Norse Irish at Badcon

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grahambriggs
Lieutenant-General - Do 217E
Lieutenant-General - Do 217E
Posts: 3057
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2008 9:48 am

Norse Irish at Badcon

Post by grahambriggs »

We had fun and came second with Brian Boru's army from Clontarf at Badcon this year - a 900 point doubles 501-1149AD competition.

We took Norse Irish with Viking allies:

5x6 Kerns Lt Sp/Javelin LF (3 Average, 2 poor)
5x8 Irish Warriors, MF average heavy weapon undrilled unprotected
8 Sons of Death MF superior heavy weapon undrilled unprotected
2x8 Irish nobles HF superior heavy weapon undrilled unprotected
IC (Murchad, son of Brian), 2TC (Ulf the Quarrelsome, the King of Connaught)
2x9 Manx Viking Freemen (6 average protected HF Spears, 3 LF)
9 Manx Viking Huscarls (6 superior armoured HF Spears, 3 LF)
Ally TC (Ospak of Man)
8 Field Fortifications

The general plan was to put the fortifications in the centre to get the nobles forward, put the vikings next to them, wings of MF for speed, ideally through terrain, and a LF screen. It can cover the whole table width easily enough. We assumed that somewhere MF would be in trouble but that would tempt the enemy in. With a screen and an IC they'd hopefully hold up long enough that friends would arrive.

Game 1 Feudal Scots with Galwegian allies.

Scots protected spears faced our HF in the centre. One MF flank faced not much, the other faced shooty foot and knights but had terrain. This flank suffered a bit, but took out a unit of Galwegians. the HF and the Sons though went through the scots centre - 13 bases wide of superiors and Ulf against a ragged line of Scots (kerns tempting them out) didn't take long. 21-4

Game 2 Ghaznavid

The Ghaznavids were a small army at 11BGs and had 6x4 Ghilman, 3 BGs elephants, one LH and one of Dailami and were defending the steppe. Five mounted units skirmished most of the table while on one flank were massed elephants, Dailami and two Ghilman units on the extreme flank facing our left. Fortunately, those latter cavalry went down before the vikings, so we put the Huscarles against those hard against the table edge and MF facing elephants and Dailami. The noble HF went behind the fencing in the middle with the viking freemen behind so that they could wheel and take on the elephants. The remaining 48 bases of HF/MF and a few LF faced the skirmishing mounted.

The Ghaznavid punch almost committed to the charge down the flank but realised that with the huscarles in place they just didn't have the strength to break through in time so they fell back. Eventually 16 Irish warrior bases waded in to 8 Dailami and 2 elephants and started chewing, while the Viking freemen took out the other elephants. The skirmish mounted fell back and shot at the encroaching Irish mass but couldn't do enough given that Murchad was inspiring them. Eventually they had to charge, hoping to break through but the Sons and the warriors stood the shock then got to work with axes, evenually taking out a couple of units nad the camp. 25-0

Game 3 Early Hungarian (Peter and Bob, who went on to win)

The Hungarians had three units of knights, one of cavalry lancers and one of skezeler cavalry, plus lots of LH and some LF. They gave us the initiative as they wanted to pin us back so we got a coast down and a decent bit of brush on the other flank but it was still a bit open. The usual HF centre and MF wings. While the lancers started opposite our HF (the vikings were a nasty surprise for them) they sensibly sent them off to the flanks.

On the coast flank, a unit of knights broke through (though we got them down to half strength!) and then ran down some sniping kerns. Meanwhile nobles and warriors broke the skezeler cavalry and some knights. Honours even.

On the other flank we decided to give them a puzzle. A unit of 6 average Kerns with Murchad charged two 6s of LF archers while our MF came up in support. Our thinking was if they evade, we'll keep getting the MF forward and cramp their army. If they hold then we've got an impact (at plus) and two melee's against 10 dice to survive before the MF can get in and killed the enemy LF. Of course we'd lose the LF, but we were happy to trade units. Sadly we lost a base at impact and then one each in the melees and that was our LF broken. However, we did manage to hold up some cavalry lancers with warriors then mash their flanbk with more and we eventually picked up a LF unit there too but lost two or the MF and had a couple of fragmented chaps. The vikings wandered forward, trying to help the flanks as best they could and eventually sacked the enemy camp. 10-10

Game 4 vs Navarrese.

The Navarese had gone down the lots of knights route (7BGs) with a some skirmishers and a couple of filler units. We won the initiative and put down a coast which had a handy bit of rough on it and a large steep hill on the other flank, effectively making it a 4 foot table. With the fortifications and Vikings that really only gave eight base widths of open table - into which we put the Sons and a warrior unit. Three BGs of knights headed there while four faced off the vikings and the masses of warriors pouring off the big hill. Near the coast, we distracted one unit of knights with the nobles while the other two crashed into the MF on a narrow frontage. the one nearest the coast broke through and then caught another MF in the back field. But the other MF, lead by Ulf, fought off their opponents and then charged to help the nobles shatter a unit of knights. Eventually we lost those MF as well but the nobles cleared up another knight unit.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, The Viking freemen with some MF friends chopped up three units of knights. The Huscarles managed to lose the impact to another knight unit and eventually died. But the Irish nobles held up the knights until the victorious freemen could pancake their flank. When the whistle blew it was 6 dead knight units for 4 dead MF. 13-7

Overall 2nd place with 69 points. I think we picked up 27 attrition points of posh mounted troops, 14 of foot and 2 camps. Losses were 17 attrition points of MF, 2 of viking Huscarles and 5 of LF.
navigator
Master Sergeant - Bf 109E
Master Sergeant - Bf 109E
Posts: 485
Joined: Wed May 13, 2009 3:18 pm

Re: Norse Irish at Badcon

Post by navigator »

Excellent report and much food for thought.. thanks and well done
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