Thursday, January 19, 2017

Early Macedonian Successor versus Medieval French

In my penultimate league competition game for this season I was comprehensively outflanked.

I've never even read the flank march rules and must admit had not given any thought to the game.  I thought my opponent, Richard, had a Roman army.  Wrong!

The French genius commander arrives with half of his force almost on top of my camp which I had cleverly positioned on the flank so it wasn't in the way.  Wrong!

While my right flank hurriedly redeployed, my centre and left pushed on.

My elite heavy cavalry die valiantly buying time.

The right flank looking from my centre.
Turning and realigning is not going well and my troops will end up being engaged piecemeal.

The enemy centre rushes forward and gets disordered.
Hmmm, promising, but too far away for me to exploit.

While my right struggles to face the outflanking force, 
I start to head towards the field in the hope of threatening the enemy flank.

More good news, the enemy commander is not such a genius.  
Merely an expert.

My army seen from the enemy flanking force.
Those knights are VBU 8 and the pike are Discipline A with high factors.
Even if I could present a solid front I would still be in trouble.

The view of the centre, again from the enemy's point of view.

The battle for the field.
My first wave of peltasts get repulsed by the Arquebus A armed enemy.

More good news, my CinC is a genius.  
Who would have thought?

The battle for the field continues as I throw more peltasts and 
my Thessalian cavalry in to clearing out the enemy.

The enemy centre attempting to spread out to cover various potential threats 
(that never arose).

There is still a lot of distance between our main forces...

Except on my right which is getting badly chewed up.

The good luck never ends as my second in command becomes an expert.

The enemy elite knights attack my camp and are defeated.

The field has been taken, but at cost.

But my right flank has broken and with that break my army's morale fails.

Defeat!


Things I learnt in this game:


If the Main Unit pursues, Impetuous, Heavy Cavalry or Chariot Support Units follow.  In other words other troops don't get the option and can't pursue.

Units on Opportunity can only Fire, Opportunity Charge or Counter-Charge (not freely move or do a double move).

Flank Marches (Advanced Impetus - VI)

  1. One command, not lead by an Incompetent or Cowardly General and not comprising more that 50% of the army (in VDs), can be sent on a Flank March.
  2. The Flank March must be noted on the deployment map and include the command and the table side it aims to arrive at.
  3. At the end of every turn the Flank Marching player rolls 2D6 and adds the leadership value of the general leading the Command.  With a result of 12+ the Flank March enters the table at the start of the next turn.
  4. If the Flank March is successful then units belonging to the command are placed at the Player's choice within 12U of the nominated side edge.  They must be placed at least 5U from enemy units (ignore baggage).  If there is no room they can be deployed next turn if there is space.
  5. After deployment of the Flank March the opponent can make a free pivot to face nearest enemy or perform an about face without disorder with any of their units that are closer than 15U to the enemy.  
  6. Roll for initiative as usual.

See the rules for the effects of both sides flank marching, ambushes and failure to arrive.


5 comments:

  1. Your command rolls really hug the tails of the probability distribution. This game a couple of boxcars were thrown. Last game a couple of snake eyes turned up. My preference is to stick to historical matchups when gaming. What are your thoughts on using inter-era contests? Maybe this is one reason I don't play tournaments.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I prefer historical games and feel the rules work best with them. With widely different armies it does put a lot of pressure is put on the points system. With Ancients I have done a lot of competition games and so I'm used to unhistorical encounters, but for Napoleonics, ACW and WW2 it would just strike me as bizarre.

      The Impetus rules work fine with different armies, but do provide plenty of historical opponents.

      My issue with tournaments is that it can bring out the worst in players who want to win and I often find time gets to be an issue as well. 550 point battles on a club night take a bit too long to do comfortably in what is after all a social setting.

      Delete
  2. I found the 'Things I learned' section very useful.

    Mmmmm. it's a tragedy. But I'm glad you blogged it.

    Press on Comrade.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I found the 'Things I learned' section very useful.

    Mmmmm. it's a tragedy. But I'm glad you blogged it.

    Press on Comrade.

    ReplyDelete