À Bas Les Rosbifs Part Deux

This scenario/battle report follows on from the previous one, a couple of posts down. As before, I command the French and the decisions of the English commander are determined by a “percentage probability” dice throw. This works by looking at the various options available and weighting them as to how a decent general would choose to act, then dicing for the actual decision; in this game, the actions of each separate “battle” of the English line are diced for.

Both sides have now reformed their lines, giving the following layout:

Turn One: I move the Gendarmes on my right to outflank the English on the hill, and advance my Pike & Shot lines in the centre towards the enemy. The English general, aware that he needs to protect his Levies, advances his Landsknechts (who have some surviving Bill & Bow units at the end of their line) towards my oncoming infantry; he makes some minor adjustments to the dispositions of the troops protecting his camp to counter the move by my Gendarmes; and he throws the mixed units on his right flank towards my left (which is a little weaker); the Levies hold their position.

Turn Two: My left flank holds its position while I continue to advance in the centre, and my Gendarmes continue their manoeuvre on my far right. The English commander gets an attack of the jitters – or perhaps his troops do – all along the line, and their advance judders to a halt!

Turns Three and Four: The main action is in the centre of the battlefield, where the Landsknechts and the handful of remaining English take heavy losses against my Pike & Shot. On my left flank the two sides face each other but don’t advance into combat; on my right, the demonstration by my Gendarmes succeeds in immobilising the troops guarding the English camp.

Turn Five: The English centre continues to fragment. In response the English commander finally throws his Levies into the battle – they join the rest of his right flank in an advance on my left.

Turn Six: My centre grinds to a halt and provides the Landsknechts with a chance to regroup their depleted forces. Checked for morale, a number of the English Levies flee, but the remainder advance along with the English right against my left flank; in addition, some Levies armed with arquebuses succeed in shooting down one of my Gendarme units!

Turns Seven and Eight: The remnants of the Landsknechts in the centre – around half their original strength – succeed in regrouping and halting my advance. The Levies take heavy casualties but have held up my Pike & Shot column on my left flank, while on my far left the English are having by far the better of the combats. On my right, the Gendarmes are almost within charge distance of the English camp.

Turns Nine to Eleven: A single unit of German Shot hold off my Gendarmes’ attack on the camp, while some of my Pikes detach themselves from the centre to attack the camp from the other side. In the centre the Landknechts continue to hold their ground, while the English are still having the better of the fighting on my left and centre left. It’s turning into an extremely bloody – and rather indecisive – battle!

Turns Twelve to Fourteen: My Pikes and Gendarmes finally succeed in taking the English camp, but across the rest of the battlefield my battered troops are in retreat! The English resolve – combined with some lucky dice throws – has served to inflict such heavy losses on my troops that I have no option but to sound the retreat. Still, at least we’ve got some booty to carry back to our ships…before we head back to France!

À Bas Les Rosbifs!

It’s been a while since I’ve bought a wargames magazine, but finding myself at a loose end on a journey back to Bristol from the far north (Doncaster to be precise), I decided to treat myself to the latest issue of Miniature Wargames (March 2011). Just as well, because otherwise I would have missed Chris Hahn’s hypothetical account of a battle between the Spanish (recently landed from the successful Armada crossing) and Elizabeth’s English levies. This “what if” scenario got me thinking, and inspired me to try out a similar speculative scenario set a few decades earlier. This time it’s the French who have successfully disembarked a landing force on English soil, and it’s Liz’s dad Henry who has to face them in battle as they move inland.

The English force consists of the usual “bills and bows”, a sizeable contingent of German mercenaries (including a large rearwards reserve), some border horse, three artillery pieces, and a handful of heavy cavalry. Somewhere off the table a small force of English volunteers (indifferently armed and trained) are marching to the sound of the guns – they will arrive at some point in the battle, but precisely when and from which direction remains to be seen. The English are very much on the defensive, and will hold their positions unless and until the French (controlled by me) take the initiative; at that point each wing of the English army will have its course of action determined by “percentage probability” dice throws, having weighed up the chances of a good officer taking one or other of the available courses of action.

The French have landed a strong, well balanced army, but have not had time to bring up their artillery. They field the more modern pike and shot combination, as well as their usual strong force of gendarmes and well-trained light horse. They are aware of the possibility of English reinforcements, and have therefore every incentive to attack the English positions as soon as they are able.

This is the layout of the battlefield once the two armies have deployed:

Turn One: My line advances, contracting at certain points to avoid the enemy artillery positions as far as possible. The English hold position, apart from the Heavy Cavalry in the centre, who move to reinforce and extend the central line of Bills and Bows.

Turn Two: My French continue to advance, though a split starts to appear in the centre where the centre-right begins to lag behind. The English respond by mustering their troops into a single line on either flank, and two units of Landsknecht pikemen come down off the low hill nearest their right flank to threaten my Shot.

Turn Three: I continue to advance, but the split in my centre widens further. The English left (Landsknechts and Border Horse) advance slowly towards my gendarmes, somewhat against the odds, reinforced by an additional pike unit from the adjacent hill. On my own left my advancing Light Horse now face a solid line of mixed English troops. Meanwhile the English guns on the hill to the right of their line are moved to provide better cover to the infantry.

Turn Four: My advance on the left halts as I attempt to bring up my Shot. In the centre too I hold while the stragglers catch up with the main line. The gendarmes continue to canter forwards. The English and Germans facing them continue their advance, though the additional pikes that moved last turn grind to a halt. In the centre the English continue to adjust their lines, while on the English right the main force halts. The Landsknechts that advanced down from the hill, however, have ideas of their own – and charge towards my lines!

Turn Five: On my left, I turn my attentions to screening the advancing English and cutting off the detached Landsknechts. As the English centre continues to hold its position, I advance with the majority of my troops but still have problems with a large split in my battleline. On my right flank, my gendarmes and the mixed English/German force facing them are almost within charging distance now.

Turn Six: With troops about to engage on both flanks, the English centre finally advances…

Turn Seven: The two flanks move into contact. The ensuing combats are indecisive, with both sides taking minor losses. The English centre continues to advance as I attempt to form up my troops to face them.

Turns Eight & Nine: My gendarmes are slowly getting the better of it on my right flank, seeing off the English Border Horse. But it’s stalemate on my left flank, where the English and my Light Horse and Shot have fought themselves to a standstill albeit with the loss of the wayward Landsknechts that came down off the hill! There is still no sign of the English volunteer relief column. The two main masses of infantry in the centre will soon clash…

Turns Ten & Eleven: The English centre crumbles as the Bills and Bows face but fail to stop the state-of-the-art French infantry. Meanwhile my left flank has all but disintegrated, while my gendarmes are grinding out a narrow advantage over on my right flank. With the English Landsknecht mercenaries still advancing in the centre rear, the game is still finely balanced.

Turn Twelve: The English finally succumb on my right flank, their ragged German pikemen and arquebusiers being surrounded and cut down by my gendarmes. In the centre, the Bills and Bows have virtually been annihilated. On the English right, the rosbifs have the advantage, and only a few of my mounted units and shot remain intact. And it is precisely at this moment that the English reinforcements arrive, appearing on the baseline of the English army on their right flank!

Both sides now have troops scattered across the battlefield, and the situation is indecisive. The unengaged Landsknechts and the reinforcements mean that the English are far from beaten. My left flank has disintegrated, and my right is a little ragged. While my centre remains strong and has taken few losses, I don’t much like the look of the situation and decide to retreat and re-group. The English commanders opt to do the same rather than press home with an immediate and rather risky counter-attack (a decision determined by dicing for percentage-weighted options), and draw back to reform their own lines and integrate the newcomers. The battle appears to have reached a stalemate.

This is a simplified diagramatic representation of the situation at the end of the first phase of the battle:

Once the two armies have reformed, the fight will no doubt continue…

HoTT Norsemen!

No, you haven’t accidentally clicked on a Tom of Finland website. Better luck next time ;o) It’s been a while since I got my toys out, but over the past few days I’ve been playing a variant of what I think was the first scenario I ever posted on here. Basically it’s designed to create a static enemy position, but with the added spice of reinforcements arriving unexpectedly. The HPG (human player general) will have little clear intelligence as to when they’ll arrive (if at all), what they’ll consist of, or from which direction they’ll enter the fray. Of course it’s just another variant of one the oldest solo set-ups of all, but it’s been fun playing it…which after all is the main thing!

So, this is how it stacks up. A roving band of Vikings have been caught off-guard, and have taken up a strong defensive position with impassable terrain covering their flanks. They elect to form a shield-wall, and behind them stand their leader – an Icelandic witch of great prowess – and a magician who hides his lack of scruples beneath his pointy green hat. They won’t shift, and they won’t cut and run; to defeat them, they have to be wiped out to the last man (or woman). The NPG (non player general) will simply attempt to maintain the cohesion of the shield-wall, reinforcing it where necessary, and direct the two magic users to take out the most vulnerable or most dangerous enemy units. The Norse army consists of 8 Blades and 2 Magicians.

As the HPG you command a force of Carolingian Franks consisting of 3 Knights, 3 Shooters (bowmen) and 6 Spears. Your most potent weapon is the Knights, and here I’ve varied the usual HoTT rules somewhat. Knights have the potential to “quick kill” Blades in this scenario; if the Blades are beaten (but not doubled) by Knights, throw a D6 – with a throw of 4 to 6 saving them, and anything lower meaning that they are destroyed. Clearly it will be in the interest of the Vikings to direct their magical attacks primarily against your Knights.

To add a little spice to what would otherwise be a static encounter, Viking reinforcements may arrive once per game. After the end of game turn 4, dice at the start of each Viking turn. If a 6 is thrown, reinforcements have arrived. Throw a D6 once more to determine the make-up of the reinforcements:

1 – 2: War Dogs (1 element, Beasts)

3 – 4: Frost Giants (1 element, Behemoth)

5 – 6: Valkyries (2 elements, Flyers)

Then throw a D6 again to determine point of entry (your baseline, your left flank or your right flank). Note that although the reinforcements can move that turn, if  they are out of command range they will need the extra Pip to do so. The priority of the reinforcements is to single out and attack your most vulnerable unit(s), or your General if he is accessible to them. As the HPG you lose as per the standard HoTT rules, so in this sense the NPG has the edge over you!

This has produced a fairly balanced game so far, and naturally has a huge potential for variation and development. Simple but effective! Here are a few pics from three different games:

My Knight General sandwiched between Norse warriors and Valkyrie:

Valkyrie surround a unit of Carolingian archers:

Enter Frost Giants, stage left:

Meet The Neighbours Part Eight – Game Over!

Turn 11

Robert: 2. His force is struck by disease. Two units are lost (Spears). Robert isn’t having much luck!

Henry: 4. Barren lands. No effect, no further action.

Turn 12

Robert: 6. Easy plunder. Better fortune for Robert this time. He picks up 50 gold pieces from the terrified locals.

Henry: 5. Reinforcements arrive – one Knight element.

Turn 13

Robert: 1. Desertion! This is disastrous for Robert, one Bow element deserts, leaving him with just eleven elements in all.

Henry: 6. Easy plunder – Henry adds 50 gold to his coffers as his good fortune continues.

Turn 14

Robert: 9. Hostile force encountered! His depleted forces face an army of Vikings. Robert has no choice but to pay 100 gold in ransom and turn for home. His campaign has been dogged by bad luck from beginning to end.

Henry: 1. Desertion! Henry loses one unit of Spears, but it is of no importance now, as his field army remains formidable. As a messenger arrives with news of his brother’s ignominious retreat Henry realises that he has won the day, with 600 gold pieces in his coffers to his brother’s 350, and much honour to his name. He too heads for home, but in far better spirits than his hapless brother. Henry has taken a giant step towards winning his father’s favour, and with it the dukedom.

Final Thoughts

The campaign was a lot of fun but there were flaws in the way I set it up:

1. It was a mistake mixing HoTT and DBA armies, and jumping between the two rulesets. This made it easier to fall into the second error, which was…

2. To inadvertently pick ‘killer armies’ for my two protagonists. I suspect that the potent pool of Knights, Bows, Blades and Spears available to my semi-historical Normans would have blown away most Dark Age DBA opponents. The games against the Welsh and the Slavs were very one-sided affairs (though the Slavs might have done better if they’d got decent pip scores). Against HoTT opposition (as the battle against the Ratmen showed) the contest was much more even. So…

3. Next time around I’ll avoid mixing the rulesets. I’ll also ensure that the campaigning armies will be more vulnerable – and that they’ll meet a good range of tough opponents!

I will probably also look again at the attrition side of the rules. Poor old Robert lost out to a run of bad dice throws, without much chance to do anything about it. Still, I suppose you could argue that’s all part of the fortunes of war…

Meet The Neighbours Part Seven – Normans v Slavs

Turn 9: Robert and Henry both receive reinforcements of one Blade unit apiece.

Turn 10: Robert’s new Blades don’t like the look of things and immediately desert! Henry meanwhile finds himself facing a Slav attacker. The Slav NPG is designated aggressive, but without the advantage of choosing the terrain he faces a difficult struggle. Henry (on the right in the picture below) deploys Knights, Blades and Bows to face his enemies:

Slav Auxilia advance into the bad going to take on the Norman bowmen – surely their best chances of picking off some enemy units:

This fight develops on the Norman left, while Henry advances his centre and right towards the waiting Slavs, who are immobilised by poor pip throws:

A lucky dice throw sees off one unit of Slav Auxilia, while there is a stand-off in the rough going:

Hand-to-hand fighting all along the line, with Bows flanking Auxilia in the rough and Henry’s Blades and Knights crashing into the Psiloi-supported Auxilia in the centre:

The Slav Auxilia hold off the Norman Bows, but in the centre it’s a different story, with two quick kills for the Normans:

The Slav general launches a desperate counter attack against a unit of Norman Blades, but another Auxilia detachment is destroyed and it’s game over:

It’s another thumping victory for Henry, whose war chest at the end of turn ten stands at 550 gold pieces. Robert, in contrast, still has only 300 gold pieces.

Sons of a Lion of Scythia

This guest post is by Jeff Herbert of the Hong Kong Society Of Wargamers . It sets out a really neat ancients micro campaign based around a pair of rather unfraternal Scythian brothers! Although this is not designed as a solo game it nonetheless contains lots of useful material and can easily be tweaked to play solo and to be used with other rulesets. All of the following material is © Jeff Herbert. Thanks for an excellent article Jeff!

The ‘Sons of a Lion of Scythia’ is a mini campaign intended to achieve a result in one day of gaming.   It is played by three main contenders and a number of other players to use the opposing armies.

SETTING THE SCENE

The ‘Old King’ of Scythia, known as the ‘Lion of Scythia’ is dying, and among his sons are three that are exceptionally bolder and better than the rest.  The King knows full well that when he dies Scythia will be split by warring factions.  So he decides it is better to pick his successor now, but to do so by clearly eliminating any contenders. The King sets a task for his three sons.  They are to raid south of Scythia, each with an army of equal size but chosen by them.  The son that returns with the greatest booty will be acclaimed heir.   They may return at any time but the result will await the last to return, or news of his demise.  There are no other rules.

THE GAME

Each Scythian player starts with 120 points DBMM (supplied by me).
Each player throws a D6.
Result: 1: Army Size Dwindles
Result: 2: Army Size Increases
Result: 3: Army Movement
Result: 4: Pillage
Result: 5: Battle
Result: 6: Battle

For each result, throw a D6 again.

Dice
Score______ 1                   2                       3                  4                  5                  6
Army -        -2 base        -2 base         -1 base        -1 base       1 Dismount  1 Dismount
Army +       +1 base       +2 base        +3 base       +1 Ally     +2 Ally               +3 Ally
Move            Miss Go      Miss Go      ———–Re-throw first dice Again——–
Pillage          5 Gold         10 Gold        15 Gold      20 Gold     25 Gold         30 Gold ***
Battle (5)    140                130              120              120             100                 80
Battle (6)    80 SV            100 LV      120 ST         120 ST       130 LT           140 SC

*** Gold is multiplied by the result of a D6 for final loot.  For each 10 gold gathered throw 1 D6, score of 1 indicates 1 base lost whilst looting.

On winning battle Scythians get 5 gold for each ME of the enemy that is destroyed.

SV/LV Small village Large Village ST/LT Small Town Large Town S/C Small City : this denotes battle takes place outside one of these. If Scythians win they also loot the village/town/city.

Gold: SV = 5, LV = 10, ST = 20, LT = 100, SC = 250, all multiplied by score of D6.

Scythians may attempt to avoid battle, throw 1 D6. Score:
1: Must Fight
2: Must Fight
3: Avoids (throw for each base lost on a score of 1)
4: Avoids (throw for every 2 bases, 1 base lost on a score of 1)
5: Avoids but may turn to ambush enemy.
6: Avoids but may turn to ambush reduced enemy. (D6 each pip = -10 ME in bases lost to enemy)

Avoiding a battle outside a village, town or city means that they cannot be looted even if later defeating the enemy.

THE ENEMY

On a roll of a D6 the following enemy is faced, if two enemy are listed dice again 1,2,3 or 4,5,6.

1: Urartians (1) or Elamites (2)
2: Assyrians (3) or Babylonians (2)
3: Hebrew (1) or Philistines (1)
4: Midianites (2) or Medes (1)
5. Saitic Egyptian (3)
6. Kushites (1)

The figure in brackets denotes the number of field armies available, ie: each 140 points of DBMM.  None of these armies can repair themselves during the campaign.  So the more they are attacked the weaker they become.  If more than one brother fights the same enemy in a turn, they will fight the enemy available. This could mean 1-2-3 Scythian v 1, 1 Scythian v 1 x 1 or 2-3 Scythian v 2-3 on same battlefield. An enemy that is less than 50% of Scythian strength never fights but automatically cedes 100 Gold in tribute (to be shared if necessary).

THE BROTHERS

Scythians could choose their retainers but not their siblings.  The sons are from three different mothers and all equally ambitious.  They are all rated brilliant, if they lose more than 1 battle they are rated normal. They of course have feelings for each other which range from hate to pure contempt.  After each battle they pick up a chance card.  This card gives them various options if they are ever in the same area as another brother.

If on any go two or more brothers miss a go or successfully avoid battle they are deemed to have fallen back on the same area.  In doing so one or more may choose to fight.  If they choose to do so their retainers may not all be so willing as they are.  The umpire has a separate chart for this.

Click here to download Umpire’s Notes (Word document).