ADLG - Game Report 202

Andalusian Arab (133) vs Carolingian (153)

The call came out on Messenger from Harry for a Friday afternoon game, and I thought why not. It would an opportunity for me to bring out the Andalusian Arabs to confront Harry’s Carolingians. Not least because I have been recently listening to “the Rest is History” podcast on Charlemagne, so I thought why not!

I was attacking and chose plains, and once again Harry did his trick of placing his terrain at an angle, which is surprisingly unsettling. For my deployment I went to the classical Infantry in the centre with cavalry on the wings. Harry’s deployment looked light and I naturally suspected a flank march was in the offing.

It wasn’t a flank march, I should have taken more note of the ambush markers on the gully on the enemy’s left which was hiding Heavy Cavalry! All of which meant that my right was under heavy pressure from Cavalry to their front and cavalry to their right. On my left the utility of the angled terrain feature became apparent as Harry moved two bowmen onto the edge of the terrain feature to provide fire support to his cavalry which at the same time prevented by Cavalry moving forward to contest the ground.

I decided to sacrifice a light and medium cavalry unit in attacking the enemy light cavalry on the right to allow breathing space to retire the rest of the cavalry; only for the enemy to stand and then defeat them! Question to self: why didn’t you just move forward and pin the light cavalry and force them to charge us? In the centre the infantry battle is about to begin.

Finally Le Crunch. It would all depend now on how the combats faired for me. And at this stage the number of wound markers is relatively sparse.

As usual it never plays out how one expects. I was expecting to see my cavalry on the right overrun but instead they are more than holding their own. Where as in the centre and on the left we are taking hits and losing units. While in the field on the left the Javelinmen are initially successful against the bowmen.

But this initial success is illusory, and on the left the Bowmen destroy the Javelinmen despite their wounds. In the centre the Arab infantry have been successful bit now the flanks are wavering as the Carolingians lap round and attack the flanks. While on the right the Carolingian cavalry have shrugged of their losses to break the centre of the cavalry line.

Outcome

A Carolingian victory by 14 to 23.

lessons Learnt

With missile armed cavalry use them to pin enemy cavalry rather than charging them and losing them.

Moreover as I was attacking there was no real reason for me to move forward and engage the Cavalry in ambush on the right.