A Meandering of Medievals

A Headless Body Production
Venue: Wyndom Lancaster Resort nee Host
Event: HMGSs' Fall In(tm) Open 15mm tournament, Round 1
Players: Phil Gardocki running Samurai
               Ben Taylor running Medieval German
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 200 points per side.

The Forces:
Samurai (list 221)
The Samurai are commanded by Yoshitune, the Strategist, and the usual subordinates, Darryl-San the Competent and his other brother Darryl-San, the Ordinary, Included and Unreliable.
8 Samurai, Medium Swordsmen, Bow, Elite
3 Yari, Medium Swordsmen, Mediocre
5 Mounted Samurai, Heavy Cavalry, Elite
2 Scouts, Light Cavalry, Bow
1 Followers with Bow, Bowmen
1 Light Infantry, Bow
1 Levy
Breakpoint of 21

Medieval German
The Germans are commanded by commanders of unknown quality
4 Heavy Knight, Impact
2 Medium Cavalry, Impact
1 Medium Cavalry, Crossbow
1 Light Cavalry
4 Pike
1 Foot Knight
1 Heavy Sword, Pole arm
2 Light Infantry, Firearm or Crossbow
1 Medium Sword, Longbow
1 Medium Spear

4 Medium sword
Breakpoint of 22

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

Any confusion between commanders names, or mislabeled units or conditions is to be considered part of the fun.

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

The Board:

Yoshitune wins the initiative and elect to attack in the plains. 

Deployment:

8am  The quiet before the storm.

Heavy Knights dominate the German right flank

The coastal area is not in play and is just off the edge.  Euphemistically referred to as "the tide is out".

The German center is a mix of heavy foot armed with pike, knights and pole-arms

The German left is a small command, with a suspicious looking ambush marker in a town.

Darryl-san lines up with strong force of horse archers

Yoshitune takes the center with a strong force of foot archers

Darryl-san takes the right with a small force of bow and sword.  But he has a well positioned piece of terrain to exploit.

Turn 1:

Darryl-san's horse advances at the double.

Yoshitune advances more cautiously.  He cannot get in arrow range this turn, and there is no point getting too close right now.

Darryl-san advances into the field and will wait and see what the Germans will do.

The Germans advance across the board, and into an arrow storm.

On the adjacent board we have Tauregs vs Parthians

You will be seeing more of both these armies in upcoming battle reports

On one of the 25mm tables.  It's Assyrians vs Bedouins

More 25mm madness.  Sorry, I don't know the armies or the players.  But the terrain looks familiar. 

ditto...

Turn 2:

Darryl-san approaches to range with his horse bow and disorders a heavily armored knight.  Yoshitune holds his ground, but his archery is largely ineffective.  His Yari, held in reserve, are sent to plug the gap between his Samurai and Darryl-san's right hand command.

Ignore the movement arrows.  This is the German turn, and they continue to advance.  Soaking up more arrows as they advance.

On the right, the German ambush is revealed.  A group of swordsmen pour out of the town and advance into cyclone of missiles.

Turn 3:

Japanese scouts commit to melee, and are repulsed bloodily. 

Yoshitune's bowmen are amazingly good today.

The only downside is a single hit in a light on light exchange.

German knights charge.  Samurai horse evade.

The mix bag of German foot charge.  The exchange breaks slightly in favor of the Samurai.

Darryl-san's corps is not as lucky.  Losing 2 of 4,  and ties for the rest. 

Turn 4:

Rinse, wash, repeat.  Darryl-san is in no hurry to engage the knights.

The German foot are heavily beleaguered, and some foot samurai may be soon be available to deal with the knights.

Darryl-san's command is under pressure.  Yoshitune sends the levy in to bolster the line.

Our score is about 11 to 15, but on the adjacent board, Parthians v Tuaregs, combat has yet to be committed.

On a 25mm table, Heavy Chariots are within lugie spitting distance of enemy camelry.

The Germans are at 15. It is time to put the pressure on them for the last few points.  The knights charge, and Darryl-san accepts.  Fortune favors the fool, and Darryl-san's horse only loses one combat.

But at the cost of one of Yoshitune's foot.  A knight just destroys it out right on contact.

Darryl-san's command has lost it's two weaker units.

Taking the Samurai score to 15 towards their break point of 21

The Germans are at 19 of 22.

Darryl-san orders a disengage from the knights.

Yoshitune's foot samurai rout the German foot knights, a pike, and the pole arm units for 3 points

Darryl-san's Samurai disperse an German cavalry unit for the +1

Samurai are at 16 of 21

So what went wrong?

I committed my lights earlier than I should.  They had only the advantage of being elite and nothing else.  So they were relying on luck to carry the day, and didn't.

Around turn 4, my heavy horse accepted the knight charge.  Again with no advantage other than elite.  I was lucky to disengage with only one unit disordered.  The thought was to take advantage of my lead and if I could just disorder one knight, it would help.  But it was just a bad call overall, and luck saved me from a disaster.

Otherwise, the middle command's archery was embarrassingly good.  To the point I was retiring dice because they were too lucky. 

Elsewhere...

The Boxer rebellion is setting up

An All Quiet on the Martian Front board. 

 24 feet long.  6 Land Ironclads, 3 foot tall Overseers. 

The game system is a personal favorite of mine.  I have battle reports posted at https://philsmartianfront.blogspot.com/