A Tutorial of Teutonic's

A Headless Body Production

Players: Phil Gardocki running Indians
               Paul Ohtonen running Teutonic Knights

Event:  HMGS's Cold Wars.  See Here...
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

Theme: Round 1 of the L' Art de la Guerre, Crusaders and Their Foes Tournament. A limited number of lists and time periods. No Heavy Knights and NO ELEPHANTS. Even if your ally somehow is entitled to one. 

Venue: Valley Forge Casino Resort, a minimal amenity gaming resort offering 100,000 foot of meeting facilities, high priced food, Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, and no room service. But the parking is plentiful.

The Forces
Classical Indian Are commanded by King Porus, the Competent, Prince Porus, the Ordinary, and Shitake, the Competent
4 Elephants, Elite
10 Bowmen, 1/2 Medium Swordsmen, 1/2 Bowmen
2 War Wagons with blades
1 Medium Cavalry, Mediocre
6 Light Infantry, Bow
1 Levy
Breakpoint of 25

Teutonic Knights. This list is derived from the images and can be construed as "best guess".
Commanders of unremembered quality.
8 or so Medium Knights, some impetuous, some impact, some dismounted
2 ? Turcopoles, Medium Cavalry, Javelin
1 Crossbowmen, Pavise
7 Light Horse, Turcopoles and Hungarians
2 ? Heavy Spearmen, but could be more dismounted knights
Breakpoint of 20

A note on annotations. When you see a word bubble "Ouch!", ("Schissa!", "आउच!", "Heus!") this implies a missile hit.

Letters in parenthesis represent some value change for the specific unit. For commanders it is 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" marks a unit killed in that location on that turn.
"????" is an ambush marker, and so it is unknown at this time.

Scores are presented in a confusing manner. This is because it is measured in number of points towards the demoralization. If I say the score is 15-8 in favor of Milan, that means the Burgundians are have 15 points towards their demoralization level of 19, while Milan has 8 points towards their demoralization level of 20. But saying 15-8 is just more intuitive. 

Misleading descriptions or lack of specificity as to who/what is being referred to is to be considered part of the fun, rather than memory problems with the author. 

So there I was, minding my own business running the 25mm doubles event at Cold Wars. I had given up my seat at the table to Jay Stone, due to his partner having medical issues. When Dan Hazelwood, who was running the 15mm theme event, "Crusaders and their foes", told me he had an odd number and asked if I had 15mm army I could play. 

"I do, but it is Indian, and as far out of the specifications as you can get."

He asked Paul if it was an ok match up for the first round.

Deployment:

The Teuts win the initiative and elect to attack in the forest. Because elephants hate woods...

The Teuts decided to dismount their right hand command. So the Indians are mostly facing armored infantry with two handed swordsmen.

The Teutonic Knights on the left missed the dehorse memo, and state astride their stately stallions.

The Teutonic Knights third command cannot be seen.

King Poros's keen eye for distance seems to have failed him. There is only 9UD's distance between the forest and the 4UD flank zone.  And Shitake's command has taken 6 of them.

The gap between the 2 woods is just enough space for two war wagons to fill.

Ignore the "Tide's out" comment. The mat and the table top are close enough in color when I annotated the picture I thought the coastal area was off board.

Of course I could just reedit the picture...

Naa...

Turn 1:

Bound 1, and the foot soldiers are off to the races.

But we really owe Paul for being a good sport. The lists for this theme were extremely limited, and specifically stating "NO Elephants!".

The Knights on horse trot forward.

There is a flank march running, and worse, there is dust on the horizon. It is arriving next turn!

Again, ignore the flavor text. I wrote thinking the coastal was off board.

"You could just reannontate the picture".

"Shut up".

3 of the elephant task groups surge forward. Arrows begin to fly.

Prince Poros orders a well practiced maneuver of his war wagons.

Turn 2:

3 Turcopole light horse arrive from off board, and release javelins.

Another Turcopole retires to lick it's wounds. His partner picks up the slack of receiving Indian arrows.

It looks like the knights are going to force their way through the war wagons.

An ambush is revealed. Indian Medium Cavalry, Mediocre. It was not so much as in ambush but hiding in a safe place.

King Poros has just enough command points to push some of his bowman forward onto the flanks of the Turcopoles.

Another Turcopole is dispersed by arrows.

Prince Poros has a surplus of command points. One war wagon turns 180 degrees, the other closes the gap against the wood.

Turn 3:

Turcopoles are rallied, but the arrow fire continues.

This was running theme for the Turcopole flank march. The Indians inflicted about 10 hits on them through out the game, but their commander was a strong orator, and kept them in the fight.

The Teutonic infantry line continues to advance under darkening skies.

Knights split their forces but continue to advance.

Note: War Wagons do NOT exert a ZOC, but are subjected to them.

King Poros is ok with just shooting arrows down field. He spends his 2 good command points ordering is second rank bowman forward.

If you are wonder where the usual dead markers are, they are with the Byzantines on another table. I was not prepared to play 15's this day.

The skies continue to darken, but the mostly armored foot just shrug of the arrows.

Literally, Prince Poros has nothing to do. So he stops for tea.

Taking a trip around the tables. We have the Byzantines (right) facing Teutonic Knights. It seems like the Tagmatic Cavalry's archery is doing quite well.

More on that battle. The Byzantines are on the upper half of the panel.

This is Swiss vs Indian.

The Swiss put out some seriously steep hills.

Turn 4:

Back to the game.

The Teutonic foot decide they have taken enough arrows for the cause and charge. They win 3 of 7 fights, but the two they lost were disastrous.

The knights engage the War Wagons. They are just +1 to +2 for the wagons, but they also are elite and have armor.

Indian bowmen get behind the Turcopoles. One is destroyed, then next is pursued into.

Shitake rolls a 2 for command points, and so can only advance one elephant into the gap.

Elephants are unmaneuverable, and so require 2 command points to move a short distance.

War wagons charge! The Hungarian light horse flees.

War Wagons with blades can charge in version 4.

The score is fairly tight. The Indians are 10 points towards their break point of 25. The Teutonic Knights are 11 towards their break point of 20

Turn 5:

On another table, a much more interesting battle is lining up.

The Turcopoles have had enough, and disengage.

A unit of mounted knights join the fray, but not soon enough to save their friends.

The Indians begin to turn the flanks.

The Elephants are beginning to converge on the Teutonic center.

A brother knight enters the wood to provide support for the battle on the war wagons. Paul did not understand that this type of support does not work against war wagons.

But if that knight were to actually engage the war wagon rear, it would count as another level of support.

Cavalry does not exert a ZOC in the woods. So the Indian medium horse charges another knight, which was fighting a war wagon, in the flank. Leading to it's destruction,

An unfortunate die roll by the knights engaged with the damaged War Wagon led to the final point needed to demoralize the Teutonic Knights.

Mistakenly, I pursued the routing knight with the War Wagon. Which I found out later is not permitted.

It was really an unfair fight for Paul, and I am sorry.

In the next two rounds, Dan scraped up an Assyrian army for me to use. Still way out of theme, but in reality Light Chariots are just Medium and Heavy Cavalry, bow. So the army has the same character as many Arab offerings.

An Auxeses of Axums

A Headless Body Production

Venue: Freedom Hall, aka the Crestwood Community Center, NJ
Event: LeeCon
Players: Phil Gardocki running Nikephorian
               Jeff Wiltrout running the Kingdom of Axum
Game System: L'Art de la Guerre, 15mm, 200 points per side.

The Forces
The Kingdom of Axum (list 114)
Commanded by Gemaneh, the Brilliant, Nesanet, the Ordinary and Bekhit, an Ordinary Ally
2 Horsemen, Lighte Cavalry, Javelin
6 Blemye Camels, Medium Camelry
1 African Elephant, Mediocre
2 Guardsmen, Medium Swordsmen, Impact, Elite
10 Warriors, Medium swordsmen, Impetuous
4 Bowmen
4 Light Infantry, Bow
2 Light Infantry, Javelins
Breakpoint 31

Nikephorian Byzantine(list 127)
Commanded by the Sneaker brothers! The brilliant Nikephoros, the unequally brilliant Adidiasphoros, and their ordinary sibling, Pumaphoros
6 Tagmata, Heavy Cavalry Bow, Impact, Elite
5 Petchnegs and Prokoursatores, Light Cavalry, Bow
2 Varangian Mercenaries, Heavy Swordsmen, 2HW
2 Varangian Guardsmen, Heavy Swordsmen, Armor, 2HW, Elite
2 Skutatoi, ½ Heavy Spearmen, Bowmen
5 Psiloi, Light Infantry, Bows, Javelins, Incendiaries.
Breakpoint of 22

Display Conventions: When you see a jagged word bubble for "Ouch" in Greek, "Ωχ!", or in Ethiopian, "ተጐነጐነም!",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.

The Situation: The Byzantines win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.

Jeff and I ran into each other at Sandy's Cozy Cafe in Lakehurst that morning. A charming eatery about 10 miles from the venue, and quite a surprise to both of us.

Even more of a surprise was we were now sitting across from each other for the championship round of this tournament. Now I wish I had paid more attention to him describing his army over my Eggs Benedict. "Blah, Blah, Blemyes", "Blah, Blah, Elephant"...

Also of note, Jeff and his daughter created the camp's that I use. He was selling them at the flea market when Historicon was in Fredericksburg, and I needed a camp in order to play that new game, L' Art de la Guerre. The Camp has 3 parts, and can be sized from 120x40mm, as shown below, to 160x120 if need be.

As a stratagem, I only use the smallest camp. There is no sense making an unfortified camp any bigger, as that would make it closer to marauding enemy troops.

As a courtesy, Jeff gave me his list to take with me, so I have no excuse for getting anything wrong describing his troops.

Not that I won't, I'll just have no excuse....

Deployment:

On their right, behind a convenient field, Nesanet, the ordinary, is commanding a force of 10 units, 6 impetuous foot.

Behind the hill, Gemaneh, the Strategist, has a large force of foot, mounted and elephant.

Their allied command, led by Bekhit, has 6 troops of Camelry.

Wait, 31 units? In an army that has both Camels AND Elephants? Holy Crap!

There is a reason the Jeff is sitting in the #1 seat.

On the Byzantine left, is Pumaphoros, hiding in the gully. The Pink Lady* is standing by.

Nikephoros takes the center with his Tagmata.

Adidiasphoros takes the right. With 5 units of Light Infantry, in a very convenient field, I expect to be able to hold the right for quite some time.

Turn 1:

Despite the Axum numerical edge, they have a large hanging flank. Pumaphoros will try to take advantage of it.

Nikephoros doesn't have a lot of choices, and none of them good. Between rough terrain, or a hill with an elephant.

But the Tagmata does have bow. I can shoot until the enemy decides to emerge from the field, or come off the hill.

The Byzantine foot command advances on the double.

The Axums advance to long range bow and loose arrows to good effect.

Their remaining foot advance past the crest of the hill

The Blemye camels split up. Half to attempt to run around the Byzantine right flank. The other half, maybe to go after the Byzantine mounted command?

Turn 2:

Nikephoros sees an opportunity for a quick kill. Two of his Kataphractoi charge a bowman out of the field, and a swordsmen not quite on the hill.

Leading his charge, Nikephoros does not get the results he wanted, and is now stuck in battle.

Adidiasphoros advances his foot.

Psiloi slingers emerge from the field and loose stones at the enemy lights.

It is not often that LI missiles can put a cohesion hit on an armored, elite foe, but it can happen.

Nikephoros is having a brown pants moment.

Breaking out the Pink Lady* for one final time. One Tagmata disperses their opposing bowmen, the other, with Nikephoros and support, manage two cohesion hits. But the elephant is looming large on their flank.

With a chilling ululation, the warriors of Axum charge with abandon!. The Varangians hew and destroy with cruel axes. But their end unit of Skutatoi, disordered previously by bow fire, are run over.

3 camels at a cost of 24 points, against a single Psiloi in the open.

With some pretty good die rolling, I retired the Pink Lady*. She deserved a good rest. 

Turn 3:

Pumaphoros splits his forces, sending his Petchnegs towards the camp, his Prokoursatores pinning (ZOC'd) the rear Axum warrior unit' whose rear is hanging out of the terrain.

The Tagmata led by Nikephoros defeats their opposing warrior, and pursues into the warrior behind it.

His other, and no longer engaged, Tagmata are ordered to retreat and regroup.

Adidiasphoros' foot command surround one Axum warrior. The Varangian guards destroy another. The subsequent routs have also dispersed one light foot, and disordered another.

One of the problems with the Axum army is it's shortage of command points. 3 are available, but Jeff took only 2. All too often he had to make a choice between attacking, or getting his lights out of the way. Here he lost 3 points in light infantry due to a shortage off command points.

And another point on the light horse.

But this turn, Nesante has an abundance of command points. His warriors turn and charge the Prokoursatores taunting their rear, his bowman focus on the Tagmata, while his other warriors cut off the route the Petchnegs were taking to the camp.

Nikephoros' Tagmata is flanked and takes a hit. He is no longer leading from the front though, as he retired from the front during the pursuit. The Auxm Elephant is held back for now.

The Auxm Warriors have turned the flank of a Varangian mercenary unit. The Blemye camelry pursue their taunting Psiloi.

In the River Styx, the Byzantines have 8 points towards their breakpoint of 22

Along the Blue Nile, the Kingdom of Axum have 21 points towards their breakpoint of 31

What? 21 points, how could that be? <Scroll up><Scroll up><Scroll up> OK I see the 14 points for the dead, and can count 7 disordered in the pictures.

Does that mean I am winning? I know I did not think I was at the time. I was so busy taking the pictures, that the reality that I was 14 points away from demoralization and Jeff was just 10 didn't occur.

These things don't happen to me...

Turn 4:

Pumaphoros realizes the camp is out of reach and recalls his Petchnegs to assist against the Warriors. One Tagmatic Cavalry is swarmed under.

Nikephoros orders a general order to regroup.

There is nothing else to be gained here. The Axum command in the field has been bloodied by combat, losing 3 units with one disordered. The command is also fragmented with unmaneuverable units, with an ordinary commander. And, they are still in a field, which the cavalry dare not tread.

Nikephoros is brilliant and should be able to reorder his troops much quicker then his Auxm rival.

Adidiasphoros' Varangian Guardsmen approach the bottom of the hill, daring the Blemye's to charge.

More Axum casualties due to a lack of command points to get out of range.

This Psiloi is doing an amazing job of distracting 3 troops of Blemye's

Or could be another command point problem. They are more than 4 UD's away from their commander.

Nasente gets his bowmen turned around.

From the hill, Bekhit separates one of his camels, charging the flank of the Varangian mercenaries.

Now there are two major combatants in Adidiasphoros' rear.

The Blemye are determined to crush this Psiloi bow unit.

 I think the score is 11 Byzantine to 24 Axum.

 Turn 5:

The Petchnegs are again going to threaten the camp.

The score is 11 Byzantine to 25 Axum.

The Tagmata return the field, their bows testing the elephants patience.

The score is 11 Byzantine to 26 Axum.

On the right, one Varangian Guardsmen ZOC's the Camels on the hill, the other charges to the rear.

The Camels evade, then the Varangian Guards roll up on pursuit, engaging and destroying the bowmen, then pursuing into the warrior.

The score is 11 dead for the Byzantines to 27 Axum.

Just more taunting.

Again, Nesanet has to spend valuable command points to protect the camp.

Germaneh tries to organize a counter punch. Bekhit's camels charge down the hill into the Varangians, recoiling them disordered. But at last, the Skutatoi finally defeat their foes. They have been fighting for 5 rounds with friendly mercenaries providing +2 melee support. This destroys 1 unit and the rout puts a cohesion hit on another.

The score is 12 dead for the Byzantines to 29 Axum.

The Varangian Guards destroy another unit, and the rout puts a cohesion hit on another.

The score is 12 dead for the Byzantines to 30 Axum.

Turn 6:

The situation is an out at any base. Byzantine lights go for a cheap kill with bow fire and flank shots, but score nothing.

The Tagmatic archery further disorders the elephant. But that does not add to the score either.

Varangian mercenaries charge up the hill. Destroying a troop of camels. Then the Varangian Guards finalize the job. With Psiloi in their rear, the Auxm light horse cannot evade. The guards conform on the light horse, and with Adidiasphoros leading from the front, hew them man and beast for the last point and the win.

 It was a bloody good game.

*From the first battle report of this tourney.

Let me introduce you to The Pink Lady. The Lady is a rescue die rehabilitated by the Mulligan Center**. “Because every die deserves a second chance.”
 

The Pink Lady, her edges may be worn, but her numbers are still clear.

The Lady contributed to the cause of many a D&D character in her day. She got an assist on the 18 Intelligence score for the wizard Ali-Kazam, the 17 constitution for the ranger Farinear, and a glorious 17 Dex, 15 wisdom and 16 strength for the future Grand Master of Dragons, Gea-Tea.

When not rolling high scores for attributes, The Lady was pounding out damage scores for clerical non-edged weapons, which were always D6.

Then, when her owner’s interest in D&D waned, she was relegated to the dice box, with other low impact dice that TSR was producing. Her fine edges slowly rounding, only to be brought out in memories when searching for other, sharper dice.

There ARE no BAD DICE!

The Mulligan Center’s mission has been to find these dice, rehabilitate them, and find them good homes with Gamers willing to give them a new lease on life and a Second Chance! A Do Over if you will!

**Mulligan Center***, and the concept of Rescue Dice**** is entirely the creation of Jolly Blackburn, the creator and publisher of the Knights of the Dinner Table (KODT). And is used with permission.
 

If you ever played any role playing games, then KODT is an absolute riot to read. Jolly has published 300 issues, plus numerous extra books, and has compiled all his early works into 4 issue bundles.
These can be found at Kenzer and Company’s website.

*** The Mulligan Center is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between it and a real company, is totally coincidental.
 

****No dice were harmed in the making of this article.