An Armload of Armenians

From the Abyss of My Mind

Venue: Lancaster County Convention Center.
Event: Historicon 2023!
Theme: Classic Age, Round 1
Players: Phil Gardocki running Thracian Hill tribes
               "Spike" running Armenians
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.
Font: Helvetica, for the Helvetica of it...

 

The Forces:

The Thracian Hill Tribes. Led by Lekaso, the Competent, his brother Deif, the Competent, and his other brother Deif, also Competent
19 Warriors, Medium Swordsmen, 2HW, 2 are Elite
6 Youths, Light Infantry, Javelin, Elite
4 Horsemen, Light Cavalry, Javelin
Breakpoint...29

 

Armenians
Led by Tigranes the Great, a Strategist and two others.
8 Cataphracts, 4 Elite
6 Light Cavalry, Bow
2 Horse Archers, Medium Cavalry, Bow
2 Imitation Legionaries, Heavy Swordsmen, Impact
2 Light Infantry, Bow
Breakpoint...20

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.

The Board:

The Thracians win the initiative and elect to attack in the Mountains.

Deployment: 

On the Armenian right, a small command of light horse.

The center command, commanded by Tigranes himself, consists of 2 Imitation Legionaries, and between 4 and 6 cataphracts

The Armenian left has 1-4 cataphracts and a pair of medium horse archers.

 

I have to say that Spike has put a bit of forethought into his command structure.  The right command, with just 4 light horse is designed to delay and distract forces far larger than itself.

While the center is designed to crush all enemy before it.  The left command is designed to assist in the crush, but has a couple of units designed to deal with flankers on that side.

The Thracians have no imagination at all in their line up.  Brother Deif has 6 Warriors for the front, 4 lights for odds and ends.

In the center, Lekaso has deployed 6 Warriors in the line, and one in reserve.

Other Brother Deif has 6 Warriors in a line also.

The Thracians have coned the board down with 2 steep hills, but the Armenians also put down an Impassable.  Both of us wanted the board reduced in size.  Which means one of us has made a mistake.

Turn 1:

Brother Deif pushes his light foot onto the hill and advances his warriors.

 

He is to aggressively attack, hopefully sweeping the light horse from the field, and turning the flank of the Armenian main line.

Lekaso advances, but behind Dief's line.  Close enough to support.  He has no need to engage the cataphracts any earlier than necessary.

Other Brother Dief advances, and sets up a really obvious trap for the Armenians should they advance.

My thought is that this would delay the Armenian advance even more, giving the left flank time to do it's work.

Armenian Light Horse dressage right, and pelt the hill with arrows.

The rest of the Armenian main line obliques to the right and advances a bit.

Turn 2:

 

The Thracian left closes in on the Armenian lights

 

While the rest advance to charge reach of the Imitation Legionaries

 

 

The rest of the line advances, but just out of charge range of the cataphracts.

 

Medium Sword is +zero against cataphracts, their only advantage is that the 2 Handed weapon ignores the heavy armor of the cataphracts.  But it is still cataphracts +2 and furious charge against the warriors on contact.  Very bad odds.

 

The Armenian lights advance to harassment positions.

 

The cataphracts advance.  Technically a charge, but they just blithely squashed the warrior tribe in range.

 

 

OK, this is the Thracian nightmare scenario.

 

There is hope, if Other Brother Dief can run off the Armenian left, that they can turn the flanks of the cataphracts.

 

 But realistically, even if all works as planned, the best the Thracians can hope for is 9 points.

 

Turn 3:

Brother Dief has a shortage of command points.  He decides to charge, gaining the flank of the Imitation Legionaries.

 

And putting the Armenian main line all in ZOC.  Limiting it's options.

 

Of course those options are A) Crush your foes before you.  Or B) hold up and give them a break.

 

Brother Dief's command now has many holes in it.  And the Armenian LC are going to slip through the gaps into the Thracian rear.

 

 

A thunderous cataphract charge.  The only miracle is that two of them were actually defeated.

 

The Armenian Horse archers return after being run off.

 

The view from the clouds

 

 Turn 4:

 

 Win, lose or draw, this game is not going the distance...

A warrior runs off a couple of Armenian horse.  Another is charged in the rear by a pair of Thracian Light Horse.  Only to be repelled on contact.  While unfortunate, while fighting, the Armenian LC did not have a ZOC, and allowed a front and flank attack on an Legionnaire unit, destroying it as well.  Exposing the Armenian main line to flank attacks.

Assuming there are any warriors still in front of the Armenians to hold their attention.

The Thracian right charges again.  Hoping to drive off the Armenian horse archers, and exposing the cataphracts to rear attacks.  But the Medium Horse holds their ground.

Thracian casualties are heavy.  19 of 29

To 4...

Armenian Light Horse charge the remaining, disordered, Thracian Light Horse, and catch them in the evade.

While the Cataphracts penetrate the Thracian line in multiple places.

Turn 5:

The remaining Warriors of Brother Dief's command charge where they can.  Armenian Light Horse rebuff them, see upper left.  So too the last of the Imitation Legionaries. 

The final points for the Armenians.  The Thracians put on a pathetic showing this time out, with the score 29 to 6.

From the beginning, this was a nightmare scenario.  My hope was to get an advantage with holding the shoulders with steep hills, but that didn't happen.  As I noted earlier, one of us made a mistake by coning down the board, and it was me.

It's 2.5 hours to the next game, so a few pictures from Historicon.

 

Renatio et Gloriam, the Renaissance version of Mortem et Gloriam.  The figures are a mix of 15mm and 10mm.  This is to allow for an accurate depiction of pike and shot units.  It looks good.

 

 

From one of the Warrior(tm) tables.  It looks like Selecuid, with elephants vs Republican Roman, with anti-elephant carts.