Sunday 8 November 2020

Burgundians vs Norse Scots - posted by J0sh Barton, 8 November 2020

Got to bring out the Burgundians against
John van den Hoeven
's Isle Norse/Scots yesterday with Charles the Bold looking to set up a holiday home in the Orkney Islands. John's army was irregular, lacked any cavalry and contained two allies, so it was also absolutely massive compared to my small late book for list. Thankfully I was faster and more mobile and had a large number of guns and shooting to hopefully break up the Bd(O) on the way in. I also brought some temporary fortifications to beef up the line.
Unsurprisingly I refused a flank deploying my gunline on a slight angle behind a difficult hill opposite the sea, with the pike on the left and the knights behind (with the plan being to swing out wide with them if I took the hill or to counter-attack if the artillery was looking shaky).
John placed his two heavy infantry commands in the middle, a lighter command out by the sea and his Galwegian allies running up behind.
Unfortunately for me, we started at 4am and had mist. Bugger, there goes my speed and shooting advantages! More fortunately (for me at least) the Galwegians were unreliable and, although John was able to activate them his advance was slowed down somewhat.
The first action of the battle was a slow fight between John's Ax(O) and my ps(S) and (X) on the difficult hill. Thanks to greater mobility I was able to win out and the Psiloi repositioned to threaten the flanks of the advancing bd(O). With the hill secured, Charles took half of the gendarmes around it to threaten the rear of the advancing infantry. The Galwegians were turned to face this threat.
On the left flank (by the sea) the Islanders attacked as quickly as possible, with the hd(O) going impetuous and running into a marsh, but the blade and some supporting bow pressuring the low countries pikemen.
The battle between the pike and the blade was bloody, with the pike getting the initial better of the exchange but, as their ranks were thinned out the battle turned further and further against them. The bowmen also shot the supporting Burgundian light horse to pieces and began to swing around behind the pike.
As the pikemen were being ground down the mist lifted and allowed the longbowmen, who had been repositioned behind the hill the psiloi secured to loose at the other command of blade. Some of the blade were dispatched to attack the longbowmen but they were encircled and destroyed. Meanwhile the psiloi came off the hill and hard-flanked more of the blade. The Ps(X) factors paid off with the psiloi cutting down half a dozen blade! The knights supporting the longbow finished off the counter attack and broke the command.
The 2ME penalty was also enough to dishearten the blade that were getting the upper hand over the pike, effectively stalling their advance and preventing them from going impetuous.
Behind the hill Charles and his bodyguards withdrew from the wave of warband charging toward them, hoping to delay them long enough for either psiloi support or for the second blade command to break. Eventually though they ran out of space and were forced to charge... and subsequently bounced. Thankfully the warband were unable to score any kills in response and on the second try the gendarmes were able to wipe out the first rank of warband.
At that point John conceded. With one broken command, one disheartened, one unable to move (due to going impetuous) and the warband close to being disheartened he couldn't see any path to victory.
The Burgundians finally won! Despite the mist I felt that my plan worked as intended, and using the knights in a supportive role worked well. The pikemen again performed excellently, matching blade 1 - 1 is a win. The psiloi were the MVPs though. A combination of the Ps(X) to the front and hard-flanking ps(S) worked excellently against both the Ax and the clumsy Bd.

A fun game, and thank you to John! It could have easily gone the other way if the psiloi had lost against the Ax or if the pike hadn't performed so well. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/permalink/1660509510775301/

John van den Hoeven
Thanks Josh,good we finally got to play🙂if my Galwegians hadn't been unreliable who knows.Good game though. Glad i let your Burgundians win😉😉
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Dirk Heinsius
Nice to see that the knights didn’t let you down for once
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  • Josh Barton
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    Dirk Heinsius
     same! my heart sank a bit when the first charge failed to kill anything, but they pulled through
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The Islanders - every man and his dog turned up it seems!

The Burgundian gun-line

And the pike, slightly exposed but ready to hold the blade off for as long as possible

the black watch?

The Galwegians are unreliable! Good news for the Burgundians

The Ax take the hill as quickly as possible, but they find themselves struggling to form a line in the mist

The horde of peasants goes impetuous. They run into a swamp and achieve nothing

With the psiloi having initial success on the hill the Blade decide not to charge into the bow/artillery and knight combination

slightly blurry photo, but one showing the psiloi taking the hill from the Ax - the knight general repositioned to provide a flank

Charles leads his bodyguard around the hill

Nice lines of troops between the marsh and the hill

the Pike steel themselves against the oncoming blade while the light horse and crossbows provide some support

The mist clears as the hill is taken by the burgundians - the longbowmen can now start their work


the light horse are no match for the bow, but they hold off for a while
John van den Hoeven
The Highland BwO did well.
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The psiloi look over the flanks of the islanders. They're about to cut through them

the knights slowly withdraw against the Warband - I didn't want to face hard flanks!
John van den Hoeven
How often do you see WbF charging Knights, didn't work though 🙄
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the blade and pike battle is on, with the first kills going to the pike, they'll struggle once the blade hits back though!

It's a bloody fight, but the pike's thinning ranks turns things in favour of the blade, still it was a costly victory

meanwhile the bow, knights and psiloi encircle and destroy the islanders' other flank


the knights continue to withdraw - they may have the advantage but a loss of charles might have lost the battle!


the knights charge in... and bounce initially

the pike-block flees, but the islanders cannot exploit their hard-won victory.

John looking despondent 🙁

the knights' second charge is successful, as the warband are rapidly thinned out











































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