Yesterday I debuted (ish) my Free Company against Graham Starkey's Seleucids at Warlords. I brought 400ap, and he brought 450, but with a few stratagems, upgrades and a brilliant general I managed to stretch my points out to a very small experimental army.
The Seleucids brought some scythed chariots, a huge number of cavalry, pikemen and a mix of lighter troops, facing a small number of longbows, 12 dismounted knights and, in a short flank attack, 10 French knights...
Sadly the flank attacked on the left, which the Seleucids refused. Instead Graham positioned nearly all of his army on the right of a BAU and DH. This lead to a rush to get the irregular French knights through the few *cough* elite Seleucid infantry (definitely not 2 bases of hordes) in time to save the English knights who were quickly surrounded by light horse and expendables.
Sadly the two bases of definitely elite infantry (not horde...) held the knights off for three bounds, giving the Seleucids enough time to crush the English - the expendables accounted for 4 bases of superior blade, and the light horse took out another 3 to the rear without any losses! Thankfully the English were able to break the Galatian/Auxillia command as they went down.
The French knights clearly ecstatic by the obvious effect their hard-fought victory against the 'Elite' horde lost control and went impetuous, pilling up on top of the also out of control crossbowmen in the middle of the board.
The end of the game was a slow, but comical affair as the French command repeatedly rolled 1s on the PIPs, forcing Hawkwood to use both of his brilliant strokes to double the pips... and command the one psiloi defending the baggage against the Seleucid light horse. The psiloi performed brilliantly, killing two light horse before they were finally killed. Sadly this meant that the French knights were totally out of control, running into each other, and difficult terrain while shouting to the companions to come and fight them (the companions refused, cowards!)
A small detachment of knights arrived just in time to see the light horse pillage the Free Company's baggage. The loot lost and disgusted by such a lack of chivalry displayed by the companions, the French withdrew from the field.
All joking aside, this was another really enjoyable game - Graham definitely outplayed me, and deservedly won a comfortable victory. I learned a lot about how not to use impetuous, irregular troops. There was also a large number of very funny moments, such as the knights taking 3 bounds to kill the horde and then immediately going impetuous and running into the (also impetuous) crossbowmen in the middle of the field. The Seleucids' light horse were definitely the MVPs, and I certainly didn't react quickly enough to them!
No comments:
Post a Comment