Had another bash against Dan’s Mongols with my HYW English last week. Dan was looking for revenge after our initial outing, when he was soundly defeated. This time he came a little closer, but the result was inevitable – an army comprised of mostly Light Cavalry doesn’t fare too well against a mass of longbowmen and heavy foot unless he can get around the flanks, which he finally did, but too late to make a difference.
We diced of terrain as normal, and that’s where I had my first stroke of luck – obviously Dan didn’t want much terrain to get in the way, but I managed to pick 5 pieces, and my first roll enabled me to place to wherever I wanted. Then Dan rolled, and even better, I got to place that piece where I wanted too, so I ended up with two hills forming a pass to defend. A few more rolls and I ended up with woods forming flanks to those hills too – a nice position to defend.
The Mongol Horde approaches
Dan’s Mongols arranged themselves into two wings, both fronted by light cavalry, the one on my right shielding his elite cavalry. That gap in the middle was so he could neatly avoid my artillery which I’d set up in the middle of the pass, flanked by heavy foot. On the hills themselves, with their stakes prepared, were my longbowmen, apart from a reserve unit next to some reserve foot, and my Welsh Spear who were defending my camp, and on my left flank, my mounted knights, who were preparing to encounter the Mongols on the flank.
Our brave and heroic men defending the pass
Most of my men stayed where they were to meet the oncoming horde (they were in prepared positions with stakes to the fore after all), though my Welsh spearmen did decide to head for the woods on my right to stop any flanking attacks coming that way. Which was to prove costly to me…
OG Dan throwing down some signs as his Mongols advance into longbow range
The Mongols advanced, giving me a nice target to aim for on both sides, though damage was desultory at this early stage.
Charge onto my stakes, pretty horsies
Then they charged en masse, the intent to reach my longbowmen at the apex of the hill, though thanks to some lucky dice, my dismounted knights decided to head them off at the bottom of the hill. My mounted knights on the extreme left just out of shot decided to wheel around to face the end of the Mongol line too.
A view from a hill.
On my right, a more formidable array of Mongols were approaching fast. Ulp.
Strangely, light cavalry who are no longer in a position to evade, don’t fare well against fully armoured knights
My mounted knights soon put paid to one unit of Light Horse, though my dismounted knights merely stood their ground against the Mongols at the bottom of the hill.
The again, longbowmen don’t last too long after the cavalry get through their stakes either
On the other side of the battlefield, however, some of Dan’s Light Horse managed to skip through the stakes without any bother and saw off my longbowmen, consolidating their victory by charging further forward and breaking through my lines while the reserve longbowmen stood there gaping.
I knew moving the Welsh away from the camp was a bad idea.
Even worse, that gap was right where my camp was, which would have been defended by Welshmen and their spears if I hadn’t moved them. Luckily, Dan couldn’t roll dice at all tonight, and it took him 3 or 4 turns of trying to sack my undefended camp before he was successful. In the meantime, I managed to wheel my longbowmen around, and despite their lack of any impetus, they bravely attacked the Light Horse in the rear.
Rawr! Doubling their normal movement thanks to lots of dice rolling the same result
That’s when the game really picked up for me – the remaining Light Horse on my left decided to flee after coming under fire from two units of longbowmen, and my mounted knights used their new turbo horses to gallop half way across the table, doubling their movement that turn.
prepare to charge the Mongol elite!
That put them right in the path of two units of the Mongolian elite cavalry, catching Dan by surprise and making him have to wheel them to face the danger of several tons of horse and metal coming at them faster than they could believe. In the foreground, his other unit of elite cavalry advanced to meet my other dismounted knights.
The result of the charge
That was the result of my charge against the elite cavalry – catching Dan before he could react (thanks to drawing many more dice than he did this phase), my knights destroyed the elites as if they weren’t even there.
The aftermath of the charge
Of course, they then pursued, effectively putting them hors de combat for the rest of the battle, but then the end was nigh anyway.
With dice like these, the Mongol Horde don’t fare too well against the English footsoldiers either
Following the mounted knights’ example, the dismounted knights decided to have some fun of their own too, with 3 6s coming up from my activation rolls, I decided to try to take out the unit of Mongol cavalry that had the temerity to come within reach. They too vapourised under the onslaught, and suddenly Dan was on the edge of defeat.
And finally, the longbowmen put paid to the Mongols, but not until after they finally sack our camp
Despite finally managing to sack my camp, and despite now having two units of Light Horse around my flank and rear, my brave reserve longbowmen, eschewing their stakes, wheeled and charged into the rear of the celebrating campsackers (at least I think that’s what they were calling them). With a barely eked victory in that combat, Dan’s Mongols had had enough, and what remained of the Horde scurried off on their ponies (with my tents, I might add).
This one was pretty much all down to luck of the dice for me – I was rolling 6s like there was no tomorrow, whereas Dan was lucky to roll 4s. If he’d survived a couple of the battles in the centre, he might have managed to scrape a victory for himself, having managed to get two units behind my lines (where the stakes would have done my longbowmen no good, and where my heavy foot would have taken an age to turn to face the new threat). Still, victory as mine again, though I have a feeling we may wish to pursue the fleeing Mongols to recapture my tents…
