ADLG - Game Report 112

Post-Roman Brits (146) vs Normans (179)

After much soul searching and discussion after the first outing with my 28mm Anglo Saxons against Paul I decided to trial a Post Roman British army mix. Therefore I chose this for the next trial 15mm game with Kevin I chose this list. From this list I went for medium and heavy swordsmen, but not impetuous, and I reinforced the cavalry with 2 elite heavy cavalry. I was using my Romans as ex-Romans.

So, the first thing I learnt, the hard way, is that heavy cavalry only have a 1 in 2 chance of beating elite impetuous heavy cavalry, and hence my left wing was blown away again – not least from some great combat rolls from the Normans. However, at least the Norman unreliable General has his feet stapled to the floor on the Norman left flank by the sea.

The unreliable general decided that as it was all going so swimmingly for the Normans that he ought to come out to play as well. Meanwhile the remainder of my heavy swordsmen fight hard to restore order on the left as well as to try and protect the camp.

It is now clear that the previously unreliable general is going for a quick victory before the rest of his army can take the plaudits. Meanwhile my heavy swordsmen are at least inflicting some hits of their own in their battle for survival.

The death throes of my army. The Norman cavalry on the Norman left have imperiously ridden down two medium swordsmen to complete their stunning, if rather late, entry to the battle.

Outcome

A 28 to 8 win for the Normans.

I went on to refight this battle twice more solo, in which I kept Kevin’s original plan with the unreliable General. I adopted a different plan, but the same for both refights, in which I placed the medium swords on the left in the field with the cavalry centre right. In the first refight I followed Kevin’s original plan and committed the Norman cavalry against the medium swords in the field. This was unsuccessful and there was a close but convincing win for the Post Romans.

In the second option I surmised that Kevin would have moved his right flank cavalry across the battlefield to fall on he heavy swords on the coast. While his centre, which would then be the right, launched a spoiling attack on my left to keep it in place. This was a much closer battle with the Norman’s coming out on top after a hard fight in the centre.

Some interesting issues were that in both refights the unreliable hesitant general only came into the battle about the same time as he had in our game. In the second option his timing was impeccable as it meant that there was a coherent line of elite heavy impetuous Norman cavalry bearing down on my swords. The side point of note was my use of my cavalry as a reserve which seemed to work well to counter Norman break throughs rather than using it as a shock force.

Lessons Learnt

It was great opportunity to be able to refight the same battle a number of times! Learning several useful lessons.

Although the army performed better whilst it wasn’t impetuous, spears may be a better and more flexible option than swords.