Had a few battles of the last few weeks that I haven’t had time to write up properly, so instead thought I’d do a captioned photo post. I also got in a game of Bluecher with Ernie, but since that was just using the 100 Days campaign cards, I didn’t take any pics. It still doesn’t really feel like a “proper” wargame to me if you just use cards, in the same way that I hate to play using unpainted figures. I’m working away on my French though, so I’ll be able to field an actual army soon for Bluecher, and looking forward to doing so. Maybe after I get my Ancients stuff from War and Empire painted up, I’ll do another Bluecher army (almost certainly Austrians, because Austrians) so I have a matching pair. Anyway, these are from a game a few weeks ago, when I took on Dave with yet another Hundred Years War bash:
Starting positions. I’m the English at the bottom, David was the French at the top.
And we’re off! David wastes no time sending Knights at me, while my longbowmen ready their bows and make sure the stakes are firmly set.
I’ve been alternating longbowmen and heavy foot for a while with this army and the tactic works pretty well. The heavy foot can usually withstand a charge, and the longbowmen and their stakes blunt the knights on their initial charge.
About to face the charge!
Crunch time. Luckily for me, my Welsh managed to get into position for a nice flank charge, since the longbowmen at the end kept the knights involved in the melee for long enough for them to get stuck in. They aren’t very effective, but they do allow me to count a flank attack and allies.
A bit of a mixed bag – most of my line held up (I lost some longbowmen from artillery fire), and managed to thwart some of the knights. Still anybody’s game though.
Ouch. More longbowmen disappear, and some of my other units are looking dicey.
But my heavy foot are starting to take their toll of the knights, and things are looking up for me again.
And it’s all over – a close-fought victory, but I wasn’t far from breaking myself either.
In addition to that game, I took on Mark’s Ottomans with my HYW English a couple of weeks later, for another very close game (Mark always plays very competitively, so you always have to work to get a victory against him).
My initial positions.
My right flank, across the river dividing the table into two. Knights and Gascons, with some dismounted knights in support.
My centre and left flank, again mostly alternating longbowmen and heavy foot, with some artillery in the middle and my camp at the bottom.
The enemy on my right (and their camp behind them) – lots of cavalry and archers.
The enemy on my left – more cavalry, some crappy foot, and yet more cavalry – Light Horse this time, ready to make a move on my flanks.
And we’re off. I move towards the enemy, his Disc 3 archers come forward, and his poorer archers make for the highlands.
Using a bonus die to move the artillery a little. Mark had easily outscouted me, and put nothing within the arc of my artillery. The bounder!
Almost within charge reach…And my heavy foot put on a spurt of movement, marching twice as fast as normal to get to the enemy. They’re keen.
Meanwhile on the left, the Ottoman Light Horse go around the swamp, and the cavalry make a beeline for me. Time to uproot stakes and manouevre around a bit, I think.
Now we’re just all over the place. Still, I should have that flank covered well enough for now, my heavy foot are off to meet the cavalry head on and block them, and my other heavy foot decide to make a long, slow march against the rabble in the centre.
OK, make that taking on two units of cavalry then. Still, they’re heavy foot, they can manage.
Hey….those Light Horse aren’t going around the swamp for my flank, they’re doubling back to have a go at my heavy foot’s flank. Cads!
And yet the heavy foot manage to hold firm. Go me! While on the right, my knights take out one unit, lose a unit to the Ottomans, take out the janissary bowmen, and get charged in the flank by those mountain-dwelling bowmen.
My heavy foot hang on against all odds, while my other heavy foot charge the dregs in the centre, only to find them evading and running away at a pace we can never hope to match. Stand and fight us you buggers!
And with my heavy foot finally getting into battle, everyone dies. Well, nearly. I just managed to get Mark over his break point, though one more round and my heavy foot routing would have ended the game the other way. Mark was unlucky in this game in that almost all his commanders were killed, most fairly early on too. That coupled with low activation rolls (those Light Horse needed 6s to move against me) helped my position immensely.
Next post should be to give some pics of my next four bases of French infantry for Bluecher, and possibly some more Romans too if I get the shields painted up. I also have another unit of Romans undercoated, and the last of my Bluecher French on painting sticks ready to be undercoated along with a couple of batteries of artillery. After that, I just have the cavalry to do. Huzzah!
