Communal Italian vs Anglo-Norman

Corps I Heavy spear pavise to ensure your stabby guys get up close and personal with no messy arrows in them. Papal Guard to add a little punch. Corps III sees some knights and a levy.... not sold on the levy. Corps II war wagons with blades! Awesome! Supported with yet more knights and some heavy spear/crossbow to reach out and touch without having to worried about being rolled over in the middle of the battlefield.

Not a complex list. Hammer in corps I with a shield of lights. Tar pit in Corps II. Corps III is a little bit more than just a tarpit. The addition of two pike give it some kick and the bow for some force projection.

Steep hill in the middle of the Italian deployment, two brush and a coast. The battlefield will not be wide! The Anglos take the first turn.

Evil Italian knights

Take an unreliable commander they said. You can use the three points elsewhere they said. Its only a one in six chance of it butt humping your entire battleplan they said....

So that's a one. The command goes unreliable and the Anglos no longer have a West flank...

In fact all the generals in the Anglo force think its a good time to relax and not put in too much effort. Three pip rolls, three ones.

Anglos move forward... well most of them do... why haven't the knights dismounted? Somebody didn't pack this option for them (I will come to regret this). No getting off the horse for you guys!

The Anglo General didn't deploy his lights forward, allowing his opponent to TRIPLE move his warwagons into a wall of anti Knight doom. The Anglo General is sad.

Okay dice, your are starting to get to me.

Considered crushing one in my fist to show the others the price of failure. Realise haven't been to the gym due to torn tendon and my arms are no length spaghetti strings attached to a bean poll.

You win this round dice ,

Anglo lights put a hit on the warwagon! We win! Lets call it here and everyone can break for lunch!

Anglo lights put another hit on the war wagon! At this moment I have a dream that the warwagon is just going to be shot to death and I wont have to worry about it. The Italian knights are moving (hiding), behind the warwagons not waiting to face the wall of spikes approaching in the East.

It was at this moment that the Anglos (me) should have turned the knights around and moved away. There was no win in front of me and by separating the knights I had lost control. Can't blame dice on dumb decisions... I need to get that on a T-Shirt. Instead of moving away I sent two knights towards the spear/crossbow. I actually rate elite knights into mediocre heavy spear. You are one down on the dice, but armour and elite vs mediocre tends to carry the day.

Can't Blame Dice for Dumb Decisions.

Dice Don't Make You Do Dumb Things

Foolish Choices the Dice Didn't Make Them

dammit! Missing photo. And it would have told a story. Italians roll a million (I stopped to count them, really wasn't far of this) and manoeuvre entire army. Anglos strategist rolls a one for pips and cant control his knights so in they go. Even fights all round... both knights drop two cohesion. In a funny state of affairs the impact cavalry wins! Pike take on a warwagon in the East they are +3 up and achieve nothing. The big fight is in the centre. Knight and two lights vs warwagong. Knight wins!

This is so messy.

Holy morale losses Batman! The Italian knights end the ELITE Anglo knights, who rout through a friendly Anglo light That's six moral gone in four dice rolls. In the East the pike chop through a war wagon. In the Centre the Italian General rally's the warwargon and joins the fight... this is not good.

Pike get a flank charge +3 up, don't score a hit, would complain about dice but the knight fighting the warwagon in the centre is, by some miracle, still not dead. The Unreliable Anglo General is starting to make his presence felt, would have been oh so much more useful two turns ago. Oh, this wasn't captured in the photos, but the blue circle highlights an absolute rockstar of a Anglo bow he has routed on Italian light horse and cause another to flee off table! His reward is to never move again and slowly rally back to full health.

The Centre is a quagmire of mess. Now that mediocre pike is fighting on evens it wins. The knight fighting the warwagon is STILL going! Medals all round. The Anglo West is now only held by five mediocre heavy spear....

The Unrealiable Anglo General gets to flank charge a heavy damaged Italians heavy spear/crossbow routing it! The centre is a mess though the Hero Anglo Knight has withdrawn from War wagon death combat. The pike on knight combat in the East is slowly going the mediocre pikes way. Armour and mediocracy keeping the knights in the fight.

Woah! Turns out there was something in that ambush marker! Two Italian lights come and join the party in the far West. Italian knights charge in, stick! Go you unreliable good thing! The Warwagon charges the knight in the centre at +4 or +5 up, the knight routs. Still gets a medal, or the survivors do anyway. Pikes win in the East, and while the Anglos have suffered heavy causalities, they are starting to claw their way back.

Mediocre spear in the West flank and double team an Italian knight routing it instantly! Why do you guys take so long to get here! You are great! The centre is almost entirely Italian. One Lone Anglo knight, supported by two lights, is our last hope. The East, the East is looking pretty Anglo. A wall of sharp sticks is forming and starting to sweep forward, is that a gleem of hope in the eyes of the Anglo General? No, its directed at the fact his first beer of the day has been delivered to the table.

Mediocre spear for the win!

The mediocre spear in the West is havening a field day! Another Italian knight caught in the heavy spear sandwich of DOOM! (theres a sentence). The lone Anglo hope in the centre is now as at a disadvantage as the Italian general joins the fight! He is still swinging though.

Will never cease to amuse me that in all aspects of ADLG rolling high is good EXCEPT when attempting to kill an opponent's General where inexplicably you need to roll low

Have NEVER been so sad to see a six in my life (well that afternoon anyway)

The Italian Brilliant General gets away to fight again.

(this 50/50 would have netted me three moral towards breaking the italian army.)

The Mediocre HackSaw of Happiness continues to plough through the Italians in the West! The centre sees our lone knight gunman win! But fail to kill the general, the Anglo generals cries of delight dry up as his impetuous knight HAS to move forward into a but wedge of death position. Anglo Pike get there hands on another Italian knight in the East.

The Mediocre Unreliable Hacksaw is seeing a change in fortune as better trained Italian heavy spear join the fray.. oh dear. The Lone Gunman is flanked and destroyed in the centre. The Italian warwagon doesn't really know what to do, having killed so many knights... it decides to try and chase down that only ones that's left...

Oh dear....

The Anglo strategist, now that he has one knight and three lights to command, can't roll below a five for pips. Ha! Feck you General! The Anglo army is so close to breaking it doesn't bear counting. I mean I suppose I could get a bear to count it. English language is weird. Anglo is winning in the East! Just not he centre..or the West.

Least this guy has fully recovered. Took a while....

A quick count sees that both armies are only two off breaking! Italian lights bully an Anglo light off the field over near the beach. The centre is all going the Italian way. The Italian general takes a hit withdrawing from ZoC in the East, but it beats fighting a wall of spikes.

A recount shows the Anglo are one off breaking and the first combat breaks them. There only hope is for a mutual destruction. War wagon combat gets them one, they need to kill the knight general, that doesn't happen. It comes down to mediocre spear on mediocre spear. Fight is completely even (general rallied the Anglo spear), though the Italians only need a draw to win the game. Not only do the Anglos loose, the Anglo General dies! Sad face

DEFEAT! The Anglos hold their heads in shame....

Beyond the obvious of not bringing dismounts, what went wrong. Firstly, should have deployed the light ablative shield forward. Allowing the warwagons a triple move was just silly. The lights would have been in no danger. Once the General went unreliable I should have advanced with the Knights and then, and this is important ,as a group TURNED around and ran back to my deployment line. This would have given time for my Eastern flank of knight and warwagon destroying goodness a chance to form up. Would have created a L (except the L is reversed) and given me time to get my unreliable guy back online. Instead I tried to do too many things with the impetuous knights. They are not great at doing anything else beside charge forward!

The third big mistake was engaging the warwagon. IF that battle was between the warwagong and an elite knight with two lights supporting I rate my decision. Might take the knight a smidge, but he should chop through the wagon. Here is the thing. This relies on my opponent letting that happen. Weirdly enough, he didn't. Not sure why I thought he would let me spend four turns turning his prized possession into kindling....

Thought the Italians played well, though there were two occasions where his plan seemed to be "Roll a shed load of pips" to get me out of this traffic jam. There was also the issue of getting two lights caught in the field by the Anglo bow, but I can see the temptation. You are a little down on the dice, but a single hit and the bow is dead and you are on your way to camp town, looking for the party being hosted at SackIt Street.

Great game, I deserved to lose and I did. Till next time ADLG fans!