Later Polish Army

[GHGAustin]

Well, we've been playing a campaign set in 1431 and I am the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. So, of course, I am hurriedly painting my 10mm Polish army.

When the army book initially came out, I was not sure what I thought of the superior knights backed by superior mounted crossbow in the same unit. How well would it work? After reading the rules over again and learning that the crossbow get to shoot all stands, I decided to give it a try. It has worked very well so far.

I am running the them in units of six (three knights and three strzelcy crossbow). This has worked pretty well, as I get three dice for shooting when I first move up to charge range. I often get up to four or more dice against a single enemy knight unit of four stands if my units extend beyond his frontage. I have not been able to stand and volley very long, since either one of my units fails the CMT to not charge, or the enemy realizes that with a bunch of crossbowmen shooting, we will eventually fail a morale roll. And when being shot at, the larger units do not suffer the -1 for 1 per 2 hits from shooting.

In melee, the strzelcy are still useful. They bulk up the unit so that the loss of a stand does not cause a -1 for morale. On top of that, when I do lose a stand in melee, the superior swordsmen step in and can answer back. Granted, they only have one die, but it is better than an unanswered overlap. In a recent battle against Teutonic order, two of my mixed units contacted frontally two Teutonic knight units, each of four stands. Initially he extended my front, but we each killed a stand and while mine did not shorten my line, he had to take his loss from the end of the line where we initially line up evenly, and now he was overlapped. His damaged unit declined more rapidly, due to the additional -1 for 25% losses, while my mixed unit stayed steady longer. Eventually, his damaged knight unit broke and was destroyed, while my damaged unit remained long enough to allow my victorious knights to turn and take them in the flank.

I also love the Lithuanian light horse in this army. They are average, bow, light spear, swordsmen, unprotected and are killers! At 11 points each, they're sort of pricey, but worth every point in my opinion. They can usually best other light horse, having long range as well as light spear for impact and swordsman for melee. The Poles can have up to 24 stands. I take the max.

Finally, the mounted crossbow strzelcy can be deployed independently. I have really come to like the mounted crossbow in this medieval games. They can really mess up enemy knights, but can be vulnerable to enemy light horse. Having a ton of LH to protect them makes them really valuable, too.

I can't see any reason to take infantry or warwagon, at least not against historical enemies.

Anyhow, this is a really fun army. I think playing my Sassanid Persians helped prepare me for the Later Poles. After all, they both have a bunch of horse archers, shooty cavalry, and a heavy mounted shook component (cataphracts and elephants for the Sassanids). Tactics seem similar for both: deploy LH to screen off an enemy flank and slow the center, and isolate and surraound any targets of opportunity. Use the shook element to extend the flank and advance as rapidly as possible to turn the enemy flank before the lights are pushed back to the camp.

So far, it is working well.

Rob

[Hepius]

I'd like to paint this army as well. I think it will look great and fight well.

You mentioned:

Finally, the mounted crossbow strzelcy can be deployed intependently. I have really come to like the mounted crossbow in this medieval games. They can really mess up enemy knights, but can be vulnerable to enemy light horse. Having a ton of LH to protect them makes them really valuable, too.

I don't have my book with me, but aren't the mounted crossbow strezelcy armored, crossbow, swordsmen? They should scare the hell out of light horse. The mounted crossbow in my German army are one of my favorite units for chasing off enemy light horse.

I wish the mounted crossbow in my Teutonic army had an armor option. Protected just isn't enough.

[GHGAustin]

Since I have a lot of light horse, I have been able to use those to mess up opposing mounted crossbow who became isolated as they tried to chase off the LH. I ran my independent units as armored, but I am not sure it is worth it, since I tend to run them in a single rank so they can evade from knights. In this case, armored does not add anything. If I melee with LH, then usually Protected is enough. If they end up fighting knights, armored does not help, since they will still get the + POA for better armor. The only case armored seems to matter is fighting against other cavalry in melee. If I am doing that, then I am not taking best advantage of them to either harass knights or, if supported by LH, go after enemy LH.