As a sort of test run for Wintercon (see the post in the Competitions section), I thought I'd try out an Anglo-Norman army against Dave T's North Welsh of about 1180. In particular I wanted to see if I could exploit a couple of rarely used PIP allocation rules.
Anyway, my army was that of King Stephen, including a regular sub-general (William of Ypres) and a Welsh ally, so we were close to contemporaneous.
I was the invader, and the weather included strong wind coming from over the right shoulder of my opponent, and the risk of rain.
The terrain was fairly straightforward, being narrowed in the waist by a wood on my left and a marsh on my right, both near the centre line. A little inboard from the wood was a small gentle hill.
Dave deployed first. On his left was a North Welsh sub-general with a block of Pk (F) and some Kn (F). Next along the line was an ally command of Feudal English, consisting mostly of Kn (O), with some Sp (I) lurking behind. The next command was the North Welsh C-in-C with a large block of Pk (F) (facing the gentle hill) and some Bw (O). Finally, on his right flank was a South Welsh ally command containing a few more Bw (O).
On my right, facing the Welsh sub-general, was a command of Kn (O) and Sp (I) supported by Ps (O), led by an irregular sub-general. In the centre was a small command of supported Sp (I) led by the C-in-C. On my left was a large block of Irr Kn (O) in two ranks led by the regular sub-general, while in reserve was a group of 3 Reg Kn (O) Brabancon mercenaries. Flank marching on my right was a command of Welsh allies - at this time the infantry were Wb (F).
I used the Delay Battle command to increase the chance of my flank march arriving, then proceeded to roll a bunch of 1s for that command to arrive.
My tactics were to attack across the line, taking advantage of a series of quite satisfactory match-ups.
The first PIP allocation rule I used relates to an army containing an irregular C-in-C and one regular sub: the C-in-C and regular sub must swap PIP dice if the C-in-C gets the higher PIP dice. That is, of those two commands, the C-in-C must always be allocated the lower PIP dice. Not a huge advantage, but justifying giving the C-in-C a small command that he could still move forwards with 1 PIP. I hoped it would provide useful PIPs for a large block of Kn.
The second PIP allocation rule I used relates to the C-in-C using his own PIPs to move a group belonging to a sub's command. In this case I used the regular sub's PIPs in the first bound to move the regular Kn in his command over to join the C-in-C. After that the C-in-C then used his own PIPs to move through the rest of the game, giving him a useful army reserve.
Anyway, Dave's two allies were reliable. He wheeled his sub's Pk (F) block around to face a possible flank march on his left, while the Welsh and English Kn advanced. In the centre the Welsh C-in-C advanced his Bw (facing Sp (I)) and Pk (F) (facing my regular sub's Kn (O)). On his right he also advanced the South Welsh archers, swinging a couple of Ax (O) around to cover that flank.
My army advanced steadily across the line. I had a couple of turns of dismal PIPs, including two successive bounds in which King Stephen and William of Ypres both rolled 1s for PIPs, thus rendering the PIP allocation process pretty pointless. However, crucially, I was able to get my Kn onto the small gentle hill just as the Pk (F) approached.
Around this point in the game someone rolled PIPs sufficient to guarantee there'd be no rain, although the wind never shifted.
Also, as we approached, it became necessary for me to reveal that most of the second rank of Kn in the regular sub's command existed only as part of an Exaggerated Numbers stratagem...
First contact came on my right as the irregular sub's Kn contacted the (F) and (O) Kn of the Welsh and English. I had a small flank advantage but initially nothing came of it. The next contact came as the Welsh C-in-C's archers shot at my C-in-C's Sp (I) to no effect. Those Sp (I) hit the Bw, while the rest of the English Kn, including their general, charged the Sp (I) belonging to my irregular sub.
The English Kn destroyed a couple of elements of Sp, while the Sp-Bw initially involved only recoils in both directions.
In my next bound the regular sub's Kn charged downhill into the Welsh C-in-C's Pk (F), scoring a couple of kills. Meanwhile my C-in-C's Sp also destroyed a Bw element, while the irregular sub's Sp flanked and destroyed an English Kn and his Kn destroyed a couple of Welsh Kn (F).
In Dave's next bound a couple more of his Welsh and English Kn were destroyed, breaking the English command and disheartening the Welsh sub-general's command. However Dave's C-in-C's Pk (F) had no luck against my Kn.
In my next bound my Welsh allies finally diced to arrive, while the regular sub's Kn obtained a few more kills on the Welsh Pk (F).
We called it a night at that point. We didn't bother to calculate a score, but tactically the situation was pretty strongly in my favour.
I was quite pleased at the army's performance. I've never felt confident deploying Sp (I) in two ranks in DBMM as I often did in DBM, but supported by Ps they performed quite well here. In this regard having the Reg Kn (O) reserve was useful. The other useful thing would have been dismounts for my Kn - I'd thought about it but then forgot to bring the figures. If I'd had them I almost certainly would've deployed the regular sub's Kn on foot to face the Welsh C-in-C's Pk (F). So in a way being forced to fight mounted against the Pk was a useful education - it certainly made seizing that gentle hill vital.
Did the PIP allocation tricks work? Yes, to a small extent. The first one is obviously nowhere near as useful as a regular command structure PIP allocation, but against another irregular army it has the potential to deliver just a couple more PIPs each turn, which can be vital when things get rough. The second PIP allocation trick was also helpful as it meant that the C-in-C had access to Kn who wouldn't go impetuous but which he normally couldn't command (this is a limit imposed by the list - the regular sub-general must command all mercenaries).
Anyway, it was good to have a near-historical match-up which delivered plenty of fighting, after my Cancon debacle. Just a shame I probably won't be able to make it to Wintercon.
Finally, thanks to Dave for an entertaining game.
