Monday 11 April 2022

Medieval Polish vs Burgundian Ordonnance - posted by Vince Cholewa, 11 April 2022

Thank you so much to Josh Barton for an excellent game of toy soldiers at the Hutt Valley Wargaming Club on Saturday. I used 400AP of medieval Polish c.1500 vs Josh’s Burgundian Ordonnance c.1475. It was a tight game, much closer than the 21-4 score in my favour suggests. It was one of those games where the pressure and tension build and build, and it is touch and go about which army will break first.
Thank you also to Wayne Watts and Grey Lewis for their advice. Wayne suggesting how I use minimum-sized terrain to limit my opponent’s choices. My preferred terrain being a billiard table. Gary told me knights need a second line and the Poles have plentiful cavalry and light horse, perfect for the job.
Terrain: I defended and was able to place my “mini marshes” on the right of Josh’s deployment area and my “weeny wood” in his centre. Josh’s normal sized woods fell on his right but well forward because of the two marshes, and in my deployment area. My last terrain feature was a 1/2-sized gentle hill that ended up in my deployment area. The middle and Josh’s left ended up wide open.
Deployment: As defender I deployed first expecting Josh to have his shooting line of guns and crossbows next to his wood on the right, with a few handgunners (Ps(S)) in the wood. The Burgundian pikemen and swordsmen (Pk(O) and Bd(O)) would be in the centre, with gendarmes, mounted longbowmen and some light horse deployed deep to cover the open flank. I was wrong! He refused his right flank altogether, using the weeny wood to try to anchor his shooting line. This left a most formidably dense mass of foot, gendarmes and mounted longbows on less than half the table.
I had deployed my CnC (knights, cavalry and hussars) opposite Josh’s right. I had a cunning plan for how to get the hussars through part of the wood and around. Supporting was a sub-general with knights, cavalry and Tatars. My attack would be on this flank. Another command of knights, cavalry, an organ gun and handgunners (Ps(S)) were to delay the Burgundian infantry and support the Lithuania light horse and cavalry on my right, whose job was simply to make the mounted longbows respond to them and keep them away from my knights.
The game: Having deployed first I had the first move. With Josh having out-thought me with his deployment I decided attacking his right, the shooting line, was even more important as I was never going to get through his massed centre and left. However, with nothing facing my attacking commands, my CnC and his supporting sub-general, changing the direction and shape of my attack was crucial. Josh tried to disrupt this with what light horse he had there but the Tatars were able to destroy them and give me the space I needed. Time, however, was precious.
Josh’s left (longbows, gendarmes and light horse) quickly became far too much for the Lithuanians to match. I could see I was going to lose the command but I needed them to cause disruption and buy time. They were my smallest command (only 12 morale equivalents (ME)) and if I had to lose a command this was the one.
The Polish command delaying the Burgundian foot was doing well. The cavalry and handgunners were skirmishing successfully with the close order foot and even caused a few casualties. They supported the Lithuanians as best they could to delay the Burgundians trying to sweep forward on their left. Inevitably, the Lithuanians broke but their sub-general was able to hold them a little longer to cause more delay.
Meanwhile, on his right, Josh was changing angles and moving parts of his shooting line to disrupt the attack I was building and to, hopefully, cause some casualties. The Tatars had reformed and charged one end of the shooting line (guns and crossbows) from outside crossbow range. They rode down the guns but not the crossbows - Josh used his sub-general (Kn(S)) and elements from his foot command to block the Tatars. My next bound the CnC with his knights, cavalry and hussars hit the shooting line and broke it. I let the hussars continue into the Burgundian baggage.
We had now lost our respective right flank commands but mine was smaller, and with the Burgundian baggage looted I no longer needed to break a second command to take the Burgundian losses to more than half its ME to break the army. Josh had seen the risk and was trying to get what troops he could from his victorious left to cover the exposed infantry in the centre. Unfortunately, there were a few more casualties on the infantry and the troops coming to their rescue and that was the game.
Musings: Having four highly mobile commands against three bigger but less manoeuvrable commands was a significant advantage. The mini-terrain features certainly helped. The Lithuanians hanging around for two more bounds after being broken bought priceless time. Knights are a potent strike force but they definitely need support. My army really does like to play on a billiard table and terrain is not its friend. Josh and I are looking at a rematch using 450AP to see how the additional points change the balance of the game. Thank you again, Josh, for a great game 😊

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Early in the game. You can see how well Josh has reduced the space to play in. Nearest to him my Lithuanians are already in trouble. The Burgundian forlorn hope of light horse is about to be monstered by Tatars. At the front of the pic I need lots of PIPs to reorganise my attack.

The 2006 home football jersey. I was not sure if wearing it was going to be tempting fate or good luck! The pixilated watermark image on the jersey is a winged hussar.


Burgundian foot in a marching column. In the background, Mike Stonyer and Reg Newall are having a Viking bash using the Saga rules.

The Burgundian shooting line. It performed several manoeuvres during the game to improve its shooting and defensive angles.

The Polish CnC. Jastrzębiec was one of the greatest clans and one of its senior members, Piotr Myszkowski, was Hetman of the King’s small, standing “mercenary” army. It was at times called mercenary because the King paid it with taxes. It was not a feudal levy.

Chelm was a province that was at this time part of the Royal estate. It is also where my father was born.



  • Neil Williamson
    Great entertaining report Vince. You can only place 3 pieces of small terrain though. You placed 2 marshes, a small wood and a small hill?
    Your hill should have been full size, but only costing a half fe.
    2
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    • 22h
  • Ben Vartok
    Very nice looking army, really popping paintwork!
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    • 16h






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