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Tudors in Paris

Page history last edited by Rob Brennan 13 years, 4 months ago

I had great fun, though little success, at Paris last weekend. I was the sole Irish representative as Tony Bergin had mislaid his passport and couldn't travel.  It turned out all the English-speaking players had chosen the same hotel so we all went out to dinner together at a nearby brasserie on the Friday night. Dave Mather and I chose the same starter: crčme brulee au foie gras on the basis that it couldn't possibly be what the name implied. Unfortunately it was: liver in sweet custard. Apart from that the meal was fine: we even found something on the menu that Dave Thompson would eat. Later, an Englishman, an Irishman and two Scotsmen went in search of a bar, but as we were ignorant of local geography we couldn't find one so it was no joke.

Carl Pincemin of the host club kindly transported those of us that were carless to the venue, which was a fine airy and well-lit room. Due to strikes the expected Italian contingent couldn't make it so round 1 was set up to match German players against Anglophones whilst Gael Richard played a tutorial game with the French players who were new to DBMM. As it happened, all four of my opponents were German.

I used Tudor English from the draft book 4. My list was
Earl of Oxford: C-in-C, Reg Kn(O), 5xReg Bd(S), 6xReg mtd Bw(S), 6xIrr LH(O)
Earl of Shrewsbury: S-Gen, Reg Kn(O), 5 x Reg Bd(S), 8xReg Bw(S)
Viscount Lisle: S-Gen, Reg Kn(O), 5xReg Bd(S), 6xReg Bw(S), 2xReg Art(I)
Army Baggage: 6xIrr Bge(I)              Stratagems: Scouting

It's an army an Irishman can use with equanimity as when you're winning you're winning, and when you're losing the casualty pile is filling up with Englishmen :) As the army is short of light troops the mounted archers are useful as they can deploy in the flank zone. In practice games I had found the (S) foot individually strong but the army as a whole is vulnerable to being swamped. As it's a small army, it's very air-portable but 2 ME Bd(S) losses do hurt. I've just looked at Lorenzo's list on www.tagmata.it and it's a better one.

Game 1 V Tilman Walk (Medieval German)

I invaded and deployed second. There was no weather. The left of the tablefrom my POV  was cluttered up with lots of DGo and there was a large gentle hill in Tilman's centre. Tilman put a command of 2 Kn(S)  DBEs and 2 Kn(I) DBEs backed by Cv(S) Petronels on the hill. To their right was a command of 16 Pk(O) and 8 Pk(S) with a couple of Shot and some Ps(S) covering the DGo. At this point I realised I should have employed my scouting stratagem but it was too late in the sequence. Doh! I put Oxford on theright, where the LH had terrain and space to operate, Lisle in the centre and Shrewsbury on the left. My plan was to fight the pikes with Shrewsbury, assisted by Lisle's Bd whilst the artillery and remaining archers dealt with the mounted.
Tilman advanced rapidly with his pikes and more slowly with his mounted command. He then revealed a concealed command of a couple of WWg, 1 Art(I) and some Shot and Ps. The WWg were a nasty surprise to Oxford's  Bw and forced me to send the LH on a wide circuit around Tilman's rear where they never developed a real threat.

In the centre, the artillery did great execution, killing both Kn(I) DBEs  and one of the (S) DBEs died in close combat to dishearten the command, but as it consisted entirely of 2ME troops that had no practical effect. Tilman's train proved just as effective at killing archers though I managed to shoot a WWg.

The decisive fight was on my left. In a practice game against Seleucids the Pk(O) had died like dogs to shooting whilst the Bd(S) had ripped Pk(S) apart: as I had a longer line and got to charge in first I was happy enough with the matchups, but unfortunately in this game my shooting was entirely ineffective and the Pk ripped through Shrewsbury's command which was rapidly disheartened, then broken. A flank attack by Lisle's Bd against Pk(O) failed and lost a Bd(S) which when added to archer losses and the 2 ME penalty for Shrewsbury's rout was enough to break Lisle and thus the  army. 3-22.

Lunch was supplied by the organisers: a table laden with charcuterie, bread, cheese, wine, beer and soft drinks. I even got to shuck my first ever oysters! You don't get that at most wargames competitions!

Game 2 V Thomas Kimmerle (Late Imperial Roman)

I defended and got a string of rough terrain across my front: hills in the centre flanked by bogs. I had Oxford on the left, Shrewsbury in the centre and Lisle on the right. Thomas deployed opposite my left: a command of LH(O) and Kn(F) with some Bd(X) in reserve, a right wing of Ax(S), Ps and Art(F) and a left wing of Bd(O), Kn(X) and Art(F) with a couple of Ax.

It was pretty clear that Thomas planned a heavy attack on my left wing and would avoid my right so I pulled Oxford back and transferred Lisle to my left centre. Thomas had a brilliant general and doubled PIPs to push his mounted troops around the bog on my left very aggressively, which stopped me getting the matchups I wanted and meant the fighting was too close to my baseline: although I clobbered his LH his Kn forced a lot of mine to flee off-table to eventually dishearten Oxford. Anyway, I broke his Ax command which disheartened his mounted command. Elsewhere the combined Bd of Shrewsbury and Lisle were causing steady losses on the remaining Romans, though Lisle had taken some losses, mostly archers shot by artillery though an insolent Roman legionary had killed a Bd(S) and stood double-overlapped in front of Lisle himself. Lisle charged in and killed the Roman. Being Kn he pursued into an overlap himself. And then I noticed a sole disheartened Bd(X) in reserve. As did Thomas. Naturally Lisle rolled a 1 to be quick-killed, which broke his command and tipped Oxford into rout as well. 7-18, and really a case of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

That night we went into central Paris for a cracker of a meal: first course was all the charcuterie you could eat, followed by barbecued meat, cheese and dessert, all washed down by all the (good) red wine you could drink. Which was possibly unwise as we had an 8am start the next day so people could make their flights/ferries

Game 3: V Axel Heinz (Patrician Roman)

I invaded. Axel put down DGo that all ended up in his deployment area, restricting his ability to move laterally. His first line was spread quite widely: some Ax(S) and Ps on a difficult hill on his right, Ps(S) in a wood in his centre and then Bd(O) with some Art(O) in the open between that wood and another on his left. He had a few Ax and Ps in reserve, but this command was really deployed in too many groups to be effective.  Behind this he had another command of Kn(F), LH(S) and (F) and an identical command was on his left behind the wood. I had Oxford on the right, Shrewsbury in the centre and 2nd Viscount Lisle on the left.

Axel brought his reserve mounted command out in column very aggressively to threaten Lisle, but as he'd given his infantry command lowest PIPs they were essentially unsupported so I attacked them with Lisle's and Shrewsbury's archers, being able to march to within 400p of the column's flank. This stopped him from marching away and eventually I started to shoot him up. He should really have written off the tail of the column at this point but instead turned to make a fight of it but lost every combat – his PIP dice were great throughout but they were really poor in combat.

Over on my right Oxford's archers and LH bottled up Axel's other mounted command between the wood and the table edge. He attempted to fight his way through with deep formations of LH(S) but although he killed enough  Bw to make my line dangerously thin he never got a real breakthrough.

Finally, Shrewsbury's and Oxford's Bd launched a combined attack on Axel's legionaries who were swiftly cut down. At this point Axel conceded to give me a 25-0 win.

Game 4 V Arnim Luck (Yuan Chinese)

I defended. The important terrain was a rough hill in my left centre and a bog on my left. I was hampered by dazzle for the first 3 pairs of bounds. I formed up on a narrow frontage: Oxford on the left, Lisle in the centre on the hill Shrewsbury on the right. Arnim had a right wing of about 7 LH(S), a centre of Cv(O), Bw(O) and Art(O)and a left wing of Bd(O) and (I), Ps(S) and (O) and a couple of infantry-supported Cv(S) under Kubilai on an elephant.

My plan was to delay fighting until the dazzle hindrance was gone, but then to fight Arnim's mounted with Bw while the Bd(S) would fight his foot. At first things went relatively well as my LH(O) fought his LH(S) as they struggled to get out of the bog. My Bw(S), even when dazzled, initially did well shooting against the Cv(O), but once Arnim made contact the losses were more even though eventually  Arnim's Cv command  became disheartened as the LH(S) finally fought their way clear of the bog.

Meanwhile Lisle's Bd, assisted by Oxford's had been doing ok against the opposing Bd(O) and (I) which forced Arnim to commit Kubilai (the artillery were covering my baggage: they would have been really useful at this point….). The Khan proved invincible and proceeded to stamp his way through three elements of Bd(S) despite being double-overlapped and Lisle broke, temporarily disheartening Oxford. At this point Arnim declared a feigned flight with his Cv that stopped me doing anything useful (I had a couple of rear attack opportunities but these would expend PIPs so unfortunately they went begging; had Oxford not been temporarily disheartened I could have hit the LH(S) general in rear with a border horse element). In my bound Oxford lost a Bd(S) to a Bd(I) to break him and lose me the game 3-22. A pity, as all of Arnim's remaining commands had taken damage.

I ended up well down the field: I should have done better but made elementary mistakes in all three of my losing games, and the army is too small to forgiving of those kinds of blunder. Still, it was a great weekend and the French were great hosts. Thanks to Carl for driving us around Vitry and to Sebastien for getting me to Gare Du Nord in plenty of time to make my flight. Especial thanks to Gael for organising it: it's a great competition and I'd love to see it become a regular fixture on the DBMM calendar.

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