Battle Reports April 2004

This is a report of a battle between a Spanish force defending their homeland from marauding Western T’sin Chinese. To start with both generals were knackered, which may account for some basic errors (that is an excuse for some poor decision making on both sides) .

The battlefield comprised a mixture woods and hills mainly centred on the central Chinese deployment area.

Out scouting the Chinese, the Spanish general, Paul M, dispatched a flanking force consisting of Caetrati & Balearic light infantry, which would arrive on turn five. Initial spotting in turn one resulted in two Chinese commands being exposed, as well as the right flank of the Spanish, which comprised their cavalry. Turn 2 saw another Chinese command unmasked on the Spanish left, this comprising heavily armed foot. The only command not spotted was debouching from woods in column via a road. The Spanish general was still searching for any dastardly crossbows, but decided anyway to re-deploy his troops to take on the Chinese horse and infantry already spotted.

In the next round, the final Chinese command was spotted and, as suspected, comprised crossbow-armed infantry. The Spanish troops started to move away, leaving a lone base of Caetrati light infantry to face the music. Meanwhile the opposing cavalry wings moved closer towards contact, with the Chinese opening derisory bow fire to no effect.

Movement and an exchange of missile fire continued as the opposing forces came into charge range. Finally the last Spanish command was exposed, and the Spanish flanking force arrived to be faced by the second line of Chinese heavy infantry. The Chinese cavalry, responding to missile fire, charged forward with their lance-armed light cavalry giving the opposing Spanish light horse a fright. Finally the main infantry lines came to blows with the two Celtiberian warbands charging Guard infantry and Dare to Die swordsmen. In a show of cunning, a flanking unit of Scutarii ran away from the opposing Chinese base, leaving them vulnerable to a flanking attack. On the extreme flank, a base of Chinese auxiliaries reached the crest of a hill to face off a mixed force of Caetrati and Scutarii. Meanwhile the Spanish flanking force recoiled from the opposing heavy infantry.

The cavalry forces came together: with the Spanish light horse retreating but causing casualties on the opposing cavalry. The T’sin light Lancers then inflicted heavy casualties on their opponents, who had elected to stand their ground ( ie reached the table edge). The Chinese guard cavalry came to grips with the sole base of Spanish heavy horse, with the Spanish bodyguard cavalry charging into the only average heavy Chinese cavalry base. We have introduced a rule to stop heavy cavalry charging every round to chase off lights unless they are prepared to take a strength hit. The infantry battle saw a flanking attack on the exposed Chinese base which was held, meanwhile a Celtiberian warband held by the Chinese guard was in turn charged in the flank by a crossbow unit.

At this point the opposing forces were engaged in a pushing and shoving match. Neither side had a major advantage, although the Chinese centre (crossbows) was now unopposed, whilst the Spanish were crumbling the opposing Chinese auxiliary base on the hill. The flanking force was running for the cover of some woods behind the Chinese lines.

Further melee combat resulted in two central Spanish Scutarii bases recoiling with the Celtiberian warbands weakening to combined frontal & flank attacks from crossbow units charging into contact when targets were not in range for missile fire.

In a desperate measure the Spanish general pushed forward his remaining light troops to contest the centre. Also a base of Scutarii, pushing over the crest of a hill, became shaken under a hail of missile fire from crossbows and bow-armed skirmishers. The flanks saw continuing struggle with a spate of bases recovering from routs much to the surprise of both generals: double 1's again! However the Spanish bodyguard cavalry, following up a routing cavalry base, also destroyed one of the Chinese leaders. The bodyguard then came to grief when first shot at and then charged in the flank by a bow armed skirmisher base which caused four casualties in two bounds.

At this point the battle was delicately poised: with the Spanish right flank & centre in trouble, but the left flank pushing forward and a flank march moving into woods to the rear of the Chinese line. The next round of officer casualties resulted in the Chinese Sub-general taking two hits. The Spanish side continuing a proud tradition of their general lost a leader in one flurry of die roles (three 6's on three 6-sided dice) closely followed by casualties to the leader of the flanking force.

With the Celtiberian warbands finally routing in the centre and the Chinese heavy cavalry pushing back the opposing Spanish light horse into the path of the routing Spanish infantry, the Spanish General realised that he could not move his finally victorious left flank forward in time to meet the advancing T’sin forces, and decided to withdraw.

A narrow victory for the Chinese T’sin Army . A highlight for the Spanish being a base of Caetratii from the flanking force holding a base of Chinese heavy infantry for three combats allowing a unit of Scutarii to advance over a hill to charge into the flank of the Chinese base causing it to rout. Flank attacks did a lot of damage in this game.

The game takes place somewhere in northern France during the later part of the 100 Years War. Rumour has spread that pay chests are being transported to a remote garrison, and everyone is suddenly interested.

Moving across the table are 4 carts/mule trains/groups of guys carrying things. Any one of them could have the pay chests.

Each player has a Leader and 150-200 points of troops. Given the setting, groups could be English, French, Dutch, Scots, Germans, angry peasants or groups of mixed unemployed mercenaries. They choose an entry point. The plan is that they grab one of the carts/mule trains/groups of guys and then exit on the opposite table edge.

The battlefield was 6x4 with a scattering of villages, woods, cornfields and low hills. The four carts etc were spread out with one near each end and two near the middle. Movement of these was decided by moving them 10cm in a direction decided by a scatter die.

The battle settled into two separate battles between the French and Dutch, and Germans and English, with one base of Francs Archers spending a couple of turns taking long range potshots at the German mounted crossbows and inflicting no damage whatsoever!

Starting with the French (me) and the Dutch.

The Dutch HC rushed forward and grabbed a large cart, while the pikes rushed to keep up. As the cart started to move off under the guidance of its new driver, the French leader and a unit of Gendarmes charged the HC, first pushing them back and then routing them. They then caught up with the cart and started it moving back the way it had come, covering its retreat, while most of the Dutch pikes stopped and stared.

One pike base, however, went of a lone flank march around a blacksmith's, routing a unit of partizanmen that were sent to stop them. They then swung round behind the French line, but were stopped by shooting from a Francs Archers base (amazing!).

At about this time, though, the main block of pikes regained their courage and charged the Gendarmes that were covering the retreat of the cart. Three bases verses one: it was a short and bloody fight, with the French base being destroyed and the leader suffering four points of damage, limping to the rear and jumping into the cart.

He was not safe, however, and the cart was soon captured and its wounded occupant put to the sword!

The French now only had one base that was capable of restoring the situation: the last base of Gendarmes, which now executed a flank charge on a pike unit. To my utter shock and horror the Dutch took it like real men and stood their ground. French honor was now finished completely by the return of the routed Dutch HC who hit the pinned Gendarmes in the flank and sent them streaming from the field.

Meanwhile, the Germans had come out fighting, using their knights and crossbows to take on the bulk of the English force while sending their three HC units to round up the cart, mule train and porters that were within their reach.

The mounted Handgunners made an epic march to catch a cart that seemed determined to give itself over to the English, but managed to snatch it from under the noses of the Irish foot base that was trying to get it. They then settled down to shooting out with these Irish who holed up in a church.

The lancers caught the mule train, but then suffered the indignity of being first shot and then charged in the flank by a unit of English longbowmen as they tried to join the main battle, which I am about to describe.

Showing the sort of over confidence that would be seen many years later at Kursk, the German knights charged forward straight into the middle of the English line.

The impact was taken by a unit of bills, who held the line: just! Next turn the melee expanded in a way that can only happen in VB. First a base of German crossbows charged into the melee, but they had little enthusiasm for the venture (threw double 1), failing to break the bills. Then the English reinforced their own side, sending in two more bases: one of bills and one of bows. This was too much for the German knights, who broke and fled, their leader being wounded in the process. The German crossbows, however, stood their ground, fighting to the last in a desperate rearguard action.

As the Germans melted away the English were able to grab the cart that had eluded the Irish earlier, but the mule train and the porters remained in German possession.

So, who got the cash? The Dutch? The English? The Germans? Certainly not the French!

It turned out to be in the mule train, so the surviving Germans were all able to retire rich men.

Thoughts

This was a really good game, enjoyed by all.

With each player only having a small force to worry about it was an excellent way of teaching new players the rules. Two of the players had not played VB before (being mainly WHAB players) but they soon picked it up and enjoyed themselves. One went on to say that he now wanted to see how the rules dealt with Hellenistic battles, so we me soon be making sabot bases for his 20mm stuff.

The 3rd player had played before and I have now persuaded him that his Dark Ages collection should be re-based for VB!

I decided to use an entirely mounted Parthian force to try out the old adage that the most successful Parthian armies used the fewest cataphracts.

The Sassanians were once again the aggressors and invaded along a river on their right flank; a couple of other bits of scrub featured but took no part in the game.

With 92 scouting points the Parthians deployed their bases after the Sassanians (with 600pts of 15mm on a 6x4 board this is no real advantage) but did get to push 3 of their 6 commands to the centre and have 2 flank marches which is why Jon went with a river to seal off a flank. All commands were Horse Archers(HA) except a reserve to the rear of 2 Cataphract units plus 1 of Cataphract camels.

With commands thrown forward the Sassanian deployment immediately became clear with 2 commands of cavalry in the centre flanked by light cavalry on their left and infantry against the river on their right.

Both sides advanced steadily forward with the Parthians sending one HA unit to harass the infantry, the rest opposing the Sassanian cavalry. The Parthian commander expected the Sassanians to keep moving steadily forward in the face of alternately halted and moving swarms of HA but once in range the Sassanians halted and commenced shooting. This obliged the Parthians to fall back as they were at a disadvantage against the closer formed veteran Sassanians in the centre and had to stay out of charge range of the light spear and shield armed Vassal light cavalry.

Trading ground for time the Parthians had 2 shaken HA units when the first flank march arrived on the Sassanian left which meant the Vassals now had enemy to front and rear. At this point, anticipating the other flank march arriving, the Parthian cataphracts started to advance on the left to menace the infantry and cavalry in the centre.

The flank marchers headed for the cavalry and vassals to either attack or distract the opposition. Having fallen back, the right flank Parthian HA command now went into attack mode against the Vassals driving off the opposition horse archers and sandwiching 2 Vassal units in a HA sandwich.

The Sassanian centre though had turned 2 of its cavalry around and either charged or started shooting 2 of the flank marchers to their discomfort.

The other flank march arrived to find the river blocking their path and lined by Sassanian levies which came under fire as one unit moved downstream to cross unopposed.

However, in the centre the other HA were running out of room and now had 3 units shaken from the Sassanian bowfire. The cataphracts were coming up in support but looked to be too few in number to help.

On the Parthian right were mixed fortunes. One sandwich destroyed a Vassal but the other was composed of badly shot up HA so one was routed and the other shaken. Meanwhile another HA unit was pinned against the flank board edge and destroyed by Sassanian cavalry, an occurrence starting to be repeated on the Parthian baseline as space and time finally ran out.

The river certainly helped a lot in cutting down space. I could have elected to not flank march but I needed the room and the river cut that down so I really needed to get behind him.

The other flank march was easily countered as the Sassanians just turned 2 units 180 degrees for a disorder marker and we had even less room to play with on the flank.

Where the opposition is close to the flank you can get them sandwiched as long as the sandwichers are in good shape.

Making SO troops harder to hit definitely helped. We were still quite rightly outshot but were not annihilated in 1 or 2 bound of shooting. At the end 5 of my 9 HA units involved in the archery duel in the centre were badly shot up, 4 of those shaken. Damage was done to the Sassanians but not enough to cause real problems unless they were then attacked by my cataphracts.

What the Parthians really need is a bigger board! Lost too many units crushed against the board edge! (Ed.'s Note: This is what I am always saying: horse archer armies need room to manoeuvre and aren't suited to a standard set piece game. Russcat take note!)