Chris and I had a very entertaining game a couple of weeks ago, with his Florentine Italian Condotta army taking on my Nikephorian Byzantine army in my first game for a couple of months.
I was the invader, and weather and time of day played no part in the game. Terrain which influenced the game included a difficult hill on my left flank, a small wood facing it in Chris?s deployment zone, and a small gentle hill on my far right flank. A large wood on Chris?s left flank seemed to prevent a flank march there.
My Nikephorian army was the same from several previous games (notes on the forum). Chris?s army included a huge Swiss ally, and two smaller commands of Kn and a couple of LH. One of the commands also had a couple of mounted Bw (S).
Chris placed the Swiss on his right, with Ps in the wood. The two Kn commands were in the centre and on the left. I placed the Cv/Ps command behind the difficult hill on my left, with the Bw/Kn command in the centre, and the Cv/LH command on the right.
Chris pushed his Kn commands forward quickly, cramping me for space, even though I?d deployed well back. This prevented me from moving the centre and right commands out to where I wanted to make room for my left wing.
Chris?s Kn quickly overran my right wing, killing three Cv at first contact, and breaking it in about four more bounds, for no loss. In the centre, my Bw (X/O) shot down a LH, but killed nothing more, while themselves slowly dying to Chris?s Kn.
On my left, I advanced Cv from the left wing and Kn from the centre against Chris?s Swiss, a huge command deployed in three ranks. He then surprised me by springing an ambush of Bw (X/O) out of the small wood on his right. Chris then turned his Swiss around and moved them away from my approaching forces, his Bw (X) preventing the Cv from marching onto the rear of the Swiss. But they were too far away to stop my Kn wedges and C-in-C.. I declared a combat brilliant stroke, and wiped out three Pk.
But now there were only two ranks of Swiss, not three. It turned out that Chris had used the Exaggerating Numbers stratagem to bulk them out a bit ? not to four ranks, as that would have looked suspicious. But it was enough to encourage me to attack the Swiss, in the belief that breaking the Swiss would break the army.
Anyway, over the next few bounds I ground the Swiss down until they broke, though the last remnants fought bravely. One Kn wedge destroyed the baggage of the Italian centre command, while others attacked the column of Bw (X) or went to the assistance of my own. A lone Ps caused mayhem by attacking the rear of the Bw (X) column as well.
But it was all a bit too late. An Italian Kn destroyed one of the Cv from my centre command, enough to break it and the army, while I needed only 1 ME more to break Chris?s centre command and his army. 15-10 to Chris in a very enjoyable game.
