ADLG - Game Report 175

Medieval Spanish (239) vs Mongol Empire (229)

Back from the Old Codgers event it was now to start planning for Warfare. And of course the woeful decision about which army to create and/or take. On a careful reading of the lists I decided to try out he Medieval Aragonese Spanish. A nice thing about this army compared to the usual Flemish army is that the medium troops are better than the Flemish have; well the Almogavars are better than most medium troops. An important consideration given the amount of difficult terrain some people deploy, including me!

Kevin was up for the fight and brought along his Mongol Empire and the Khan’s guard. I was asked to defend and deployed with the Almogavars on the left to try and move forward and disable to the Mongol heavy artillery. Meanwhile the heavy spearmen command provided flank support to the Heavy impact knights who were going to go barrelling through the centre, if possible. The gap between the plantation and the field was exactly the width of the knights!

The crossbows provided excellent support to the Almogavars on their left, although given the opportunity to pursue the enemy rigorously when they evaded, the Almogavars conspired against me to be on a go slow! In the centre and the right the question would be the speed or otherwise as to whether I could drive the Mongol horse archers of the table. Having said that the flank fire from the artillery has already severely damaged the armoured polearms at the end of the infantry line – when would they run out of ammunition?

On the left the Almogavars continue their relentless, albeit slow, pursuit, which is bringing the enemy artillery into range of them. Actually not before time as despite a successful rally the armoured polearms are now looking increasingly fragile and sick. 

The Almogavars have overrun the artillery, but not before they finished of the polearm unit with fire, and are now mopping up the levy that was protecting the artillery. They would have been better employed destroying the enemy cavalry! The Knights have been forced to commit themselves into pursuing across the field. However the gap provides for the infantry to more completely provide flank support.

Eventually the Khan’s guard turn to fight on the right. However, a cardinal error is made by the Knights as they allowed the enemy cavalry to engage them while they were leaving the field, and subsequently destroyed them (now where and when did I commit that error before?) On the left the Almogavars have regrouped after destroying the artillery pieces. They are now engaging the final expendable levy who do not seem to want to be expendable for the good of the cause!

Outcome

An incredibly close call and a game which went into the final turn, with the Mongols coming out on top 22 to 21.

Lessons Learnt (or re-learnt)

In the terrain or out of the terrain not half-and-half.

What is the plan B if you can’t move pursue fast enough to keep the pressure on?