A Hawiaa of Hawaiians

A Headless Body Production
Venue: An Undisclosed Basement
Event: Wednesday Game Knight
Players: Phil Gardocki, Steve Turn and John Forscythe running Hawaiians
               Bruce Potter, Garth Parker running Vikings
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

The Forces:

The Vikings are led by Hagar the Horrible, Knut the Kraken, and Sven the Slasher.  All are Competent when they are not reveling.  
18 Heavy Swordsmen, 6 are Armor, 2HW, and Elite
5 Light Infantry, bow 
Breakpoint, 22

The Hawaiians are led by 3 nameless commanders, two of which are considered Competent 
4 Pike, Mediocre
21 Medium Sword, Impetuous, some are Elite
6 Light Infantry, Sling and Javelins
Breakpoint is 31

Display Conventions: When you see a jagged word bubble like "Ouch!", "ᛟᚢᚲᚺ!", or "Auwe!",  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.

The Board:

The Hawaiians win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.

The board as terrain was deployed.

After Adjustments

 

Overhead shot of the deployment

On the left, each side has just one command.

On the Viking left, two commands hug the coastline.

Facing them are two commands of Hawaiians.  One is a mix of pike and Impetuous foot.

The other just a bunch of crazy lunatics. 

 

For turn 1, we'll just have an overhead shot.

Nothing really imaginative here.

Turn 2:

On the left a bit of light on light action with a Viking scout hoofing it.

The Vikings angle in towards the Hawaiian left.

In the center, the Vikings order a general charge against the Hawaiian Mediocre Pike.  Winning 4 for 4, only losing 1 against an Impetuous warrior.

By the river, the Vikings are preparing to receive a charge.

Turn 3:

On the left, the Hawaiian warriors approach to charge reach.

In the center, the Hawaiian warrior breaks through the Viking line, but the Pike are beginning to fail.

By the coast, a general charge by the impetuous warriors.  Winning 2 and losing 3.

On the far side of the board, the Vikings hold fast.

Their center plugs the hole in their line, while cleaning up the pikemen.

By the river though the Vikings have a hole punched in their line.

Turn 4:

As expected, the score was climbing fast.

And accelerating...

The Hawaiians mismanaged the distance for the counter charge of the second rank, stopping just short of the depleted pike line.

By the river, a warrior is routed by a huscarl.  But the Viking line has been penetrated.

The Hawaiians add 8 to their score,  to just 2 for the Vikings.

Viking swordsmen are routing, but the huscarls, with their armor and being elite, are holding the line.

The last pikemen unit is routed, but the Hawaiian counter attack is in total disarray.

Another Warrior falls.

Taking the Viking score to 17 of 22, to 23 of 28, we thought at the time, for the Hawaiians.

Turn 5:

More swordsmen fall.  The Hawaiians bring up their reserves.

Another reserve warrior charges to support the center.  By the coastline, a beleaguered Viking swordsmen is pushed into the water.

In the picture above, the arrow is pointed the wrong way.  Sorry about that.

But the Hawaiian losses are too much, and with conch shell horns, a retreat to the war canoes is called.

Much to the relief of the Vikings on their right.

The Viking center command is just getting started.

At this point the Hawaiians called for a general retreat to the canoes.

What went wrong?  

The Hawaiians failed to use their numbers to good advantage.  The second lines set up for counter attacks were too far back to jump into the fray.  Part of the problem there is weak command points.  With just two Competent commanders and one Ordinary. There is a range where you don't want to be too close, 1 UD and too far, over 3 UDs.  And with Unmaneuverable troops, that takes 2 command points that the commander oft time did not have.

But wait.  Only later, did it come to light that the Hawaiian break point was 32, not 28.  They must have had trouble understanding the base 6 counting system of the dice.

So what would have happened?  At the top of the next turn, the Hawaiians would have scored a guaranteed 2  points.  See above with the flank charge, and subsequent pursuit.  This would have taken the score to 28-21.  Elsewhere down the line there was potential scoring for both sides.  The Hawaiian's needing just one more to demoralize the Vikings.  But the Vikings could easily score 3 points, and as many as 6.  Only the dice would determine if this game would have gone mutual destruction, or a Hawaiian loss.