Field of Glory Wargaming at Badcon 2010
After sneaking out to eat a pork pie and drink a pint of Burtons finest ale, the afternoon game arrives like a train - slightly late due to leaves on the line. We were facing a likley load of knights who's list is available here
Pictures of Feudal Knights from my Ancients Photo Directory
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The terrain was all rather irrelevant here, as it fell around the edges of where no doubt a load of knights would be recklessly charging forwards.
The Aragonese were working on the theory that if you are going to turn up to a Knight Fight, make sure you have more knights than anyone else - they had an astounding 6 units ! The deployment was as above (created using the free Battle Chronicler) tool. Our plan was to absorb the inevitable knight charge with the heavy infantry, and overwhelm the flanks, especially our right.
The Fatimid lancers pushed up on the right although with so many knights spare, the Aragonese had manged to deploy one over to their far left, which would almost certainly cause problems for our skirmish-heavy wing later.
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Eat Ham, and lots of it |
In the center the Fatimid foot crept forwards slowly, waiting for their colleagues to envelop the flanks.
The Aragonese were also being somewhat cautious, and drew some of their knights off to their right as they clearly had too many to fit down the middle.
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Roast some pork, then have some chicken too |
The Fatimid right looked to have the edge over the Aragonese skirmishers, who would be forced to lurk in the rough terrain to keep safe. If the Fatimids could keep the knights bottled up it would be a great result.
Nothing had happened as yet on our left, as the Dailami advanced forwards with minimal opposition.
The Fatimids were piling on the pressure on the right, giving the Aragonese knights cause for confusion as they saw spearmen coming down their throats and lancers advancing on their flanks.
Would the Aragonese knights fall for the fairly obvious trap?
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Openly serve tapas, whilst cooking a stew in the back room |
As Fatimids advanced, the Aragonese nobility considered their options. Ultimately, they were good enough to take anything on the table on frontally - so why not give it a punt?
The Fatimids were advancing at speed on the right to still no meaningful opposition. At least they might occupy a unit of knights for a while.
The Fatimids teed up a very obvious trap for the Aragonese knights - if they charged home their conforming move would swing their flank round and expose it to the Fatimid Ghulams !
Likewise the Fatimid infantry crept forwards, tempting one knight unit into an isolated charge against two of their infantry units.
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Sacrifice the Dessert to leave room for more bread |
The Fatimids had nothing to do on their left but advance
More Enemies hove into view though as 2 units of knights swung out to the flank.
But the Aragonese Nobility took things into their own hands and charged home against 2 units of Fatimid infantry!
On the other flank, the Aragonese nobility also charged to scatter the fatimid skirmishers like wheat over a field
The Aragonese were unable to cope with the phenomenal dice of the Alan Shearer Infantry and Deaf Spearmen, and were battered at impact and in melee.
Well, with dice like that, someone would have to go - and it was the first knight unit who were first to do so !
Elsewhere the Aragonese had managed to mass their knights on our left, and were pushing forward against a suddenly light-looking Fatimid left.
The battle swung back to the other flank and the Aragonese continued to hold their powder dry in the face of the obvious trap....
.. but the rather undergunned crossbow unit holding up the Fatimid flank was now being heavily shelled by some stone throwing peasants !
Emboldened by their peasant colleagues, the Aragonese lancers charged home - and immediately gained the upper hand against the 2 units of Fatimid lancers
And even more Knights charged home into double overlap - and suffered the fate of their colleagues earlier!
The Aragonese Mouse Headed Mounted Lancers were doing their best - but it was not enough against the striking power of the Alan Shearer Infantry
The Aragonese had recovered their poise on the right flank, and were turning in to threaten the rear of the Fatimid trap...
The Aragonese infantry had also made it into contact, and immediately struck a blow for Christendom, slaying a Fatimid general..
The Aragonese knights had now finished off the first unit of Arab lancers, but were still engaged against the 2nd unit...
Back in the middle and Deaf Spearmen, frightened by the death of their general, turned and fled.
The suicidal Crossbowmen were also now in full rout, unable to stand up to the shooting of 6 skirmishers ..
Finally the Ghilmen charged into the Knights flank - they needed to break the Knights in a turn or risk being hit by yet more knights in the rear
Alan Shearers Infantry hung on grimly but the tide was against them - Knights added to their woes...
The Arabs cavalry achieved the decisive breakthrough, sweeping away the 3rd unit of knights and leaving the Military Order knights fuming impotently to their rear
Alan Shearers Infantry were digging in for the long haul...
The routing Knights were utterly destroyed by the pursuing Ghilmen, who took the opportunity to pursue to get them out of range of the Military Order knights
But meanwhile the Dailami had lurked into the open, needing to fight enemies to be able to beat them.
The Dailami were quality, and this allowed them to bounce the knights...
With the crossbows gone, the Arab lancers took the chance to take on the Aragonese light horse, battering them to the point of breaking in an instant...
With some of the knights gone, the battle was splitting into 2 or 3 unconnected areas - but neither side now had a realistic chance of a total victory with their coherent forces scattered across the table and away from any enemies.
The Dailami pushed forward yet again....
The game moved towards the evening break ...
The Dailami were proving that armour, generals and superiority were far better than the downside of being MF
And the Arab lancers were proving that its a game of dice as they lost bases and went disrupted against a 3-strong fragmented enemy unit...
With that the game petered out into a draw.
Post Match Summary
As
Mr Alan Shearer Ah think this wez a geet victory fre me namesake infantry as wi
managed te smash the Spanish knights in the middle.
It is just a shame tha wor support troops did git little an the deaf spearmen also failed te stand up te identically equipped infantry in combat affta climbing the mountain of beating the knights.
Ah really thowt wi had dyun aal the hard worrk wi a textbook triggering of some poorly executed charges an destroying aal o the Spanish nobility. But clearly there is more te this game than beating the enemies best troops Ah suppose.
Anyways, Ah will noo gan an promote the leadah o the Alan Shearer Infantry, as Ah think he may need te come in an replace tha deed general.
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
You
still haven't worked out how to win this game have you? I think you actually
only beat 3 units there. OK, they were the enemies best, and to be fair you had
no way to avoid them, but what a pointless waste of 3 hours of your life to get
a draw and exchange 3 units of knights for one lancer, one spear unit and some
crap crossbows eh?
I think that is probably the first phyrric draw in history.
Hopefully the curry this evening is a bit better than that - but your rather odd army composition is failing you yet again, as you have not enough mobility to either concentrate your forces, nor to follow up any victories you managed to achieve. Add to that the way your entire game plan seems to be based on your average protected infantry doing well against better quality and armoured opponents and you are dicing with death on a daily basis.
Lets see how the next game goes then ?
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