ADLG - Game Report 248

Communal Italian (189) vs Low Countries (243)

Could I redeem myself in the final battle of the day. This time against Cameron's Flemish; an army I could have fielded and which at one stage I was seriously considering. I was attacking in the plains. We deployed with the infantry centre and with our knights on both wings, with the French Mercenary Knights on the left at some distance from the rest of the army. They were positioned there to try and either envelope the Flemish right or to force them to honour the threat, and break their line.

Well, that plan sucks. Especially when the left wing commander becomes hesitant and refuses to engage, and of course the Flemish do nothing to bring him into the fight. Why would they?

Despite the continuing pleading from the CinC the left wing continue to refuse to engage. And of course, the Flemish do nothing to irritate them. However, the numbers remain even along the rest of the line. If the crossbows and light troops can cause attrition then there may be hope for us.

Contact! The Flemish mediocre Pikemen are remarkably resilient and refuse to give ground.

The Flemish Pikemen are more than resilient they have broken through the line. While on the Italian right the supporting attack has failed to make progress and has taken losses. The Italian left continue to refuse to fight.

And so at the death the Italian left decide to engage and in doing so move forward. However, it is much to late as the Italian centre has been destroyed and the Italian right is fragile despite some modest success.

Outcome

A Flemish victory by 15 to 23, leaving me at two wins and three losses for the event.

Lessons Learnt

In the attack it would have been more sensible to keep the unreliable commands closer to the commander to prevent the enemy ignoring them.

Or if someone becomes hesitant it is important to have a Plan B.

Faced with wall to wall pikes and spears one needs to try and force the flanks. Therefore I should have been more aggressive about trying to get around the Flemish left.

Credit to Cameron who played a cautious infantry battle well.