Later Hungarians v Venetians Test Game with new amendments

[dave_r]

We were using the new amendments for foot bowmen. In a change from the norm we decided to have a historical matchup.

I was using Later Hungarians configured as follows:
1 IC, 3 TC
2*6 Mob (Poor)
2*6 Light Archers (Light Foot, Average, Unprotected, Bow)
3*4 Horse Archers (Light Horse, Average, Unprotected, Bow)
2*4 Skekelers (Light Horse, Superior, Unprotected, Bow, Light Spear, Swordsmen)
1*4 Szekelers (Cavalry, Superior, Protected, Bow, Light Spear, Swordsmen)
1*4 Szekelers (Cavalry, Superior, Armoured, Bow*, Light Spear, Swordsmen)
1*4 Knights (Knights, Superior, Heavily Armoured, Lancers, Swordsmen)
1*4 Royal Banderium (Knights, Elite, Heavily Armoured, Lancers, Swordsmen)

I was facing a Venetian army whose main strike force was 3 sixes of knights (Average, Heavily Armoured, Lancers, Swordsmen), supported by lance armed light horse, some light foot and one BG of medium foot crossbowmen. The terrain mainly finished on the edge, with the Venetian choosing a large amount of open ground which finished in the middle of the table. This forced all of the difficult going picked by me to go on the outsides of the table.

The Venetians deployed their knights in the middle of the table in open ground, I deployed my knights opposite the left side knights, with both cavalry groups in single rank opposite the remaining knights. All of my Hungarian light horse were on the left and I put the Szekelers on the right. My psiloi occupied some difficult going on which I rested my right flank.

One BG of my Szekelers Light Horse (with the IC in tow) went haring of and chased some opposing Light Horse all the way over the table. A fine use for my IC...

Since one of the purposes of the game was to check the medium foot firing capabilities, my 3 battlegroups of Light Horse moved over to engage. Under the old rules I would have expected to do very well, with six dice against four, also crucially the bow would have been firing against two BG's. The Venetian Knights trundled forward in the middle and the light horse on my right advanced towards the light foot. After some fairly inconsequential shooting in the middle and various charges and evades by knights against cavalry and light horse I managed to wangle it so that one group of Knights had to charge my line of Knights and the other groups were out of range.

The shooting from the medium foot crossbowmen was much improved, they ended up with two dice against one group and four against another. Very quickly I had one BG Disordered and one BG Fragmented, with no meaningful shooting from the light horse in return they decided to have it away on their toes and abandoned the left flank.

In the middle the Elite Royal Banderium showed their worth and in one turn broke the unit of knights facing them. The general in combat which caused re-rolling 3's, really helped with them getting 7 hits on impact (which killed two bases) and then a further 6 hits in combat. This auto-broke the Venetian Knights and left the flank of the remaining Knights wide open.

It was at this point we called it a day. The Venetian knights in the middle were either dead or dying, the Szekelers had chased the opposing light horse over the table and were about to ride them down and then sack the baggage, this would have been enough to break the army.

Points to Note,

- Elite troops with a General are extremely powerful (but so they should be at 29 points each!)
- Medium Foot bow are much improved against Light Horse and out shot them (which to my mind is as it should be)
- Large Groups of knights (i.e. sixes as opposed to 4's) did not seem to work well, they got pulled about by Light Horse and single ranked cavalry. Again I have no complaint about this.
- The best use of an IC is not to attach him to one group of light horse and then watch him go rampaging across the table leaving everybody behind standing around and watching...