A Turn with the Tuaregs

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Wyndom Lancaster Resort nee Host
Event: HMGSs' Fall In(tm) Open 15mm tournament, Round 2
Players: Phil Gardocki running Samurai
               Duncan Richards running Tuareg
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, 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

The Tuareg, list 210, are commanded by commanders of unknown quality
12 Medium Camel, Impetuous, most elite
6 Medium Sword, Impetuous
4 Light Camel, Impact and Bow
6 Light Infantry, Javelin
Breakpoint of 28

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:

The Tuareg wins the initiative and elect to attack in the mountains. 

Duncan explained his decision. He really needed just narrow areas to stuff his camels in. And all the terrain is bad for shooters. -1 shooting from a steep hill or from cover in the forest. So negating the main advantage of the Samurai army.

Deployment:

A very clustered board for deployment.

The Tuareg deploy their herd in the gap, but some of their lights are trying to traverse animal paths in the woods.

Dark bases are elite.

By the rivers edge, a strong force of motivated swordsmen

Darryl-sans horse stands ready to guard the gap

Yoshitune's foot will cover the meaningless terrain.

Camels pretty much ignore the effects of brush. So that centerpiece is effectively not there.

Darryl-san's smaller foot command is there to delay whatever comes out of the wood.

Turn 1:

The Tuareg camelry advance at a lurch.

A shortage of command points means some will be left behind.

The Tuareg foot advance just a bit as well.

Darryl-san sends a scout to the woods edge. The rest of his horse is out of charge reach.

Yoshitune's foot advance a bit, but are still out of bow reach.

Darryl-san's foot command unites with Yoshitune.

Turn 2:

A brace of camelry pushes through the forest.

The rest advance behind a their skirmishers.

Annoyingly behind their skirmishers

Mostly stopping just out of foot bow range.

Their foot warriors advance as they can onto the Samurai right.

An additional mounted samurai is deployed to the woods edge.

It shouldn't take much to hold the wood line. If the camels emerge, they will not have impact, and be -3 for difficult terrain for a net of -2. The Samurai horse will be panicked for a net combat value of zero.

Samurai archery proves to be very effective.

Some arrows fall on the skirmishers, but others fine real targets

7 hits is pretty good for a round. But is it good enough?

Darryl-san's arrows have more of a nerf-like quality to them.

Turn 3:

Turn 3 is going to be a decisive bound. Time for a bio-break and some pictures of some better looking boards.

What catches the eye is the huge "All Quiet on the Martian Front" table(s) 24 feet long.

 

A remodeled Land Iron Clad as a carrier.

One of 3 "Overseer" models. for a size comparison, the smaller tripods are full sized Assault models.

I have always loved the concept of HG Well's Martians on earth.  Germs aside, once man was getting organized, it was a fair fight.  Cannons took out a few of them initially.  The Thunderchild, which was basically a heavy cruiser sized ship, took out 2 or 3 more.  Out of a force that was at most 50. 

So when the kick starter for Martian Front was announced, I went in.  Along with several of my Wed. Night gaming group.  I have a number of battle reports posted here...

Taking advantage of no ZOC in the woods for cavalry, a camel leaks out.

As a result of a massive charge and evade by Samurai horse, a light camel gets behind the Samurai, pinning it with it's ZOC.

The rest of the horde charges. The Samurai horse hasn't had enough time to work them with archery, and so evades for another round.

Yoshitune's foot do not have that option. They stand, and lose 4 of 6 fights.

The remaining Tuareg warriors on food charge or advance.

There is no holding the treeline. The Japanese scouts retreat. The Samurai cavalry try to break out.

The Samurai horse return to archery range, but to no effect.

Yoshitune's foot command has mostly collapsed.

Darryl-sans foot advance and loose arrows.

The quick collapse of Yoshitune's foot is really the set the tempo of the game. The score for the Samurai is 11 of 21. To 8 of 28 for the Tuareg.

Turn 4:

The camels surround and destroy one Samurai horse. But a scout camel is also dispersed.

Another charge by camels. Samurai horse roll short on their evade and are caught.

Yoshitune is down to 2 units.

He was forced to flee to Darrylsan's command.

He then returns, so at least he will suffer defeat with his own men.

Darryl-san is doing his best to attack the center hanging flank of the Tuareg, but the Japanese have already hit their break point.

A very unimpressive result for my Samurai. 21 to 11

I can say is that Duncan did a masterful job of avoiding damage from bow before committing.

In the center, it was down the line for the camelry with +2 and Furious Charge against my +1 elite. And while the dice broke his way, that only made the collapse quicker.

On another table in the lobby.  Legionaries marching down a dirt path.