Huns vs Visigoths

[shall]

Terry and I thought we would start putting a few of our test games up on here. We played Western Huns vs Visigoths.

Terry as Visigoths had 13BGS roughly as follows:
2 x 6 Sup Prot Cv Lt Sp Sw
1 x 4 Sup Arm Cv Lnc Sw
1 x 6 LF slingers
1 x 6 LF javelinmen
4 x 12 Def Sp Ave including LF supports
2 x 12 medioacre Roman poor with LF supports
1 x 8 Ave MF Bowmen
1 x 4 Ave LH Jav
4 TCs

me as Huns with just 11 BGs
2 x 4 Sup Arm Cv Bw Sw
6 x 4 Sup LH Bw Sw
3 x 6 AVe Lh Bw Sw
IC + 3 TCs

I wanted to try out the truly shooty skirmish version

Terrain went in Terry's favour with my open aras not really getting in the way. Looked at from my direction (throughout) we had an open flank for about 10 mU and then a big rough in Terry's half a broken in Terry's half and gentle hill in Terry's half and a rough in Terry's half. Oh well.

Terry deployed his 2 6 base CV BGs on the left. His skirmishers in the rough. His spears working across the rest with the poor ones always shielded either side by ave ones. On the right had the Bw MF in the rough going. His lnc cav were a reserve.

For my part I hade 3 LH BGs on each wing. 2 in the centre, and the two CV together in the middle under Attila ready to ride iether side. I had a small Flank March of 1 BG of Sup Lh and an TC on the left.

With all those LH I got off to a flying start with 14 MU moves here and there. On the left we quickly ended up with the 6 LF skirmisher facing 2 BGs of LH skirmishers. Terry had his Cv coming up in support rapidly. I felt there was an opportunity to get rid of the LF quickly rather than through shooting so charged them. Soemone said on her you could kill LF in difficult so rough should be Ok surely!! Terry decided to stand. It was even vs the slingers and Terry had a + with his javelinmen but ven DISORDEERED I had more dice.

Alas it went the wrong way as 2 of my BGs lost and while passing most CTs I roled a couple of 1s on death rolls effectively taking these 4 base expensive BGs out of the game. Worse still my 6 base Ave BG came up to give an overlap which did nothing. There was a slight risk if Terry charged a 6 vs a 1 on variable moves would catch me. C'est voila and a Bg down and my Noble Cv DISRed by the rout and pursued into by Terry Cv. However I had 2 generals there including Attilla so still much hope.

In the middle I had largely evacuated after using the 2 BGs of LH to pull the spear blocks out of formation a bit and the LH rode of to help on the right flank. Here we pinned down the MF Bw and had them shot at by 5-8 dice several times. After 3 or 4 bounds of this they were down to 6 and FRG and shortly after routed. This opened a path to the camp and a BG with General made rapid progress towards it. Terry was forced to move off a BG of poor HF to stem the flank which was going to be risky. He failed several CMTs that made it hard for his spear blocks to react. Alas when it came to re-rolls we were both rerolling exactly what we rolled the first time - but in my case as sup this was 1s and for Terry with poors it was 6s!!

Back on the left flank my Noble Cavalry had steadied themselves with help from attila and were slowly getting control over Terry's cavalry. My flank march had arrived and duly charged them in the rear. I had hoped this would finish them off but the general held them together and Terry's troops battled on gamely maliogn a fabulous last stand and buying valuable time. I rolled a couple more 1s for death rolls which wittled me down a fair bit too. Terry lasted long enoguh for his supprrts to come up and charge my LH and all hell broke loose for both of us. My Lh broke and his Cv broke and DISRED 2 BGs. He lost a general. So did I. A few turns later adn both my Noble cav were gone as was one of his BGs.

In the centre his troops plodded towards my camp and I caught a LF BG with my LH. By the time his foot reached my camp I had lost 10 Aps from my 11 and Terry had lost 11 from 13. It was a cliffhanger to the end. Terry's poor HF Bg was looking decidely wobbly but held on and he caught one LH block down to FRG - one of the ones that had lost a base and really needed to have retired. So my army broke just before his.

A real humdigner and one that really convinces me that skirmish armies are about right. Theya re fun and very flexible but also ratehr britlle and a bit volatile at times - you pay for the movement freedom with a fair dose of risk. Without being able to break anything with shooting I would have had little hope. With both armies used well it was perhaps 60-40 in Terry's favour ont his terrain. Thsi gaem could have gone either way up to the end - had my last LH group got away it was back to advantage me. Very balanced overall.

Will post a few more reports as they happen.

Si

[neilhammond]

A real humdigner and one that really convinces me that skirmish armies are about right. Theya re fun and very flexible but also ratehr britlle and a bit volatile at times - you pay for the movement freedom with a fair dose of risk. Without being able to break anything with shooting I would have had little hope. With both armies used well it was perhaps 60-40 in Terry's favour ont his terrain. Thsi gaem could have gone either way up to the end - had my last LH group got away it was back to advantage me. Very balanced overall.

Sounds like a fun game. I found with my Mongols at Britcon that well handled good infantry were always a problem, but overall it was fun using a mobile, shooty army.

Neil

[rbodleyscott]

I found with my Mongols at Britcon that well handled good infantry were always a problem, but overall it was fun using a mobile, shooty army.

Against Damian's 15mm Hellenistic Greeks (massed pikes, thorakitai and thureophoroi), I tried a Scythian army with most of the "light horse" as unprotected cavalry, so that the army had 46 shooting dice (counting skirmishers as 1 dice per 2 bases).

I only shot one of his battle groups (of 6 thorakitai) down to fragmented, and that was only because it had got over-excited and failed its test not to charge my LF several times, until it was completely isolated from its friends. My cavalry then charged and routed it. This does not seem historically unreasonable.

Apart from that, my 46 shooting dice achieved no lasting effect on any part of his army, and I was well on the way to being swept ignominiously off the table when we stopped playing. I would certainly have been swept of the battlefield without inflicting further damage if his initial advance had not been delayed by a threatened flank march, or if I had not insisted on stopping playing at the normal tournament time limit.

Those that think shooting is over-effective should try playing some games as the shooty army against a careful opponent and see if their opinion remains the same.