The Battle of Kutná Hora, 1421 - To the Strongest! AAR

A not-so-decent night's sleep (it turns out city center is fairly noisy, and my rental was right next to some sort of municipal building that really wanted me to know it was 3am with its bells) was fixed with a decent cappuccino and an Italian sausage and egg bagel from the Italian bakery next door. Somewhat revitalized, I rocked up on Saturday morning for my morning game; refighting the Battle of Kutná Hora with To the Strongest.

James, the GM, changed the scenario to a defensive siege rather than the charging column that historically saw the Hussites win the battle.

As a fun coincidence, Ted (from the New Jersey gaming group) had also signed up for the game. 

Jan Žižka and his Hussites were deployed atop a hill, their armored war wagons bristling with handguns and crossbows. Supporting the war wagons were a few units of infantry, cavalry, and light artillery.

Surrounding the Hussites was a sea of Catholic forces, with a mix of infantry and cavalry. The most dangerous units were the lance-armed, heavily-armored knights of the nobility. 

The game began with the Catholic forces advancing. The two commands facing the Hussite center had the furthest to go, while the flanking forces were relatively closer. 

Thanks to the seating arrangement, Ted was commanding the Hussite forces opposite my Catholic battalions. 

While the war wagons didn't have traditional flanks that could be attacked for an advantage, the Catholic commanders agreed that the weakest part of the Hussite positions were the spaces where the wagons could be charged on the side. 

Combat started with some desultory fire on both sides. I was hoping to place some Disorder markers on the war wagons before engaging in close combat. 

The Catholic commanders on the other side of the table had the same idea; try to crack the war wagon line where it intersected

While I was able to put a few hits on Ted's wagons, they were able to rally back to normal. Their guns, armored cover, and supply of ammunition meant that I was likely to lose a longer ranged engagement, so I instead decided to charge in. My Noble command (with four units of knights) began shifting to the right. 

And in a stroke of luck, one of the war wagon sections was demolished by a charging unit of Nobles!

Their charge was immediately halted by a failed flank attack on a group of Hussite spearmen.

Another breach was made in the wagon line in the Hussite's center, but the attackers had taken casualties and lacked the heavy cavalry to exploit the exposed position.

Hussite spearmen and Catholic cavalry clashed in the corner of the battlefield. Hussite reinforcements hurried to cover the two breaches made in the wagon line. 

My commands were quickly losing troops as they broke upon the Hussite rocks. 

And not too long after that realization, the game ended! It was a solid Hussite victory, with the Catholic Germans losing too many troops to continue.

All in all, a very fun game, and it was great to roll dice against Ted. 

The Battle of Jaffa, 1192 - Lionheart AAR

My second game at Historicon was a refight of Jaffa, 1192. It was run by Chris Grau, who was the GM behind the amazing Battle of Helm's Deep at Fall In a couple years back. 

Chris was using his own rules, currently titled "Lionheart". Originally based on Little Wars TV's mass battle version of Ravenfeast, Chris has worked to make his own product that provides a fun game for mid-to-high medieval battles. 

The scenario saw two armies, Crusaders and Ayyubids, clash outside the walls of the besieged city of Jaffa. Richard the Lionheart, King of England led a force of British, French, and Italians against Saladin's force of Turks, Egyptians, Bedouins, Syrians, and others under the Ayyubid Empire's control. 

The Crusaders' two commands consisted of heavy spearmen, crossbowmen, mercenaries, and just two units of mounted knights (one apiece). The Ayyubids' three commands had some slightly-less armored lancers, lightly-armored spearmen, and plenty of light cavalry. I was given control of Saladin's command in the center of the Ayyubid lines.

The battle began with an aggressive push on the Ayyubid's left, with a unit of light cavalry making its way through the suburbs of Jaffa to try and capture the Crusaders' headquarters tent (worth a victory point). Richard's knights were attacked on multiple sides by Ayyubid lancers and horse archers.

The main bulk of the Crusader infantry advanced in a line, but the French command on the left was forced to open a gap as the Ayyubid right shifted outwards in a potential flanking maneuver.

In a reversal of historical events, Richard was dragged from his horse and captured early in the game. 

Stunned by the lost of their king and commander, the Crusader's right flank was then overrun, the heavily armored infantry swarmed by Ayyubid spearmen and cavalry. The loss of their headquarters was an additional hit against the Crusaders' morale. 

On the other side of the battlefield, the lines had broken up into a series of smaller engagements. One-on-one, the odds were in the Crusaders' favor. 

The heavy armor and arms of the Crusaders kept the French commander alive as Ayyubid light cavalry launched multiple failed attacks.

Hoping to counter the use of the Ayyubid's reliance on cavalry, the center line of the Crusader infantry deployed stakes. These defenses then had to be abandoned as the situation on the flanks grew more dire and the Crusader infantry advanced to try and come to grips with Saladin's division. 

Two units of Knights Templars, arriving late to the battle, momentarily put some pressure on the Ayyubid right flank. However, a trio of absolutely devastating dice rolls resulted in three Crusader infantry units routing in a round of combat. Hopelessly outnumbered, those Crusaders still mounted turned to flee, leaving the infantry to the mercy of the oncoming Ayyubids. 

Ouch! A few early losses by the Crusaders put them on the backfoot from the start, and the greater numbers and mobility of the Ayyubids allowed them to pick the most advantageous combats where needed.

I did enjoy Chris' rules and I will get a copy for myself when they're available. His 10mm miniatures were fantastic to look at (especially the tiny cityscape of Jaffa), and very inspiring for a potential Al-Andalus project with these rules. 

The Battle of Pavia, 1525 - Pike & Shot AAR

This past weekend was Historicon! After several years of not attending, I dropped by last year to check out the Lancaster Convention Center and decided that I'd try to attend the next year's convention.

After renting a place a few blocks away I drove up from Maryland, having signed up for four games and ready to play. 

The first game of the convention was Martyn Kelly's refight of the Battle of Pavia. You can read more about the project over on his College of Kings blog.

As you can see, Martyn put in an incredible amount of work, with thousands of miniatures and two play areas. After hearing about the project when Martyn was a guest on the Yarkshire Gamer Podcast, I knew it was going to be the first game I would up for. 

I really can't express how awesome it was to see multiple 144-strong pike blocks. 

Those are metal pikes too, so these units are literal hazards for the unwary gamer!

The main battle was between French and Imperial forces north of what I believe is the Castle Mirabello. 

In addition to French and landsknecht pikemen, harquebusiers, and crossbowmen, the French (led by King Francis I) had plenty of cavalry. 

The Imperial forces in the north end of the park also consisted of pike blocks, cavalry wedges, and ranged units. 

In a quick diversion, Martyn had some wonderful additional details in his parkscape, like these geese enjoying a cold bath. 

As well as these dedicated beekeepers tending to their hives. 

French cavalry lead the charge against the opposing Imperial forces. 

On the other side of the park, another battle broke out between the French and Imperial troops. 

The third battle took place in the southern area of the park, just outside the city walls. Landsknecht pike blocks clashed with Spanish swordsmen. 

With the French cavalry avoiding the woods at the park's edges, the fighting at the north end of the park was funneled into the area between the woods and castle. 

My own command - the French and landsknecht infantry - watched as other French infantry infiltrated behind the council. The groups of harquebusiers marched through the freezing muck of the castle's moat. 

As the French cavalry charged over the Imperial skirmishers, the ground was being churned up by the hooves of their mounts. This resulted in mud markers, which reduced the morale saves of any nearby units; absolutely deadly to the cavalry!

While the other French commanders were fighting, I was wandering around the table trying to keep abreast of the overall situation. It seemed like the French were doing a decent job of dividing the Imperial forces into two smaller groups. 

My troops were rather content to sit back and watch the cavalry go at it. Just think of all of mud and horse bits that they'd have to step in just to get into the fight...

Alerted to the French's underhanded tactics of going around the castle, the Imperials rerouted some of their own ranged units to halt the sneak attack. 

However, disaster struck when the Imperial troops routed their French opponents by the city's walls. Freed from combat, the Imperial commander double-timed his troops to attack the French rear lines. Multiple cannons were captured before the French could react. 

From what I could tell (again, doing circuits around the tables), the Imperial forces had pulled backed behind reinforcements that made their way through a breach in the park walls. 

The French forces on that side of the table were now the ones on the receiving end of a flank attack!

At Martyn's urging, James (an Imperial commander) and I maneuvered our landsknecht pike blocks into combat.

German peasants on both sides stabbed at each other, the units forced into a push of pike. 

Such a titanic clash couldn't last for long! With the amount of dice these units threw down (and some very nasty modifiers, like re-rolls for failed attacks and lowered morale saves from all the mud and bloody bits of horse and French nobility), both units quickly accrued a deadly amount of hits. 

Unfortunately, it was my unit that broke first! 

As the game hit its time limit I wasn't able to get a full tally of the end results, as I had to immediately head to my next game. I'm fairly certain the French got the worst end of the stick, having lost an entire command and been flanked on the other side of the battlefield. Still, what a game! 

This would be a fantastic all-day event, and I'm impressed that Martyn could not only get results in the four hours the game was scheduled for, but managed to do so five times over the courts of three days.

I also appreciated chatting with him during and after the game. From his recommendations, I've got some books to pick up to learn more about the battle. 

Martyn deservedly won the Historicon Best of Show award. While I'm still dazzled by the setup through the pictures I took, it was still something you had to see in person; a real triumph of the Big Miniatures Battle in a market flooded with skirmish games. 

Warring State of Mind - Bingfa AAR

This past weekend Kelly hosted another of Rocky's game. We played the currently unpublished "Bingfa" (or "The Art of War"), which are intended for large battles during the Chinese Warring States period.

The rules have quite a bit of "chrome" to them, adding systems that are intended to capture the feeling of the period. The opposing sides are either "Yin" or "Yang". Instead of dice, the rules use a randomization system based on the concept of bagua, with four resulted inclined to Yin and four results inclined to Yang; Supreme, Favorable, Moderate, and Minimal. Modifiers to the randomization table provides shifts either for or against.

As an example, I (as the Yin player) draw a Minimal Yang result. However, due to modifiers that provide two shifts in my favor, I instead end up with a Moderate Yin result.

The scenario was a meeting engagement between the States of Qi (on the far side) and Wei (on the near side), commanded by Kelly and myself respectively. 

Both sides consisted of infantry units (crossbows and dagger-axes), slow-moving four-horse chariots, armored cavalry, bow-armed mounted horsemen and skirmishers. Kelly's Qi had the monopoly on cavalry (the period equivalent of cataphracts) while I had a few units of nomads (i.e., Huns). 

Another piece of chrome in the game are army formations, which requires a test for your general's orders to be properly received and understood. Failing once gives you a second chance to pick a formation with a shift against, and failing again forces you to deploy into a marching column.

Army formations determine your divisions' objectives and stances (attacking, defending, or withdrawing), which allows for certain combat actions and affects morale. They can be changed mid-battle.

Unfortunately, I tried to form my army into a couple of the more difficult formations and failed to do so. So my force was caught in a marching column while Kelly's had successfully deployed. 

Divisions are given two objective markers - one real and one dummy - and must move towards them. Enemy units can be fought if they're met along the way, or if an enemy unit is threatening a capture objective.

While Kelly's divisions advanced (slowly, as infantry and chariots can only move one square per turn), my own formation was quickly attempting to shake out into something resembling a proper battle line.

While both sides' infantry and chariots lumbered across the battlefield, our faster units (cavalry, horses, skirmishers, and nomads) battled it out.

My right division, having been at the head of the column, was making the best effort to get to its objective. The center division was coalescing into a fighting formation. Unfortunately, the left division, having been at the back of the column, was horribly out of position and formation. 

Finally, like two lumbering titans, the lines closed and combat was joined. 

Fighting in Bingfa is incredibly bloody. Units under attack orders fight against any and all units in the three spaces to their front, which can quickly result in units routing from the table as they accrue hits. 

Another important lesson I learned is that chariots do not like terrain. They don't appreciate attacking into villages, and they don't like being on hills (which I was informed were "precipitous" terrain; moderate to gentle hills wouldn't be represented at this scale).

This resulted in two of my chariots units being driven back, and another two routed.

The resulting problem is that when friendly units see other units of equal or higher social rank routing from the table, they may decide to flee as well, creating a cascading chain effect of fleeing units. 

This single combat went so poorly for me that I had to take a Defeat Trial test, which I then failed! My army folded like a cheap copper sword, leaving the State of Qi to hold the field and claim victory.

Having played Rocky's other rules ("Wars of Such Magnitude" and "Right Cruel and Fell"), Bingfa certainly has the most chrome. It has a ton of moving parts that simulates the complex machine of Warring States period armies. Players have to consider army formations, division objectives and orders, and combat stratagems. Divisions are big and slow, and may not follow your orders. But it does eventually click, and would make for a great multiplayer game. Rocky's use of 3mm troops also adds a sense of grandeur to the fight (although horses and cavalry may need a little extra differentiation on the table!).

Expect to see more as Rocky develops the rules.