| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Anglo-Irish civil war

Page history last edited by Rob Brennan 13 years, 7 months ago

"In the year 1205, John de Courcy, recovering his strength, collected a large force, and was accompanied by Reginald, King of the Isles, with nearly one hundred ships, to Ulster . Putting into the port called Strangford, they laid siege, but carelessly, to the fort of Rath. Walter de Lacy came upon them with a large army, and totally routed them; and after that time John de Courcy never recovered his possessions."  Chronicle of Man and the Sudreys



Mike Whelan has a very well-painted Anglo-Irish army from the period and I've just painted up some Anglo-Normans I bought recently so we decided to play a 400AP game around this scenario using the Anglo-Irish list for 1205. I was De Lacy and Mike was De Courcy.



As befits a Justiciar's army of this period, my force consisted mostly of knights and colonist foot:



C-in-C's command of 9 Kn(O) and 8 mounted Bw(O)

Sub-general's command of 8 Ostmen Bd(I), 8 colonist Bw(O) and Irish – 9 Ax(O) and 6 Ps(S) plus 1 Bge(I) with the general as Bd(S)

2 allied commands, each of 3 Kn(O), 6 Sp(I), 4 Bw(O) and 2 Ax(O)



Appropriately for a rebel force, Mike's army didn't use colonists but relied on Norse and mercenaries:



C-in-C's command of 11 Kn(O) and 2 Irish Ax(O)

Sub-general's command of a Bd(S) general, 6 Bd(O) sersenaigh, 2 Irish Ax(O) and Ostmen: 4 Bw(O) and 7 Bd(I)

Allied command of 3 Kn(O) and a few Irish Ax and Ps

Manx allied command of Bd(O) and Bd(I) with a few Ax(O), all mounted

Baggage command of 6 Bge(F)



All elements were irregular. From a list point of view we had a bit of debate on whether Manx and Ostmen should be usable together. Although De Courcy historically didn't have access to Ostmen Anglo-Irish relations with the Manx were generally friendly at this period (they were granted anchorages at Carlingford Lough by King John) so on the whole I'm relaxed about allowing the combination.



I invaded (riding into De Courcy's earldom, I suppose). Terrain was a huge marsh on my left, a smaller one on my right, a small wood in my centre and a gentle hill in my right centre. Mike put down most of the DGo which in retrospect suited my list better than his. The two allied commands were on my left between the wood and the big marsh; my C-in-C was to the right of the wood, with the Kn behind the Bw and my sub-general was on the right: Irish in the marsh, Ostmen and archers on the hill ready to deploy out into line.



Mike deployed with the Manx on his left, sub-general on his right opposite my allies and his C-in-C opposite mine. His ally was off-table and turned out to be unreliable (Mike's reaction told me he was a delayed command rather than a flank march: he needs to work on his poker face!). Both of my allies were reliable but my PIPs were unimpressive so I concentrated on shaking my sub-general's Ostmen and archers into line and pushing his Irish forward into the marsh, which threat forced the Manx to hold their left back while the rest of Mike's army rushed forward rapidly.



The battle proper opened with a charge by Mike's Kn against my C-in-C's Bw, whose shooting in the approach had little effect. This charge failed quite badly, 2 Kn dying in combat while the rest were forced to flee. In subsequent moves Mike spent his C-in-C's PIPs unsuccessfully trying to make his ally reliable while the Kn made repeated impetuous charges against my Bw, neither side suffering any losses until De Courcy himself cut his way through the archers opposing him.



Meanwhile the Manxmen stormed the hill but although their general drove his Bw opponents back up to the crest line his companions were less successful and were cut down by the Ostmen – matters here were a frontal slog as each side's general was engaged. Things went better for the rebels on my left where the innermost of my allies was badly cut up by the enemy Bd, though these suffered losses too. My casualties here were so bad in one bound that Mike's ally (still off-table) would have been made reliable had my sub-general on the other flank not killed his Manx opponent. My other allied command was reduced to a spectator role through lack of PIPs.



My 6th move was the decisive one: my sub-general got decent PIPs and as he'd finally cut down his frontal opponents he was able to use them to swamp the isolated Manxmen on the hill from front, flank and rear, killing their general and breaking the command. De Courcy's pursuit had left him isolated and he was killed by my Kn. His loss plus the 2ME penalty for the rout of the Manx was enough to break his command and with it the rebel army. By way of consolation, Mike broke my ally in the same bound to make the result a 20-5 to me. Great fun, and all done in 2 hours.



Given that I'd a strong position Mike was probably ill-advised to attack. However, my army emphasised Bw whilst his emphasised Bd so I guess he felt it better to get stuck in.

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.