Apologies for the lack of photos on this one – fatigue had set in at this point.
Paul’s army is fairly straight forward, IC, 2 x TC, 9 x 8 BGs of Sup Pike, 1 x 4 LH XB, 2 x 6 LF HG and a fortified camp. Paul won initiative and chose Agricultural. I went for maximum EFs and OFs. Paul chose 2 open spaces and a Coast – sensible choices for a pike based army. I did get 2 enclosed fields in the central sector but 1 was removed on a 6 and the other went 12” backwards on a 5. The terrain resembled a billiard table with pockets of terrain at the edges.
The Swiss army is effectively a juggernaut. It’s only weakness is that it is relatively narrow – just 18 fighting bases wide and it can’t cope very well with terrain. Sadly there was precious little of the latter available. I decided that my only chance was to go wide and try and get round the flanks whilst delaying in the centre for as long as I could. There was no point the Knights staying mounted.
English Deployment
Swiss Deployment
As expected the juggernaut rolled forward. I pushed LB BGs forwards on the flanks and my LF & LH went forward to try and restrict the forward motion.
Both Swiss LF BGs were deployed on their right flank and some early shooting quickly degraded them. First one and then the other were shot to routed.
I pushed too far with my LH and was charged by the Swiss LH XB. The initial contact was on just 1 base and although I was up at impact we drew 2 all. With the benefit of hindsight I should have delayed this contact to ensure that we both had 6 dice which would have improved my chances of winning. In the melee Paul committed his General and I lost going disrupted. This was not quite what I’d hoped for. The pikes would reinforce this melee relatively quickly and failing to win at impact consigned my LH to defeat. The only consolation was that I killed the Swiss general which would limit their flexibility even further.
One of my LB BGs stayed in the left hand EF but turned to threaten the pike flank. My shooting was now ineffective and the pike charged into the rough winning the impact and disrupting the LB. As the 4th rank of pike were not contributing to the melee they were allowed to expand. I matched this expansion – another mistake. I am now MF fighting HF in the open even though we are on even factors. I should have delayed and expanded on the opposite flank in my own turn but it’s easy to react without thinking through all of the consequences.
My other LB BG started to work its way onto the flank of the engaged pike block and was charged in the rear by the LH to get its attention. The LB disrupted but would eventually recover to see off the LH who were now disrupted and missing a base.
Over on my right I had pushed forward 4 BGs to avoid the onrushing Swiss. I was looking to take the fortified camp which I did but should have got my other flanking BGs into the action. I believe this was the only time Paul lost his camp all weekend – a minor consolation for me.
Back on the left I collapsed a HF unit into column to receive a pike charge. My HF held and then expanded but Paul was able to move another pike BG into overlap. My billmen would eventually destroy the pike BG they were facing but had lost a couple of bases of their own. To disengage I needed the pikes to rout at least 3MU in 2 rounds of rout – not too much to ask surely? The initial rout VMD was a 1 – 1 MU. The subsequent VMD was also a 1 and the flank edge of the billmen base was still in contact with the overlapping BG who simply turned and renewed the melee. The billmen quickly lost their 3rd base and auto broke.
The main Swiss attack now hit my remaining line. LB shooting was abysmal on the way in and I quickly lost 2 more BGs. Another LB BG was also caught by pursuers.
At this point I had lost 11 of my 12 AP but most of my remaining troops were out of harms way. I had picked up 5 of 11 of the Swiss with little prospect of any more. We therefore agreed to end the game early rather than waste the remaining time with the Swiss chasing the English. Unfortunately a big win for Graham on the adjoining table would mean that Paul was robbed of first place. I was delighted to see that he still ended our gaming year top of the rankings which was thoroughly deserved after his win at the BHGS Challenge.
On reflection my army would have benefitted from an IC – but what to drop to pay for it? A question that may be answered if it gets another run out at Warfare where we have a similar theme.
