Slitherine

The Spanish Imperial army defeats the Ottomans 51-22.

The Ottomans just weren't able to shoot up enough Spanish keils before their cavalry was routed. Well played, Peter.

Will

w_michael wrote: ↑Fri Nov 24, 2023 4:08 pm The Spanish Imperial army defeats the Ottomans 51-22.

The Ottomans just weren't able to shoot up enough Spanish keils before their cavalry was routed. Well played, Peter.

Will

Ottoman-SpanishImperial.jpg

I didn’t feel at any point as if I was in such secure position as the final score indicated, I was particularly aware that if one of my keils routed that was another 10% of my force gone. Anyway the (Spanish) Imperial Death Stars withstood the shooting of the Ottomans although it was noticeable that the two early Tercios that did rout faced the shooting of the arquebus armed Janissaries not the bow armed cavalry. It was frustrating fighting the Ottoman cavalry as they invariably fell back after impact, although not always without an effect on their cohesion. However the Spanish had a big advantage in numbers, 19,900 men against 10,300 men, so even though the Early Tercios are expensive they are perhaps not as expensive as bow armed cavalry.

Thanks to my opponent for putting up with my dodgy wifi, which caused the original game to collapse in the deployment phase and also my ten day absence at Castelo Sao Jorge (well just outside the walls). Well played to my opponent I have always found cavalry more difficult to handle than infantry so I am not sure I would have managed all those horses as well as Will did.

The Imperials have come to wild Sweden today to take our freedom from us on the Emperor's orders.
Their experienced and fearsome Tercios, together with the Landsknechts and cavalry cover, easily crushed all opponents in open battle. So our modest forces, consisting mainly of volunteers armed with crossbows, supported by a bit of cavalry from the nobles and mercenary Landsknechts, started a subversive war. Every tree, every bush and every rock formation provided cover for our soldiers firing at the enemy. Meanwhile, the tireless enemy was attacking our central hill with artillery and Landsknechts. Despite the losses, the Imperials reached our main positions, but there a great charge of the Landsknechs broke their ranks and they fled in panic! Wish you had seen it, it was an unforgettable sight!! (Maybe there were a few back attacks in the meantime, but who cares. After all, the winners write history )
Long live Sweden, Long live freedom!!

[Long story short - I win. 43:15 for Sweden. Thanks Snugglebunnies for a great battle]

My Venetians had a Titanic struggle against Gavin's Border Reivers. My army was almost twice as big as his, mainly because it had lots of massed arquebus, half of whom were raw. We had almost as many light horse lance but his could also shoot and many were veterans. He had lots of cavalry lance, many elite, we had several average Gendarmes.
We managed to swamp him in the rough going and the forest in the centre of the battlefield, but massed arquebus often fall to charging cavalry and light horse in the open.
There were light horse and massed arquebus charging inot the flanks of pursuers, it was a bloody mess, with us within 2% of each other until the final move when my extra units made all the difference.
Final result 61% to 53%.
Thanks Gavin for a most exciting game.

We are waiting for the result of the game between Dilly's Irish and AKvGoeben's North Africans then we can start the next round.

AKvGoeben's Moroccans defeats Dilly's Irish 53-60.

Not really sure how to describe this battle to be honest. It was a complete and utter mess but the Moroccan cavalry superiority and massed arquebus units were probably the deciding factor.

GG and well played to Dilly.

We now have 2 Emperors;

The first is Emperor TyroneC of Germany, his vassals are;
Awesum4 Highking of Italy, whose vassal GDod Highking of Scotland has Doyley50 King of England as his vassal, Doyley50 has SMJohnson King of France as his vassal
King Peterthe Painter of Portugal who has King W-michael of Turkey as his vassal
King KiwiwWarlord of Georgia

The second is Emperor Gribol of Scandanavia, his vassals are,
Highking Snugglebunnies of Austria, whose vassal Highking LinkinBrick of Poland has King AkvGoeben of North Africa as a vassal, AlvGoeben has Dilly King of Ireland as his vassal. LinkinBrick also has King Lascar of Russia as his vassal

Its is likely that in the final 2 rounds the situation will arise where someone becomes the vassal of one of his vassals . Should this happen both of the links of vassalage will be broken