IC – Alp Arslan himself
3 x TC
Foot Archers, 8 LF, Poor, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow
Foot Javelinmen, 6 LF, Poor, Undrilled, Unprotected, Javelins, Light Spear
Foot Javelinmen, 6 LF, Poor, Undrilled, Unprotected, Javelins, Light Spear
Turcomans, 4 LH, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, Swordsmen
Turcomans, 4 LH, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, Swordsmen
Turcomans, 4 LH, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, Swordsmen
Turcomans, 4 LH, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, Swordsmen
Turcomans, 4 LH, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow, Swordsmen
Bedouin Cavalry, 6 LH, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Lancers, Swordsmen
Turcomans, 4 Cv, Average, Undrilled, Protected, Bow, Swordsmen
Turcomans, 4 Cv, Average, Undrilled, Protected, Bow, Swordsmen
Ghilman, 4 Cv, Superior, Drilled, Armoured, Bow, Swordsmen
Ghilman, 4 Cv, Superior, Drilled, Armoured, Bow, Swordsmen
Ghilman, 4 Cv, Superior, Drilled, Armoured, Bow, Swordsmen
Ray was using the much fancied Santa Hermanded Nueva Castilian, however, I’m not keen on it at 800 points and think for a Spanish list the Crown of Aragon is a better bet. That said it was the SHNC I was facing and Ray had chosen, in march order:
4 x TC
Arquebusiers, 4 LF, Average, Drilled, Unprotected, Firearm
Hermanded Crossbowmen, 4 MF, Average, Drilled, Protected, Crossbow
Arquebusiers, 4 LF, Average, Drilled, Unprotected, Firearm
Bowmen, 6 LF, Average, Undrilled, Unprotected, Bow
Jinetes, 4 LH, Average, Undrilled, Protected, Javelins, Light Spear
Jinetes, 4 LH, Average, Undrilled, Protected, Javelins, Light Spear
Jinetes, 4 LH, Average, Undrilled, Protected, Javelins, Light Spear
Almughavars, 8 MF, Average, Undrilled, Protected, Impact Foot, Swordsmen
Other Hermanded Spearmen, 8 HF, Average, Drilled, Armoured, Defensive Spearmen
Hermanded Spearmen, 8 HF, Average, Drilled, Armoured, Offensive Spearmen
Hermanded Pikemen, 8 HF, Average, Drilled, Protected, Pikemen
Men-at-Arms, 4 Kn, Superior, Undrilled, Heavily Armoured, Lancers, Swordsmen
Swiss, 8 HF, Superior, Drilled, Protected, Pikemen
Men-at-Arms, 4 Kn, Superior, Undrilled, Heavily Armoured, Lancers, Swordsmen
Initiative went as expected and Ray was pleased to hear the usual refrain of “Welcome to the steppe”
Actually, as it was expected he’d had all night to come up with a cunning plan of how to deal with the Turks on the steppe so it remained to see if he could implement it.Terrain was, of course, minimal and the pieces that impacted on the game were 2 small pieces of Brush (rough) that ended up in Rays centre 8 MU from his base edge. I thought this looked useful for him as it gave him something to pivot on and try and turn the game though 90 degrees, what I would consider a standard tactic to use against a steppe horse archer army – OK maybe predictable, but solid and effective if you use the right troops.
Expecting this sort of deployment I put just a single Turcoman LH BG on the left and then the 2 Turcoman Cv BGs deployed in a single rank as usual. The rest of the LH was deployed on the right to skirmish with the expected heavy troops, probably Knights and the Ghilman deployed roughly central to my deployment. Ray did indeed put his Knights and LH on his left as the speediest troops to swing round, with the pikemen to their left. The lighter infantry including the Almughavars deployed on the brush with both BGs of Spearmen on the right to stop me running around that side. I believe that this last was a mistake and only 1 BG of Spearmen was needed there and that the second lot of Armoured troops would be much more effective alongside the pikemen – FWIW afterwards Ray agreed. Additionally Ray did not support the Almughavars with the Crossbowmen to help deter my shooing cavalry which I also thought was a mistake. Interestingly Ray afterwards admitted that having the pieces of terrain had thrown him a bit as he had planned on a billiard table – perhaps a lesson that one needs to have a plan but have flexibility in that plan to accommodate terrain, etc.
The game began as expected with the Santa’s pushing the knights and Jinetes forward to force that wing and the pikemen inside them started to wheel round to aim diagonally across the field pivoting on the rough ground. I, of course, met this with an advance of my own LH to start shooting at Ray’s troops fully expecting to have to do this rather a lot, especially on the Heavily Armoured knights. However, we started well and through 2 dire CT tests one of Ray’s Knight BGs was Fragmented, despite the general in attendance – fortunately for him this happened in my bound and so he was (just) able to bolster them up to Disrupted before I had the chance to charge them to force a test for being Fragmented when charged. I think it is fair to say that this early set back affected Ray’s own morale if not that of his army.
On the other wing I saw that getting through the Armoured Spearmen was going to be tough, even though they were within 6 MU of the table edge, and so thought my best bet was to have a go at the Almughavars with all 8 of my Cv Turcomans as these appeared to be the weak spot in Ray’s right wing. Although they were ensconced in terrain and my Cv would have to risk entering it (just) to shoot them I though it well worth the risk as it would effectively mean that the Almughavars would either have to stand and be shot at or charge the Cv to chase them off temporarily which would then draw the MF out of the rough going. This part of the plan worked rather well with both Turcoman BGs successfully evading the Almughavar charge and the Almughavars rolling up enough on the VMD to bring their front edge out of the terrain. Thus I was able to charge the Turcomans into the Almughavars in the open and with one of my BGs led by a general I had a good chance of winning here – did I mention I had Disrupted the enemy with shooting first
In reality the Almughavars proved resilient and hung on for a long time but in the end they succumbed and broke.Meanwhile on the right we had a bit of LH drama. With my Turcoman LH falling back and shooting the oncoming Knights I found my Bedouin LH faced by 2 BGs of 4 Jinetes who had come up close to throw their javelins but who had failed to cause any cohesion loss. So I decided to be bold and charge the Jinetes with the hope that if they stood my Lancer PoA would be enough to cause problems or that if they evaded I might get lucky and catch one – the down side was that Ray had another Jinete BG coming this way and I may just end up in trouble. Rays first reaction was to stand, which I though brave and said so upon which he decided to evade instead – which I confess is what I would have done given the support arriving in a couple of moves, i.e. try and draw me on to my doom. At this point Ray’s legendry bad luck kicked in and both BGs rolled a 1 on the VMD and I rolled enough to catch one and, thanks to stepping forward, catch the second as well! (I needed the step forward due to the second BG being at an angle) There followed a short and bloody massacre of the Jinetes who both broke in the melee phase only out running my Bedouin in the JAP meaning I had gotten a long way to Rays base edge and within a couple of moves of his camp which had nothing to defend it.
As all this was going on the central pike BGs had come under the attention of my Ghilman with the Hermanded BG having 2 BGs shooting at them. With 7 superior shooting dice each bound it was inevitable that the pikemen would suffer and the dropped to Disrupted in short order. In an attempt to alleviate the pain Ray charged the Ghilman BG to the immediate front and these, despite being in 1 rank, I decide to fight with. The decision was partly because in order to maximise frontage and to some extend resistance to shooting, Ray had deployed the pike BGs 3 bases wide which mean that his PoAs were reduced – and the Hermanded BG had lost a base to boot. Generals were committed by both sides but this was of little help to the pikemen who were chewed up and spat out by the rampant Ghilman falling to Fragmented at Impact and breaking in the Melee phase. To add insult Rays general was killed.
The Ghilman now turned onto the Swiss who were next in line for their attention. History pretty much repeated itself here with the pikemen going disrupted and then collapsing in melee, breaking in short order; although they lasted a little longer than the Hermanded ones did. With the 2 routing units running for the table edge a LF BG got caught up in the mess and also decided that it was time to go home.
So I now had 12 attrition points of the 14 I needed and the Bedouin LH 1 move from the baggage so Ray called the game to a close as there was nothing he had any chance of even Fragmenting and so could not cause me any attrition point loss. This gave me my second “perfect score” of 25-0 for the competition and left me well in the lead going into the final round
Part 6, a short account, tomorrow …
