Dec 26, 2012

Nolisium vs. Fjördstir Raiders

More Christmas-time medieval slaughter occured on the 25th, behold the report:


The Golden Prince of Nolisium was informed of a large Fjördstiri raiding party landing near the border. He took what he could of the army and marched to meet them.


Terrain
  • A- Wheat fields gone wild (reduce sight)
  • B - Elevations
  • C - Woods
Armies
Nolisium
1 - Mercenary footmen and City Guard spearmen
2 - Mercenary crossbowmen
3 - City Guard halberdiers
4- City Guard archers and levy
5- Golden Prince with heavy cavalry

Fjördstir
6- Light cavalry
7- Fjördesaal Archers
8- Medium shieldwall 
9- Skirmishers with javelins
10- Warlord with berserkers & hearthguard
11- Heavy shieldwall with spearmen
12- Southlander archers


The hill on the right was the place for the first combat. As the levy climbed up, they met a storm of arrows but held their ground.


And they became really tired getting up that elevation.


Overlay of the table a few turns later. The Fjördstiri light cavalry crashed into the levy (low quality troops have to roll morale tests each turn while in contact with cavalry) but the crossbowmen and archers did quite a damage to them while reaching the hill. The main shieldwalls were crawling slowly towards the enemy lines. 


The skirmishers were lost after another successful volley and the hill was a mess, fortunately the crossbowmen's bolts did not do much  damage to the advancing heavy shieldwall. The overall situation indicated it would be most certainly a defeat for the men of the North when the Golden Prince ordered the foot to stand aside and mounted a charge with his knights into the main Fjördstiri line... The cavalry lost initiative, had to roll 9 saves on 5 men, resulting in 1 dead and 4 wounded: the whole cavalry contingent lost in one clash... Then the nearest troop of crossbowmen rolled a morale test after seeing their leader die in front of them: a 1 on 1d12, as a result they routed immediately and there was no other commander around to stop them. The Nolisiumi centre collapsed in one turn (see picture above).

This was the end of the battle as there was no chance the levy (which was only stopped by the City Guard commander twice from running away from the light cavalry) and the remaining regular units would hold against such force.
While the heavy cavalry has its advantages and can make a great impact, attacking elite heavy infantry in closed formation was somewhat a not so well thought out decision. Of course, if they had managed to strike first and crack the shieldwall open, the Fjördstiri would have lost the combat. Bad luck, I say, bad luck decides battles.

The Inter Arma rules still require some reparations, so I will be working on those for a while. And not forget the dear criminal law either.

11 comments:

  1. I'm imprssed you found the time to get a game in, well done that man!

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  2. Nice batrep, The dicegods are cruel sometimes

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  3. Ahhh the nobility of engaging the enemy on Christmas Day. Huzzah!

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    Replies
    1. Engaging and winning is the key! But honestly, it was a good time.

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  4. Game Dice law is fickle. Yet, a good fight to the finish!

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  5. good ARR. did they give each other presents after the battle?

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, maybe they've exchanged wounded captives. And looted some armor, it's expensive nowadays.

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  6. Nice battlereport and pictures! Thanks for sharing!

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.be/

    ReplyDelete