A game fought the other night between myself (Lithuanians circa 1399
or around then) and David Turner (Early Russian). 400 or 410
points.
The Lithuanians defended in summer (but deployed second) across a
wide plain flanked by woods on the left flank, some scattered rough
and a gentle hill on the right. Terrain, in the end, played only a
minimal part in the battle. The main field was open in the centre.
The Russian Prince (Boris) deployed a centre of Russian foot (polk
and smerdy SpO and SpI supported by Ps, supported by some Russian
boyars (CvO), a left flank of boyars and light horse and a right
flank of boyars, some more light horse and some light foot (Ax and
Ps).
Facing the Russian princelings, Grand Duke Vitautas deployed
artillery (1 ArtS) in the centre protected by abatis, and supported
this with squadrons of Lithuanian horse (18 LhO). The Duke himself was
protected by Teutonic Knights in reserve behind the artillery. On the
left wing, he ordered his Lithuanian foot to deploy behind and next
to the woods (AxO, PsO) and supported these with Polish mercenaries
(2 KnO) and some more horse. On the right wing, Vitautas deployed
another horde of Lithuanian horse, with his Russian ally Vladimir to
deploy behind the lines (CvO) and wait.
The battle opened with the Russian princes pushing forward across the
table towards the Lithuanian lines. The Duke was brought rumours of a
large force of Cumans in the distance heading towards the Lithuanian
right wing. His advisors were concerned. Was Vladimir trustworthy in
the fight against his fellow country men? (1) The Duke ordered
Vladimir to swing right out of his reserve position and march to
engage the Cumans when they appeared. The rest of the Lithuanians
were ordered to wait. Wait they did. Except for the Polish
mercenaries in the left battle, who, ignoring the Duke's orders,
charged forward (2) through the cowardly (as they saw it) Lithuanian
horse in front of them. Four units of Lith horse fled the table,
yelling in fear that the Poles had betrayed them.
The Cumans (LhF) soon arrived on the flack of the Lithuanian right
wing, and marched and fell in on their flanks. There was some
limited fighting with the loss of some Lithuanian horse, before
Vladimir and his boyars fell onto the Cuman line. Although, the
Russian prince on that flank pushed forward with his own light horse
to engage the Lithuanian wing as it was being attacked in the flank,
the fight became a nightmare for the Cumans. (3)
In the middle of the field, the Lithuanian artillery was having
little success disrupting the Polk and Smerdy foot which steadily
advanced. On the left of the field, the Lith commander ordered his
foot forward to support the Polish knights which he had been able to
bring back under control, and together with some of Vitautus' light
horse, they thundered into the line of Russian boyars facing them.
Back on the right, Vladimir's boyars (CvO) and Lith light horse (LhO)
were cleaning out the flank marching Cumans at an alarming rate,
breaking the Cuman ally quickly. The Cumans, having broken, then hung
around getting in the way, as the Russian prince in front of the
Lithuanian command bore down and inflicted damage on the Lith light
horse to the front. Over the next few bounds, the Lithuanian light
horse was slowly ground down by CvO, then broke.
In the middle, the polk and smerdy foot reached the fortifications
and pushed through and passed them, though they couldnt take the
Lithuanian artillery. Protecting the polk flank was a line of boyars
which attacked Vitautus and his Teutonic knights. The knights broke
through the boyars but one was then surrounded and destroyed.
On the left, over a few bounds, the Polish knights broke through the
Russian boyars with the support of the Lithuanian foot, whilst
Russian boyars were riding down Lithuanian light horse (4) protecting
and extending the polish knights flank. Eventually, the Russian
general on that flank was forced to intervene to stop the Poles
running amok (5). He succeeded in forcing back a squadron of Poles
once, but died when they countercharged. His command broke. The whole
Russian army routed.
The Duke had lost his right wing (9 dead LH then the break)and was
pushing near demoralisation in the centre (with spent and lost LH and
the dead Teutonic knights). The left wing had only suffered the
cowardly exit of 4 LH when the poles charged through them, and
Vladimir had lost one unit of boyars.
Comments -
(1) The Russian ally for the Lithuanians was keener to fight than the
Liths. David's Cumans arrived immediately, a little earlier than he
wanted. I hadnt pushed forward at this stage so waited to see what
arrived. With low pips, I split up the lithuanian light horse lines
and accepted I'd probably lose the light horse on the end of each
line exposed to the Cumans. (which i did)
(2) I had 2 elements of Polish KnO behind 4 elements of Lith light
horse, rolled a one and decided to move my Lithuanian foot forward.
Doh! When i realised that i had forgotten the Knights, we did their
sponno move towards a line of Russian boyars, thus spending 4 LH in
front of them. I was lucky to get some good pips to bring the Poles
back into order, before charging the boyars.
(3)In all of our LhO v LhF battles, there was not one case where the
LhF had to flee due to being beaten. Why? Because they usually just
died. At low factors 2v2 (or 2v1 if there is an overlap) LhF are
cactus to LhO let alone CvO. Dave's Cumans charged onto the table,
then evaporated. And there was about 12 LhF plus baggage, plus the
Ally as CvO. The morale of Lh v LH is, dont roll low, especially if
you are LhF; and if you have to do it, make sure you have vastly
superior numbers.
(4) As LhF doesnt like LhO, LhO doesnt like CvO. David's Boyars
killed alot of LhO and it was lucky I ran my Light horse in 2 deep
blocks. He could have killed more but when I rolled low, so did he.
(5)The Poles managed to clean out a few CvO but were lucky to survive
the odd 1v3 combats when they were overlapped after a follow up. In
the end, David threw his subgeneral on an exposed Polish knight unit
with overlaps so it was 1(poles)v4(russians). The Poles didnt die and
charge back in next turn to exact revenge.
I tried to protect the Artillery with LH behind TF. It doesnt work.
Another enjoyable game. Enjoying the rules when we dont get too deep
into the technicality of some of the language.
Now to try LhF.
David Adds:
It was a good hard fought game and the result was close to the end.
The Cuman flank march arrived on turn 2 which was too soon, but with
nomads I guess better too soon than not at all. As Tim pointed out LH
(F) are very vulnerable in combat against other mounted. Cv(O) have a
hard time taking out Kn(O) or (S) and in a light weight mounted army
even a few Kn's are invaluable.
Yet another game when I took "Feigned Flight" as a stratgey but
failed to use it. I did consider using it to get the Cuman Ally out
of trouble but the CinC never had 3 spare PIPs to spend. This is on
the assumption that an ally can use the Feigned Flight strategy and
that the CinC provides the PIPs to do so. This seems odd given how
Allied Generals are normally treated but that seems to be what the
rules say.
The other thing I'd note is again how well DBMM works with
comtemporary and compatiable opponents on the table.
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