A Hundredweight of Hungarians

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Wyndom Lancaster Resort, nee' Lancaster Host
Event: HMGSs' Fall In(tm) Medieval Theme 15mm tournament, Round 3
Players: Kornel Burnacz, running Medieval Hungarian
               Phil Gardocki, running Samurai, list 221
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

The Forces:
The Samurai commanders the Brilliant Larry-san, his Competent brother Darryl-san, and their other brother Darryl-san, who is Ordinary, Unreliable, and Included.
2 Heavy Cavalry, Bow, Elite
2 Light Cavalry, Bow, Elite
5 Samurai, Heavy Sword, 2HW, Elite
6 Samurai, Medium Sword, Bow, 2 Elite
3 Peasant Bowmen, Mediocre
2 Peasants armed with Naginata, Medium sword, Mediocre
3 Light Infantry, Bow
1 Stampeding Cattle, played as a Scythed Chariot
2 Levy
Breakpoint...25

The Hungarians were led by the much celebrated, Janos, the Strategist.  His subordinate commanders are Vlad, the Competent, who was known for his extensive collection of butterflies, and Istvan, the Ordinary.
6 Heavy Knights, Impact, Elite
3 Light Cavalry, Bow
2 Szekely, Medium Cavalry, Bow, Elite
3 Szekely, Light Cavalry, Bow, Elite
2 Hungarian, Light Cavalry, Impact
3 Hungarian, Light Cavalry, Bow
Breakpoint of 20

Display Conventions: When you see a jagged word bubble like "Jaj!", or more likely, "Szar!" or even more profane Hungarian, and "ああ！", 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.

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

Inappropriate capitalization is for words that have a specific meaning in the game.

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

The Board:

The Samurai win the initiative and elect to defend in the plains.

Istvan takes the Hungarian right with 5 light horse.

Janos takes the center with an impressive force of heavily armored knights, and well supported by skirmishers.

Vlad, known for his butterfly on pins collection, takes the Hungarian left.

On reflection, I should have spelled Vlad's name in red :)

Larry-san covers the open area on the left.

Darryl-san takes the center.

His brother, Darryl-san, with a deceptively small command, defends the camp between most of the terrain on the board.

Turn 1:

The Hungarians advance aggressively. 

Their lights significantly outnumber the Samurai skirmishers.  Something like 11 to 5.

However, the Japanese skirmishers are backed up by a fair number of foot bow.

A fair number of the Japanese archers are elites, as noted by the blue 6's on their bases.

And a couple of peasant bowmen, noted by the red 1's on their bases.

Darryl-san's and his brother, Darryl-san' archers approach to arrow range on to Vlad's horse archers.

Turn 2:

Istvan orders his Impact lights back, and his bow armed lights forward in conjunction with Jano's skirmishers.  The Japanese skirmishers suffer badly from the arrow exchange.

Vlad decides to take a chance and advances on the katana armed Samurai.  But Darryl-san has another trick up his sleeve, and orders his peasant archers in ambush to be revealed.

Arrows stream from the ambush, raining this way and that.  But the the peasants are Mediocre, and under cover for a -1 on the dice, and miss.

Larry-san orders his bow armed Samurai forward, but holds his disordered skirmishers.

He needs time for the Darryl's to sweep the right flank.

*Translated from Hungarian.

Darryl-san's forces close in on Vlad's horse.  Leaving only one way out.

So far, so good.  By the time knights can be lured in, then Darryl-san's troops should be able to offer flank charges.

Turn 3:

Currently out of range, Istvan's organizes a rally.

Janos withdraws his disordered skirmishers.  But his knights only dress up their lines.

Vlad has had enough and "exits a ZOC", at speed...

Larry-san's Samurai archers advance and find multiple targets.

The cattle herd are stampeded into Janos's knights. 

The brothers Darryl-sans close in on Vlad's retreating horse.

At the bottom of the turn, the score is 3 of 24 for the Samurai, and 10 of 20 for the Hungarians.

Turn 4:
So far, this game is going well.  My archers have gotten in lots of shots.  But the main force of Hungarian knights is largely intact, and more than capable off defeating any unit I have one for one. 

Istvan orders another withdrawal of his skirmishers.

Janos orders his skirmishers onto Darryl-san's flank.

Vlad's badly wounded command continues to pull back. 

 The Stampeding herd is dispersed.  Win lose or draw, it's good eating tonight!

Istvan's lights suffer badly from Samurai archers.

Darryl-san (white and blue dice) charges his taunting Hungarian lights.  His brother's archers continue to run down Vlad's command.

Turn 5:

Istvan orders a general retreat.

This is a bit complicated.  Janas orders his large  force of knights to retreat.  His smaller force to turn and charge Darryl-san, who was now in their rear.  He evades.  Then a second charge by Vlad's lights into Darryl-san's rear. 

Darryl-san accepts this charge as Lights hitting his rear does not reduce his combat value, So he is a +2, one for base factor, one for a commander.  +elite, +armor.  The lights are a base of zero, +1 for flank, + 1 for support.    The end result was a tie.

He could have evaded again, but I had a reasonable chance of kill the lights outright, and I didn't want him to be too far away from his command.

With the retreat of the Hungarian knights, it is time for the Samurai archers to pursue.

Ditto for the Samurai on the right.

Darryl-san turns his bodyguard, and again rolls poorly, taking a hit.

Turn 6:

Darryl-san's bodyguard is flanked and destroyed. 

At this point we called it with a score of 14-4.  I wasn't going to get the 6 points I needed for a win, and Kornel wasn't going to add anything significantly to his tally. 

 

 Normally I offer some analysis of the action, but it is New Years Eve, and I just don't have it in me.

Happy New Year!