This was a "test" of Irr Bw(I) v Kn(S). As previously discussed on
this forum.
Previous comments of "Kn(S) are for girls", "Real men use Bw(I)" and
"Kn(S) are rubbish against Bw(I)" had not been forgotten and now was
the time to deliver on the promises.
Since I was meant to be using Kn(S) I went for Medieval French with
the Inert General. This allowed me to take all 25 elements of Kn(S)
possible in the list - it looked like this:
CinC, 8 Irr Kn(S), 5 Irr Bw(O), 4 Ps(O), 10 Hd(O), 2 Bg(I). 36 ME
Sub, 7 Irr Kn(S), 4 Irr Bw(O), 6 Reg Bw(O), 11 Hd(O), 2 Bg(I). 37.5 ME
Sub, 7 Irr Kn(S), 4 Irr Ps(O), 12 Irr Pk(F), 2 Bg(I). 36 ME
Dave was using Western Sudanese. I think it was:
CinC, 36 Irr Bw(I), 1 Ps(I), 1 Ax(O), 1 Bg(I), 1 Exp. 25 ME
Sub, 20 Bw(I), 3 Cv(O), 4 Ps(I), 1 Ax(O), 1 Exp. 19.5 ME
Sub, 20 Bw(I), 1 Ax(O), 1 Exp. 15.5 ME
Ally, 5 Cm(S). 14 ME
Strategems: Exaggerated Army Size.
We threw the dice and the Sudanese decided to invade France. DT
whinged incessantly about this throughout the game, but with the
Sudanese being aggression zero and the French being aggression one I
didn't think it was that unlikely. Anyway it was him that through the
six...
I chose a Wood (Compulsory) and three Gentle Hills, Dave chose a
massive 2 FE Wood. Both woods ended up on my left flank - which
effectly denied the end 24" for both armies. The rest of the gentle
hills were inconsequential and played no part in the game - either
being on the table edge or amongst the woods.
We threw the deployment dice and it turned out that we were fighting
at night - 3 am to be precise. However, since DT had chosen to attack
in Winter he was unable to enforce a night time attack and the game
started at sunrise. This did however mean that the Sudanese would be
fighting the first three rounds with the sun in their eyes (or
dazzle). I had to deploy first (and being inert) would also hand the
initative to the Sudanese, which wasn't ideal.
I deployed my sub with the pikemen on the left (the actual pikemen
were behind the woods as far as they could get from anybody with a
bow) with my four psiloi in the woods screening the knights left
flank. The CinC was in the middle and the other sub on the right. My
knights were 18 elements wide with some knights in the second rank
along with the generals. My bowmen and remaining psiloi were deployed
slightly behind, ready to deal with the expected explodables. The
horde and baggage were as far away from any potential enemy as was
possible.
The Sudanese deployed the CinC's command, with their flank resting on
the wood and the larger bow command to the right - 76 elements of
Bw(I) deployed fairly well back (the subby had the exaggerated army
size so the back 20 elements, unknown to me, were just a figment of my
imagination). The Cavalry were deployed to the flank ready to protect
it or to carryout a grand sweeping manoever. To my surprise there
were only 2 explodables initially deployed - both as far forward as
they could go, there was also a lone Ax(O) deployed as far forward as
possible and an Ax and a Ps in the wood on the left flank - both
clearly being used as blockers. The ally command was deployed behind
both commands, practically on the base edge.
I reckoned that there was about 80 points missing, so was expecting a
flank march. Clearly my maths was faulty as with the exaggerated army
size then there was only about 20 points missing... Dave's plan was
clearly to use the explodables to buy time until the dazzle was gone
and then hit my army from the flank and the front, picking on the
juicy Horde and Bg(I) at the back. I was planning to simply blast
through the peasants, who in reality are unfit to stand in the open,
on the far side of the table once the explodables had been dealt with.
The Sudanese went first and the explodables ran forward as fast as
they could, ending within charge distance of my knights. The ally was
reliable. The Cavalry began their movement forward, with the Ps(I)
embedded within the column. I responded by moving a Psiloi to be in
front of one explodable and a Bw in front of the other - one Knight
had to dismount so that I could do the interpenetration. Much jeering
ensued from the spectators (Dave Mather) and the other side of the table.
There followed a couple of turns of jiggery pokery with the
explodables and counter jiggery pokery from the French. This resulted
in one dead Psiloi and one Knight dragged of his horse for the loss of
both explodables. The Cavalry carried on their flanking manoever
which lead to two elements of Knights being detached from the main
line to deal with them. Because of the "cunning" way that Dave had
lead the column with the general this resulted in a lot of pips to get
the cavalry sorted out with the Ps(I) in the second rank, the lone
"blocking" Ax was swiftly dispatched, which did disrupt the knights as
they were forced to follow up. The Cavalry then charged when they had
the advantage, both combats were draws.
Having dealt with the explodables my Knights reformed the line (which
included remounting the chap who had dismounted) and began the steady
advance towards the bow. The pesky Psiloi and Ax were dealt with on
the left flank by my Psiloi and the flower of the French nobility were
confidently headed towards the cowering masses of peasants in front of
us. My Knights on the right charged the Cavalry. DT seemed fairly
confident that Ps(I) provided support for cavalry against Kn(S), but
was dissapointed to discover this was only Kn(X). Two Cavalry and the
two Ps(I) behind were destroyed and the rest (including the general)
scattered, 2 further Ps(I) were destroyed before they could retreat.
Importantly this put the commands lossed at 4.5 ME at this point. One
of the knights was now heading towards the general on the flank and
the other towards the flank of the Bow line.
Obviously being scared that my Kn(S) were heading towards the Bw(I)
line DT completely lost his bottle and moved the Cm(S) through to
engage the Knights first. One of the camels was sent of to deal with
the lone knight now threatening the flank of the bow. Since I had
gotten fairly close it was now revealed that the third and fourth rank
were actually non-existent. This co-incided with the arrival of the
flank march!
My Knights advanced some more on the left and prepared to deal with
the Camels on the right. The Sudanese initial volley nicely
checkerboarded my knights into lots and lots of single elements,
fortunately my pips were good and I managed to maintain the general
advance. Being Kn(S) it is not possible to die from shooting and
being Inert I wasn't spontaneous, so I wasn't bothered if it took a
few turns to get a good solid hit on the line. On the right, my
Knight charged some bowmen who had been detached to deal with them and
rode them down. This disheartened the initally deployed sub general's
command.
The Flank March arrived and plodded forward for a couple of bounds,
nearly getting within bowshot of my Horde!
The Camels charged, with their general in the front rank. They were
generally repulsed, apart from the end element who had been flanked
and was destroyed. In my turn I flanked both the general on one side
and another on the other side. Winning both combats would break the
command and with the additional 2 ME would also break the sub
general's command just behind.
My Knights on the left charged into the bow line of the undamaged
(apart from one Psiloi) Bow command. The Camels were duly slaughtered
breaking both of these commands and the knights butchered 8 elements
of Bw(I) on the CinC's command which broke the Sudanese army. The
Cm(S) general had the last laugh by 6-2'ing a Kn(S) when 3-1 down and
unable to recoil...
25-0 to the boys from France. I had lost two Knights - one to an
explodable and one to a Cm general, some peasants were also trampled
by an explodable. There were no losses to Bw.
Even if the Sudanese had another turn they could not hope to harm the
knights - because I chose to only follow up 30mm and not maintain
contact then the bowmen are unable to make contact with mounted they
can shoot at, so can't do anything really nasty. Since it also costs
two pips to do anything then they would probably only have been able
to possibly kill one knight. Of the six combats I won four destroying
8 Bw, drew one and lost one - which fled the Knight. Even if that
knight had died (on a 4-4 combat, but unable to recoil, so not certain
by any means) then the command was dead - a further four elements (or
two combat wins) would have disheartened the command and then it would
have been absolutely torn apart.
There was a certain amount of whinging coming from the other side of
the table, mainly regarding being forced to fight in France. I was to
busy gloating at this point to take any notice :) "You have been
measured, you have been weighed, you have been found wanting".