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.