The extended British battle line from one side of the table to the other effectively neutralised the mobility advantage of the Norman cavalry. The stubborn and effective defence of the 4 hex hill pinned the our Norman army into a head on slogging match which was only ended by the timely arrival of the British warrior hordes to claim a hard fought victory.
Norman v Romano British
Norman v Romano British
The Norman army in this scenario had 8 units of cavalry, while the Romano-British had 4 plus a unit of chariots. This gave the Normans much greater mobility in exchange for less missile troops and infantry compared to their more numerous opponents which had 6 units of warrior hordes. We let the dice decide which players had which army and Tony and Chris took the Romano-Brits and Tim and I the Norman.
The terrain was pretty open in the centre apart from a 4 hex hill located toward the Brits deployment zone. The edges of the table had small areas of woodland and an 8 hex escarpment protruded from the left wing of the British deployment area with its steep sides facing the centre of the battlefield.
Tony and Chris deployed first and stretched their battle line from the base of the 8 hex escarpment right across to the woodland area on the other side of the table. They condensed their six British warrior hordes into 6 stand units and still had just enough units to form a complete unbroken line.
Tim and I deployed our cavalry to the fore with our infantry behind and our armoured spearmen centrally. In order to use our greater mobility our Norman cavalry was positioned to attack the right wing of the British line where all 4 of their cavalry units were positioned. Tony had moved a unit of ballista onto the escarpment from where it could shoot at our right wing and our cavalry would be unable to climb the steep slope and attack it.
As we advanced our massed Norman cavalry against the British cavalry they simply pulled back leaving British archers and spear units to defend the 4 hex hill which was now exposed. Tim and I debated the idea of a quick cavalry charge. Tim quite rightly pointed out that this would leave our infantry to far back to support the cavalry and so we delayed our attack unit our infantry line could be advanced further.
With no out-flanking option available to our cavalry we placed 2 of our three generals with ‘B’ class armoured cavalry units and charged straight at the British left wing – a high risk do or die move! All would have been OK but with some excellent shooting Chris managed to recoil a general and his unit which broke up the attack, and in the hand-to-hand combat phase the British line halted the charge and more significantly stubbornly defended the 4 hex hill. This bastion defended now by British spear units quickly became our undoing as we next sent our infantry against it only to see them recoiled.
The game descended into a hand-to-hand battle of attrition across half the width of the table in which neither side could gain a decisive advantage. The single British chariot unit helped to shore up the defence as the casualty count for both sides accelerated. However, the British warrior hordes now moved against the weakened and exposed Norman right wing sweeping aside the Norman spears in a giant left hook.
Despite losing a general which put half the Romano-British army out of command and control and at one point disrupting both the remaining British generals and their accompanying warrior hordes, our Normans were simply running out of men! The battle of attrition decidedly lost, the remnants of the Norman army gracefully submitted as our last general became trapped.
Game Analysis
The extended British battle line from one side of the table to the other effectively neutralised the mobility advantage of the Norman cavalry. The stubborn and effective defence of the 4 hex hill pinned the our Norman army into a head on slogging match which was only ended by the timely arrival of the British warrior hordes to claim a hard fought victory.
The terrain was pretty open in the centre apart from a 4 hex hill located toward the Brits deployment zone. The edges of the table had small areas of woodland and an 8 hex escarpment protruded from the left wing of the British deployment area with its steep sides facing the centre of the battlefield.
Tony and Chris deployed first and stretched their battle line from the base of the 8 hex escarpment right across to the woodland area on the other side of the table. They condensed their six British warrior hordes into 6 stand units and still had just enough units to form a complete unbroken line.
Tim and I deployed our cavalry to the fore with our infantry behind and our armoured spearmen centrally. In order to use our greater mobility our Norman cavalry was positioned to attack the right wing of the British line where all 4 of their cavalry units were positioned. Tony had moved a unit of ballista onto the escarpment from where it could shoot at our right wing and our cavalry would be unable to climb the steep slope and attack it.
As we advanced our massed Norman cavalry against the British cavalry they simply pulled back leaving British archers and spear units to defend the 4 hex hill which was now exposed. Tim and I debated the idea of a quick cavalry charge. Tim quite rightly pointed out that this would leave our infantry to far back to support the cavalry and so we delayed our attack unit our infantry line could be advanced further.
With no out-flanking option available to our cavalry we placed 2 of our three generals with ‘B’ class armoured cavalry units and charged straight at the British left wing – a high risk do or die move! All would have been OK but with some excellent shooting Chris managed to recoil a general and his unit which broke up the attack, and in the hand-to-hand combat phase the British line halted the charge and more significantly stubbornly defended the 4 hex hill. This bastion defended now by British spear units quickly became our undoing as we next sent our infantry against it only to see them recoiled.
The game descended into a hand-to-hand battle of attrition across half the width of the table in which neither side could gain a decisive advantage. The single British chariot unit helped to shore up the defence as the casualty count for both sides accelerated. However, the British warrior hordes now moved against the weakened and exposed Norman right wing sweeping aside the Norman spears in a giant left hook.
Despite losing a general which put half the Romano-British army out of command and control and at one point disrupting both the remaining British generals and their accompanying warrior hordes, our Normans were simply running out of men! The battle of attrition decidedly lost, the remnants of the Norman army gracefully submitted as our last general became trapped.
Game Analysis
The extended British battle line from one side of the table to the other effectively neutralised the mobility advantage of the Norman cavalry. The stubborn and effective defence of the 4 hex hill pinned the our Norman army into a head on slogging match which was only ended by the timely arrival of the British warrior hordes to claim a hard fought victory.
Re: Norman v Romano British
this is amazing!
Re: Norman v Romano British
if your any where near the Mansfield area of the UK on a tuesday nght why not pop in for a game