Slitherine

Well for my next instalment I've decided to go with my latest challenge for my yet to be defeated Scots in England army from the Storm of Arrows module. So far they have: won a bloody battle against a War of the Roses army, snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat from a Medieval French opponenet, then humbled the Navaresse - who charged their nobility into my undisrupted spearmen, and had a relatively easy victory over a Medieval German army.

My opponent was the owner of the Medieval German army that I defeated and he would like some revenge, he has one minor advantage, he pretty much knows the composition of my army already. A solid block of Spearmen, with the maximum skirmishers I can purchase, a handful of French knights, and a Highland ally. I take the Highland ally to get some extra bowmen, but I've worked out they not that useful that way as they tend to anarchy as often as they loose their arrows. So it's best to use them as rough terrain troops or impact foot, either way they add another dimension to what is mainly a one-dimensional army



Well I lost the initiative and have to place last and move first, a somewhat crowded map, presumably to limit the ability of the Scots to swarm their enemy. I place the Highlanders on my left.



The mass of the English forces are in the centre. A collection of bows, mounted and dismounted men-at-arms and defensive spearmen.



And a wing is stationed on some steep terrain. I'm guessing the couple of units I can't see are there as well.

My plan is to screen these with my fickle Highland clan warriors. If I'm fortunate they may not join the battle until late in the piece



Looks like the English plan is for me to funnel my Scots into the narrow part of the battlefield. I may oblige as I'm currently divided between either:
1. Attempting to trap the English archers in front of their other troops, hoping to rout them through the ranks behind
2. Using my skimishers to draw out the English through anarchy charges.

For the moment I move the bulk of my army forward and send my Islemen after them. Their heavy weapons will be useful against the English men-at-arms as they ignore superior armour.

I forgot to add, that this is a 500pt game with FOW & double moves on.



General advance by both sides - funny this is the reverse situation of my last AAR this time I'm using the horde army.

The main battle lines advance towards each other. I target his men-at arms with missiles so when they get into fighting at least they will be slightly weaker. My hope is his bowmen will still get stuck in front of the English defensive spearmen, and my offensive spearmen will do enough cohesion damage on impact, so that they can then win the combat melees, forcing the archers to rout through their supports.



English mounted move to the centre and the English left flank descend from the hill. I have to keep my Highland ally general in the middle of the map so he can double move the Isle men towards the big fight in the centre.

Seeing the threat to archers the English advance through the gaps (I’ve seen this before in other games, and it has ended in disaster for me) – I have to be careful now as my spearmen will likely anarchy, as they are undrilled – if I charge, I won’t get a bonus for troops behind for cohesion tests


Couldn't turn command radius off as that was the last unit I moved!

Combat results are okay, I receive three disruptions but inflict a disruption and a fragment, next turn I will be down a POA but they will lose dice due to the Scots having more support troops

English troops perform better than mine in their turn, half of my front line looks very flaky, but maybe able to make progress with my troops that aren’t disrupted (right hand side of picture)



In my turn my centre folds and I can’t get his fragmented units on the flanks to rout despite good odds. One single bright light – do get good results against his mounted who had anarchy charged

I know what happened next!

stockwellpete wrote:I know what happened next!

Hey that's a bit rude, I hadn't finished the AAR yet

Scots are now a disorganised rabble after teh English turn as routs trigger more routs



My spearmen continue to implode, I realise now that my strategy was clearly foolish, a narrow front is not how to fight with the Scots – I’ll now have to withdraw what I can and find somewhere to make my last stand, which is hopeful since you can’t disengage gracefully with a HF army.



My highlanders actually make some progress on my right flank.

The train wreck continues, there is no way back.

Despite some success on my right flank, it all ends pretty quickly.

Upon reflection I would have been better placed to concentrate on my right flank, rather than the full frontal assault down a narrow channel where I needed the dice rolls to go my way early. Relying on the dice rolls is not a good strategy

Hopefully Deeter will accept my challenge for his Later Carthaginian army. I think it may make a good AAR as deeter is quite effusive in the in-game chat So may be able to relay plenty of tips and tricks

I warn you that Deeter has played a lot with the Carthaginian army (we have played lots of Rome v Carthage battles) so he will give you a good challenge! Good luck.

Nice AAR. It's quite refreshing to see one that goes wrong once in a while along with all the great successes!

Morbio wrote:I warn you that Deeter has played a lot with the Carthaginian army (we have played lots of Rome v Carthage battles) so he will give you a good challenge! Good luck.

Nice AAR. It's quite refreshing to see one that goes wrong once in a while along with all the great successes!

Whene-ever I accept a re-match I always get a drubbing. Which is what I expect from deeter. But hopefully others can learn from my own mistakes.