Friday, December 21, 2018

Crug Mawr AD1136: One-Hour Wargames #16 p2

As promised and predicted, here's the re-play on my last battle. 

This is actually the 6th time I played, as the first two I was getting back into the rules and trying some tactics that didn't always work out. The great thing about this OHW philosophy or approach is that I have the time to knock out several games and try several different tactics and approaches despite a busy life. It's also fun, not draining!

Below, Anglo-Norman Deployment. I'm trying a new tactic for FitzMartin - screen the right with the Crossbows, weight the left and lead an advance with Knights supported by Flemish Serjeants in the center and Freemen on the far flank. I definitely need to keep the support Units closer to the Knights! The Welsh are too canny to be caught unsupported, and their superior firepower makes it very hard for the Anglo-Normans to sit back and wait.


Turn 1. Welsh spread out to the right. FitzMartin pushes hard up the middle, but the Freemen immediately fall way behind [poor move roll]. I still want to shatter the two Archer Units directly to the front, but the flanks are looking pretty vulnerable...


Turn 3 start. I shifted the attacked to the right so as to get my Freemen support sooner. This left the left Welsh Archer and Teulu free to maneuver, they are now trashing my Crossbowmen! The Flemish are fighting against the odds, and unfortunately are rolling poorly in their attack, as are my knights! I really need both these units to trash their opponent quickly, so my force can fight at more even odds.


Turn 3 end. The Knights drive the Teulu to the brink of death, but are destroyed by Archers firing into their rear while the Teulu and Owain fight valiantly from the front! The Flemish are fighting at 3-1 and have attacked poorly against the Welsh Bowmen.


Turn 4. The Welsh show they know how to miss! Six attacks, no hits at all.

Not to be out-done, the Flemish then miss completely, continuing an appalling performance on the attack - rubber swords for crowd control??

Meanwhile, at top right the Teulu have taken on the Freemen - they can't win and should have moved back to rally instead. But where is the valor and glory in that??

Turns 5-6. The Welsh team rolls loads of hits, inflicting 5/6 dice rolled, and pushing the Flemish to 11 Hits, at which point they flee the battlefield. The other Welsh Teulu rolled way short and weren't able to help their Lord, Owain in his fight against the Freemen. Consequently, he was forced to retreat after a bold fight pushing the Freemen up to 5 Hits. He just couldn't seal the deal - the Freemen actually rolled poorly.


Well, another loss for FitzMartin. I either need to re-think the scenario, or re-think the tactics, or just plain roll better for the Anglo-Normans! I'll try to give it a go soon.

Gratifyingly, the rules worked very well and I was approaching them with a fresh, critical eye, not having played them in some time. Gets my medieval flowing!

4 comments:

  1. Poor Fitz-Martin - what Dark-Age or Medieval fate awaits him back home I wonder?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey, he's Lord of the Manor, so if nothing else, he gets RESPECT on his own turf!
    Elsewhere, well, his mileage may vary...
    ;)
    I'll try one more time for him to win.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi,
    Are your amendments to the Dark Ages/Medieval OHW book available somewhere? I am interested in seeing what you have come up with. Please let me know. My e-mail is coopman827ATyahoo.com.
    Thanks,
    Clay

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, I think I still have a couple sets put up here in the blog, but the latest - and best ones - I send to people individually. My disclaimer is that they are different enough that I don't blame NT for them!
    ;)
    But I think they achieve his purposes a bit better than his own rules do, overall. He may well disagree.

    ReplyDelete

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