Game 4 - Teutons
Game 4 saw Central London lurking virtually at the bottom of the table, and me fighting a Teutonic army
The terrain fell badly again for me - a minimum sized waterway, and all the rough hills on the baseline on my side of the table. With nowhere near enough army to fill the table the Scots deployed almost corner-sitting - with the as-yet useless highlanders held on a rough hill anchoring my right, bows again in the middle of the line, and two deep formations of blades braced for the inevitable.
The Teutons redeployed knights to attack my left, and so with nothing but LH and Cv (I) to hold them back, I decided to advance against the skirmish screen on my right with the Galwegians - maybe I could get to the soft underbelly of spearmen befo0re the Teutons broke through my blades??
Given their obvious superiority, the Teutonic knights were surprisingly cautious in advancing on my lines - or maybe the enfilading bowmen were giving them cause for serious reflection. So, the action largely shifted to my right, as warband and blades were hunting down light horse....
-....and getting a bloody nose for their efforts
Finally the warband - after 4 games - found something they could kill - Cv (I) caught 2 deep in the rear, with 2 overlaps and unable to recoil. The Jocks marked up their first serious casualties of the weekend!
With the Teutons still cautious, the warband started to get fragmented - and
picked off - but not before they managed to overwhelm the LH-only command to
break it!
Finally the Brother knights charged - but by now their light horse - left facing the Galwegians - had suffered some casualties, and so the charge was tempered with a fair degree of caution.
After an initial assault the Brother knights elected to pull back out of reach of the increasingly emboldened and frustrated Highlanders who chased them back across the table.
With the Teutonic knight command now safe, the German pips transferred back towards the Galwegians - who were starting to look shaky with they rather rubbish 13 EE command strength.
They too crumbled - and it was 5-5 as the game ended.
But, bizarrely, as the field had been so bunched up, our last round team score of 35 in old money was just enough for us to leapfrog 12 other teams and steal 2nd place !!
Special Bonus Page - added 27/12/05 as Veni Vidi Vino snuck into an ill-deserved 3rd place on a secret dice-roll tie breaker, despite scoring less points than the Essex Boys. Click here for the movie !
Hoorah!
Conclusions:
First 3.1 comp, only my 4th-8th 3.1 games, and basically it showed.
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Terrain is now a lot less dependable under 3.1, especially the reduced likelihood of it falling actually on the flank (which arguably cost me game 2), and also the random WW width - you simply cant rely on anchoring yourself on terrain for most games, even with 2 compulsories such as I had.
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The "march to 50p" is cute, but not a game winner...
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..however leaving odd elements of flee-able troops able to be contacted by foot is a no-no - that does give the foot a big extra move.
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Pikes are the new rock and roll - which is only right and proper, as every edition has a top troop type, but Pikemen shoudl actually justify this billing! Whatever army you have, you need a plan to deal with Pikes. Taking them on frontally with lots of blade is "a plan" - but unfortunately not a very good one. You need to be round the flank and fighting them 2 ranks deep or nothing stands a realistic chance.
