Okay, so there is a caveat over this game. Mate and I had gotten together to catch up, unbox a load of minatures freshly painted from Sri Lanka, play ADLG, eat pizza and have a few drinks.
This is the last game of the evening, and by the end of this game we have consumed 1.3 litres of rum (not during this one game! Over the course of the evening). This is not a flex, but rather putting it out there that MAYBE we are not generalling at our best. That it's possible that all moves are not optimal. Its also possible that I may have had a nap on my couch and not made it to bed after this game.
Two mirror commands. They are tough. Heavy knight for some furious charge, mediocre pike that are okay vs most things, really good value vs most mounted. Though I am not convinced they can stand up to elite knights. Then again your 8 point unit is fighting a 15 point unit. Last command is a Highlander ally terrain specialists extraordinaire. None of this 1/2 bow/sword crap. These guys are ALL sword bow! Means they don't fight with any penalities.
Nine knights spread across three commands. Have a little micro command for ambushing. With an army count of only 22 I don't think I could ever risk flank marching with it (stands off table don't count for army morale, so drops my break point to 19. So the mediocre spear tar pit, while the Knights make magic. Some crossbow and bow for a little disorder before the party starts. This list has no real terrain ability. The Ally just brings MORE knights to the table.
Feck me, look at that terrain. For the sake of ease we played the Gully as the piece of terrain, not the picture on the terrain (so its a perfectly square gully... maybe its an old quarry pit). We have a steep hill up North and some brush to round out the last two pieces. The Scots setup is... unexpected. Cramming their whole army into half the map. The highlanders have deployed in column and look to take the gully. Not sure where the pike in the West are going. The Order looks at the terrain and the pike and has a minor moment. Blue lines are where the commands sperate.
Dismount! Five of the six Order knights dismount. The ally can't dismount and this is a problem. They are impetuous and not easy to maneuver, hence deploy in column. I want to rotate the board 90 degrees. The 'weak point' for the Scots is the high landers IF I can keep them out of terrain. The knights or foot knights should be able to chop through them.
No Allies lose their nerve. We start the process of rotating the board
Guys in red are allies, guys in blue are Order. Really, now that we have skipped the 'nahhh, I don't want to fight today' step of the Ally process (not rolling a one for the first command pip roll). We are just all Order of St John for the rest of the day... errrr game.
Speaking of the game, am changing my format. The next few turns are.... not exciting. So scroll on through and watch as we slowly move the board round. Didn't get it to 90 degrees, more like 45. During this time the Orders smaller army will lose a light horse to lucky bow fire and a crossbowmen due to bad generalship. Your regular cometarywill continue when something actually happens.
AND here we are. Scots bow have come off the hill to go light horse hunting, with some success. Much like myself after too many beers on a Friday and insulting the mother of the largest security man I have seen, this little guy has not left himself with an exit strategy that doesn't see him badly hurt.
The light horse has ZoC'd him, so there is no going back on the Steep hill, and the Order knights are coming...
Lets start this battle from here. Order has 20 units left standing, but is happy (ish) with its line.
Scots come pouring (flooding?) in. The Scots longbow turns and moves out of ZoC in the North, but takes another bow hit.
HIghlander bow fire hurts a foot knight! What are the odds!
Realising that is he stands still the Order will, eventually, be shot to pieces its time to go.
One longbow has a Foot Knight behind it (remember kids, Foot Knights interpenetrate bow), the other one, well the other longbow is in a bit of an iffy position.
Scots slide an advance. Getting the longbow out of the path of the Foot Knight with embedded general. The other longbow is facing a heavy knight, that is disordered. Still not good, but nowhere near as terrible as the foot knight.
CHARGE! The Order slams it home! The Foot knight general manages to score three cohesion hits on an even roll against opposing foot knight! Longbow routs on contact. Up North, well up North the longbow is hit by three knights and the general gets involved to really get it home.
Looking back, I really should have taken some close up shots of the situation up North as it unfolded. Looking at the picture it seems the Scots have launched a suicidal charge into the mounted knights. I mean they have done that, but before you cry foul of the oppositions generals inability to hold his rum let we walk you through it.
Order of St Johns step forward after combat they were now in charge range of the Scots impetuous knight, but ONLY if the knight charged through his pike friends. Scots competent general doesn't get enough pips to hold the knight. The general can't order a normal charge, there is nothing in normal charge range. So the knight will pile through his pike mates, disordering them and then fight two or three Order knights with an additional -1 (impetuous charge). On death, the knight will rout through BOTH pike units, putting another pip on them. Or the Scots can charge the pike forward and hope for the best. What would you do?
Pike charge forward, the one further North gets a support and the General gets involved making them +2 up, but mediocre. Neither pike wins. The decision to put the General in was... hmmm. I was going to say risky, but if hay is not made on this front it might collapse.
Battle for the centre heats up, its going the Orders way except for one Order knight that has taken three hits.... why is this important? Cause he DISMOUNTED and we forgot about the whole only has three cohesion not four thingy. Would it have changed the outcome of the game? Hmmm
Swords clash! HOrses whinny the Scot foot knights die the the Order foot knights in the South. NOt sure why the pike in the deep South West hasn't charged the heavy disordered cavalry. Pike is +2, heavy cavalry is 0, -1 disordered, +1 impact, net 0. Pike might be mediocre, but a +2 up is never to be sniffed at. Goes to a +3 round after (assuming dice don't truly hate the pike)
Both Pike blocks are almost routing. The Scots knight is making a little headway, but he will soon be out numbered three to one.
Up North both pike blocks rout. The General has had enough and goes with them. The damaged Order foot knight that should be dead routs an undamaged Highlander. Scot pike charge the Order heavy cavalry down South (with support), its not pretty and the Cavalry routs through some light foot... routing them!
However, the Scots have had enough and leave in search of a decent haggis and better times.
Hmmm. Did I win that fairly? I don't think so. Almost didn't write this up due to the stuff up with the knight cohesion. I suppose if we had played it correctly the highlander would have been fighting a undamaged knight so the odds would have been the same. Disordered with support = undamaged units factors.
I wonder what would have happened if the Scots hadn't had their debacle with their impetuous knight in the North. I had broken through the centre, but had also had my South Western flank turned. I suppose the light horse could buy a turn by zocing the pike on an angle, but would only buy the one turn. Without the North falling apart the game would have been much closer.
Am happy with the decision to rotate the board/fight/map whatever. Not so happy about leaving a cross bow to die in the brush. Cannot for the life of me think why I moved him out of the line and into the brush to die. Bad Rum Decision?