Mortem et Gloriam Tudor English vs Taramasalta/Trastámara Spanish

  I never know how to spell that list title! Thank gods for cut & paste (but now I have an awful craving for fish bases pink snacking materials). Dik had said he wanted to use his Taramasalata Spanish, so my only real choice is my Tudors. My list (unchanged since getting drubbed by Neil)

With both generals being competent, Henry managed to not only invade, but strategic intercept and outscout the Spanish! The terrain became dende mountains with secure woods on the left flank, and wine gums to share.

 

You join us two turns in, while my Welsh spears are entering into the village to commence house-to-house fighting against the Spanish PROTECTED (really, look it up). The pikes and bills moved inextrobly towards Dik's firearms-armed-melee-expert-pikes (squeak, nasty). Dik's jinettes start the process of getting around things and shooting them (including the Welsh as they go past on the charge). All five pieces of artillery (two of mine, and three of Dik's) basically did nothing, all game.

In the centre, and on the left, both sides advance. My eight of longbows faces off against two pike blocks, rapidly backed up by the fully armoured men at arms. Shooting the gap is the elite 4 of English knights with the intent of countering the Spanish knights that were approaching from Dik's centre. My powerbow pick on the end  Colunella foot, or not!

Long shot showing the left and centre, with Dik moving units and another two Colunella approach my pike to the right while my two units of bills in support.

Do we think that's enough charges for one turn? My knights hit the flank of a Colunella, while Dik puts his two Papel knights into my knights and into my Demi-Lancers. Instead of shooting me with firearms (double slowing nastiness) he decided to charge my men-at-arms and powerlongbows, However, due to charge order, the left hand Colunella was stalled by the knights and the powerbow shots.

On the right, the left hand bills and the pikes charged, including the flank of a Colunella, which also puts them in range of a second Colunella, while in the village the Welsh charge again while the Jinettes do, well, not much!

The knights clash and although we lose a base and a half of casulties and the Duke of Suffolk perishes (and he was only 85!). At this stage in the battle, my dice were definitely on strike, I could not hit a barn door with a banjo!

My demi-lancers cause a kill and a wound, but suffer two kills in return!

I was causing wounds in the foot, but I was not getting quality hits in.

Over on teh right, I was also failing to land the hits, either in the village or against the Spanish pike. I killed two bases for the loss of three of mine!

After many, many turns of not doing anything to each other, the combined shooting and melee prowess of my knights and men-at-arms broke a Colunella (2-0).

But at the dame moment, my bills disintergrated under the combined weight of two Colunella (2-2).

Leaving an unfashionably large hole in my centre! I tried plugging it with my superior knights while my bills snuck round the flank of another Colunella by the village. Is it too late as two Colunella pursue my broken bill?

In an effort to stop my household knights sneaking round the line, the Spanish Colunella charged them! The result was not pretty for the pretty pikes!

Success! My knights broke the Papist knights, Henry's church was obviously better than their's. (4-2). Longbowmen look on, amused.

Not that amusement did not last long before turning to cancern as the Demi-lancers broke under the weight of Italian steel (and I was through to the chewy underside too!).

Dik's deadpile grows, while my spears fail to wade through the Spanish skirmishing handgunners. Our flank charge on the right hand Colunella had killed a base, and now it was looking shakey indeed.

There really is not much left on the left after Dik lost two units and I lost one, I push his skirmishing horse back, and my powerbow wonder whether they can react in time to the Papal knights.

Success comes in unusual places, as my men-at-arms, combined with the Household knights, chew through two more Colunella units (8-4) leaing me with an open centre all of a sudden and my househld knights charging pikes! Not quite where they want to be. On the right, a Spanish skirmisher routs (9-4) and the Colunella previously hit in the flank by my bills also collapses (11-4), this ripples into another nearby Colunella as the Spanish army routs (15-4).

 Top quality game, and felt a lot closer than it was. I did manage to secure 3 flank charges on pikes, which helped me an awful lot (if my die rolling at that point had not been so poor). My Men-at-arms and longbows did well, but the stars were the knights killing their opposite number and a Colunella unit.