Go for the Gold - ADLG AAR

Since moving away from the main group of players, I haven't had a chance to get ADLG out on the table. 

Recently, while rearranging my hobby room, I realized that a 15mm DBx-based army I bought last year off of eBay could potentially be large enough to form a ADLG force. Flipping through the book, I decided to try the game's Swiss Army knife faction - the Condottieri. 

Sure enough, my purchased miniatures could be used with the Florentine variation. I sent an email to Sam asking if he'd like to try out the game. 

Sam accepted, and took up the role as the commander for my Free Company. So, our two mercenary forces would go at each other somewhere in the plains of western Europe.

Sam won initiative and chose to defend.

Unfortunately, my terrain collection is really only meant for Triumph! and DBA - I'm going to need to fix that with some felt cloth - so the pieces were somewhat smaller than they should have been. Three fields, a village, a water feature, a gully, and a gentle hill covered the battlefield.

Our forces consisted of:

Condottieri (Florentine)
Initiative: 2

1st Command, C-in-C, Competant
-4 Heavy Knights Impact
-1 Medium Cavalry Crossbow
-2 Light Horse Bow

2nd Command, Competant
-2 Foot Knight
-2 Mixed Unit Heavy Spearmen/Crossbows
-1 Levy
-2 Medium Cavalry Crossbow

3rd Command, Ordinary
-2 Mediocre Pikemen
-2 Elite Longbowmen
-2 Light Infantry Crossbow
-1 Heavy Artillery

Free Company
Initiative: 1

1st Command, C-in-C, Brilliant
-5 Heavy Knights Impetuous
-2 Light Infantry Javelin

2nd Command, Ordinary
-2 Elite Foot Knights
-2 Foot Knights
-2 Heavy Swordsmen 2HW
-2 Light Infantry Crossbow

3rd Command, Ordinary
-4 Elite Longbowmen with Stakes

Both sides advanced towards each other for the first couple turns. I realized my mistake in deploying my heavy artillery on the flank. I wanted my pikes and longbows to be just outside the fields, but doing so meant blocking my artillery's line of sight.

In the center, our two lines of knights ended up facing each other when Sam charged my light horse, causing them to flee behind my own knights.

The battle looked something akin to a giant wheel, with the two armies taking mirrored actions - advancing on one flank, holding on the other, and fighting a brutal melee in the center.

Sam's impetuous knights surged forward and hit my own knights. While the combat ended up with more of his units taking cohesion hits, two of my four knights lost two cohesion each in the attack.

On the right flank, Sam's archers had managed to rout one of my mixed units, but the rest of the command charged into combat.

While I technically had the better force for close combat, the Elite status of the longbowmen managed to save them in a few key combats, although one unit was routed by my knights.

In the center, Sam had lost most of his knights, but my remaining units all had become disordered.

Sam's command of foot infantry had finally gotten close to spitting range, but my longbowmen and artillery weren't doing much to help the situation.

Seeing an opportunity, Sam decided to risk fighting in the fields against my longbowmen and Mediocre pikes. And it paid off! At the end of his turn, both armies had reached their breakpoints (19 for the Free Company, and 21 for the Condottieri). However, since the Condottieri had gone over their breakpoint (22 points), we decided that the game was a minor victory for the Free Company.

This was a good chance to relearn ADLG's rules, although I'm certain there were plenty of instances where I got it wrong. I'm hoping to introduce the rules to more people in the area and get some interest going.