Later Plantagenet vs Italian Condotta - 11.24.19

Managed to get a quick 800 point game in of FOG at Lee's Basement vs Joey Miller this past weekend.  Unfortunately I only managed to get some pictures form the early rounds as I got caught up in the action.

I won the initiative and opted to play in Hilly as I wanted to restrict the amount of open ground.  Joey ended up with two brushes and a broken (in the center of the picture below) on his side of the table.  He deployed with an unarmored crossbow cavalry at the bottom followed by two 12 packs of pike, an 8 pack of billmen (in the broken), followed by two 6 packs of average knights deployed in line.  Behind his front, he had a 6 pack of crossbow by his camp and a 4 pack of superior knights behind the average knights.   Joey deployed a 6 stand BG of hand gunners in front of his line. Joey opted for 4 OTCs to round out his army.

I had a gentle hill on my left with a piece of broken in front of it.  A marsh came next and then there was a gentle hill next to an impassable at the top of the table.  I deployed two ambush markers as dummies:  one in the broken terrain and one in the marsh.  My line deployed with a 6 pack of Gascon Crossbow followed by an 8 pack of longbow then a 6 pack of Superior dismounted men-at-arms, a 4 pack of average English "Spearmen", two more 8 packs of longbow, another 6 pack of superior dismounted men-at-arms, an 8 stand longbow on the hill and a 4 stand Gascon mounted Knight BG in the gap between the hill and the impassable.  6 stands of Irish Kerns were deployed in front of my center and 6 stands of Gascon Brigans were deployed in front of my camp.  I went with an FC and two OTCs to command my army.

I moved first and started slowly moving my troops forward.

Joey was slowed by the terrain on his right so he tried to refuse it to some extent.  He angled his hand gunners in the center as they advanced hopping to disrupt any advance on my part.  I did only minor movements in the center but advanced the mounted knights towards his left wing on one end of my line and angled my crossbow and bottom longbow forward to bring future fire onto his mounted crossbow.

Unfortunately below is the last picture I managed before becoming consumed by the battle.  We were in for several rounds of ineffectual missile fire from both sides before Joey launched a charge pretty much across the whole front.

I managed to reduce the mounted crossbow to 3 stands due to fire but he charged me anyway and eventually routed my Gascon crossbow.  In the center, both side's light foot units pulled back behind the front lines as the meat grinder began.  Joey would eventually bring his reserve crossbow up to guard the right flank of the pike at the bottom but when the pike were destroyed by the superior men-at-arms they died on their polearms when the men-at-arms pursued into them.  Joey was able to destroy both longbow BGs in the center and the superior men-at-arms next to the hill.  Unfortunately, the billmen had been reduced to fragmented and pursued to within charge range of my reserve Brigans.  At the top, the Gascon knights destroyed one 6 pack of Italian Knights and then caught the Italian Superior Knights in a kinked column.  The Gascon knights would eventually charge them and drop them to 75% after impact and melee and them with a general.  The reserve Brigans meanwhile charged the fragmented Italian Billmen who broke from being charged.  The Brigans survived barreling into one file of the remaining Italian Pike thus ending the game in around 2 hours and 45 minutes with the English on top but down 8 attrition points.

If my shooting with longbow ever improves, they will be a force to be reckoned with.  We hope to get another game in before Christmas and hopefully, I will take pictures throughout the game.

The Anguish of the North

With our King somewhere on the continent, the perfidious French have spread their gold throughout the north.  Not seven days ago the lord Archbishop, William de la Zouche, marched north with the immediate forces of Yorkshire to join with Lord Ralph Neville to face the bastard Scots under William Douglas. I was to follow with additional troops of the shire...

Everything has changed now...

Yesterday, a messenger brought word that Ravenspur & Hull have fallen to a force of Danes.  Danes!!!  A force under their King, Valdemar IV, marches on Wressle with York as their obvious destination.  I have sent riders after the Archbishop but I doubt he will be be able to act in time.  As the High Sheriff of Yorkshire, I will bring the forces here at York south to confront the Danish invaders.

The host and list of the Yorkshire defenders:

The host and list of the invading Danes:

The experience of the Danish King allowed him to pick the open heath on the agricultural road from Hull southwest of Wressle.  The defending English opted to place the compulsory open field, an enclosed field and a gentle hill but the Danish attackers removed the gentle hill and both fields fell on the Danish side of the table.

The Danish deployed with the blue vested select levy on the right of their line partly in the open field with the red vested select levy only two files wide with the Feudal Knights beside the enclosed field.  The Danish king decided to deploy with the red levy just behind the knights.

(a close up of the Danish king behind the lines)

The English deployed with veteran longbow (i.e. those with swords) on each end of their line with the armoured retainers in the left center and the dismounted men-at-arms in the right center.  The under equipped longbow deployed behind the left and center of the English line.  Sir Thomas de Rokeby deployed with the men-at-arms to begin the struggle.

(a close up of Sir Thomas behind the men-at-arms--okay its Ralph Neville but I have not painted Sir Thomas)

The ire of the English troops being up, the English were ready first but decided to allow the Danish invaders to move on them first.  Thus ended the English 1st turn.

The Danish 1st turn witnessed the blue levy move 3" forward and shift 1 base to their right.  The knights moved 4" forward and shifted one base to their left.  The red levy (and the Danish king) expanded 1 file and advanced 1" on their first move and then 2" to come level with the blue levy on their second move.  At this point, no one was in bow range, so the turn ended.

The English opted to remain in place for their 2nd turn but did try to move the reserve longbow but failed a CMT to turn 90 to the left of the English line.

For the Danish 2nd turn, the knights remained stationary and expanded two bases to their left.  The red levy expanded 1 base and advanced 1" to come level with the knights.  The blue levy also advanced 1" to conform with the remainder of the Danish line.  The Danish king remained with the red levy in the center.  With no one in bow range, the turn ended.

For the English 3rd turn, the rear longbow passed a CMT and turned 90 to their left.  The remainder of the English line moved 1" forward.  Still being out of missile range the turn ended.

The Danish king, not wanting to dally, advanced all units 3" forward.  This move brought the longbow and crossbow within range.  The left English longbow BG scored 2 hits to the blue levy who shrugged off the hits and managed nothing in return.  The red levy could not bring enough dice to bear at long range to be effective while the right English longbow managed 2 hits on the knights who also shrugged off the arrow fire.  With nothing else to do, the Danish 3rd turn came to a close.

For the English 4th turn, the rear longbow moved 4" towards the left of the English line. Neither sides' missile fire was effective so the English 4th turn came to an end.

The Danish king felt the need to come to grips quickly in hopes of reducing the effect of the longbow arrow storm (and in the campaign context, to take advantage of the Archbishop of York's absence in the north) and decided to continue his advance in turn 4.  The entire line advanced 3" forward.  Both Danish levy units fired with gusto but to no avail as their crossbows had no effect on the stationary English.  The English, on the other hand, scored 3 hits on the blue levy and 2 hits on the knights.  Luckily for the Danes, the hits caused no ill effects and, after Sir Thomas moved to the longbow BG on the right end of the English line, the turn ended.

For the English 5th turn, the front English line remained in place while the rear longbow wheeled towards the end of the English line ending in a kinked column.  In the shooting phase, the blue levy scored 3 hits on the longbow to their front who disrupted from the crossbow bolts.  The return fire was negligible. The red levy and the longbow on the right end of the English line only managed 1 hit each to no effect.

To start the Danish 5th turn, the Danish king dipped his flag and the entire line charged ahead.  Sir Thomas joined the front rank of the left end longbow unit while the Danish King decided to remain in the rear ranks of the red levy in the center of the Danish line and not fight.  The blue levy scored 11 hits on the left longbow unit but none against the retainers in the center.  In return, the blue levy suffered 0 hits from the longbow but 3 from the retainers.  The red levy scored 4 hits on the retainers and 2 on the men-at-arms.  In return, the red levy took 2 from the retainers and 1 from the men-at-arms.  The knights scored 1 on the men-at-arms and 5 on the longbow on the right.  In return, the knights suffered 3 hits from the men-at-arms and 1 from the longbow.  Sir Thomas survived fighting in the front rank.  The left longbow BG suffered two bases lost from hits and then doubled dropped to broken on the cohesion test.  The retainers in the center of the English line suffers no base loses and rolled out of cohesion.  The men-at-arms suffered a base loss but won their impact.  The right longbow managed a draw against the knights but lost a base to hits.  The retainers looked with disdain at the fleeing longbow and carried on while the rear longbow were too busy trying to finish their wheel to worry when the longbow to their front broke (for the moment).  The broken longbow rolled long and crashed through the longbow behind them who dropped to fragmented.  On the Danish side, the blue levy lost a base due to hits.  The red levy survived with no loses but the knights lost 2 bases yet rolled a 12 on cohesion and survived.   The Danish blue levy could not pursue as they were still hung up on the retainers.  In the maneuver phase, the Danish line conformed as much as possible with only one file of the blue levy still fighting the English retainers.  There was no shooting on any worth in the shooting so into the melee phase the turn went.  The Danish knights only managed 1 hit to the longbow to their front who gave one back for a draw.  The red levy in the center of the Danish line did 3 hits each to the retainers and men-at-arms but took 4 total in return.  The blue levy gave 3 to the retainers and took 1 in return.  The English men-at-arms lost a base to hits and dropped to disrupted.  The English retainers lost a base to hits but rolled out of their cohesion test.  The The Danish king opted to remain where he was and watch events unfold while Sir Thomas was still fighting in the front rank so the turn ended.

The English 6th turn arrived and their situation was getting desperate.  The fragmented longbow moved 3" forward allowing them to come out of their kink and moved them out of arc of most of the Danish blue levy whose missile fire on the column was woeful.  In melee, the English retainers managed 1 hit total on the Danish red levy and 0 on the blue levy but suffered 5 in return.  The men-at-arms scored a single hit on the red levy taking 2 in return.  The longbow facing the Danish knights managed 3 hits and took 4 in return.  Sir Thomas survived another round of melee.  The English retainers lost a base to the hits and then fragmented on cohesion.  The English men-at-arms also suffered a base loss to hits and fragmented as well.  The longbow suffered a base loss from hits but passed their cohesion test.  The Danish knights managed to roll a 1 for their death roll auto breaking.  The Danish red levy to their right disrupted from seeing the knights break.  In their rout, the knights rolled short and were caught by the longbow in pursuit removing their last base.  At the end of the melee phase, the English stood at 5 attrition points to 2 ending the battle.  

Sir Thomas de Rokeby led the regard of longbow as the Danes consolidated on the field.  Hopefully the walls of Wressle will hold them up long enough for you to organize the defenses of York...

Thus ended the first test battle of the "War on the Doorstep" HYW campaign.  Incidentally, the Danes will only be able to field only 1/2 the max of Superior Knights as the knight BG was destroyed completely on the table in this fight.  I will try out the Victory Ripple and siege rules this week and see what happens next in the campaign.  Until then, here are a few close ups of King Valdemar IV and the Danish Knights.  All are Old Glory 15s and the shields are handpainted.  The flags were downloaded off a Danish site years ago and are no longer available that I am aware of.

New GCC Content Added

The GCC Archives Page has been updated with 2 more volumes of the GCC Monthly Uploaded.  Unfortunately, 2015-2016 is missing the April and May editions but I will keep looking.

GCC Archives

New Content Added and Coming

I have added a new page to the blog (FOG Archives) and will be adding another to house old GCC Content.  The impending demise of the Yahoo Groups finds our community with a need for storage of old content before it is lost forever.  I am starting with the US FOG Team Tournament content first and will add more as I have an opportunity.

The GCC Archive page has now been added with the 1st year of the Gulf Coast Monthly Newsletter uploaded.

The US FOG Team Tournament results for 2009 are now up on the FOG Archive Page.

The GCC Archive page now has the Gulf Coast Monthly Volume I uploaded.

FOG 300 Parthians vs Later Pre-Islamic Bedouins circa 220 AD

The perfidy of the usurper Artabanus IV knows no bounds...he has induced the tent dwellers of the southern deserts to invade the lands of the empire and directly threaten the true King of Kings, Vologases VI.  The vermin of the desert under their lord have pillaged the lands on the western side of the Euphrates, crossed the great river and are now marching on Babylon.  The true King of Kings has marshaled his forces and has met the enemy in the land between the two rivers.

The Parthian List and host:

The Pre-Islamic Bedouin list and host:

The Pre-Islamic Bedouins (LPIB) won the initiative and opted for Steppe.  The Parthians took a brush and a gentle hill while the LPIB took both opens.  The brush and the gentle hill both ended up on the Parthian side of the board and both opens ended up on the LPIB side.

The Parthians deployed with the lance armed BW* cavalry on the front edge of the gentle hill, both cataphracts deployed in a single deep line in the center and the unprotected cavalry and light horse on the other end of the line in the brush.  Vologases deployed with the green flagged cataphracts in front of his camp.

The LPIBs deployed with one light horse and one cavalry BG opposite the Parthian lance armed cavalry, 4 BGs of cavalry in the center and 2 light horse opposite the brush.  The LPIB leader started with the force opposite the hill.

To complement winning the initiative, the LPIB moved first.  The two light horse BGs on the LPIB right advanced 7" towards the brush.  The light horse-cavalry group double moved to just outside of 5" of the Parthian cavalry on the hill (including a single base slide towards the top of the picture in their first move).  The center group of lancers moved 5" straight towards the cataphracts.  With no shooting to be had, in the Joint Action Phase the LPIB leader moved to the closet BG in the center and the LPIB first turn ended.

For the Parthian 1st turn, the light horse/cavalry grouping in the brush moved to within 3" of the Bedouin light horse to their front.  In retrospect, the cavalry should have moved as far forward as possible in an effort to get out of the brush.  The bow*/lance armed cavalry on the hill moved to within 4" of the light horse opposite them at the top of the picture below.  The cataphracts moved as a group 4" straight forward.  In the shooting phase, the Parthians shooting out of the brush managed a few hits but to no effect while on the other end of the field, the bow*/lance cavalry disrupted the light horse opposite them.

To start the Bedouin 2nd turn, charges were declared all across the front with the exception of the disrupted light horse.  One Bedouin light horse passed a CMT to charge the unbroken Parthian cavalry in the brush.  The Parthian light horse opted to stand as they were less than 7" from the table edge and expected to go off the table if they evaded.   The Bedouin light horse managed 5 total hits to the 6 stand Parthian light horse and only one to the cavalry in the brush.  The Parthian light horse only managed 3 hits total in return and the cavalry only did 1.  The Parthian light horse lost a stand to the death roll and disrupted.  In the center, the Parthian leader attached to the Green cataphracts to lead them in the fight.  The two Bedouin lancer BGs facing the Red cataphracts managed 7 hits.  The Red cataphracts gave back 1 hit and 4 hits to the two BGs facing it.  The Red cataphracts managed to lose two bases and disrupted in the impact.  The Bedouin BG taking 4 hits also lost a base and disrupted as well.  The Green cataphracts scored 4 hits and 2 hits against its opponents and took 7 in return.  It lost a base but passed cohesion as Vologases did the "duck and weave" to survive the impact.  The Bedouin BG in the direct center lost a base in the impact.  At the top of the field, the Bedouin cavalry and the Parthian bow*/lance cavalry both managed only a single hit for a draw.  In the maneuver phase, the disrupted Bedouin light horse at the top of the field, turned 90 and advanced 4.5" in a wheel.  As everyone else was in combat, there was no more maneuver and no shooting.  In the melee phase, the Parthian light horse managed 0 hits and took 1 in return while the Parthian cavalry in the brush gave 2 hits and took 1 hit.  The Parthian light horse survived its death roll but dropped to fragmented on cohesion.  The Parthian cavalry's opponent in the brush lost a base to the death roll and disrupted.  In the center, the Red cataphracts scored 1 hit to each BG it was facing and took 1 from each for a draw.  The Green cataphracts however scored 2 hits to the disrupted BG to its front and 1 to the BG with the Bedouin general (who was not fighting).  The Bedouins managed only 2 from the one with the general in return.  The disrupted Bedouin in the center lost a base on the death roll dropping it to 50% and casting it to outbreak.  Both Bedouin BGs beside it survived their cohesion check for seeing a friend break.  The Parthian bow*/lancer cavalry scored only 2 hits and took 4 in return.  It followed up this performance with losing a base and then disrupting.  The broken Bedouin BG routed 5" and then was picked up at the end of the Joint Action Phase.

To start the Parthian 2nd turn, there were no charges to be had so in maneuver, the Green cataphracts shifted a base to cover the overlapping Bedouins.  There was no shooting so into melee the turn proceeded.  The Parthian light horse again scored no hits while taking 2 in return but managed to roll out of the death roll and cohesion test.  The Parthian cavalry in the brush managed only 1 hit and took 1 in return for a draw.  In the center, the Red cataphracts scored 1 hit to the BG on their left and 0 to the one on their right.  The left BG managed 0 hits in return while the right did 2.  The losing Bedouin BG lost a base to the death roll and then dropped to disrupted on cohesion.  The Red cataphracts survived the death roll but dropped to fragmented on cohesion.  The Green cataphracts scored 2 hits to its opponent and took one in return.  The Bedouins lost a base on the death roll but survived cohesion.  The Parthian bow*/lance cavalry continued their dreadful performance and lost 3 hits to 2.  Even though they survived the death roll, they failed the cohesion test to drop to fragmented.  The Bedouin leader moved in the Joint Action Phase to the BG on the right of the Red cataphracts and attempted to bolster but failed.

To start the Bedouin 3rd turn the disrupted light horse attempted a CMT to charge the fragmented Parthian bow*/lancers but failed and settled for moving forward 5"and turning 90 to be on the Bus flank.  Again there was no shooting so into melee the turn proceeded.  The Parthian light horse managed 1 hit total and took 2 in return bit somehow managed to pass both the death roll and the cohesion test.  The Parthian cavalry in the brush swapped 1 hit for 1 hit to end in a draw.  In the center, the fragmented Red cataphracts only had 1 dice and opted to through it against the BG with the Bedouin leader.  1 hit was scored by both sides in this melee ending in a draw.  The Green cataphracts managed 2 hits to 1 in its round causing the Bedouins to its front to disrupt.  The Parthian bow*/lance cavalry scored 2 hits to 3 and subsequently broke on cohesion routing off the table.  Their Bedouin opponents pursued 4".  In the Joint Action Phase, the Bedouin general attempted to rally the BG he was with once again and failed a second time.

The Parthian 3rd turn started with both sides knowing that this would be the final round.  With no charges, maneuver or shooting the turn moved straight into melee.  The Parthian light horse managed only 1 hit and took 3 in return while the Parthian cavalry in the brush scored 1 hit and took none.  The Parthian light horse passed its death roll but failed cohesion breaking.  The Bedouin light horse in the brush took a total of two hits and passed its death roll but failed its cohesion dropping to fragmented. The Red cataphracts managed to hit with its only dice but took two in return.  It passed its death roll but failed cohesion, dropping to broken.  The Green cataphracts scored 3 hits and took 1 from its opponent who passed its death roll and dropped to fragmented.  With the end of the melee round, both sides stepped back to count their losses and the Parthians come out on the negative side.

As his forces streamed from the field, Vologases vowed to get revenge on his perfidious brother, Artabanus the Snake...

Game note:  The Later Pre-Islamic Bedouin Ally list maximum numbers were increased to allow for a 300 point to be fielded as the max that can be fielded under the current list is 202 points.

Broken Rays of the Sun Inspirational Reading

Whenever I start a new project, I will grab everything I can find to provide more depth to my knowledge and give more flavor as well as to continue to inspire my zest for the period.  To that end, I have put together a document of all of the background information I have been reading through for others who might be interested.  I have made it into a Google Doc viewable by anyone with the link for ease of access.   Follow the link below to check out the collection:

Broken Rays of the Sun Inspirational Reading

New Campaign Page

The Broken Rays of the Sun Campaign page is now live.  As I progress I hope to add additional information about the campaign including references for further reading.

Broken Rays of the Sun