I took Medieval French, which was
CinC - Kn(O), 4 Kn(S), 1 Bw(S), 2 Hd(O), 5 Ps(O), 4 Pk(F), 2 Bg(I).
Sub - Kn(O), 5 Kn(O), 12 Hd(O), 4 Ps(O), 4 Pk(F), 2 Bg(I).
Sub - Kn(O), 5 Kn(O), 9 Ps(O), 7 Hd(O), 4 Pk(F), 2 Bg(I).
Waagon laager - 5 TF.
Strategems - Concealed Command, Ambush.
I was not particularly confident at the start - it seemed I had lost
the "army choice" battle. Being hamstrung by the necessity to
include a Scottish element - the Bw(S) meant I could only have four
elements of Kn(S), which given the opponents army choices I thought
would provide a problem all weekend. I was right.
Game One - Jim Gibson (Burgundian?)
Can't remember a massive amount about this game, other than I lost 23-
2. Perhaps Jim can help?
Game Two - Dave Pallin (Navarrese)
I actually invaded in this game, which was nice. I chose as many
woods as I could, Dave chose some rough going and a big steep hill.
The pivotal piece was a steep hill, ending in the middle of the
battlefield, there was a steep hill which ended up on the left
flank. Dave deployed first and had a mass of Pk(F), Ax(S) and
Dismounted Bd(S) to the left of the steep hill. He had a command of
Knights which was in reserve behind the hill - ready to go either
way. There was a strong wind blowing down the table, which severly
hampered Dave throughout most of the game.
I deployed a sub on the left - which was all dismounted, followed by
the CinC and then my other sub on the right. Dave took the first
turn and began moving his Kn(S) to the right of the hill and a small
and measured advance on the left. I responded by moving my worse
(but more numerous) Knights towards the better Navarrese chaps. My
Psiloi ran forward to dominate the hill (unopposed) in the centre of
the battlefield. On the left my Bd(S) and Kn(S) moved purposefully
towards the mass of foot expectantly.
The English command, which I had expected to move to the left to
support the other infantry got a good pip dice and, being regular Bw
(S), three of the little tinkers ran miles to the right to support
the flank of the Kn(S). This proved decisive and I reckoned that
very quickly my knights were going to be getting a bit of a pasting.
That being the case, the general quickly noticed that he was urgently
required on the left flank and dis-engaged to move to the left as
quickly as possible.
Meanwhile on the left my Bd(S) charged the Pk, ignoring the Ax(S) who
were uphill on a rough hill and waiting to start eating Pk(F).
Unfortunately this never happened, I don't remember killing a single
Pk in several bounds. My Kn(S) also bounced off whatever they had
wangled contact with. It got worse when the Bd(S) general was
isolated and destroyed.
On the right my Knights were picked off by the superior chaps and the
command disheartened. The game timed out at this point. 15-10 to
the Navarrese.
Game Three - Tim Childs (French Ordonnance)
I defended this one, I place a large two FE sized wood on the left,
in which I concealed one of the Sub-Generals command. I placed
another steep hill on the right and of the three roads I chose, two
could not be placed and the third came out of the large wood towards
Tim's base edge. Tim placed several pieces of difficult going which
ended in the middle of the table. There was also a lump of rough
going in the middle of the table.
Tim was lucky enough to have to deploy first and placed two commands
on table. the first a tiny command of ten ME's which consisted
mainly of psiloi lurking at the back and the general and a blade,
which was on the right and a big (ish) command of Reg Mtd Bw(S) and a
load of knights in the middle.
Figuring that Tim was flank marching I placed my fortifications on
the RHS between my base edge and the steep hill. With Kn(S) in the
middle and Kn(O) on the right - three elements being in ambush on the
steep hill.
Tim began to move most of his Kn(S) into my completely vacant and
wide open left flank. The Bw(S) moved towards my knights who were in
a column and waiting expectantly. I reckoned that if I stayed put I
could lure the Bw(S) into combat with my knights on ground of my
choosing - which seemed to be working until the bowmen moved forward
and killed two elements of Kn(S) in two bounds! A series of low pips
on my right meant my three knights went sponno and got isolated and
destroyed by two elements of Kn(S).
I deployed my concealed command and the knights deployed dismounted
and looked at a very appetising open flank. Unfortunately because
the knights were so close they only moved an agonisingly slow 80p per
turn until the knights had gone past (towards the command baggage and
some horde). Which the knights made a real mess of when they
eventually got there.
The flank march arrived and turned out to be a delayed command
instead. Some more knights and bow appeared.
At this point it was looking particularly grim for the Medieval
version of France. Tim decided to really press home his advantage by
charging the Scot Bw(S) with the baby commands general. He even
managed an overlap. The resulting 5-3 combat ended up in the general
fleeing, which was unfortunate because of the difficult going
directly behind him. He recoiled and then ran 80p with his rear
facing the suddenly jubilant Bw(S). the Bw promptly charged the
general and killed him, which broke the command (my first actual
element killed in the game).
This provided quite a boost and the remaining Kn(S) from the CinC's
command charged and ran over 5 elements of Bw(S) in one bound.
Suddenly the shoe was on the other foot - there was a mob of Bd(S)
running towards some very scared Bw(I) and a nearly disheartened /
broken command of not-very-much-left command in the middle.
My knights turned to either flank and the critical moment came when
my Kn(S) was fighting Tim's Kn(S) and I put a hard flank on the Kn
(S). that meant the factors were 3-2 to me. The resulting 6-1 was
somewhat inevitable and my knight died. The knight then charged into
my CinC, killing him and breaking my centre. The piece of resistance
eventually came when my Bd(S) contacted the Bw(I) and bounced three
times... The Ordonnance eventualy got the remaining elements they
needed (thanks to my flank command sitting and watching practically
the entire game) and I lost 18-7, in a game at one point I was very
confident of winning.
Game Four - Toby Partridge (French Ordonnance)
We were in the KO stages at this point facing the same armies as the
previous night - Toby had turned up instead of Tim and was having his
first look at the army, so unusually I actually knew my opponents
army better than he did!
Given that my two team mates had won their games the previous evening
and I had lost I decided to go for a "defensive" strategy. I placed
a wall of Steep Hills and Woods across the entire table, with a gap
of approx 40 cm in the middle. My 30 cm of fortifications covered
this gap quite nicely. My knights on the left dismounted (apart from
three in ambush on the steep hill) my Kn(S) were deployed in column
next to the fortifications and the concealed command was in the
monster wood on the right.
Toby deployed all three commands on table - the baby command next to
the wood, the Bw(S) command in the middle and the other command on
the left. A lot of the knights deployed dismounted, with a couple
left on their horses to prevent my Bd(S) getting fruity.
My Knights in ambush leapt out (mainly to disrupt the line than in
any serious hope of breaking through) and charged two deep Bd(O).
The initial contact saw one blade go down and the knights were very
quickly surrounded. They managed to last quite a while before they
were eventually chopped down - but not before some particularly nasty
scares if one or two combats had gone the other way.
The Bw(S) moved forward to try and force the gap where the
fortifications were. My concealed command in the woods were deployed
and with a lot of the Ordonnance forces committed I deployed in
readiness for a right hook, which would have taken the knights out of
the wood and into the unguarded (apart from one Kn(S)) rear of the
Ordonnance forces. Unfortunately two one's in a row for pips put
paid to this strategy and instead I concentrated on defense.
There was one more "nearly" moment in the game when my Kn(S) charged
the Bw(S) line. I managed to get two Kn(S) and a psiloi into
contact. Toby had put his CinC (Reg Mtd Bw(S)) in the second rank -
without quite realising (until it was too late) that if my Knights
won his CinC would be killed. The Bw to the side were ridden down
(and the psiloi even killed the other one as well) but unfortunately
(for the medieval brethren) the other knight could only draw.
The game then petered out into a series of Bd(S) combats against
Psiloi in difficult going. Where I discovered to my horror that
Psiloi can be killed by heavy foot if the psiloi are in difficult
going, which seems a bit strange. Although not enough were killed to
dishearten anybody.
13-12 (because they invaded) to the French Ordonnance.
Game Five - Dave Pallin (Navarrese)
My second go against the Navarrese. Since we were now in the final
and I hadn't actually won a game as yet I asked for team orders and
was told "just win. Whatever you need to do, just win". I abandoned
the defensive tactics I had utilised until this point and since I was
defending, opted for a fairly open battlefield, there was some
difficult going on the right and left, leaving about a four foot gap
in the middle, with only a small lump of rough on Dave's base edge in
the middle.
I deployed all sixteen knights in the gap in line, with all the
rubbish foot at the back. I had to support my left flank so had four
pk(F) and some psiloi on my left. Dave deployed the English command
of Bw(S) and Bd(S) on the left, the Kn(S) against my Kn(O) and the Pk
(F) against my Kn(S) the small Auxilia(S) command was largely in the
rough going on the base edge.
I ran forward in a general advance and ran into the Pk(F) and Kn(S).
The English bowmen on the left were having a field day cutting down
Pike and Psiloi with withering bowfire, these sacrifices were doing
their job, they bought invaluable time for the Kn(O) of my left
command to hang on, perhaps longer than they deserved. My Kn(S) were
happily scything through pikemen and any bow that showed their face
and my right command charged into the rough going at the Ax(S). This
initially went badly, but eventually the open flank proved decisive
as the knights began to cut down the auxilia in the rough going
(largely because of two successive one's for pips, which meant they
just stood and watched the glorious French manoevers)
My left command broke, but had provided enough time for my Kn(S) to
ride down the remaining pikemen which broke the command and with the
two additional ME's this broke the auxilia command which meant I had
won 16-9.
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