A Nastiness of Normans

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Lancaster County Convention Center.
Event: Historicon 2024
Theme: Early Medieval, Round 3
Players: Phil Gardocki running Kingdom of Sicily, list 188
               Kornel Burnacz running Normans
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

A note for my viewers.  Due to upcoming travel, this will be my last published AAR for a few weeks. 

 

It is 1300AD. The year is important in the Kingdom of Sicily list as there are 4 major selections based on the year as control of the island changed from Norman to Spanish control. The Sicilians are led by Frederick Tertius. The second of his name and not to be confused with his great grandfather Frederick II, the first of his name, but second king of his line. 

 

The Forces:

But back to the game. The Kingdom of Sicily are led by King Frederick Tertius, Darrell and Darrell (no relation). All are Competent
10 Medium Knights, 8 Impetuous, 6 Elite
6 Almughavars, Medium spearmen, Impact, 2 Elite
3 Crossbowmen, Light Infantry, Crossbow
2 Jintes, Light Cavalry, Javelin
Breakpoint of 21

The Normans are commanded by FitzWilliam D'Arcy, the Competent, Billy the Bastard, a Strategist, and Breton, who is both Ordinary and Included
8 Milites, Impetuous, some Elite
1 Breton Horse, Medium Cavalry, Javelin
4 Breton Scout, Light Cavalry, Javelin
4 Heavy Spearmen, one with Armor
2 Bowmen, one Mediocre
6  Light Infantry, various
Breakpoint...25

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

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.

Any inaccuracies and vagueness as to specific units is to be regarded as fog of war and part of the fun.

 

The Bretons deploy on the Norman right. 

"Billy the Bastard" takes the center with 10 or so units

FitzWilliam D'Arcy forms up on the left with 4 troops of knights.

The Sicilian Army deploys Darryl's Almughavars in the terrain strewn left. 

I mislaid one of my ambush markers, and used a chocolate bar quarter instead.  What a temptation as the game went on.

Frederick's knights take the center.

While Darryl's knights take the right.

So what is the plan here?  Hold the Almughavars back to just hold the left, and try to engage the Norman Knights with a 5 - 4 advantage.

The Breton lights go racing around the board.  While this looks exciting, it's not to worry about.  Where are they going to go?

Billy's command has a lot of command points and all his bodies advance somewhat across the board.

Darryl, no relation, holds one unit of Almughavars back.  Effectively defanging the Bretons end run.  The rest of his forces are facing units (cavalry and bow and heavy spear), which they should be able to handle.

Frederick recalls his disordered Jintes.  And advances his knights.

I don't know why, but Darryl's knights didn't keep up with Frederick's. 

Turn 2:

The Bretons continue to pursue an envelopment tactic.

The Norman Milites advance fearlessly

A successful rally and a successful crossbow shot later...

Darryl, no relation splits his forces to deal with their respective threats.

Probably not a good idea.  He is only competent, and 3 bodies is about all he should handle.

The knight blocks were 3.?? distance apart.  Now they are just in "bend their lance range"

Darryl still lags behind.  Enough to give the Normans a bit of advantage on the next bound.

Turn 3:

Breton scouts continue to go for an envelopment.  Hoping for a missile disorder.

By then that bit of chocolate was looking real good...

The Almughavars are dealing with missile troops.  Not their best matchup.

Due to command point limitations, the large block of Norman spear are way in the back field.

One block of Milites charge, winning one, losing one and tying two.

The other block held their charge.

Almughavars charge.

And again, and again.  One unit of bowmen is destroyed.

A bad set of die rolls, including a 1-6 for the Sicilian knights.

Followed by Darryl's knights winning and losing 2.

Turn 4:

 

 

Norman Spear finally get their marching orders

Another Sicilian knight is routed

Darryl's knights are doing better, but 3 of 4 of his knights are disordered.

Their bowmen enemies defeated, the Almughavars line up

A good turn for the Sicilians.  3 Milites are routed.  And where the Normans have punched through, a Jintes has them ZOC'd.  Limiting their options to flank charge.

The score is 14 of 21 for the Kingdom of Sicily

To 14 of 25 for the Normans.  So a tie in their favor

Turn 6:

It seems like I missed taking pictures for turn 5, so some summery is required.

On the left, a brace of Almughavars charged and ran long to the Breton Lights running short.  Leading to the loss of a unit.

The Norman foot were able to get into charge range destroying 2 of 3 Almughavars facing them.

Frederick's knights are flanking the center command of Norman Milites.

While Darryl's knights are cleaning up the Milites on his side.

But the clock ran out at this point.  The Sicilians were at 19 of 21.

To 17 of 25 for the Normans

So a winning draw for the Normans.  

What went wrong here?  I am not sure.  I rarely have games go only 6 turns.  The Almughavar command did what it was supposed to do, it held it's flank, losing 2 units and destroying 3.  

The knight commands failed to advance together, and so were committed piecemeal a turn apart.  So where one command succeeded, it did not have time exploit that advantage on the adjacent command.