Pre 1570 in Warfare 2014
Early Danish vs Maximillian Imperial
Game 2 Early Danish vs Hungarian
Game 3 Early Danish vs Maximillian Imperial
Game 4 Early Danish vs Henrician English
The second day, 2 wins but still not quite on top table - and my opponent was the wily Mad Jim McJim, all the way from the Isles and Highlands of Milton Keynes. In Buckinghamshire. Unsurprisingly perhaps his army was one with Gendarmes, Kiels and some other crap and bits and bobs, however the unique angle to the Maximillians was a couple of units of Elite troops, better equipped and trained than anything on the field of play. How well would they fight... ?
The lists for the Early Danish and Maximillian Imperial from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Warfare can be seen here in the FoGR Wiki.
The Maximillian army is very similar to the Danes - and all the other armies in this book and period. However it does have some Fully Armoured Elite Gendarmes, and some Fully Armoured Elite Spearmen. Expensive, but worth it...
The table had been designed by a lunatic landscape gardener rather than a late Medieval military strategist, with terrain pieces all over the place, making the Danes wonder why they had chosen so much stuff in a game they probably wanted to win.
On the Danish right there was a small gap between two fields, into which the Imperialist inserted their rather expensive Elite Gendarme unit and some one else to support them. The Imperialist clearly were not intending to hang about, and with a toothpaste-style squeeze they would not really be able to reinforce these units - so the Danes, despite not really wanting to take on the best troops in the entire competition, decided that weight of numbers may well be enough to offset the Elite quality of the enemy - many units moved up in readiness...
The Imperialists soon found themselves facing a rather random collection of troop types - shooting Danish Levy foot, two units of Superior Gendarmes, and a 6-pack of shooting Reiters as well - 22 bases against 8..
In the rest of the table both armies were rather scratching their heads in puzzlement - the gaps in the terrain were not really conducive for attacking moves and the two forces had hardly deployed in a fashion which was helpful either.
Back then to the interesting bit, as the Imperialists split up and teed themselves to charge into 4 units of Danes, who's shooting so far had been derisory at best, and pointless in reality
The two lines were ready - the Danes would be taking on Elite Gendarmes with Superior Gendarmes, Levy Foot and the Reiters, whilst the other Superior Imperialists were looking at a charge into heavy foot halberdiers and Superior Gendarmes.
On the left, not wanting to be left out the German infantry suddenly stormed forwards into the valley of Bacon that the Danes had created in an unsubtle an innocuous fashion.
The mass Gendarme battle was on!
Legions of tin-plated fighting nobles charged each other at close range, snapped their lances and started hacking at each other (and the Danish peasants) with clubs, maces and swords!
With so many dice rolling stuff was bound to happen - and it did! The Imperialists lost a base off each unit, but the Danes lost bases from one Gendarme unit and the infantry, and cohesion from the infantry as well. Attrition would now come into play in Denmark's favour according to the plan
Although instead of attrition, more Imperialist units suddenly appeared, having caught up with their Nobility and started to threaten vast swathes of the Danish artillery park.
The Imperialist Gendarmes were not reading the script, and were consistently winning and failing to fail any death tests in the process - suddenly things were looking very bad for the 4 units with overlaps against the two high quality 3-packs!
On the left the Germans de-coalesced into a Pike unit and another Elite block of spearmen. The Landsknecht Pikes were more numerous, but Elite Heavily Armoured Spears would be tough opponents
Suddenly Danish Gendarmerie was in full retreat - the right flank was pretty close to being a total write off and quality had triumphed over quantity quite decisively
On the left the Germans nasty trick of bringing up reserves was also taking effect again - and the Danish outflanking trick was negated by the appearance of some bowmen in the woods, and a rather surprised German Horse unit armed with Light Lances and swords, who had expected to sit at the back of the table but had been marched a full 3 feet by a general to try and protect the flank of the Elite Spearmen - and maybe take on the only unit on the table they were better than, the 4-pack Danish horse with Sword (no impact capability).
4 Landsknecht skirmishers were doing their best but the right flank was a car crash of skidded on bacon proportions as everything crumbled and the Danish guns lay open for capture
The Pikes on Pike battle on the left started up in earnest, as the Danish Levy decided to have a pop at the enemy bowmen in the woods as well. The two units of near-useless horse looked at each other nervously as they contemplated actual combat...
The right was such a shambles that the Danish General abandoned his Reiters to the Elite enemy, and tried to save the routing Gendarmes instead
...a plan which didn't work particularly well as the Reiters dropped 2 cohesion levels and routed..
..taking the pursuing enemy within 6" of the Gendarmes and preventing even an attempt at saving them.
The wobbly-lanced Germans charged home against the less competent Danes!
Lets gloss swiftly over the end of the Danish levy on the right shall we...
More fighting! Two Kiels clash in the middle of the table having eventually found their way through the terrain. The Danes have overlaps and greater numbers, and the chance of having Halberdiers pop out as well...
meh
The bacon-smoking huts of the Danish camp are now within crossbow range of the potentially looting German Light Foot
But in a rare triumph the Super-crap Danish horse destroy the not quite so crap on paper but worse in practice German horse on the far left - and find themselves pursuing deep into the German back field, putting Teutonic artillery at potential risk as well...
Incredibly some of the Danish guns are not yet captured, but this side of the table has seen 5 Danish units lost already...
The Danes are doing everything they can to try and shoot down the German bowmen as they advance.
And the Danish levy are doing even better - they have broken the bowmen in the woods and are now pursuing gladly through the trees. The two Keils and the Elite Spearmen have also been trading serious blows on the far left and the German Kiel has just broken ! The game might unbelievably be swinging marginally back towards the Danes ..
The baggage is lost, and bacon is taken back to a town ending in "burg" in very efficient carts. The Danes are on the brink of collapse but still have the upper hand in a number of melees - and there is now little else to lose in range of the German successful attack on the right.
The two Keils who have squeezed through the wooded gap are battering each other - both are now DISR but numbers greatly favours the Danes who are rolling 5 dice to 3.
Which of course ends in a loss and another cohesion drop...
The artillery park and arquebus foot shoot desperately at close range against the advancing archers, DISR-ing them and making it harder for them to charge...
But the hapless Keil yet again loses.. and breaks taking the Danish army to a hefty defeat
The Result is a 19-6 defeat for Denmark.
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 Early Danish Commander
Oh dear. When one starts to think of the list of 101 Things to Do with Bacon
If I were to try and wrap a skein of sausagemeat around me and hide my defeat beneath the panckake and maple syrup of ignominous failure in some way, I might claim that this was a tactical reverse, which has kept me safe from the top table and the risk of a game against teh wild horses of hoofmeisterism, but to be honest I think even that is outside my frying pan of rhetoric - I did try my best but it just didn't work.
The game has however eaten deeply into my lunch hour, going almost to the time at which time was called, and so I at least have the double benefit of not having time to try and get anything to eat from the fabulous range of eateries within this so called leisure centre, and I might also not be able to buy too many things for other ruesets that I don't really need.
So, plenty of positives to take out of this game - the bacon-fat-greased slide down the table it will give me may well still leave me in striking distance of the places as well, so not all is lost.
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Here you faced a man of the far North, a stony adversary, an inhuman wretch, uncapable of pity, void and empty from any dram of mercy... but surely you could have put up a little more of a fight than you did, and made him at least try and work a bit for the win?
As goodness is poison to your stomach, so avoiding the enemys best troops appears to be a poison which yoru army cannot resist supping on. I must concur that there was no better way of taking on the Elite Gendarmes than the one you engineered, but given the outcome perhaps one day you may realise that not taking them on at all is the preferred option in this situation every time?
If you feel that after this reverse you deserve still to be in shaking distance of the stick of triumph, I will tell you to go forward, and be choked with thy ambition, as surely as if it were a bacon sandwich with too much chicken and lettuce that is rammed down your throat.
Many many times on my bended knee I give heaven thanks that I am not like to thee, but I cannot save my eyes from seeing the next game in this shameful display... I hope it will be over soon
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
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Game 2 Early Danish vs Hungarian
Game 3 Early Danish vs Maximillian Imperial
Game 4 Early Danish vs Henrician English
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