Winter Cup: Medieval Polish vs Neapolitan - posted by Vince Cholewa, 25 July 2021

My second game at the Hutt Valley Wargaming Club’s Winter Cup yesterday was my Medieval Polish against my old friend Phil (WERQPR) Gates using Neapolitan from the Italian Condotta list. This time we used 450 army points - my army was again in four commands. The hill on Phil’s base edge was gentle, there was assorted rough and difficult ground on my right and more roads. There was no weather affecting the game.

The result was a 21-4 win to me but the score hardly reflects a game that could have easily gone either way.

I hoped to draw Phil into a fight on the open plain on my left where my better and more plentiful light horse would give me an advantage. My small Lithuanian command was flank marching on the left to support this attack. Phil, would not be drawn into this and would not move forward from the hill.

The main fight centred around the hill and I was able to use a second command to support my attack, with one command delaying much of Phil’s army trying to prevent it redeploying to the hill.

Numbers told, casualties slowly mounted and a gap finally appeared next to Phil’s table edge that my hussars could exploit.

The Lithuanians arrived on bound five and, as the gap widened, were able to move a column of light horse into it.

Phil’s right broke but so did my delaying command which had slowly been drawn into more and more combat. I used my +1 token when this command’s general tried to buy time and attacked Neapolitan halberdiers but to no avail.

The battle between the Polish and Italian knights on and around the hill turned into a swirling mess and broke up so badly I could no longer control my knights and their supporting cavalry. Luckily, by then my light horse had got through the gap on the table edge and proved the difference, eventually contributing to Phil’s middle command breaking.

Importantly for this game, I had the good luck of casualties falling in the right place, on the edge of the table where light horse could get through. Without that, and with the Neapolitan superior number of knights, the game could very easily have gone the other way.

It is always a pleasure to play Phil, and this game was no exception. Thank you for a most enjoyable afternoon

The tokens used are explained here 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/posts/1854848971341353/

Early in the game. My troops are massing on my left.

The end of the game seen from Phil’s base edge.

Italian knigjhts

The Neapolitan army

Philip Gates

Thanks Vince. It was a great game, really tight. I have made a slight modification to my list as a result of learnings from this one though.

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  Vincent Cholewa

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  Philip Gates good on you. I made made quite a few tweaks after Call to Arms

Allen Yaxley

You could be top of the table Vince. Well done .

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  Vincent Cholewa

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  Allen Yaxley thank you. I think Gary is leading after two wins. I would be second or third.