In this scenario Tony and Tim laid out the terrain without knowing which armies were going to hit the table which seemed fair! I had put together a English 100 Years War army to take on the Ming Chinese army from the previous week. Tim and I took command of the English and Tony and Chris the Chinese, both with an approximate points value of 260 and 4 generals each.
The terrain chosen was quite ‘busy’ with a thin spinal area of wood land dividing one half of the table from the other in the centre with a scattering of small hills and other smaller areas of woodland. The strength of the Chinese army was its crossbows units with pavisses and lighter more evasive partly bow armed cavalry. The strength of the English army was its 9 units of longbow. Both armies had 2 units of armoured heavy cavalry and the English had generally better quality but less numerous infantry.
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With the terrain layout negating some of the mobility advantages of the Chinese cavalry, even before either armies were deployed I could see the English enjoying a terrain advantage. The Chinese deployed first and moved first. This gave possession of the central thin wood to the Chinese halberdiers. However, Tim had 6 units of English longbow available to form an extended bow line which he advanced to face the aforementioned wood. Any Chinese advance beyond the wood would be met by a massive storm of arrows!
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The other 3 units of longbow were positioned with the bulk of the English men-at-arms on the centre left of the English line. Our English battle plan was to hold on the right with our longbow and attack on the left with most of our mounted and dismounted men-at-arms where a 4 hex hill and 4 hex wood would provided obstacles for the Chinese cavalry. However, at this early stage of the game the Chinese mounted bow units were threatening the extreme left of Tim’s wing of longbows. Good longbow shooting and the perceived greater threat from my wing brought the Chinese cavalry around the back as Chris gradually pulled back his Chinese crossbow units away from Tim’s longbow line.
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The Chinese ‘C’ class cavalry found themselves engaged in an unfair shooting match against my units of ‘B’ class English longbow. They were soon sent fleeing to the wood and base edge. This retreat created the opportunity for the English infantry to advance and gain valuable ground on the left out-flanking the Chinese infantryline.
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The longbow shooting disrupted the line of Chinese crossbow which further restricted Chinese movement, which in turn enabled us to get our dismounted men-at-arms into hand-to-hand combat in and besides the spinal woodland. We trapped units of Chinese cavalry on the 4 hex hill and with the depletion of the Chinese cavalry came the opportunity to push units our infantry forward into the heart of the Chinese infantry. With the vast bulk of the Chinese halberdiers trapped in the wood by Tim’s longbow, Tony had little choice but to commit the 2 Chinese heavy cavalry units to stop our infantry advance. This response was what Tim and I had hoped for, because our heavy cavalry and 2 generals were ready waiting for their opportunity!
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This was a pretty successful Chinese counter-attack in which we lost a total of 3 units of English dismounted men-at-arms. However, their noble sacrifice heralded the English knights charge along with 2 generals on a one on one engagement with both of the Chinese heavy cavalry units. The defeat of the first, trapped the second and a lucky dice roll left the second Chinese heavy cavalry unit with nowhere to recoil or flee. This second loss effectively broke the Chinese line trapping the remainder of their infantry into an impossible position. Out-flanked and unable to receive any support in time from Chris’s wing Tony and Chris conceded the game to the English.
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Game Analysis
With the terrain favouring the English, this always our game to lose! We did manage to stick to our battle plan and for once it worked but not without the sacrifice of many English units. The final roll of the game; double six for the English knights!
