Authors Game: WOR vs Medieval German

[shall]

The Germans having reorganise slightly on Hannibals recommendations - now with a 6 og Knights and only 1 BG of mounted crossbows - henry Tudor dn his Lancastrians stand in their way.



Thsi shows the battle in its early stages. The centre of the table is fairly clear. On my left is a piece of unpassable terrain - with the cliff edges. Over on my far right a plantation blocking the flank a little.

The Germans deployed with a very stgrong centre will 4 Pk BGs racing forward to crush the English. Ray had 2 BGs of skirmishing opposite my left who could work with rough terrain and on my right a BG of Knights and Mounted Crossbowmen to work the flanks. Rays big BG of 6 Knights was deployed centre 2 wide and 3 deep to allow them to manouvre.

Opposite this I had my Welsh and Irish on the left - 2 BGs of Longbowmen and 1 of offesnive spearmen and a BG of LF javelinmen. Oppposite the centre a solid BL of 8 English Longbowmen and a small 4 base BG of Drilled Sup Arm HW billmen on each side. My centre facing the mass of pikes comprised an 8 base BG of billmen, 8 longbowmen, 4 billmen and 8 longbowmen on the far right anchored onto the plantation. All longbowmen were carrying stakes (just in case any transylvanians appeared).

ray proceeded to race forward with his pikes aiming to crush the English. I raced forward with the Welsh and Irish pressuring his skirmishers and held back on the centre right. In the centre I advanced rapidly with the BL to try to pressure the big BG of knights.



A few bounds in adn the BG of average knights has tried to redeploy to assist the pikes, but is finding it hard to get past those enlgish dogs with their bows. On my left it is looking like a bit of a non event as Ray runs away and my welsh pursue. I am likely to bust a BG or two given lots fo time but this battle is looking like a quick one one way or another.....

[shall]

A few bounds in and the tussle on my left is looking slow and long. Eventually my MF and skirmisher should overwhelm 2 BGs but only given time. Looking across the rest of the battlefield I can’t really see the game going on long enough!!

On my right Henry Tudor has needed to take command personally. They gt a good long range shot off at the knights and managed to DISR them causing them to withdraw and bolster while the mounted crossbowmen gamely try to run around the flanks.



Meanwhile some chaos is beginning in the centre. The German knight – keen to help their pikeman ride down the English – try to squeeze through to help. But a large mass of Longbowmen press them close getting 6 dice at evens at them……but completely fail to do any damage. Nevertheless the Knights are in a tricky spot. The only way out is forward.

[shall]

The knights charge and it all depends on whether the longbowmen have the courage to intercept them in the flank. As missile troops they would need a CMT to charge frontally but are OK as its into the flank. Happy them. So the Kn are stopped by the intercept charge and are DISRed but even then they are not easy to beat. The English general goes in making sure of a win on the dice but led from the front straight into a German lance – dead on the spot. I tae tests for this and it DISRs a billmen BG, but we also FRG the knights so not too bad. Chaos.



Meanwhile Henry Tudor is doing a fine job marshalling his drilled bowmen getting a shot at the mounted crossbowmen and DISRing them. But he is starting to look outnumbered and unsupported so time is not on his side.



Meanwhile back where the chaos is the knights have broken and hell has broken loose. Excuse the hand shaking camera – it was that exciting!! The knights rout down the rear of the massive German pike block about to smash into the Englsih lines.

[shall]

The crunch. The pikes go in and DISR the billmen. The bowmen lost a base. But to the rear the longbowmen pursue into the flank of a MF spear BG causing it trouble as they have Sw capability. The bowmen with extra dice manage to DISR one Pk block but that is unlikely to save them its still +/- in the melee.



Now things get bad as the Offensive spearmen break causing tests along the line and the chaos is getting unstoppable. The Bw are DISRed and on their way in the face of such a pike block but the spread of tests for the break is taking its toll and the pike attack is grinding to a halt.



And the finally. The Longbows fancy a bit of another Off Spear block that is being held up by billmen. Two BGs of pikes have broken and the longbows have gone. The Germans stomach for the fight is gone and the army routs with 1 BG of losses on the English side.



Ray got his 6 Knights into a bad spot and really wasted their frontal power but to be fair he was frightened by the stakes and wanted to try to dodge them. Unfortunately for him the flank contact and directions conspired to create a mess and chaos behind his pike lines. Without that the Bw and billmen battlegroup facing the pikes would probably have gone down and a much longer game would have ensued. My guess is the WOR army would have won but lost 4 BGs in the process.

[shall]

Slideshpw annotated at http://s253.photobucket.com/albums/hh53 ... =slideshow

Coming soon on shallweFOG...

Charge of the humpties ... classical Indians with maximum Ellies.

Si