Field of Glory Wargaming at Usk 2010
After a rather large curry and surprisingly early night spent discussing trans gender gaming in a local pub the Sunday morning saw us arrive at the venue past the hastily dragooned bridge rebuilding crew who were attempting to rectify the damage done to his local infrastructure by Mr Bodley Scott the morning before.
Yet again our thoughts turned to India as we contemplated both the faint whiff of flatulence and thought of playing an Indo Skythian Army who's list is available here
Pictures of Skythians from my Ancients Photo Directory
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The terrain was Steppe, which was nice for anyone trying to set up terrain on a program like Battle Chronicler, as it was almost entirely blank.
With skirmish units in paler colours, the deployment was as above (created using the free Battle Chronicler) tool. The best bit of deployment was how the Indo Skythians had spent a good 5 minutes deciding where to deploy their lancer cataphracts - before plonking them down in the middle of the board. All 6 Elephants were sat on their left, and LH skirmishers protected both wings.
The Korean army fearlessly raced forward, much to the surprise of the Indo Skythians. The only real redeployment was to redeploy the To Bang crossbows to the center - and of course bring the Lancers across from the right wing.
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Loot a burning house |
But with no terrain, we could not have decent troops everywhere - and even the Poor infantry were pressed into service to push up along with the rest of the line.
The Korean skirmishers on the left wing quickly retreated in the face of Skythian light horse.
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Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west |
The Singi Guard lancers found they had plenty of time to redeploy as our one unit of LH held off the advancing Skythians, who had paused to shoot and clear the way for the Elephants to come a running.
Nothing had happened as yet, but the Koreans were squaring up for a fight - much t the surprise of the Skythians who were not used to such aggression in the face of their cataphract wall of steel ..
The Korean bowmen moved forward and unlashed a rain of arrows on the Skythians. It wasn't especially effective, but in combination with a unit of Singi Gun cavalry was enough to force the Skythians to retain one of their mere three generals with the LH wing in case of disruptions - drawing him away from the potentially decisive center of the board.
...The Korean foot were squaring up for a fight as their Singi Guard cavalry arrived to support them.
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Openly repair the gallery roads, but sneak through the passage of Chencang. |
As the Korean halberdiers moved forward, and the To Bang Crossbows opened up the Skythians started to think they may be outnumbered - and outmaneuvered by mere infantrymen !
The Korean levies had also extended themselves to cover even more of the table - and bring more bowmen to bear on the end elephant unit as and when it arrived in range. Without their own skirmish screen the Indo-Skythian elephants had no protection from the constant drip drip drip of harassing fire.
The Korean Halberdiers then executed a textbook "Wheel of Cheese" to put a few more turns between them and the main bulk of the same-speed cataphracts - the To Bang crossbowmen were in harms way, but to take them on the Skythians would have to break up their Cataphract line - creating exactly the sort of overlap potential our less well armoured lancers were looking for.
As the Skythian skirmishers struggled to keep abreast of the various forces opposing and pinning them, the Koreans closed the noose. The To Kak Guard had been drawn away from their main mission, but hopefully the To bang Crossbows and Singi Gun lancers were enough...?
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Sacrifice the plum tree to preserve the peach tree. |
The Cataphracts charged in - but, with rear support from the Lancers and the intervention of a general giving them a +2, and a big unit size and the surprisingly effective rear rank additional shooting dice often denying their opponents minuses for "1 per 3" and "lost by 2" the Crossbowmen were proving surprisingly resilient.
Slightly less competently, the levies just relied on numbers alone, as the Singi Guard cavalry weathered some ineffectual shooting on their flanks.
The resilient crossbowmen successfully bounced the cataphracts at the first
attempt - allowing more Guard cavalry to move up. Things were getting out of
hand for the Skythians, as they felt obliged to move their unprotected cavalry
up to undertake some as yet unspecified flank protection role. 
With the general by now abandoning them for the company of better armoured colleagues, the Skythian flanking force was starting to falter - hemmed in on all sides and unable to rally from shooting damage they dropped back
The Skythians were moving in - but their lines were rather unhinged from each other, and the LH were starting to become a liability...
The Elephants were now getting close, as the Korean levy desperately unleashed their arrows - aided by the light horse. Singi lancers meanwhile chased off as many enemy LH as they could successfully target.
The Skythian cataphracts grabbed one of the precious generals and had another punt at the To Bang Crossbows, who had foolishly moved forwards - allowing the Skythians to charge and wheel, therefore avoiding the Singi Cavalry. But Look at the opportunities emerging for the cavalry elsewhere though!
The To Bang Crossbows had this time become disrupted, allowing the Cataphracts to stay engaged - but their conform move disconnected them from the rest of their line.
The Elephants charged in - well, the two units who had not suffered a Disruption result from having 9 bases shooting at them for 3 turns!
.. and even so, the Elephants still drew first blood. Things looked grim for the levy - but at least one more general was busy rallying elephants in an essentially dead area of the field.
Emboldened by their sheer numbers the Korean Sing Cavalry charged home - and suffered terribly losing bases and cohesion as they again were slightly out of position to allow themselves to concentrate on just one cataphract unit.
All 3 elephant units were now in - but they were rolling some of the worst dice seen in history, with only 1 or 2 hits being recorded in 2 consecutive rounds of combat - the Korean general considered staying to help the levy, as his own LH also took on the Skythians in a "you may have swords but we have a general so can rally from disruption" contest !
The elephants spectacularly poor rolling caused a wave of disruption and fragmentation to ripple down the line as the levy continued to stand firm in the face of light casualties.
Things were looking bleak for the Singi Guards though in the middle as one unit broke, and another faltered against more cataphracts. The "Wheel of Cheese" halberdiers were back in action though, as the Koreans started to bring weight of numbers to bear - and the Skythians wondered how to extract their one useful general from combat. However, cataphracts wee now spoilt for choice as to which flanks they charged into
The Skythian light horse were being herded towards the table edge, as the remnants of the cataphracts serrched for new targets in vain
The Levy dropped to Fragmented - but the Elephants also lost a unit who routed spectacularly away !
The skythian baggage was in sniffing distance as the Korean right hook swept forwards - even an attempt to skirmish away by the Skythian cavalry unit was botched as the Too Kak Guards rolled long and caught them!
Back in the middle and To Bang were long routed - allowing Skythian cataphracts to turn on the flank of the ongoing combat. But a spectacular set of 6's on the part of the Singi Guard meant they broke their frontal opponents - and so pursued to safety - just as the Skythians were gunning their engines !
The caught horsemen had no answer to the Superior Too Kak Guard halberdiers, and broke at impact!
Finally the Korean Singi Guard squirted away - destroying the unit they were pursuing, and finding themselves in range of a far more tempting target - foot bowmen!
The Wheel of Cheese chaps turned on a dime to face the onrushing cataphracts - forming a protective screen behind which the Singi Guard labored to dispatch a fatally wounded cataphract unit.
The Indian cavalry broke - through their own men - causing havoc even as the Koreans tightened the net around the squirming skythian horsemen.
he Bright Green Average Halberdiers bounced the Skythian cataphracts successfully - but braced themselves for yet another charge. But by now the other Skythians were gone....
The skythian skirmishers were by now occupying only a fraction of the table, as our two wings had almost joined up - well, accepting that one wing was made up of one 3-base fragmented lancer unit that is....
But meanwhile the Cataphracts tried again.... this time the big Korean general felt obliged to step in.
The levies were by now long gone, but they had held up the elephants for long enough to take them out of the game as well - and as long as the resilient halberdiers could continue to bounce the enemy cataphracts the baggage - and the Indian levy bowmen - would deliver us a crushing victory
And the bowmen collapsed so quickly that our cataphracts were even packed up and back in the box before a final victory photo could be taken, allowing the general to claim credit on his own.
A massive Victory was ours!!
Post Match Summary
As
James Mason, The Emperor of Korea, I am bleeding delighted to have beaten a
skythian army - what a fabulous result. Admittedly it was one with only 6 LH,
and 15 units overall - many of whom could not evade to save their lives -
but they all count.
I was very impressed with the way that my bowmen and skirmishers all coordinated on our right to drive off the enemy, very satisfying indeed. And the sterling performance of the levy - or rather the disastrous lack of hits in several rounds caused by the enemy elephants was a welcome bonus too. But really, levy are there to delay the enemy and then die - and they succeeded admirably in both today.
Anyway, I must now shoot off home for a nice lunch break, over the bridge my chariot hit and damaged on the way here yesterday morning.
As we say in Korea, Someone else's rice cake always looks bigger.
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Yep,
you won - but how you struggled. Several schoolboy errors in the middle cost you
2 or 3 units, as you moved up for no reason other than pointless aggressive
maneuvering when you were better just staying where you were.
Both times you fell foul of the "you cant wheel in a charge if you end up with les bases in contact" rule. If cavalry bounce off, they must charge in again straight ahead - but if you move up, they may be able to wheel and hit different parts of your line. Doh!
Even so, I do feel that the enemy contributed greatly to your victory here - possibly more than you managed yourself. 3 generals (including an uncommittable IC) in an army with 4 discrete maneuver and combat formations (and 7 combat units) in a period where enemy foot have bows looks like the grossest folly to me.
You did manage a few cute redeployments as well, which is nice to see - not only because it shows imagination and flickerings of competence, but also because it kinda disproves the theory that redeploying is impossible in FoG.
I know you are now 9 points ahead of your nearest rivals - but lets see how the next game goes then ?
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