Thank you so much to Barry Norris for an excellent game of toy soldiers at the Hutt Valley Wargaming Club on Saturday. Barry used Sicilian Normans vs my later Medieval Polish. While the game ended 21-4 in my favour, I had two disheartened commands – if either had broken, it would have taken the other with it!
The Sicilian Normans were the invaders, not surprising given our armies’ respective aggression, so I had more control of placing terrain. I placed my usual small pieces of difficult going to try to stop Barry placing his terrain in places useful for his army. It sort of worked but Barry was able to place two half-sized woods and a half-sized difficult hill, though maybe a bit further forward than he might have without my terrain.
My general plan was “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee”. That is, to use the better manoeuvrability of my army to influence where we would fight and then use the superior weight of my knights, supported by plentiful, good quality light horse, to break through (the Polish knights are regular ordinary and the Sicilian Normans are irregular fast).
The right side of the table (viewed from my side) was more open and I decided to attack there with the CnC’s entirely regular command of knights, cavalry and hussars (superior light horse). A Polish sub-general would support the attack and screen whatever might be lurking in the two woods. The second Polish sub-general would be held back to delay the Sicilian Norman centre and refuse the left which included Barry's difficult hill. I thought about flank marching my small Lithuanian command on my left but decided to keep it as a reserve held well back in the centre – Barry’s army would be much bigger than mine, likely to have four commands and have a bigger flank march than mine.
We rolled deployment dice, Barry doubled my score and had to deploy first! He placed horde on the right to block the gap between the woods and his base edge, light infantry (archers) and crossbowmen in the woods, with knights behind them. His centre was spearmen, more horde and knights held back. On the left, on the difficult hill, were allied auxiliaries and behind them ready to go round the hill were that commands light horse and cavalry. Was there a fourth command?
Well, not only did the Sicilian Normans invade but have to deploy first, in the very first bound of the game Barry’s dummy die rolled six. It revealed a delayed command of more knights, some scraggly light horse and a few light infantry that now had to march on that bound. The first pic shows this stage of the game. For the rest of the game the delayed command rolled low PIP dice, once or twice getting as high as three. Barry took these unlucky dice with far more good grace and humour than I
would have! That’s because he is a gentleman 
Seeing horde were defending in front of my right and they had knights from the delayed command behind them, I decided to “sweep” around the flank with the CnC and his knights. Even being regular, they were painfully s l o w. The hussars would have done it in half the time and had the speed to go around the edges of the horde to turn end elements and fight front and flank. However, what would they do about the Sicilian Norman knights lurking behind the horde? The CnC and knights did eventually get there, broke through the horde and, supported by the hussars, defeated the Sicilian Norman knights from the delayed command, breaking the delayed command (superior light horse and ordinary knights vs fast knights).
Meanwhile, the crossbowmen came out of the woods and were attacked by the first sub-general and his knights. Not good. All the knights lost in close combat and had to flee, except for the sub-general who drew and stuck. Next bound, double-overlapped and hard flanked sub-general was dead.
On my left the Tatars from the second sub-general’s command, the one held back, started a scrappy delaying fight with the Sicilian Norman’s allies. The Lithuanians joined in and, crucially, were able to sneak some light horse into the flank of the horde in the centre and then around it into the flank of the Sicilian Norman knights. The second sub-general advanced with his knights into the horde and then the Sicilian Norman knights behind them. Casualties among the Sicilian Norman knights grew, that command broke, and the game was over. By then, the Lithuanians had taken enough losses to be disheartened, as had the first sub-general’s command, which just could not get itself out of trouble with the command difficulty of no general.
I applied my plan, which given the eventual result, must have been okay but I was certainly left with some questions. While my CnC’s knights advanced so slowly to deliver my attack, if Barry had better PIP dice he would have been able to take the game to me and attack where he wanted. How to move those knights? And, there were those crossbowmen. Knights flee from archers who beat them in close combat, which is embarrassing if some of them don’t flee and particularly so if it’s the general who sticks. Should knights attack ordinary archers frontally? Musings and food for thought just reinforce this was an excellent game, far closer than the score suggests. Thank you again, Barry.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/824840264342234/posts/2281159772043602/
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| The first bound of the game. Barry has rolled six with his dummy die and is deploying his delayed command. You get an idea of the shape of the game - my attack massing on the right and the left refused. |
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| Several bounds into the game. At the top of the pic the Polish CnC is ready to charge the horde. At the bottom, the scraggly fight on the flank is developing. You can see the horde in the centre becoming exposed as the Sicilian Normans on the difficult hill can't coordinate with them. |
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| The Polish CnC, knights and, on the left, hussars about to charge the horde |
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| Some of the Lithuanians |
I feel for Barry. I have a 100% record using Normans in Sicily with Aghlabid Allies.........all losses!
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