The Worlds in Charleroi 2016
Italian Condotta - Florence vs Late Roman
Game 1 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Condotta Italian
Game 2 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Medieval Scots
Game 3 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Han Chinese
Game 4 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Late Roman
Game 5 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Seleukid
Game 6 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Italian Condotta - Venice
It's day 2, and a night of roistering and carousing has taken place in which all of the bright spots in the entire city have been thoroughly visited, enjoyed, ravaged and casually discarded in an all-night frenzy of non-stop partying. Or, we went to one bar in the same square as before, had a few drinks and then ordered food just before they shut the kitchen. None of us are getting any younger...
After a charming drive through the beautiful landscaped surroundings of Belgium's answer to Versailles, the second day dawned. Not quite as hot as the day before, in a sort of "out of the pizza oven, into the tandoor" kind of way of using the word "not". But the Condotta were not quite stone cold last, and the treat they had for this feat of luck was to face a Late Roman army, in the hands of someone French.
Late Roman - really good legionaries with clever stuff like Rear Support and occasionally Armour, high quality Auxilia capable of dominating and seizing rough terrain, and patchy horse - possibly enhanced by the addition of a range of interesting allies, from the Eastern and Western Empire. At least they are called "Late Roman" in ADLG - none of this Principate and Palitanate rubbish...
The lists for the Italian Condotta - Florence and Late Roman from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Charleroi can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
With a core of Legions and an allied command of German charging warband infantry the Romans wanted, and had got a narrower table by dint of successfully rolling for a waterway, against which their right flank was neatly tucked. Their weaker horse command had a hill on which to stand and give itself a better chance of holding off enemy foot, with the whole thing being set out like an anvil of toughness against which I was presumably expected to hurl myself.
L'Art de la Guerre hint - you can pick a waterway as one of your terrain picks, but have to dice for it on a 5 or 6. If you don't get it, you can still choose another piece. This stops waterways being on every table where someone wants to narrow the board. There are no comedy ships in ADLG.
But, with the benefit of hindsight and the stinging embarrassment of serial defeat, somehow, against all odds, this potent combination of pain and motivation conspired to allow the Condottieri army to work out a plan, based on Roman foot being most likely deployed in the middle. The Condotta Knights were on the left, but some way from the waterway as they ideally didn't want to fight the Legions until as late as possible, hopefully after the rest of the army had won the game, and Hawksmoor was in the middle, with the bow-rich cavalry-munching command on the flank
With a wall of firepower descending on the hill, the Romans threw out a derisory skirmish screen of LH, giving Hawksmoors skirmishers a target to shoot at.
Roman Legions & The Green Berets
The Roman cavalry Choir was singing a song of standing on a hill, but this was little concern to the Longbows and Crossbows of the Condotta - opening up as they got into range bolts and arrows of outrageous fortune descended on the Italians and their horses started to poop green markers in an immediate response.
What's Going on Here Then?
The Romans have deployed hard up against the secure flank of the waterway, with cavalry on their extreme left. The wider Medieval army of the Florentines has left the waterway's edge lighthly held, and has weighted itself to overlap the Romans on the open flank. With cavalry a tempting target the Florentine shooting formation is racing forwards into range whilst the rest of my army takes advantage of the Romans largely static defensive setup to reorganise and sort out some better matchups - principally by teeing my Knights up against the Gothic-style Foederate foot.
The Roman horse could see the writing on the front of the Condotta pavises and with a few markers already in place turned tail to retreat - a slow retreat, as the hill was covered in brush and so it slowed the one Cataphract in the Roman formation to a crawl
L'Art de la Guerre hint - Mounted in RGo lose an MU, and turning 180 also costs an MU, so normal horse can turn and retreat 2MU on a rough hill. Cataphracts only move 3MU though, and also lose 2 MU for any turns (as they are classed as "unmaneuverable" - so after a turn in RGo they have no move distance left..
By now the plan was developing at a fair pace of knots, as the second-guessing of the Roman deployment was starting to come up trumps for their descendents from across Italy. One of the skirmishers had been shot down, and the Knights had swung round into a gap in Hawksmoors line and were now advancing rapidly on the German Warband all whilst drifting to the right to avoid the out-of-shot Legions.
Pictures of Romans in 15mm from my Ancients Photo Directory
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Legions and Auxilia flaunted their characteristic shield designs along the waterside, as they wheeled in to try and outflank the Condottieri as they strode forward. This clearly had to be stopped, and so Hawkswood had detached a couple of units of his men to drift left try and cause trouble for the Romans, ideally to simply slow them down but even more ideally to take a few of the Roman Auxilia and Archers with them before they fell under the weight of numbers. A thankless task, but one which a Halberdier and a Foot Knight were more than capable of taking on.
The Shooty command was now close on the heels of the Roman horse, and with the advantage in width becoming ever larger as the most vulnerable horsemen at the end of the line were shot down and killed, Longbowmen rushed forwards to get a toe-hold in the rough and outflank the Romans before they could run away.
English Longbow Shooting
Foot Knights are tough, but concerted shooting supported by LF and some spotty dice soon saw multiple hits inflicted on the Mercenary infantry. They needed t get into combat quickly if they were to take anyone with them to their Italian Mercenary Valhalla
Whats that Going Over the Hill? Its 3 bases of Roman mounted, carrying 5 hits already!
This was too good a target to miss - Hawksmoor and the Condottas two sets of bowmen raced forwards to point blank range to pour fire into the retreating Roman horses asses. Even the General of this command was in trouble, as he was embedded!
Slam!! The Condotta knights piled into the German Warband ally, ignoring a random enemy LF on their flank (as you can ignore the ZOC of LF, and they can't contact real troops in the open in any circumstances anyway)
What's Going on Here Then?
The Medieval Italian redeployment completed, the Florentine army is now piling forwards into targets of choice along 2/3 of the front line whilst still refusing to offer more than token delays and opposition to the hard core Legions of Rome. The Roman line is already crumbling from it's left hand edge and this threatens to roll up the Romans in short order.
The two flank guards were also in against the theoretically squishy but deeply alliterative Roman bowmen- even carrying two hits they should still comfortably outmarch the shooters. The main body of Legions stood and looked on impotently as on both of their flanks heir colleagues were locked in mortal combat.
Roman Legionary Weapons
The Knights were proving to be a pretty potent force, smashing into the German lines and causing a degree of carnage in 2 out of 3 combats... but, surprisingly - losing in the centre. The Romans Legions were seeing an opportunity to join in and secure a devastating flank charge - but with a spare Knight the Condotta had an answer readily prepared, if not quite in the right place just yet. Or, put another way, instead of drifting the entire formation to the right I probably should have dropped one knight on the left off a move or two sooner and just drifted the other 3 over to fight the Germans.
The Foot Knights and Halberdiers were also winning, and with spare pips floating around even Italian LH were considering becoming an overlap.
L'Art de la Guerre hint - Each General in ADLG has a command range, based on his quality. Troops out of Command Range cost an extra pip to move, and the LH belong to the Knight command, so are a long way from their General. Light troops however count as "in command" at up to twice the distance of other normal battle troops, so these chaps are still OK to do one-pip moves. Just about...
The Legions and Auxilia stepped up and advanced into double overlap - and double flank attacj next turn - position to take the fight to the halberdiers and Foot Knights, even as the swinging polearms inflicted ever more casualties and hits on the Auxilia and Bowmen taking them on frontally. Would the Free Company men break through before the Romans got a decisive next turn to execute their flank attacks?
The Condottieri noblemen and their steel-clad horsemen (from Museum Miniatures) were almost through the resilient German infantry, but the Legions were poised to help redress that balance in a decisive fashion. The defensive Knight had not been quick enough, and now needed to successfully charge the Roman light infantry, and not roll short in the charge random move in order to block the flank charge successfully.. It was all on the dice - exactly as it should be !
What's Going on Here Then?
Florence's Knights are on the point of breaking through the centre of the Roman army, but the Gothic foot are putting up a stiffer than expected resistance and this is allowing the legions to move into a position to join in this combat - what is preventing them doing so more quickly is the attack on the waterside of 2 units of Condottieri infantry against the Auxilia, which is eating into the Romans command and control across the right hand wing of their army. The Roman cavalry have all but been swept away and now mercenary bowmen are moving into position to roll up the Gothic foot from their flank.
The Roman Bowmen were standing firm against the hacking of Hawkswood's men, and a twin flank attack was now moments away... the question of whether the bowmen would actually need that much help in despatching the now-on-3-hits Knights was potentially going to be moot.
The flank protection knight had succeeded - blocking the Legions attack on the flank of the line of Knights, but then being wiped out at the first combat by the equally surprised Legion! But, even in instant death their mission was largely achieved, as the threatened knight took the opportunity to comprehensively out-dice its Germanic opponent and burst through the line of warband and into the backfield! Longbowmen had by now easily mopped up all of the Roman horsemen and were streaming down off the hill and into the flank of the Germans as well, polishing off the enemy forces wherever they could find them in range. The game was set for a first win...
But the win would not come quickly enough for all of Hawksmoor's men - the ultra-resilient unit of bowmen scored a remarkable victory, helped greatly by the arrival of Auxilia on the foot knights flank.
Roman Tactics
The Germans were gone. The Roman army now consisted of a Legion and its Auxilia trapped in a square foot of table, waiting on the final hammer blow to condemn them to defeat
With the primary forces of both sides teering themselves up for one final apocalyptic battle of Knights against Legions, a handgunner spotted some careless enemy skirmishers and lit his match... one set of flying balls later and the enemy skirmishers picked up the final hit that tipped the entire army over the edge into utter defeat. Victory and Defeat for Italy, but a Win for the Condotta at the 4th attempt!!!
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition, or read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal
Post Match Summary from the Italian Condotta - Florence Commander
Aaah, the sweet smell of victory at last, wafting through my nostrils like the scent of a surprisingly aromatic but dangerously at least 7% ABV Belgian beer we consumed the night before in the town square above its underground car park. From here I see a future of renewed confidence and resurgent success as my great Condottieri forces secure a series of incredible victories to propel me back to mid table mediocrity, or perhaps a bit higher than that if I win my next two games and some people get 2 wins and a draw.
This was a triumph of planning and thinking, as if the brain power which so completely eluded me in the heat of yesterdays afternoon has now fired up in this almost as hot morning and inspired me to actually try and anticipate what troops my opponent might have in their army, and then also guess where they might deploy them too.
Admittedly the cavalry on the rough hill was a bit of a bonus, and in a careful analysis it looks as if the Knights also had to redeploy behind Hawksmoors men to find a suitable target and save Hawksmoor from a mauling at the hands of the Legions and the German barbarian foot, but we are a highly trained and well drilled force and so these things are comfortably within our capabilities should we choose to exercise them.
My list was vindicated here, and my tactics were spot on - If only I can find a way to follow my Condottieri instincts and bribe the organisers so I can play the same opponent twice more and I think things will end well this weekend
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Finally you have found your level. The Swiss may be mercenaries available for hire by any general with enough coin, but their multi-round event pairing system originally developed for the far less bloody art of chess will inevitably, given enough time, match you with one of your true peers and that is what has happened here today. Even with 3 previous rounds to sink towards the bottom of the pile however you still had moments against this erstwhile and earnest opponent where things could have gone wrong, and yet again the fallacy of your list design was entirely apparent.
Imagine what wreckage a Knight or two, attached to the left flank of your army could have wreaked on the exposed Medium Foot Auxilia who populated the beachfront like Parisian women's exposed breasts populate the beaches of Cannes, Nice and Antibes on the second morning of les Grands Vacances? Or how another more mobile element of horseborne troops could have been behind the hill on which the enemy cavalry had so unwisely deployed themselves and been threatening baggage, or the backs of the Germans long before your bowmen did their worst on that flank.
At least I must admit some grudging respect for your rare and unusual decision to attempt, rather successfully, to avoid getting into combat with the best troops of the Roman army, the Legions. Seeing their shield patterns in the distance is quite enough to shame your own artists and workmens poor efforts, so no need to embarrass yourselves by means of a closer view, and a view which would no doubt be soaked in your own men's blood before too long.
There are glimmerings of hope here, but whilst part of them come from the emergence of a whisker of competence from your long hibernation of martial idiocy I fear that the combination of the creeping up of the table this victory will grant you and the fundamental flaws that riddle your list like worms no doubt riddle your brain means we will not see such a straightforward victory again - not even in the next game
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
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Game 1 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Condotta Italian
Game 2 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Medieval Scots
Game 3 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Han Chinese
Game 4 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Late Roman
Game 5 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Seleukid
Game 6 Italian Condotta - Florence vs Italian Condotta - Venice
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