Neil very kindly offered to face my God Will's It test army on Wednesday at Leighton Buzzard Wargames Club. Whilst not on the competition circuit for MeG (due to having many more active and fun interests), he is an exceedingly good player, so this was going to be a challenge. I had provided him with the brief for the competition (Crusaders and their spiky friends), and waited with baited breath to see what monstrosity he would find.
Mamluk Egyptians... Eek! Was not expecting that. That's a really tough list with many brilliant troops.
Scouthing cards did not fall my way then. Outscouted by 80%, it was a 'I'll come back in 10 minutes' moment for Neil!
The terrain, however, had all fallen perfectly again, woods and rocky ground making a secure flank on the right, a wood on the left, a village about smack bang in the centre, another lump of rocky ground betwixt it and the woods. Good thing I love steady infantry armies that can use terrain. I deployed with my four cavalry as a reserve, my light foot in the village, and a kinked line of heavy foot, some loose lurking in the right hand wood and some in the rocks on the left. I had one unit in reserve. Can you
guess where it might go?
Yes, on the left in the rocks ;)
The sun shines on the righteous?
Leighton Buzzard's club does catch the sun at certain times of year, giving very impressive shadows! Turn 1 and Neil's flank march appears on the right. Quite incredible and I was not ready for it. That secure flank was as secure as a seive is waterproof! Neil brought on a unit of flexible horse archers, and two units of flexible long spear armed Bedouin cavalry on my right, at least my camp is fortified and cavalry proof!
I turned my right-hand unit to face, my second to right hand unit swang to join them, in case the jelly beans were under threat. The Muppet led cavalry also swang right to help. Meanwhile, Neil's main battleline swang round to meet my now denuded front line. 
Unprotected cavalry vs crossbows in a wood, all sorts of minuses and pluses, means we fire on whites in the end. Eight mounted long spears plus six horse archers vs my six foot. This was touch and go. The extra eight foot and four knights would help a lot I felt. 
The action in the wood hots up. Mostly rough insults were thrown, as our crossbow bolts had little effect!
The extra foot swang in, while the lancers and foot closed to point blank.
On the main part of the battlefield, Neil's heavier and extremely heavy cavalry swang round, intent on tearing me apart around the village. My two left hand units had cleared the rocky ground and were reforming, with one of the reserve cavalry swinging behind to guard, while in the centre my other two units of reserve horse swing to fill their gap.
On the right flank, Neil's cavalry hammer into my foot, while my Muppet led lancers start to pick mercilessly on the horse archers.
The Swedish chef gets involved, as Neil breaks off his horse archers (they cost me a base), catching and killing the shooty horse (2-0)! My foot loses a base to the long spear cavalry, but breaks one four of unprotected long spears. (4-0).
The other cavalry unit goes down to the KAB test (6-0). Well, that was unexpected. I thought Neil was going to take out at least one of my units there.
My other units turn to get back to the front line, hopefully in time.
In the centre, Neil's heavy cavalry reveals it's teeth. Superior, shoot and charge. Seriously nasty and I'm not sure how well my foot will stand up to it when the crunchy outer layer goes. Thankfully, in melee my superior knights decided to show how it was done breaking another unit of horse, this time superior (8-0). What you cannot see is to the left of the village is Neil's superior, heavily armoured cavalry tear into one of my average units, which should hae left it on the brink of collapsing, but somehow he managed to miss with all of his dice.
As they break, my foot arrive on the right to help out. Neil takes the sensible approach and shoots my gun crews and skirmishers in teh village, while on the left his horse and my foot knock lumps out of each other. 
I finally remembered to take a photo of the left! As you can see, my avearge foot on the right somehow hold off the elite of the Mamluk army. My superior foot is taking a pounding too vs superior cavalry.
It was all over for the Mamluks, as the centre unit of Neil's broke. Leaving me a very unexpected 15-0 win. It was really a lot closer than that, Neil had a lot of my units within moments of breaking, I got really lucky.
Quite the result for my forces, and I suspect next time I meet Neil's force he will tear me apart. Great game, good laughs and his front line is DANGEROUS! Definitely one to watch.
Friend asked me to do his Pony Wars kit now that Baccus have taken it over. Painted quite a lot of dismounted native foot too! Top view Singles Why is there a Squeeze song going through my head. Sneaking up on the cavalry Back view Heading out Pairs The Indians send signals from the rocks above the pass The cowboys take position in the bushes and the grass The squaw is with the corporal, she is tied against the tree She doesn't mind the language, it's the beating she don't need Threes She lets loose all the horses when the corporal is asleep And he wakes to find the fire's dead and arrows in his hats Or something like that Here we go Sixes Top view Left view Snipping or sniping 8s Lefts Backs Right Missed two bases of US cavalry Going that way Ready to go Scouting This is going to end badly for the cavalry [img]https://i.imgur.com/k1iK9pV.jpg[/img] Mounted US troopers for Keith. The pairs Top view Off they go. Player...
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