ADLG - Game Report 48

Low Countries (243) vs Wars of the Roses (247)

It was down to the final game against Martyn’s Wars of the Roses Army to try and recover some points.

The irritating the field on my left flank was my own fault and once again I didn’t really think through where I needed the terrain! However, on the plus side I read up on light artillery and discovered that infantry can interpenetrate artillery; hence the deployment of the pikes behind the guns. This has the advantage of providing fire support before contact and shortening the line. The next problem to address was which wing of Martyn’s Army should I concentrate on?

As you can see my own field is causing me grief as I struggle past it! On the left my Knights are in danger of being outflanked – perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to put my camp on that flank. Meanwhile the bulk of my army in the centre doesn’t yet have an enemy to contact.

The tactical problem Martyn presented me is growing in stature. Where do I place my effort on the left flank or the right?

I chose left, in part to defend my camp, but also because I could hopefully, command points willing, move into contact quicker there. In doing so I was rather sacrificing my right.

Despite losing a halberdier unit my left flank is about to come into contact. My Knights are holding ground as the enemy’s longbow men have deployed stakes in front of them.

I have managed to manoeuvre some Knights forward to support the centre. Meanwhile my left is looking fragile, it all depends on what my pikes can do against Scottish pikes.

Although I am making some progress all is not as well as it looks with cohesion losses rising rapidly. Worse was to come. In the centre my Longbow swordsmen are fighting one of Martyn’s halberdiers. I had support on both flanks and despite inflicting a cohesion point on them, which they rallied off, and fighting for at least 4 rounds of combat the halberdiers on the very next combat roll destroyed the longbows! This rather summed up my afternoon!

Outcome

A loss to me and a win to Martyn in what was a very exciting and demanding game.

There should have been a medal for the best performing unit showing at Beachhead and which showed valour above and beyond; for that my award would have gone to Martyn’s brave halberdiers!

Tournament Outcome

After 5 battles I cam away with 1 win, 1 mutual destruction, and 2 losses for a total of 210 points and 12 place. A better outcome than I had achieved on previous competitions. The competition statistics can be found here on the main ADLG site.

Lessons Learnt

The artillery tactic worked commendably well.

I have too think more about terrain deployment; perhaps smaller fields?

I think I should have committed sooner and quicker on my left and centre.