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Post by martin on Dec 11, 2016 19:01:13 GMT
Congratulations to Arnaud on a glorious victory in yesterday's WINTER PAWS tournament. His Norse Leidang were excellently generalled, and he was the well deserved winner!
Ten players for this one. The theme, set by Martin Myers, was a very good choice, with a large variety of useful armies included.
The players fielded the following:-
John S- Early Russian Arnaud M- Leidang Colin O - West Frankish Andrew W- Scots Islesmen Richard P- Welsh b list Paul C - Anglo-Norman Paul H- Welsh a list, Viking ally Denis G- Anglo-Danish Martin S - Pre-Feudal Scots, Viking ally Bill M- Anglo-Norman, French ally So no two armies the same, sign of a good theme :-)
Five initial rounds, with a final between two initial groups.
My army was Cv general, 1 x LH, 6 x 3Pk yeomen, and 1 x Ps javelinmen. My ally was 2 x 4Bd Viking blades, plis 1 x 4Bw archers too. The games I played were 1/ I defended, placed a waterway, and there followed a slog vs Denis's Anglo-Danes, with the Vikings landing and joining in the fray by assaulting the great fyrd, who Denis had placed watching the coastline. The double ranked 6 x 3Pk had a hard fight against Denis's hearth troops and select fyrd. Each time the Pk won they pursued into overlaps, and were then pushed back again. Tough game. 2/ I invaded John S's Russians, lots of open steppe for his Knights to dominate. This game went right to the wire, with serious slaughter on both sides. 3/ Defending vs Paul H's warband-heavy Welsh. Both our Viking allies faced each other off, while the Scots and Welsh set to. Double ranked warband and double ranked pike is a messy melee to witness. Fortunately the Welsh struggled for PIPs in this one. 4/ Again defending, vs Andrew's Islesmen, a very historical meeting. On the right flank the Scots yeomen pike managed to successfully pick on the enemy highlander bowmen, and MacBeth's cavalry escort ran down some Ps, while at the far end of the field my viking ally took a pounding from enemy axemen. A tightly fought game, ending 4-3. 5/ Richard's longbow armed Welsh invaded , and found my Vikings disembarking from their longboats on their right flank . The main Scots force caught up, and a slog followed, with two pike elements shot down in rapid succession. The Vikings eventually overcame the Welsh auxilia facing them. 6/ Last game saw Arnaud's Leidang army attacking across an open field, with a small hamlet to my left. Lots of to-ing and fro-ing in this game, with the Scots picking on enemy bowmen again, but otherwise clinging on in the face of an adept foe. Eventually Arnaud's Norsemen quite rightly won the day, on 4-3.
A great day out. Thanks to PAWS for hosting, Bill for organising, Lindon for umpiring.
Nicely painted armies on show- Richard's Welsh were finished that morning, but looked very dashing. Colin's Normans are a favourite of mine, Bill's Normans looked grand and Denis's Anglo-Danes are beautifully presented.
Cheers
Martin
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Post by hodsopa on Dec 11, 2016 20:01:39 GMT
Congratulations to Arnaud! I had a great time too, loved the consistency of the theme and the infantry slogs. My story with the warband-heavy Welsh, with Viking allies:
1. A wood was on my left flank about half way in. John Saunders with early Russians set up with his infantry on his right, his mounted (mostly Kn) on the left. Early on I got two pairs of Wb through the wood and out the other side, but they were out of command distance and never managed to reach his infantry which withdrew and withdrew. A third pair of Wb and the Vikings fought, on my refused right flank, a Sp, about 3 Kn including the general, and a LH. I had the luck of the dice and was winning 2-1 and then, on the last turn with the bell rung, I 6-1'd his general with a Wb. I cheered embarassingly!
2. Against Andrew with Scots Isles. With a large board (80x80) I had a waterway to my left. A difficult hill divided my side of the battlefield into two, a marsh did the same on Andrew's. He held back an Ax and 2 Wb for a landing, and set up the rest of his army in the section of the board furthest from the waterway, blades on his right and Bw/Ps on his left. I charged towards his left with my Wb and Cav general, leaving my 3 Vikings (4Bd) to cover the littoral landing. I hoped to get a breakthrough on my right before we were in general contact all along the line, but this didn't happen. However Andrew was pretty unlucky with his dice; I eventually did get a breakthrough against the bows on my right; and then in an absurdly, unreproducibly lucky last turn I secured a kill in all 5 combats - not just the two where I had him flanked - and won 8-1.
3. Against Martin's pre-Feudal Scots I would only add to what he wrote above that (1) he loves fast Pk and fast Bd and plays them really well; (2) Pk are the hardest of the heavy infantry for my Warband to biff; (3) my dice weren't that bad and he had a deserved win.
4. Against Paul Clare with Anglo-Normans, I defended for the only time in the tournament (my Welsh were Ag 3). I'd brought lots of terrain having in mind defending against Kn armies like this one, but frustratingly the large hamlet and large wood didn’t get on. Three difficult hills all ended up in the same quadrant of the board, my right flank. I hid in the hills, with the Vikings behind them (they never got into the battle). Paul deployed 3 of his Kn on his right, his infantry and one Kn on his left, and his KnG in reserve. My plan was to sit and make him come and get me, but on the second move I had the PIPs to rush some tempting morsels in his infantry line with a couple of pairs of Wb and, in a warbandy way, I couldn't resist charging down from my difficult hilltops to attack them. End result: I killed a bow and lost on of the Wb pairs, hard flanked. Oh well. I managed to retreat back onto the hills, scrappily, with the other pair of Wb. Paul maneouvred well and managed with a Kn to snap up one of my Wb which had let part of itself dangle into the good going; but the bell rang before we could find out whether he would winkle me out in the end. Losing draw.
5. Against Denis Gray with, I think, Middle Anglo-Saxons (but reading Martin's report I see they were Anglo-Danes), a river ran across the board (big board again) from left to my right, near to Denis' edge of the board, with ta road crossing it at 90 degrees on his right. He set up in a line along the river, with a column of 3 HI led by a Sp at the bridge. I ran my Wb up the road in pairs, with the Vikings on the road behind them and the CvG covering my right. With free moves from the road we were quickly in contact at the bridge. The battle line gradually widened from that initial one-element contact. There was lots of pushing and shoving, with my Wb mostly going backwards. The river proved paltry; Denis fed in some troops as extensions to the line in the battle on my left, also sucking in my general, while others slowly curved round to threaten my right flank. Killing dice were scarce on both sides but eventually, with his flankers 1/2 a BW away on my right, my pair of Wb on the road killed the Sp they had been fighting since the start to make it 2-2. At the same moment the Vikings came up. The bell rang. Together with one of the Wb that had made the breakthrough, the Vikings surrounded and killed a Bd that had advanced victoriously on Denis' extreme right, while the other member of the pair hard flanked and killed a Sp further towards the centre, and my general again survived its combat to give me a close victory.
Great atmosphere, lots of fun, looking forward to the next one.
Paul H
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Post by Haardrada on Dec 11, 2016 20:06:13 GMT
Thanks for publishing the results gents, it's always interesting in reading how themed armies fare against close to historical opponnents.
I'm interested giving the range of entered armies, how Arnauds' Leidang army bested any of the Knight heavy armies that he faced?
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Post by martin on Dec 11, 2016 21:55:03 GMT
I'm interested giving the range of entered armies, how Arnauds' Leidang army bested any of the Knight heavy armies that he faced? Over to Arnaud for that one, I guess. I think his group stage included Norman and 2 x Anglo-Norman enemies. Scary for a blade-based army. There's now a photo album (albeit a basic, minimal one) now on Yahoo.
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Post by martin on Dec 11, 2016 22:02:44 GMT
Photos removed to make room.....
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Post by martin on Dec 11, 2016 22:54:26 GMT
Photos removed to make space for future uploads
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Post by martin on Dec 11, 2016 22:58:02 GMT
Photos removed to make upload slace.
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Post by phippsy on Dec 11, 2016 23:29:47 GMT
Gents, thanks for the reports and photos. Looks like my Poles would have fitted in the mix well, but would have made an 11 competitor tournament, and sounds like it worked very well. Next time. Thanks. Peter
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Post by hodsopa on Dec 12, 2016 20:56:26 GMT
PS Martin thanks a lot (belatedly) for the lift offer. Luckily we had no train problems as it turned out.
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Post by hodsopa on Dec 12, 2016 20:56:53 GMT
PS Martin thanks a lot (belatedly) for the lift offer. Luckily we had no train problems as it turned out.
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Post by martin on Dec 12, 2016 22:04:15 GMT
PS Martin thanks a lot (belatedly) for the lift offer. Luckily we had no train problems as it turned out. Yer welcome
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Post by martin on Dec 12, 2016 22:06:45 GMT
Gents, thanks for the reports and photos. Looks like my Poles would have fitted in the mix well, but would have made an 11 competitor tournament, and sounds like it worked very well. Next time. Thanks. Peter The PAWS guys have a sort of plan - if they need to one player drops out and umpires instrad of playing, to keep the numbers 'right'. This time Lindon stood down. Other times it has been Bill or Adrian. See you at another.M
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Post by arnopov on Dec 12, 2016 22:16:31 GMT
Hi,
First of all, big thanks to PAWS for organising. Flawless as usual. There were 11 players, and Lindon ended up not playing.
Martin is very gracious: he should have won that last game hands down, a tactical masterclass it was. At 3-1 up, he had TWO 6-4 combats (with no recoil for my Bd at 4), but lost both and then suffered a spectacular PIP drought. The lateral speed of fast element, especially with "clipping" still surprises me, quite staggering really.
Otherwise, Leidangs... Well the (d) list has a useful and fast 2x3Kn and 2x3Bw, with a 3Bd to intercept enemy Bd or Bw who try to have a go at them. The bulk of the army is obviously 4Bd, and the simulator gives them 36%/64% against 3Kn, which is not hopeless, especially as the Bd are likely to get overlaps to start. Another plan was to use a largeish hamlet given the chance, and to receive the charge, with an opportunity to react.
The main reason for success however was to be lucky enough not to face that many massed Kn armies (1 western Frank, 2 Anglo-Normans). I also defended all games, with a very samey terrain: WW, Rd and hamlet. For some reason, Bill's AN decided to dismount 3 of his Kn (except Gen). His French ally ended up fighting the 3Bw and Kn general. Ironically, my 3Kn punched a dismounteer near the WW, which was exploited to turn the line of heavy infantry. Paul's 4 AN 3Kn were not too keen to charge 7 4Bd, and the AN archery were caught in the Hamlet by the viking 3Bd and 3Bw. But when the Leidangs faced proper massed Kn, Colin's 6 (7?) 3Kn, after some toing and froing, they were run over like dogs (4-0), and quite quickly. Oddly, I didn't see a single Kn destroyed by a Bd on an equal score (seen it happens loads previously).
It was a nice theme.
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Post by colinthehittite on Dec 13, 2016 9:57:40 GMT
I had a disastrous first game against Andrew’s Scots in which I struggled in my attempt to break out from the confines of a difficult hill and my knights failed to break through the infantry line. With a losing draw in my second game following an indecisive knight bash I was beginning to feel that it was not going to be my day, however, Arnaud provided me with the first of a string of victories when his infantry line collapsed under the hooves of my West Frankish knights. Richard’s Welsh bowman were decidedly sickly looking when they turned up on my billiard table terrain (the first time I laid terrain) and his massed bow fire merely delayed the onslaught. Finally, against Bill’s Anglo-Normans my bows were feeling equally sickly having to face his knights in the open, but when the luck turned my way in the second half of the game I came away with a decisive 5-1 win!
I was not able to stay for the final but it sounds like it was another game with a spectacular change of luck. Congratulations to Arnaud, particularly as he has played little recently.
I took West Franks – Normans with lower aggression. 6 knights, 3 blades and 3 bows gave me quick kill capacity against the expected solid infantry lines and some fast moving infantry to exploit bad going and deal with roaming psiloi. Deciding to field them prompted me to make my Normans V3 compliant by painting the Bd elements in particular. I was expecting more knight heavy armies and so was pleasantly surprised at the good range and mix of armies present. Of my 5 games I only met massed knights on 2 occasions – drew one game and won the other. On the 2 occasions where my knights met lines of solid infantry (Bd) I lost badly on one and smashed straight through on the other. The usual moral here – get good dice rolls at critical points in the game or...
Thanks as always to Lindon and Bill at PAWS. Some great photos, Martin, here and on Yahoo.
The next tournament would be in Penarth at Crusade, I think, although there was no mention of it on the Crusade website when I last looked. I hope to see some of you there.
Colin
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Post by gregorius on Dec 13, 2016 22:40:02 GMT
Thanks for all of the indepth reports. The photos posted by Martin also were appreciated. All in all a comprehensive AAR.
Cheers,
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