Tides of Conquest Late Medieval campaign, turn 4, 1312 CE

[anderarcos11]

The liberation and union of Wales to the Holy Roman Empire has been completed after two decisive battles

German allies in Wales (anderarcos11) beat French (Indibil), 43 to 12

France sent an army to suppress the revolt of some Welsh chieftains favorable to the empire, arriving before the imperial army of Augustus Bach, which had to delay its departure due to storms.

The French nobles, with an army made up of the famed Welsh archers, lightly protected medium infantry armed with spears, and scant cavalry, formed a line between a wood and two small hills. Light troops of javelinmen and light longbowmen concealed themselves in the woods while on the hill the Welsh longbowmen formed up behind lines of lightly protected spearmen. The French formed crossbow units facing the woods, and a long line of confident French knights who, confident of their superior weaponry and training, dismounted from their horses to engage the Welsh spearmen. Some knights remained on their horses alongside mounted crossbowmen, in order to encircle the Welsh army from the apparently more vulnerable of their right flank.

The battle began with a confident French advance along the entire front that attempted to attack the scarce and poorly armed Welsh cavalry. The Welsh, in a premeditated maneuver, retreated, causing the French knights to pursue them and separate themselves from the rest of the attack, while the Welsh longbowmen launched a shower of arrows at them.
The light troops concealed in the woods surprised the French crossbowmen with a hail of shells and the dismounted French knights advanced in some disorder. The French army began to give way under cover from the forest and at that moment, the Welsh right flank advanced to charge against them. The dismounted knights tried to help the crossbow units but arrived too late, while in the center and left flank the lines clashed. Thanks to the greater number of Welsh spearmen and the small number of dismounted knights, the latter were ambushed on some occasions and fled. The French heavy cavalry made up of mounted knights arrived too late to surround the Welsh army and greatly weakened by the Welsh longbowmen, who could do little when the much less trained and armed Welsh cavalry reappeared to surround the different cavalry units that had remained separated from their line.The famous and proud French knights were defeated by an army of Welsh peasants.

Germans (anderarcos11) beat French allies in Wales (Indibil), 44 to 4

Finally, the imperial army arrived in Wales, with the pleasant surprise of the defeat of the French army. The rebel nobles of Wales had collected a multitude of French armor and weapons, which they proudly displayed. However, the army of the Welsh prince supported by the king of France, which was resisting in the Welsh capital, still had to be defeated. Augustus Bach decided to take charge of the siege, in order to give the Welsh army a rest. After several months of siege and thanks to Welsh reinforcements financed by France, the Welsh prince decided to confront the imperial troops. The pro-France Welsh formed their lines of Welsh spearmen and archers in a very favorable position for light troops, formed by a long hill of rugged terrain, with some spearmen and their few cavalry on the flanks. The imperial army decided to combine a formation of crossbowmen supported by heavy cavalry and spearmen on the flanks, with some archers and light crossbowmen, as well as mounted crossbowmen on their left flank.

The Imperials advanced, maintaining their formation and forming lines of crossbowmen and archers on a long hill in front of the Welsh lines, who decided to abandon their defensive position and attack. On the Imperial right flank, mounted crossbowmen attacked the Welsh cavalry who in pursuit were surrounded and annihilated by several Imperial troops and cavalry. Meanwhile, the Welsh line was harshly punished by the imperial crossbowmen and archers, who were disorganizing the fearsome Welsh longbowmen. The Imperial right flank came into contact later, supported by low countries spearmen and German heavy cavalry. Before the Welsh line could advance and attack the crossbowmen on the hill, their right flank fell to several heavy cavalry charges, while several units of spearmen and logbowmen became disorganized. The battle was short-lived and ended in an imperial victory.

[Doyley50]

Swedish (doyley50) attack German-ruled Saxonea (anderarcos11)
Map: Northern European Agricultural
Side 1: Swedish (1155CE to 1319CE) Medieval
Side 2: German (Imperial) (1200CE to 1319CE) Medieval

Challenge posted, password 1234, pm sent.

[anderarcos11]

The empire resists the return of the Northmen to saxonea.

Germans (anderarcos11) beat Swedish (doyley50), 69 to 52

The battle was a bloodbath that was not decided until the end. Both sides presented armies of similar composition, with abundant mounted knights, crossbowmen and archers. The German army took the initiative by advancing, while the Swedes formed up on a hill. The German attack began with a massive cavalry charge on their left flank, followed by showers of projectiles on the center and right flank, with units protected by foot knights and mounted knights. The Swedes limited themselves to taking advantage of their favorable position in the center and left flank of their line. Once both lines clashed on all flanks and after a fierce battle, the Swedish right flank fell silent and the German knights took the opportunity to surround the Swedish army.

[SnuggleBunnies]

SnuggleBunnies (Polish) defeats anderarcos (German) 42-8

The Polish advantage in lights forced the Germans to advance. Crossbow fire from a hill, and fierce charges by knights brought victory before the center-right of the Polish line could finish collapsing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4zi_Xh ... uggleBunny

GG

[LachieMac]

The Imperial expedition into central Hungary is repulsed

Hungarians (LachieMac) defeat Germans 48-7

After two dubiously justified raids into Austria, the Germans launched a counter-raid into central Hungary. The Hungarians formed up defensively in a line between two flanking woods, not being certain whether this was a punitive expedition or a wholesale war of conquest. Worryingly, the Hungarian army was not well-suited to defense, with its limited complement of heavy infantry and reliance on horse archers. As a massive Austrian battery of knights and crossbowmen marched in good order on to the open plain, light Magyar outriders picked at their flanks, distracting and routing a couple units of sergeant lancers, in the spirit of their steppe ancestors. Meanwhile, a few light foot and horse archer formations lay in wait in the forests to either flank.

Despite the good start, things hung in the balance, as the innumerable German knights crashed into the Hungarian centre and began cracking apart their outnumbered cavalry and militia. At what seemed the critical moment, the Hungarian militia infantry managed to capture the Austrian commander, and routed their formidable Teutonic knights, just as the Magyar light cavalry wheeled into the German rear.

The day had been saved, and central Hungary relieved of the same ravages visited on its neighbours. For now.

[LachieMac]

Venetians (TomoeGozen) are defeated by Hungarian-allied Tuscany (LachieMac) 48-23

As a Venetian raid marched into Tuscany, the two armies met across a battlefield dominated by two large rocky hills. While both city-states tended to fight with identical tactics, on this occasion the Venetians arrived with more urban knights and heavy infantry, while the Tuscan army fielded many light crossbowmen backed up by irregulars and militia. It seemed at first that the raw Tuscan right would be routed while its left was stuck behind the outcrop. However, the Tuscan militia managed to hold off the subpar Venetian cavalry long enough for crossbows to seize the outcrop, blunt their charge, and rain hell on the remaining infantrymen. The day was won for Hungarian-aligned Tuscany.

Hungarians (LachieMac) with Bohemian allies defeat Venetian-allied Croatia (TomoeGozen) 45-12

Seeking new targets, the Hungarian royal army now raided Dalmatia, meeting the local duke at a patchwork of hills, forests, and lakes. Its foot soldiers approached apprehensively, having in years prior been routed by neighbouring Raska's bow-armed lancers fighting in the old Byzantine style. This time, however, the Hungarian line was stiffened by dismounted Bohemian knights and crossbowmen, who made all the difference. The Croatian lancers on the left threw themselves fruitlessly against the Bohemians while the Croatian right was overwhelmed by light cavalry and irregulars in rougher ground.

The Hungarian king hoped that recent successes would now give him the support he needed to expand his borders more permanently into the Balkans.

[anderarcos11]

How many battles are left to play?

[Indibil]

In my case the two battles with wzfcns

[LuciusSulla]

LuciusSulla defeats gort7078 54-9

East Romans (LuciusSulla) try to annex Ottoman-ruled Bursa (gort7078)
Map: Mediterranean Agricultural
Side 1: Byzantine (Central) (1262-1399) (SS)
Side 2: Ottoman Turkish (1299CE to 1361CE) Sublime Porte


Completed this a week ago but forgot to post.

After consecutive victories against the Ottomans in the past few years, the East Roman launched a final striker into Ottoman-occupied Anatolia. The Ottomans organized their last resistance force and met the East Romans on an open battlefield, but their mounted archers were unable to penetrate the Roman troops and were soon scattered.

[Indibil]

English (wzfcns) intervene against French allies in Normandy (Indibil)
Map: Northern European Hilly
Side 1: English (1272CE to 1319CE) Medieval
Side 2: French (1155CE to 1319CE) Medieval

Indibil beat wzfcns 14 - 42 %
Another battle in Normandy won by the French

[Nijis]

I could 8 games complete out of 15. I updated the listings.

[anderarcos11]

I could 8 games complete out of 15. I updated the listings.

You missed my battle with Doyley, with a German victory.

[Nijis]

Ah - thanks. Will fix that.

[Nijis]

Will try to wrap this up in the next week. If there are any outstanding battles that you don't think will conclude, let me know, and I can either autoresolve or extrapolate a final score.

[wzfcns]

The Norman lords were almost twice as strong against the King of France's army, but the Normans were overwhelmingly infantry, with only 1,000 cavalry, while the King of France's army had over 2,500 knights.
The two armies fought on the plains, and the mass of knights led by Foix, the French commander-in-chief, charged from the front, destroying the Norman infantry line in one fell swoop. The Norman cavalry, from both flanks, worked with the infantry on the right flank to rout the French infantry and then meandered towards the centre.
500 peasants from the Norman countryside attacked the flanks of the French knights in time to force them into confusion and buy time for the Norman knights to be reinforced.
The final battle was a purely inter-knight battle that was hard to win until the very end. The Normans lost over 3,600 men, of whom only 300 were cavalry. The French lost 1,200 knights.

French (Indibil) intervene against English allies in Normandy (wzfcns)

wzfcns beat Indibil 54 - 61 %

[kongxinga]

Muscovites (Nijis) try to conquer Golden Horde-allied Rostov (Kongxinga)
Map: Northern European Agricultural
Side 1: Rus (1265CE to 1379CE) Medieval
Side 2: Rus (1265CE to 1379CE) Medieval

NIjis (Rus) beats Kongxinga (Rus allies of Golden Horde) 5-42

Battle ended up a mess and the wagon forts from the golden horded aligned Rus failed to contribute meaningfully to the battle.

[Nijis]

Ralph (Castile) will need to pull out of the campaign, so that leaves us just one battle to conclude, I believe.

[anderarcos11]

When do we go round? I think there has been enough time. Furthermore, it would be good to recruit some more players, at least, to replace Castile.

[kongxinga]

Golden Horde (Kongxinga) intervene against Muscovite allies in Bosporus (SnuggleBunnies)
Map: Steppe
Side 1: Tatars (1242CE to 1399CE) Medieval
Side 2: Byzantine (Trebizond) (1262CE to 1359CE) Swords and Scimitars

Muscovite Allies/Byzantine (SnuggleBunnies) defeats Golden Horde (kongxinga) 7-53

I may need to autoresolve to hope of victories going forward haha. These are all my games done.

[Nijis]

I'll get started processing the turns. Sorry for the delay!

I'm set to run it for two more turns after posting battle results. Then I'll post some scores based on empire expansion/contraction and also win/loss.