Unfortunately for me, my first game was against Chris Tofalos with one of the 3 Later Low Countries armies – massed pikes – and I had 5.5 hours to keep out of trouble. The LLC army had an IC, 2 x TC, 11 x 8 Pike, 1 x 6 LF HG, 1 x 6 LF Bow, 1 x 8 MF XB, 1 x 6 MF LB and 1 x 6 HF HW. 16 BGs – break point of 15 and entirely average like my own. I won initiative and chose Agricultural. I expected my opponent to go for the open spaces but he didn’t and we ended up with a massive amount of terrain on the table. The centre had 2 vineyards and a steep hill in it which made it difficult for both armies to attack.
Billmen struggle vs pikemen being down at impact so I had to be very circumspect in how I attacked. Given the massed pikes I dismounted my Knights.
LLC Deployment
English Deployment
Chris moved first and advanced across the line. As both armies got closer the LLC about faced and retreated. It was like a wave that had reached the high water mark and then receded. I don’t think any LLC BG made it over the halfway line all game.
I aimed 3 LB BGs at the left hand vineyard to drive out the LF HG and establish a firebase to support my Billmen.
The LF despite being in cover were soon disrupted and on their way.
On the other flank I hoped to do something similar by anchoring on the steep hill but my HF pushed on a bit too far which would cause me problems later.
The LLC pike were still manoeuvring like mad and it was a bit like the Grand Old Duke of York song. Given the time available I felt I had to push the game a little and dropped a HF BG into column to tempt some pikes to charge it. The column was supported by another BG of HF so the maths were relatively straightforward. At impact he would have 3 dice needing 4s to my 3 dice needing 5s. I had to survive the impact and then I would have 6 dice with my overlap to his 4 – all on evens from where we should be able to grind the pike down. The first bit went well and we drew impact but then I failed to stick to the plan and lost the melee, disrupting and losing a base!
I still had more dice – 5 to 4 but my disrupted BG was under pressure so I pulled a BG of LB back to provide rear support. This would become a protracted melee with both sides reinforcing as they could. The turning point was the loss of a LLC general. The remaining pike BGs would not / could not assault the LB in the vineyard so this became a one-sided war of attrition as the English shooting eventually started to inflict losses.
On the other flank we weren’t getting it all our own way. As already mentioned I’d gone a bit too far forwards and was trying to press the LF Bow with my LF and LB shooting.
The LLC pike eventually turned back though. I tried to tempt a single pike BG to charge and repeat the effect of the other flank but with the IC nearby it resisted. This meant the initial combat saw 3 of his BGs charge 2 of mine. I broke his centre BG but unfortunately he broke one of mine. This allowed his pursuers to get into my LB in the open – not good.
Amazingly the LB held and at one stage had fragmented the pikes. Chris shored this unit up with his IC and rear support and it would eventually recover. This was my best to chance to win the game. Had the fragged unit broke I would have gone into the flank of the supporting pikes but sadly it was not to be.
My surviving HF on the right flank were now overwhelmed and charged in flank as well. My general died in the pursuit which would restrict my options.
After 5.5 hours of play the LLC had lost 12 of their 15 AP whilst I had lost 8 of 12. So a hard fought winning draw which saw us both garner a reasonable number of points. On balance this was a good result against a very tough opponent who would finish 8th overall.