Post by ken on Dec 10, 2017 11:58:47 GMT
Steve and I played our game Friday night; result, the Vikings won!
Final scores Steve lost 7 out of 22; I lost 26 out of 25.
A well-deserved win for Steve who out manoeuvred and out diced me.
Battle fought in plain. Steve reduced the table by 6” with a waterway and then conveniently managed to get all his terrain down the other flank reducing options even further. I placed a road through his left flank rough, but my hill sat uselessly on my back edge. Steve then managed to move a piece of rough in the mid edge of the flank in 4 UD extending the rough even further across the table.
My Breton Allies were looking suitably unimpressed with the set up as the terrain severely limited any manoeuvring they could do. My only advantage was that I was attacking and therefore deployed last, but as the table width was so restricted, Steve easily filled the table with his three sheildwalls. The armies were, as you would expect very similar except for Steve having a couple of extra Huscarls and two Beserkers plus an additional light javelin, against my Bretons.
Steve had Huscarls, Beserkers and Irish, plus the javelinmen on his left, then two similar commands of Huscarls and heavy swordsmen in centre and right, with his bowmen in right flank command. My Heavy swordsmen and a couple of Huscarls were on the left; my other two huscarls, the Irish, bowmen and a solitary javelinman occupied the left, leaving the Bretons (comprising two Elite HC, two MC and two light horse javelin, plus two Levy) in the centre. My thinking was that the right flank was no good with all the rough, despite the road to tempt me, and the left would find me easily bottled up. At least in the centre I could go either way.
The game was never going to be long, or particularly subtle, and we both advanced. My LH advanced to try and cause a little disruption; but Steve sprang an ambush from the centre field and advanced his javallinman to mid-point between the rear of my LH. He then promptly charged their front with his swordsmen. With their evasion blocked by the LI; they dissolved; an easy 4 points for Steve. One of my MC went after his LI, but it promptly popped behind the swordsmen, who in turn forced the MC to evade back as they continued their advance.
Next turn, with my left flank closing on his right, the bulk of his centre wheeled right and charged the remainder of the cavalry, who evaded in line with the charge. On my right my weaker line had held back, hoping that my bowmen could inflict some damage before the inevitable clash, but only inflicted 2 hits over a number of turns, one of which was rallied. Steve then made a withdrawal back towards his camp with his left flank hoping to tempt my Huscarls into the rough. They didn’t take the bait, but I set my 3 Irish against the two Heavy Swordsmen who had remained facing forwards, hoping that my initial overlap on his left would result in some advantage before his left flank returned. Alas, it was no to be, my overlap only saved me from going down, and the other unit disappeared in a 6-1 roll to Steve!
Meanwhile on my left, the lines clashed and things went from bad to worse as the best I could manage was a draw with virtually every other unit taking a least on hit (one took 3). Over the next few turns it just got worse, I took more hits for virtually no damage to Steve. His bowmen had moved behind his line to get a shot at my evaded MC that had moved up to threaten his angled centres flank. One of these bowmen had charged into the right flank of a Huscarl unit engaged to the front, causing it to immediately drop a level. The advance of his centre had cleverly prevented my cavalry from intervening against these bow, but when the Huscarls died and the bowmen pursued into the flank of the next unit, it allowed a Heavy cavalry unit in turn take it in flank; but instead of conveniently dying, I only managed to inflict 2 drops (including the engaged flank drop).
Casualties were mounting rapidly on my side with holes appearing all over the place on my left. On Steve’s left his men had returned, with Beserkers and heavy swordsmen ploughing into the Irish and bowmen, with predictable results. My two right hand Huscarl units seeing that all was up, in true Huscarl tradition, charged into the rough to take on some Irish, and promptly lost.
It was all over, Steve took more losses on the last turn than through the whole game; but my army was broken, he hadn’t lost a unit and had only 7 disrupted units. An excellent game (even if I did have a few senior moments to keep Steve amused) which with Steve’s good play and the favour/lack of favour of the dice gods resulted in a well-deserved win (for the Vikings).
Final scores Steve lost 7 out of 22; I lost 26 out of 25.
A well-deserved win for Steve who out manoeuvred and out diced me.
Battle fought in plain. Steve reduced the table by 6” with a waterway and then conveniently managed to get all his terrain down the other flank reducing options even further. I placed a road through his left flank rough, but my hill sat uselessly on my back edge. Steve then managed to move a piece of rough in the mid edge of the flank in 4 UD extending the rough even further across the table.
My Breton Allies were looking suitably unimpressed with the set up as the terrain severely limited any manoeuvring they could do. My only advantage was that I was attacking and therefore deployed last, but as the table width was so restricted, Steve easily filled the table with his three sheildwalls. The armies were, as you would expect very similar except for Steve having a couple of extra Huscarls and two Beserkers plus an additional light javelin, against my Bretons.
Steve had Huscarls, Beserkers and Irish, plus the javelinmen on his left, then two similar commands of Huscarls and heavy swordsmen in centre and right, with his bowmen in right flank command. My Heavy swordsmen and a couple of Huscarls were on the left; my other two huscarls, the Irish, bowmen and a solitary javelinman occupied the left, leaving the Bretons (comprising two Elite HC, two MC and two light horse javelin, plus two Levy) in the centre. My thinking was that the right flank was no good with all the rough, despite the road to tempt me, and the left would find me easily bottled up. At least in the centre I could go either way.
The game was never going to be long, or particularly subtle, and we both advanced. My LH advanced to try and cause a little disruption; but Steve sprang an ambush from the centre field and advanced his javallinman to mid-point between the rear of my LH. He then promptly charged their front with his swordsmen. With their evasion blocked by the LI; they dissolved; an easy 4 points for Steve. One of my MC went after his LI, but it promptly popped behind the swordsmen, who in turn forced the MC to evade back as they continued their advance.
Next turn, with my left flank closing on his right, the bulk of his centre wheeled right and charged the remainder of the cavalry, who evaded in line with the charge. On my right my weaker line had held back, hoping that my bowmen could inflict some damage before the inevitable clash, but only inflicted 2 hits over a number of turns, one of which was rallied. Steve then made a withdrawal back towards his camp with his left flank hoping to tempt my Huscarls into the rough. They didn’t take the bait, but I set my 3 Irish against the two Heavy Swordsmen who had remained facing forwards, hoping that my initial overlap on his left would result in some advantage before his left flank returned. Alas, it was no to be, my overlap only saved me from going down, and the other unit disappeared in a 6-1 roll to Steve!
Meanwhile on my left, the lines clashed and things went from bad to worse as the best I could manage was a draw with virtually every other unit taking a least on hit (one took 3). Over the next few turns it just got worse, I took more hits for virtually no damage to Steve. His bowmen had moved behind his line to get a shot at my evaded MC that had moved up to threaten his angled centres flank. One of these bowmen had charged into the right flank of a Huscarl unit engaged to the front, causing it to immediately drop a level. The advance of his centre had cleverly prevented my cavalry from intervening against these bow, but when the Huscarls died and the bowmen pursued into the flank of the next unit, it allowed a Heavy cavalry unit in turn take it in flank; but instead of conveniently dying, I only managed to inflict 2 drops (including the engaged flank drop).
Casualties were mounting rapidly on my side with holes appearing all over the place on my left. On Steve’s left his men had returned, with Beserkers and heavy swordsmen ploughing into the Irish and bowmen, with predictable results. My two right hand Huscarl units seeing that all was up, in true Huscarl tradition, charged into the rough to take on some Irish, and promptly lost.
It was all over, Steve took more losses on the last turn than through the whole game; but my army was broken, he hadn’t lost a unit and had only 7 disrupted units. An excellent game (even if I did have a few senior moments to keep Steve amused) which with Steve’s good play and the favour/lack of favour of the dice gods resulted in a well-deserved win (for the Vikings).