A Headless Body Production
¿Have I used this title before?
Venue: Lancaster Convention Center
Event: Historicon 2025
Theme: Saturday's Open Tourney, Round 1
Players: Phil running Hindu Indian, list 170
Duncan Richards running French Ordonnance, list 245
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.
The Hindus are commanded by Gujara, the Competent, Rashtrakuta, also Competent, and Bharath, also Competent. And as an experiment, all are included.
4 Elephants, Elite
2 Horsemen, Medium Cavalry
2 Scouts, Light Cavalry, Bow
2 Guardsmen, Medium Sword, Impact, Elite
6 Warriors, Medium Sword, Impetuous
4 Bowmen, 2 are Mediocre
8 Light Infantry, Bows and Javelins
Breakpoint of 28
4 Archers, Medium Sword, Longbow
3 Swiss Pike, Elite
4 Pike, Mediocre
2 Bidets, (What a crappy name), Light Infantry, Javelin, Elite
2 Skirmishers, Light Infantry, Crossbow
Breakpoint of 22
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 ambiguity as to what was moved or who is being referred to is to be considered Fog of War and part of the fun.
"XX" implies a unit killed in that location on that turn.
Deployment:
Morgan Freeman narratives, "It was a niche battle near Nice, with both the French, and the Hindi commanders all were leading their commands from the front."
The French commands on the right are a mix of knights and foot. |
Their center with the Allied Swiss. |
Their left with an Unreliable commander. |
On the Hindi left, an unsurprising force of elephants and warriors. |
The center with yet exact replicate of elephants and warriors. |
Facing the Plantation on the Hill, is a force of bowmen, who will invest the terrain, and use it as a base to attack from. |
Morgan Freeman continues, "His hopes were misplaced however, he was going to need everyone of them."
Turn 1:
Gujara sends off two of his lights towards the Marsh. If the Ambush is empty, they can use it as a base to to harass the French line. |
Bharath's mixed horse and bowmen moved first to assault the Plantation on the Hill, and their light horse got in the way of Rashtrakuta's mixed elephant and warrior command. |
This denied them their second turn moves as Rashtrakuta did not have enough command points to move short. See Elephants and Unmaneuverable rules. |
The Gendarmes advance out of the field. |
With the exception of their skirmishing light foot, the French, and their Swiss allies stay put. |
Rashtrakuta also has command difficulties. Bharath's light horse is still in the way. One of his warriors over-eagerly charges off the French lights. |
Gujara also rolls a one for command points. He decides to hold up, keeping in line with the center, and sends his lights into the safety of the nearby rough. |
Gujara orders a general charge. But some of his army cannot yet reach the Swiss lines. |
Rashtrakuta is still out of charge reach though. Well placed long-bowmen manage to snipe a shot on Rashtrakuta's personal elephant. |
Surrounded, unsupported, facing the flower of Swiss pikemen, Gujara abandons all hope for this lifetime, knowing that he will have a better life next time around. |
At this point, the Hindus have reached their demoralization level. The French lost a total of 4 points. |
Well that was a singular embarrassment. A more correct title would have been, "Being Frappéd by the French." Half my points, 4, were from a single light infantry unit, that I flank charged, and where it held out for 3 rounds!
What went wrong? First the army composition. The included commanders was a mixed conclusion. Yes I lost an elephant commander, but that had mainly to do with the tactical failures, and not a rare, lost the dice off and then a rolled a one event.
The command structure of the bowman/cavalry command was seriously flawed. The commander being Included in a cavalry command, could not combine in a group with the bowmen. And so required at least two command points to move the blocks. But with the light horse, usually 3 command points were required. Which is not available 1/3 of the time with an Ordinary commander.
Then he moved first, and got in the way of an elephant command. Causing them to be delayed on charging by a turn. Poor tactical execution. Then of course, there was a problem of his command being faced by a Plantation on the Hill. I did that with the idea that the bowmen would invest the rough, and emerge on the flanks of the French. But the bowmen were too weak for that job. And the horse sat around uselessly. Bad deployment there.
Then Richard did an excellent of finessing a single Impetuous warrior out of the line, causing chaos on the the approach, which he exploited masterfully. Well played.
Time to take pics of other games. This one looks interesting. I should have noted what it was. |
A Martian front demo. I had a seat. |
I have invested heavily into this game. Both the first Kickstarter(tm), and the next one. |
For more, see my Martian blog at https://philsmartianfront.blogspot.com/ |
That is one massive tank. |
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