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Two
Knights' Tales
Last
Thursday the Ottomans rolled onto the table vs the highly defensive
Knights of St John.
We had two battles at 550AP.
The Ottomans were a pretty reasonable mix with lots of levies, some
pretty good mounted and the janissaries.
The Knights of St John were dominated by Greek archers, mercenary
crossbowmen, an overlarge siege train and the Brother Knights lurking at
the back.
Both battles involved a lot of hills giving cover from the enemy
cannons.
The first battle was a complete shoe in for the Knights due to, ah,
communication difficulties between the Ottoman commanders. The levies
saw absolutely no reason why they should be cannon fodder and remained
lurking behind a hill while the janissaries and cavalry took a pounding.
The Ottomans surrendered and left the field.
The second battle was a lot closer. This time the Ottomans got the
cannon fodder in the front rank where they belonged and distracted the
cannon and missilemen of the Knights while sending the horse round the
right flank.
The fodder were shredded, as expected. However, as the smoke cleared and
the archers looked down they saw the Janissaries advancing at close
range up the hill towards them. The Knights' centre began to crumble. On
the right, some of the Greeks had advanced and rolled up the last of the
Ottoman levies but been brought to a halt by a slow deploying cannon
battery.
On the left, the Brother Knights had piled into the Ottoman horse in two
absolute catfights at the bottom of a small valley. The Knights won one
of them but the other looked perilously close as we played the last
turn. The matter hinged on which army would be able to feed troops into
the melee faster and still be able to survive the enemy counter attacks.
However, last orders had been called and the matter was left in the air.
Both sides were terribly battered with units fearful of getting into
combat knowing that there was no way that they would pass a morale test
if forced to take one.
Quite a ferocious game.
Thurlac
Alexandrian
Macedonians vs Indians
Good
battle yesterday with Steve
He
had about 550 points of Indians facing a bunch of Macedonians with a low
ridge between us. His army was evenly spread so I line my guys up
heavily favouring the left flank and advanced. After a couple of
turns the troops in the centre were approaching the ridge: which
fortunately kept me out of LOS of his longbows when the cavalry battle
started on the left.
Two
bases of Companions and one of Prodromoi charge his three little
(4-horse, 6-man) chariots and supporting levy cavalry. Rather than
being a glorious victory only one Companion beats its opposition and the
Prodromoi are roundly beaten by some scrotty medium cavalry (oh, the
shame!). The Prodromoi are then rallied and thrown back into the
fray, where the levies destroy them.
By
now the fight in the centre has started with the pikes beginning to get
the upper hand when the elephants arrive. By the end of the battle
there are a few Indians holding the hill in the centre and a bunch of
rather battered Macedonians looking on waiting for the one good
Companion base to turn up.
A
good fight and a Macedonian victory but at a heavy cost to the veteran
and pike units.
Chris
Lowe
Alexandrian
Macedonians vs Assyrians
On
Thursday we had a game of Alexandran Macedonians vs. Assyrians.
The Assyrians moved to the village on the hill in the center of the
table and were shot up a bit. It was surrounded by dense woods on either
side. The Macedonians massed on one flank and moved most of the infantry
around the woods on one side, the Indian allies held in the middle, and
most of the cavalry went around the other side.
The Assyrian OO troops barely got into the woods before the onslaught
began. One "flank" of crappy Levy LI were overrun by the Macs.
Meanwhile, the Assyrian Chariots and Cavalry defeated one flank of Mac
cavalry and then turned to face the oncoming Companions.
The day ended as we ran out of time with the Macedonians having more
cavalry left than the Assyrians. The Macs still had 2 or 3 decent
infantry units left (full strength) while the Assyrians had a lot of
Levy LI and Average MI left, but most of the heavies in poor shape.
Overall, this was a slight to moderate Macedonian victory.
Jason
Johns
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