skip to Turn 2:

I did say, nothing much to see here.

A lot of angst about nothing. The Incans also shift to the Aztec left. Maintaining their overlaps on both sides. And even extending their line by a unit.

As the lines close in, the rush of bugs becomes noticeable on the side lines.

Seriously about the bugs. I used to do SCA armor and stick fighting. When the lines close, the bugs swarm out the edges into the bystanders.

 

This is another one of those no imagination battle plans. My hope is that my impetuous and elite troops will win through the line.

 Turn 2:

The final approach. Missiles begin to fly

But fortune is with the Inca.

Scoring 5 of the 7 hits for the round.

The Incan right follows up with their missile barrage. Winning 4 of 6 contacts. Even both bowmen won their contacts. One against the impetuous Otomi.

In the center, the dice were a bit more even handed. Three Aztec warriors each took 2 hits, and one was destroyed. But the Incans also had one unit with 2 hits, and 3 units destroyed.

But on the far right a disaster. Two Aztec flank guards, who were disordered by slings, folded and ran before the Incan warriors.

Just a picture of the Incan commander.

 Turn 3:

It's not looking good for the Aztecs. The left and right commands are taking a pounding. Only the center is doing well

One of the impetuous Cuachic units is destroyed. The Jaguar Knights prepare to fill the gap.

An Eagle knight enters the fray. But many Aztec warriors are fleeing the field.

The Impetuous Otami pursue their defeated opponents.

Turn 3, and the Aztecs are at 17 of their break point of 28.

The Inca are at 15 of their break point of 29.

The gods eye view of the battle field

With wide open gaps in the center, an Incan warrior unit crashes into one Aztec warrior, routing it, and into another.

The Incan center is mostly destroyed.

On the right, the Incans take the Otami on both flanks.

Bringing the Incan total to 17 to the Aztec 21

No maneuvering here. Just forces grinding away.

Larryzoltl's forces are cleaning up the center, looking for targets on the left and right.

While the Incan left tries to close their pocket.

It really is a race here. But the Incans are in the lead.

Turn 5? 6?

The Incan MVP flanks and destroys a 3rd Aztec unit.

I don't think the arrow is correct. I believe it is the Inca turn.

The Jaguar Knights hold their own against overwhelming numbers, and even push back. But the Otami has been destroyed, yielding the final loss for the Aztec.

The battle was hard fought. The final score was a win for the Inca, 28 to 23.

 What went wrong?

While the concept of reserves is nice. Holding units back, and yielding an advantage of overlaps, has the effect of needing reserves. Which means, by the time the Knights are committed to battle, I was already knocked back on my heels.

Also, luck did play a part in it. Not ever present bad luck down the line, but localized affairs that had important effects.

On the Aztec left. There were 2 Inca bowmen units that were involved in the initial charge. They are + zero on contact. Against a swordsmen (+1) and a impetuous Cuachic (+2, furious charge). And the bow won the charging dice offs, and eventually destroyed the Cuachic. Shouldn't have happened? Yes. Statistically out of the range, not really. The Bowmen have a 19% chance of winning against the sword, and 16% against the impetuous sword. About 1 in 6 chance. Together about 1 in 36. With 18+ battles running down the line every half turn, it happens all the time.

In the center I had the same luck. Otami just ran over their opponents, disordering the lights immediately behind them for 6 points immediately.

On the right, was another cluster of bad luck. I had 2 units refusing the right flank. They were both shot for disorder by light slingers, -1 to 1, a 1 in 6 chance each, 1 in 36 to occur in total. Then Mike had well placed warriors to follow up on the disordered. And then it was all over but the screaming.

So the result was we both had clusters of good luck, but Mike was able to take advantage of the situation better than me. He had 3 locations to turn the flanks, and was able to cascade continuously. I had 2, but after the initial clearing of the lines, I had no where to go.

Another thought was by relying on a minor advantage in quality of troops, 10 are either impetuous or impact, I am giving away a numbers advantage.  Which on an open field is a problem.  And what we witnessed here.  Steep hills would have been to my advantage.  Even though both of us have terrain capable troops difficult higher ground is still a decent anchor for a line to hang on to.  For one thing, light infantry can defend it.  It has no combat penalties, and has a ZOC, that medium swordsmen do not.