LORDS OF HISTORY 5

[fogman]

In the latter, the Mamluks on the Egyptian left came out ahead of their infantry to shoot at the approaching knights. There were gaps in the line with LF objective tokens, but some of the Mamluks retreated instead through their infantry when the knights charged. So the infantry were disrupted, which helped the knights immensely to break through.

On the other wing, the Syrian cavalry simply fled from the Egyptians and raced over to back up the Crusader knights. Only the Emir stayed behind to bolster the Syrian infantry. They were eventually shot to pieces and cut up, but by that time, the Egyptian left had collapsed. The Crusader infantry in the middle were never threatened.

if the mamluks player let the syrians run (need to sacrifice units to prevent that), it's going to be difficult. ditto if on the left he doesn't stay behind his dismounted horsemen. in a scenario where events are as clearly defined as this one, there is not much room for errors.

[fogman]

round 2 matchups can start.

challenges out

kalka, pw: batesmotel
tannenberg, pw: jonathan
mohacs, pw: iandavidsmith

[iandavidsmith]

Challenge posted for Jonathan

Kalka River

password = jonno

Good Luck
Ian

[ricoual74]

challenges posted

la forbie, pw fogman

arsuf, pw jonathan

[Jonathan4290]

Mohacs

Jonathan4290 (Ottomans) 105/112 defeats Ricoual74 (Hungarians) 72/72

Jonathan4290: 10.0
Ricoual74: 9.4

[Londo]

Arsuf

Londo (Crusaders) 50/85 - Ian (Ayyubids) 116/115

Ayyubids got off to a good start, but were relentlessly pushed back and ground down by the Crusaders. Bravely, but perhaps unwisely, Saladin made a stand with his elite bodyguard, and ended up fighting both Richard I and Guy, King of Jerusalem! Saladin lost the encounter. It would make a great scene in a movie, wouldn't it?

[Londo]

Tannenberg

Londo (Teutonic Knights) 47/90 - ricoual74 (Poles and Lithuanians) 90/90

Good lord, a fogman scenario with actual operational decisions to make! What is the world coming to? The decisions, on the Teutonic side, relate to the Hochmeister and his five banners that are heading like a giant spear towards the Polish king. They don't have to go that way, though. The options are:

(a) head north to help the "guest knights", Western European crusaders over for some jolly pagan-slaughtering, who now find themselves in a spot of bother, spread out and with masses of Lithuanians bearing down on them;

(b) put pressure on the Polish left flank, already engaged with the Teutonic right;

(c) go for King Wladislaw, and the objective markers put out to tempt you.

Option (c) is a trap, in my opinion. You don't want to be trying to do too many things at once, when there are Poles and Lithuanians pouring out of every hole in the ground. And you really don't want to end up fighting uphill against Poles on that ridge line.

After some thought, I detached the two hindmost banners and sent them to help out the guest knights. The remaining three were going to come in behind the Polish left. I would completely ignore Wladislaw. But my plans went somewhat awry when Polish lancers anarchy charged the Hochmeister, and shortly thereafter, routed back towards Wladislaw, with the Hochmeister in hot pursuit.

I didn't want to let him get surrounded and killed, so I sent a couple of knights following in his wake, while the rest of the three banners attacked the flank of the Polish left. This worked out very nicely. The Poles had to shift cavalry to meet the threat, which left the rest of their line over-stretched, and with a bit of help from the dice, the entire Polish left crumbled away.

On the other flank, the two banners I sent out to help the guest knights were swamped and destroyed by Lithuanians. But at least they bought a bit of time for the guest knights to set up in defence with their flanks protected.

At the end, Wladislaw still had not been attacked. The Hochmeister was fighting defensively a few hexes away. Seeing that his army was broken, Wladislaw came down from the hill and sued for peace. Article I of the Treaty of Tannenberg stipulated that the Polish language would henceforth be abolished for all time. And the entire world rejoiced!

[Londo]

Challenges posted ...

fogman - Arsuf - pw seahawks

[fogman]

Tannenberg

Londo (Teutonic Knights) 47/90 - ricoual74 (Poles and Lithuanians) 90/90

Good lord, a fogman scenario with actual operational decisions to make! What is the world coming to?

when appropriate and in the realm of historical possibility subject to command and control and doctrine/ethos of the combatants. for instance, a design that allows the french the ability to outflank the english at either azincourt or crecy is a no-no because the english carefully chose the position to force a frontal attack and the french nobility was not capable of anything else but a frontal attack anyways. I like to describe most of my designs as close combat tactical. if you play a good player in a DAG game, it really comes down to close combat management because you will not outmaneuver him. and those games are tense, compelling affairs.

also any design that allows the player to re-order his whole battle array before contact is a no-no. once the battle lines are drawn, the right, centre, left stay where they are. changing battle formations in the face of the enemy is suicidal in real life.

[fogman]

Kalka river
mongols (fogman) 40/50 vs russians (jonathan) 92/90

to the mongols' surprise, the russians fed all their troops into the killing ground of the river bend and great slaughter ensued.

Mohacs
ottomans (fogman) 104/112 vs hungarians (londo) 76/72

the rumelian army launched a series of rash and unfortunate assaults against the main hungarian thrust towards the ottoman grand battery and was virtually annihilated. the anatolian army coming up in support was made of sterner and luckier stuff and managed to stabilize the situation allowing the bey of bali to complete his flanking maneuver and turn the tide of battle in the last hours of the day.

[iandavidsmith]

ATT : ricoual74

Battle of Tannenberg

Challenge posted
password= round2

Good luck
Ian

[iandavidsmith]

ATT : Londo

Battle of La Forbi

Challenge posted
password= round2

Good luck
Ian

[Londo]

Challenges up ...

batesmotel - Tannenberg - pw chris

ricoual74 - Kalka - pw eric

[Jonathan4290]

Challenges up:

La Forbie, pw: Batesmotel
Mohacs, pw: Londo

[batesmotel]

Round 2 challenges up:

Arsuf pw "iandavidsmith"
Mohacs pw "ricoual74"

Chris

[iandavidsmith]

Mohacs

Iandavidsmith (Hungarians) 56/72
defeats
Batesmotel (Ottomans) 113/112

Iandavidsmith: 10.0
Batesmotel : 7.8

Great Game,
Ian

[fogman]

La Forbie

Crusaders (fogman) 19/56 vs Egyptian Ayyubids 49/56

we both forgot about the time limit... it was designed to play as a mad dash and it ended being meticulous...

[fogman]

games to be picked up:

tannenberg from ian for ricoual
kalka from londo for ricoual
mohacs from batesmotel for ricoual

kalka from fogman for batesmotel
tannenberg from fogman for jonathan

[Jonathan4290]

Tannenberg

Jonathan4290 (Poles) 81/90 defeats Ian (Germans) 103/90

Jonathan4290: 11.4
Ian: 9.0

[batesmotel]

La Forbie

Crusaders (fogman) 19/56 vs Egyptian Ayyubids 49/56

we both forgot about the time limit... it was designed to play as a mad dash and it ended being meticulous...

Is this the best result ever for the Egyptians in La Forbie? The scenario as set up looks pretty impossible for the Egyptians to win if the Crusaders play it right. Basically the knights and their supports pick off easy kills and the Crusaders allies just run away and avoid fighting.

Chris