A warm up game for Skullrollers at the end of this month. I was using my Tudor English, as I thought it would give Paul a challenge, and partly because I haven't used it in ages. The list is... not good. It has 5 heavy hitting units, but they can only be in 4 bases, so to use it will be a real issue, especially against a player as good as Paul. I chose to invade with a strategic intercept, led by Henry VIII himself.
The list is below.
The table, the jelly babies are in a wood by the way! Paul's army fills the gap, perfectly.
I decided to try to bring in my line and pinch point the spears and pikes in the middle of Paul's line.
The two lines close on each other quickly. My bows, lower left, contract. My artillery has a lovely fire lane past my pike block too! My three knight blocks line up on Paul's left hand units. pikes are perfectly aligned and bills look on at lots of Paul's spears.
Henry and the Duke of Suffolk join the Yeoman of the Guard as the line of Paul-ness approaches.
Lining up on some juicy targets, protected knights vs crossbows, average -/fa vs Paul's foot; knights of the Royal Household waiting to see what target tempts them.
In the centre, the two pike blocks line up, obviously they know each other. Bill.en line up vs long spears, a fairly even match, plus a unit of 2-handed-cut-and-crush-heavily-armoured-melee-experts (only average), also line up, wondering whether 4 of them is enough to take on 8 bases of spear!
End of impact, more damage spears around than Tunguska! My left hand knights suffered against crossbows on the way in, the rest the damage was fairly evenly spread. Paul at this point was already planning my demise with his masses of reserves. My household knights joined in charging down a short spear unit, life is good.
Bases fall fast on the right, Paul is more or less even or up on me along this whole line, especially vs my unprotected Welsh spears in the wood (a holding action or suicide charge?).
The knights break through Paul's line, however he's only got three supporting units that are bigger and better than me out there.
It's all getting a bit tight, good thing Paul only rolled a 1 (-2 run away distance) and I didn't get to be swamped by him. (2-0)
On the left, my protected knights are in trouble against the crossbows they are 3 up against! This is the issue with units in 4s.
Paul angles himself for a flank charge, long spears vs cavalry, in the flank. Ooh sir, suit you sir!
THUNK! Only one wound, oh Paul!
And the crossbow smash my knights. Death stalks the land.
And one of my retinue foot (only 4 remember, so five black dice break you), legs it! (0-4) Death is busy...
Bit blurry, but I broke off the superior knights, and the rest of the line gets busy. Paul's spear's s'mash into my bows who had been happily picking off his spear bases as they passed him..
My Yeoman of The Guard and a unit of bills smash through Paul's spears, I'm not going down empty handed! (4-4) Even Henry gets involved.
My cavalry commander sprints over to join the bows (not his command, but being professional helps), and some how, they break the infinitely better spears (6-4).
My bows meet his spears that had previously tangled with my superior lancers. Again, a dodgy fight for me.
Can anyone else see the flank charges here? Another break against Paul (8-4)
In the wood, my Welsh light spears, despite being on their break point, hold, and hold, and hold, and...
We had taken another spear unit, but had lost the Yeomen of the Guard (10-6), and the neighbouring Bills were also severely beaten up. The Pikes, despite everyone else evaporating around them, on both sides, continue to fight each other, both pikes, both average, both Dutch. (10-8) We know what is really going on here!
In the far distance, my knights continue to battle against Paul's, having started with 4 bases plays 6, and I'm still there!
No I'm not! Off they break, but we did kill another knight! (8-8)
But that also causes a KaB on my Household knight, and that is game over. (10-15)
Fabulous game, but this is NOT a good list! All the fours make it too brittle, the 8s of Billmen did give it a certain punch, but this is a list where if you need to make kills, you HAVE to double team your opponent.
All in all, a good game, I had Paul thinking, hard, and was still able to claw 10 points out of it, but not a winning army.
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