Damn, one alliteration too far!
A last minute game vs Nick, as I had pimped my game with Mark off to Paul (confused, so were we).
As I waited for Nick, Mark and Paul fell on each others throats like hungry wolves.
They had both arrived with 100 Year War armies, Mark was French (a tasty army that he had some success with at Warfare 2017) and Paul trialing the Early English (so lots of powerbows with no stakes)! Paul and Mark have met previously on several occasions, but it never lasts long.
Mark and Paul deploy.
My list
Nick arrived with his Communal Italian forces, and we set about getting underway. Nick chose to attack, so somewhere on the South coast, Henry VIII readies his defenses, and wonders how the Italians have found a time machine!
Mark and Paul advance, and in the distance, Mark lines up his knights on Paul's English archers.
And his knights thunder into Paul's men at arms.
Paul's longbows miss, and the knights tear a hole into the centre of the archers.
Bursting through at the top. Meanwhile, below, the knights start to be hacked down by the English men at arms in prolonged melee.
Mark brings his knights back into the flank of another unit at the top, while Paul has dealt some heavy casualties to Mark's mounted.
Meanwhile, as the Tudors deploy, a cloaked figure stalks the army. 'Tis an omen.
Somewhat outscouted, Henry deploys wide and to the left of an area of broken ground. The Italians mass on our right with a small force of knights holding the coast..
Generals position themselves with their forces. Henry floats to share out his cards.
That's a lot of pavaises!
Mark and Paul continue to slug it out (Paul badly misses with his men at arms, allowing Mark a breather).
Nick advances, fast! A great wall of knights bears down on mine, making my longbows redeploy to try to intercept.
Mark breaks off his knights, while finishing off another archer unit. Paul charges into Mark's men at arms for an even scrap.
Reacting to the left hand knights, both my men-at-arms manoeuvre to face, while my bills head right to attempt to engage the main line.
Henry's mercenary pikes and his retinue bills move towards the Italian lines while his knights back away, quickly!
English longbows vs Italian knight. Oh well!
On the left, Nick's knights thunder into my men at arms.
Meanwhile, Paul and Mark are still tearing lumps out of each other as two lines of men at arms deal incredible damage.
These were two units of 8s!
The result of Nick's charge. I am on a factor of...
Fully armoured (doesn't count on a charge)
2 handed cut and crush (doesn't count on a charge)
Melee experts (doesn't count on a charge)
oh... 0, versus:
Charging lancer +2
Superior +1
General +1
Red and white for Nick vs my black. Nick's result = 1 dead and a shatter.
Which produced a +2 to his next file, causing a kill and a wound, and instantly breaks my elite Yeoman of the Guard! (0-2) Units of four are incredibly brittle.
I have to admit, I was hoping for a little survivability there!
His second unit thunders in, and only wounds, which we match.
But he kills a base and a half on his next roll, which takes the second 4 down to one base off breaking! Nick also smashes into the flank of my billmen, and this will not be pleasant either!
THAT HURT!
Random point! Mark and Paul are nearly done, and we are still on turn 2!
My bills on the left conform to Nick's knights, but are severely out classed. He envelops my men at arms, and although I will out fight him, he only needs a wound there to utterly crush them.
I break away with my cavalry, again.
While my pike and bills, ignoring the mess to their left go hunting crossbowmen.
And indeed, it is a mess. Heavily armoured superior melee expert knights (+3) vs bills (+1), nope, not ending well here. Must be something more interesting elsewhere?
Okay, that was unexpected, an actual kill. Just ignore the fact my bills are down to half strength and will evaporate any second, there's a good fellow!
All setting up nicely for a good scrap in the middle here. Come on, it's the only positive I've got here!
Look, it's the back edge of the table, we shall stand here!
While infinitely better knights charge us.
Pikes charge pavasiers, bills charge mounted crossbows to try and clear them out the way.
Crossbows, pavaise AND short spear. Nasty little combination there!
The knights pile in. Strangely, the only loss I take it the one place I am up! Oh well.
Been a while, but Paul smashes Mark 15-8. Both centres look fragile there.
Talking of fragile things, my bills and men at arms disintegrate, leaving Nick 0-6 up.
As my pikes take losses on the impact, but deal out one of their own too.
The knights start the melee, suddenly things are a lot more even (even if my right hand unit is fighting at -1 as they don't have shiny posh armour).
And even more on top when we break all three units in two turns! Really impressive work by my knights there, Nick spent a lot of time shaking his head about this one. If he had sent in his fourth unit, he would have nuked my line (6-6).
General situation, suddenly both our right flanks are winning (which means the left is losing I guess). Nick's general had to scoot back to his own line quickly, after going from talented to mediocre in a turn!
And he was being stalked...
My pursuit brings my knights to the aid of my beleaguered Welsh spears.
My bills charge Nick's pavaisers flank, and his spears charge me.
And my bows charge his crossbows while the Household Knights pile into the flank of Nick's knights.
The last of Nick's knights perish, and his general is swept away by Death. (8-6)
In the centre, I had failed to spot Nick had been setting up his crossbow armed cavalry for a flank charge.
On the centre right, my cavalry close on the pavasiers, but due to clanking in heavy armour, can't make it!
An ineffective round of fighting by both sides, except my bows have suffered from Nick's short spear and pavaise option.
My camp falls. (8-8, and I break on 10!)
But the end came from an unexpected source, Nick's rear crossbow armed pavaise, basically bored, takes a black shot at my longbows, because, well, why not!
And rolls a black dice, scoring a wound (1:6) chance, which break the unit.
Which smashes the army! All these places I could lose, and it's a stray crossbow bolt.
A fabulous game, I was not expecting to get 8 points out of this with my awful Tudors, but they surprised me. They have still never won a game, but each time they cause huge amounts of damage. Those 4s are just too brittle, on both sides.
As I waited for Nick, Mark and Paul fell on each others throats like hungry wolves.
They had both arrived with 100 Year War armies, Mark was French (a tasty army that he had some success with at Warfare 2017) and Paul trialing the Early English (so lots of powerbows with no stakes)! Paul and Mark have met previously on several occasions, but it never lasts long.
Mark and Paul deploy.
My list
Nick arrived with his Communal Italian forces, and we set about getting underway. Nick chose to attack, so somewhere on the South coast, Henry VIII readies his defenses, and wonders how the Italians have found a time machine!
Mark and Paul advance, and in the distance, Mark lines up his knights on Paul's English archers.
And his knights thunder into Paul's men at arms.
Paul's longbows miss, and the knights tear a hole into the centre of the archers.
Bursting through at the top. Meanwhile, below, the knights start to be hacked down by the English men at arms in prolonged melee.
Mark brings his knights back into the flank of another unit at the top, while Paul has dealt some heavy casualties to Mark's mounted.
Meanwhile, as the Tudors deploy, a cloaked figure stalks the army. 'Tis an omen.
Somewhat outscouted, Henry deploys wide and to the left of an area of broken ground. The Italians mass on our right with a small force of knights holding the coast..
Generals position themselves with their forces. Henry floats to share out his cards.
That's a lot of pavaises!
Mark and Paul continue to slug it out (Paul badly misses with his men at arms, allowing Mark a breather).
Nick advances, fast! A great wall of knights bears down on mine, making my longbows redeploy to try to intercept.
Mark breaks off his knights, while finishing off another archer unit. Paul charges into Mark's men at arms for an even scrap.
Reacting to the left hand knights, both my men-at-arms manoeuvre to face, while my bills head right to attempt to engage the main line.
Henry's mercenary pikes and his retinue bills move towards the Italian lines while his knights back away, quickly!
English longbows vs Italian knight. Oh well!
On the left, Nick's knights thunder into my men at arms.
Meanwhile, Paul and Mark are still tearing lumps out of each other as two lines of men at arms deal incredible damage.
These were two units of 8s!
The result of Nick's charge. I am on a factor of...
Fully armoured (doesn't count on a charge)
2 handed cut and crush (doesn't count on a charge)
Melee experts (doesn't count on a charge)
oh... 0, versus:
Charging lancer +2
Superior +1
General +1
Red and white for Nick vs my black. Nick's result = 1 dead and a shatter.
I have to admit, I was hoping for a little survivability there!
His second unit thunders in, and only wounds, which we match.
But he kills a base and a half on his next roll, which takes the second 4 down to one base off breaking! Nick also smashes into the flank of my billmen, and this will not be pleasant either!
THAT HURT!
Random point! Mark and Paul are nearly done, and we are still on turn 2!
My bills on the left conform to Nick's knights, but are severely out classed. He envelops my men at arms, and although I will out fight him, he only needs a wound there to utterly crush them.
I break away with my cavalry, again.
While my pike and bills, ignoring the mess to their left go hunting crossbowmen.
And indeed, it is a mess. Heavily armoured superior melee expert knights (+3) vs bills (+1), nope, not ending well here. Must be something more interesting elsewhere?
Okay, that was unexpected, an actual kill. Just ignore the fact my bills are down to half strength and will evaporate any second, there's a good fellow!
All setting up nicely for a good scrap in the middle here. Come on, it's the only positive I've got here!
Look, it's the back edge of the table, we shall stand here!
While infinitely better knights charge us.
Pikes charge pavasiers, bills charge mounted crossbows to try and clear them out the way.
Crossbows, pavaise AND short spear. Nasty little combination there!
The knights pile in. Strangely, the only loss I take it the one place I am up! Oh well.
Been a while, but Paul smashes Mark 15-8. Both centres look fragile there.
Talking of fragile things, my bills and men at arms disintegrate, leaving Nick 0-6 up.
As my pikes take losses on the impact, but deal out one of their own too.
The knights start the melee, suddenly things are a lot more even (even if my right hand unit is fighting at -1 as they don't have shiny posh armour).
And even more on top when we break all three units in two turns! Really impressive work by my knights there, Nick spent a lot of time shaking his head about this one. If he had sent in his fourth unit, he would have nuked my line (6-6).
General situation, suddenly both our right flanks are winning (which means the left is losing I guess). Nick's general had to scoot back to his own line quickly, after going from talented to mediocre in a turn!
And he was being stalked...
My pursuit brings my knights to the aid of my beleaguered Welsh spears.
My bills charge Nick's pavaisers flank, and his spears charge me.
And my bows charge his crossbows while the Household Knights pile into the flank of Nick's knights.
Unfortunately, Nick's break through knights had reached my camp.
The last of Nick's knights perish, and his general is swept away by Death. (8-6)
In the centre, I had failed to spot Nick had been setting up his crossbow armed cavalry for a flank charge.
On the centre right, my cavalry close on the pavasiers, but due to clanking in heavy armour, can't make it!
An ineffective round of fighting by both sides, except my bows have suffered from Nick's short spear and pavaise option.
My camp falls. (8-8, and I break on 10!)
But the end came from an unexpected source, Nick's rear crossbow armed pavaise, basically bored, takes a black shot at my longbows, because, well, why not!
And rolls a black dice, scoring a wound (1:6) chance, which break the unit.
Which smashes the army! All these places I could lose, and it's a stray crossbow bolt.
A fabulous game, I was not expecting to get 8 points out of this with my awful Tudors, but they surprised me. They have still never won a game, but each time they cause huge amounts of damage. Those 4s are just too brittle, on both sides.
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