ADLG - Game Report 108

Anglo-Saxons (151) vs Tribal Mongols (178)

So finally, I finished my first 28mm Army ready for Warfare 2023. And as promised the first game for them was against Paul and his Tribal Mongol horde. My army was based around two Saxon commands of heavy impetuous swordsmen, with the flank protected by our gallant, but very unreliable Welsh allies.

The army presents a very imposing shield wall when deployed.

Once I rolled a 1 for the allied general, who became hesitant, Paul made every effort to avoid getting within 4UD of him! His entire army started to gravitate to my right flank.

In order to make a game of it I decided that as previously I needed to use the weight of number s to try and swing the battle field counter clockwise and drive the Mongols from the battlefield. Here is a little known tweak in the rules. We all think that impetuous foot do not have to charge mounted. Hence what is my problem, I should just keep walking forward to drive them away. Wrong, what the rule says is that you don’t have to charge the front edge of mounted, but therefore you do have to charge the rear edge of mounted!!

The Mongols exposed their rears which I was forced to charge, because I didn’t have enough command points to hold them back. Moreover, every time I did try and bring them to battle they evaded, consequently my line started to become less coherent and expose gaps.

And when we did come into contact the dice gods deserted me and with it what should have been a reasonable chance for some payback.

Boyed by his success the Mongols didn’t evade the next charge and with the cumulative effect of their bows started to increase the Saxon pain.

The line has become even more fragmented and the Mongols have started to exploit the gaps they are creating.

Finally, the Mongols breakthrough in the centre and put the Saxon’s out of their misery. And the Welsh allies never came into battle.

Outcome

A huge Anglo-Saxon defeat, and a game of only marginally enjoyability – for both of us.

Lessons Learnt

An army redesign needed.

A battle where the challenges with using included generals was very clearly exposed.