We tried our first-ever Doubles game today, with Rhys the Burgundian and Gus Osbourne leading 500 AP of Early BUrgundian, against Blair Christian & myself herding a Medieval German horde in the direction of the enemy. The Germans elected to follow the example of Konradin, having an entirely mounted force (KnO, KnI DBE's and LH made up the whole army), while the Burgundians were the usual boullabaisse of Low Countries pike & crossbow, Burgundian KnI, & French and English Allies. The german herald records it thus:
The Emperor found a field suitable to his liking, and stood ready to
repel the Burgundian pretenders - to the left was a copse of trees, to
the far right a pair of steep hills, and scattered between a couple of
gentle rises. The Imperial troops, with their Italian condotti, formed
the left side of the army, while the Margrav Kippelburg took the centre,
and Duke Alonso the Importunate formed the right, his jinetes leading
the right wing, followed by brave knights from Spain. There was no sign
on the field of the Bishop of Bamberg, barring his tent waving a brave
pennon to the rear.
The Burgundian rebels arrayed a mighty swathe of Netherlander pike and crossbows to face the Imperial wrath, with a long strand of English shopkeepers forming the backbone of them, while a bloc of Burgundian archers and a glittering line of Burgundian knights faced the Margrav and the Spanish, with a French contingent making up the extreme left of the rebel position.
The rebels started forward - the French, eager for affray, sallied forward in leaps and bounds, unaware that the Burgundian knights had quailed and stood their ground at the sight of the Spanish facing them (rolling a 6 / 1 split on pips), while the Dutch crossbows started a long slow wheel to face their right, expecting a route march to deliver the episcopal forces to their flank, and the English moved forward menacingly.
Alas! the nervous Dutch crossbows summoned up their resolve, and stood
firm, shooting a mighty volley into the Bishops troops, emptying a thousand
saddles in their efforts. The remaining episcopal troops, dismayed at such
devilish accuracy, took to their heels, leaving the Bishop and his guards
to fight on alone. Meanwhile, Duke Charles,
without so much as a backwards glance, kept fleeing across the field.
The Hungarian horse held back the English, curvetting and pouncing on their flanks again and again, but with little loss to either side, while the Emperor lead his knights forward carefully, dismounting the Austrian knights to better withstand the anticipated shooting of the English. Meantime, the Spanish knights came slowly forward, while their ginettes spread across, attempting to encircle the French, and menacing the flank of the Burgundian knights. Meanwhile, Duke Charles kept fleeing across the field.
After some alarums and excursions in the centre, the Hungarians were pressed slowly back by the Dutch pike, although not before cutting down a swathe of knights (with no small loss themselves), and pouncing on a carelessly exposed wing of the Burgundian archers, killing a goodly many. The English, under my lord of Oxford, brought forward their knights to menace them, and the English bow, although somewhat disarrayed from the pinpricks of the Hungarians, pressed forward, forming a jagged U. Meanwhile, Duke Charles, still stiff with terror, kept fleeing across the field.
The Emperor, seeing the need to find a conclusion before the Low Country
command got reorganised, brought his knights forward, mounted and afoot,
ready to test the English mettle, while on the right, the Spanish rang
a clangour across the field as they set to the French knights. The cunning
of the French commander eluded the weight of numbers of the Spanish nobles,
and the initial clash of arms was to little effect to either side. Alonso
apparently got flustered (threw crap pips) and for long and long did not
take advantage of his superior numbers, so that the
struggle writhed on and on, the ginettes too dismayed at the French
prowess to try conclusions with the French rear. Meanwhile, the hapless
Charles, fled further and further across the field of battle, unaware that
the threat of the Bishops troops had evaporated more than an hour ago.
The imperial forces spurred after the English, who quickly ran out of room to retire in front of them, and the Emperor lead a death or glory charge into them.
Alas! 'twas death not glory - not a single English company fell, while three bands of knights gave their all for the Fatherland, and the Emperor and his guard were struck from the saddle by the endless sleet of arrows. In the centre, the Margrave, after a long and cautious advance on the Burgundian archers, did finally lead forth, and prepare to assault them at last, while the bulk of the Spanish knights were swirling around the sturdy French. Alonso had however recovered his wits, and was plaguing the Burgundian knights with his jinetes.
The English, seeing the hesitation in the Imperial ranks (i.e. 1 ee from demoralisation), sallied forth, curling around the beleaguered German knights, while my lord of Oxford led forth his bodyguard to trap an insolent band of Hungarians that had intruded into the area. Duke Charles did finally recover his wits, and turn to face the far-distant enemy, calling for a clean saddle betimes.
The english peasants wrought terrible slaughter upon their opponents,
but alas the skill of knightly jousting seemed far from the arm of Oxford,
as he and his guard were unceremoniously slaughtered by the hungarian horse
archers. With a groan of despair, the Imperial troops fell back, demoralised,
while simultaneously, the English, dismayed at
their losses fled the field.
At the same time, on the right, the valiant French, having withstood so much, finally broke at the threat of being entirely surrounded, and headed home: and in the centre, the Margrave finally got to grips with the Burgundian archers, slew left and right, crushing them in a rolling charge, so that the Burgundian forces on that side were dismayed, and fled also.
Final result: both armies broke on the same turn, the Burgundians losing
3 out of 4 commands, while the Germans lost 2, with sufficient casualties
on the other 2 commands (by 1 element) to break overall .. a draw by exhaustion.
Lessons???
ha! don't throw crap shooting dice with KnI
We all had a blast: this was a really fun game for everyone i think, not least because of using less-than-optimal armies on both sides. I was pleased to have wrong-footed Rhys & Gus by not bringing any foot (figuring that he'd have loads of cheap irrKnI to dismount as Bd), but my bold stroke of ambushing the Kn wedges went horribly awry with some poor dice throwing - although the remaining Generals wedge, helped by 1 LH, managed to keep 4 kn and 24 Bw tied up for the rest of the game.
Angus was basically stuck - he couldnt afford to bring the KnI forward against all our KnO + LH, and there really wasnt anything in our army he could use these to fight - he did very skillfully use the small French command to tie up a lot of the Spanish troops, but they could not perform miracles forever.
Honorable mention: the Burgundian knights who could not kill any LHO
frontally, until _after_ they got demoralised, when they proceeded to kill
2 of them (enough to break our army as it turned out).