Anyway - do any of you readers know why the English spend so much money advertising their tourism industry when it's clear they DON'T want tourists
Do they have a limit on the size of the squad of retainers or something? Either which way our tour was abruptly interrupted by the local constabulary. Here's what happened:Local Constabulary:
A Chief Constable and 3 Sergeants
36 Longbowmen – drilled, average, protected, longbow, swordsmen @ 9 BGs of 6
12 Dismounted Knights – drilled, superior, heavily armoured, heavy weapon @ 16 BGs of 4
4 Gascon Knights – undrilled, superior, heavily armoured, lancer, swordsmen @ 23 BG of 4
4 Irish LH – undrilled, average, unprotected, javelin, light spear @ 7 BG of 4
6 Gascon bidets LF – undrilled, average, unprotected, javelin, light spear @ 4 BT of 6
Maximillian and his Retainers:
Maximillian and 3 of his closest companions.
36 Pikemen – drilled, average, protected, pike @ 6 BGs of 12
8 Knights – drilled, average (Elite, but RBS & some anti German types clearly have an adgenda so THEY call them 'Average' - how rude! I still thinkt he Brits have a problem with German Tourists), heavily armoured, lancer, swordsmen @ 21 BGs of 4 (4 Dismounted)
Mtd crossbow – drilled, average, armoured, crossbow, swordsmen @ 14 BG of 4
Hungarian LH – undrilled, average, unprotected, bow BG of 6
12 crossbow MF – drilled, average, protected, crossbow @ 7 BG of 6
8 bow LF – drilled, average, unprotected, bow @ 5 BG of 8
4 handgunners LF – drilled, average, protected, handgun @5 BG of 4
4 handgunners LF - drilled, average, unprotected, handgun @ 4 BG of 4
So, what we could see through the rain and mist was the following (we were facing to the North).
On our Southwestern edge a very large very steep hill.
On our Western edge toward the middle a bit of rough ground.
On our Northeastern edge a series of rolling hills of beauty. We had to look at the scenery from there - it looked like it might be magnificent.
So, Max and his buddies had just finished walking to the top of Mount Maximillian and had left most of his retainers deployed in case of trouble. He saw the English Constabulary deployed as if they wanted a bit of biffo. Here's what THAT looked like:
Constabulary from West to East:
Lightfoot Archers Archers Archers Dismounted Knights Archers Archers More bloody Archers Light Horse
There were some French knights in the background somewhere too. This is another thing we couldn't understand. We thought the English HATED the French. We come in peace to spend our well earned coin and they hire some French leftovers! Unbelievable.
Maximillian from West to East:
Lightfoot Lightfoot Dismounted Knights Pike Mounted Knights Pike Pike Crossbowmen Mounted Crossbows Lighthorse
Max had intelligently deployed a skirmisher line in front of his pikes and knights to the west.
The constables moved against us, it looked as if they weren't the welcoming party we were expecting, but they were outwardly trying to HURT us. Naturally we were more than willing to defend ourselves.
The constables moved south towards us in pretty much one straight move.
Maximillian moved north fast on the western flank and refused with the centre whilst moving the lighthorse quickly to take posession of the hills, which were contested by some Irish who seemed to remember past transgressions and didn't really want to come out and play on the side of the English.
After a few moments delay it became more obvious that the English were there for harm as they shot an incredible number of arrows into our skirmisher line. Our brave lads held strongly but many died (9 dice rolled with 2 casualties but passed the cohesion test).
After three volleys of fire the skirmishers were wavering, but our position was strong. If they ran (which we expected) the pikes and knights would be into the longbows and dismounted knights with nary a shot being fired at the landschnekts or knights.
To our surprise the English longbows on our far west charged our dismounted knights. Clearly the 'average' ones were the ones who got off their horses and the elite ones stayed mounted (as will become obvious later) because after the clash of impact our pathetic knights became disrupted, broke and ran with barely enough time for the longbowmen to draw their swords. By this stage though the landschnekts had started to charge the longbowmen and our mounted knights charging the enemy dismounted knights. The Skirmisher battle on the flanks was going our way with the Irish running away and an ongoing battle north of the steep hill looking like it was going to be an easy victory on that flank too.
At this point the two commanders sat down for Pizza and Beer. I can thoroughly recommend Pizza, and will no doubt attempt a visit to Italy some time soon to sample some more.
After our brief repast more landschnekt's got stuck into more bows without very much damage from shooting. The shock of our impact did little to hurt the bowmen, but their dismounted knights did not like the combination of pike and knights.
After a bitter struggle with our westernmost landschnekt, Maximillian fighting in the front rank, this part of the battle seemed to be giong our way.
Our re-charging mounted knights and our central landschnekt block gave great damage to the English dismounted knights, even killing one of their commanders. Thinking that this would make the battle won we sat down to see how many of the enemy would run from such a great loss.
Clearly their men didn't like that particular general as much as us. Nothing happened. The looked up, saw the bloody visage of their leader toppling form his horse and redoubled their efforts.
At this point, much to our disappointment Maximillian had to go home to beddie byes - having a very early shift the next day.
It was a good match. Luck and bad-luck on both sides being fairly even.
As seems to happen regularly, where I expect to win I lose and where I expect to lose I win. Maybe I should take an entirely poor mob army. That way I'd expect to lose everywhere
Hope you enjoyed my rant.
Ian
