A Knight To Remember - the aftermath

A toy-soldier pack well worth looking out for

ONCE again, playing with toy soldiers produced a fun scenario that neither of us took too seriously.
My opponent said, given the same circumstances, he would choose to defend the river crossing rather than picking the Black army.
He had correctly realised the rules make mounted knights very powerful - more powerful than I expected - but that was not enough to overcome the disadvantage of having to cross a river to get to grips with the enemy.
Of course there was a lot of luck involved, as exampled by the eventually wonderful dice-throwing of my crossbowman compared with the worse-than-mediocre results of his opposite number.
The one thing that surprised both of us was the relatively poor shooting of the engines. We were expecting them to dominate the battlefield, but instead they turned out to perform much more like their real-life counterparts. I guess it is a case where pre-battle practice would have made a big difference.
All in all, excellent value for money since the only new things I bought for the scenario were the playset itself, which cost well under £5, and the £1 pack of willow edging from Poundland.

A Knight To Remember - the battle concluded

Turn Seven
The catapult tried yet another over-the-heads shot, and again with success - killing one of my knights around the bombard and knocking down the remaining walls of the ruined building. But in a shocking development, Lord Hall's bannerman turned to the seemingly easy melee prey of my crossbowman, only to fall to what must have been a quick thrust of the archer's dirk.
One of my knights tore down Black's now-unguarded banner, and my crossbowman followed up his meleeing success by shooting dead another Black knight crossing the bridge.

Looking along the river, which Black's knights are starting to wade across, having been cleared from the footbridge

Turn Eight
A quiet turn for Lord Hall. His men made slow work of crossing the river, and both his crossbowman and catapult missed their shots.
My bombard, at last able to shoot again, downed a knight in the river, and my crossbowman killed yet another Black knight crossing the bridge.

Carnage on the bridge

Turn Nine
A Black knight mounted the riderless horse, but the catapult again fired harmlessly into the riverside logged trees.
I engineered a pair of 2v1 battles, but lost both of them, fortunately only being forced back rather than suffering casualties. However, my bombard killed another Black knight.

Lord Hall personally leads a charge across the bridge, driving back two Grey defenders

Turn Ten
The finish came quickly as I engineered three 2v1 fights and won them all, including killing the courageous Lord Hall. With his remaining forces heavily outnumbered, my opponent graciously conceded.
to be continued

A Knight To Remember - the battle

Turn One
We diced to see who would go first, with Lord Hall winning.
He ordered a general advance of his infantry and cavalry, and fired the catapult - but missed.
I left my forces in position and fired the bombard at Black's mounted knights. I missed them, but laid low a foot soldier advancing from further back.

Lord Hall's right flank...the first casualty can be seen lying prone to the rear

Turn Two
Lord Hall continued his forces' advance. His catapult fired again ,but the force of the shot was absorbed by the logged trees by the river bank.
His lordship could be heard distinctly mumbling about having ended up on the wrong side of the battlefield.
The Black cavalry were now within range of my crossbowman, but he needed a 6 to score a hit, instead of the usual 5 at long range, as there was a hedge between him and his target. In the event, it did not matter as I rolled a lousy 1.
I also muffed the bombard's firing, with its shot rolling harmlessly along the top of the table and off the end.

Horsemen close in on Baron Spital's bombard

Turn Three
The cavalry plunged into the river and the rest of Lord Hall's forces did their best to keep up.
This time he fired the catapult with extra vigour, but only succeeded in hitting my sitting-room radiator. We have not been able to find the shot ball - I guess it will turn up in due course.
I moved some of my knights forward to support the bombard which, firing at almost point-blank range, brought down one of the mounted knights. The force of the shot threw the horse and rider into the westernmost hedge, bringing that down too.

Close-up of the bombard's second success

Turn Four
Showing a little desperation, Lord Hall fired a catapult shot over his men and into the ruined building. He did not hit any of my knights, but brought down my banner, meaning it cannot give any melee bonuses.
His surviving cavalryman crossed the river and rode down one of the bombard crew (rolling a 5 and a 1 against my man's 3).

One of the bombard crew is ridden down, while you can just see my downed banner in the ruined building

My bombard could not fire as its crew were being meleed, but I moved some knights in position to hopefully pair up against the cavalryman next turn.
My crossbowman successfully fired at Lord Hall's banner carrier, but could only roll a 2 on the follow-up kill throw.
Turn Five
Lord Hall's catapult returned to its previously dismal record of misses, but his cavalryman rode down another of my knights (just: 3+2 v 3) and his bannerman bravely started to cross the footbridge.

Lord Hall's bannerman charges the footbridge

My crossbowman, apparently getting nervous at the approaching Black forces, missed his shot. But there was a better result for me when I was able to get two knights to simultaneously melee the remaining cavalryman. They won the battle, killing the rider.
Turn Six
Lord Hall's bannerman charged into a knight I had sent forward to hold the bridge. Both men threw a 6, which meant my man was forced back 3" as the Black knight received a bonus of 1 for being with his army's banner.
The catapult crew tried another risky shot, aiming over their friends' heads at my bombard, knocking over one of my two-handed pikemen.
I could not mount the riderless enemy horse as the Grey figures have no riders, so instead I moved my victorious knights to man the bombard, ready to fire next turn.
Two of my knights confronted Lord Hall's bannerman, but their 3+1 was easily beaten by his 6, even without the banner bonus, so one of my knights was downed and the other forced back 3".
But my crossbowman raised his game, shooting dead the next Black knight that tried to cross the bridge.

A bird's eye view of the battle for the footbridge. Lord Hall is winning, at least for now, as Black's knights control both sides of the bridge

to be continued

A Knight To Remember - part two of a medieval WINTER skirmish scenario

Lord Hall won the dice-off and chose to command the Black army. That left me with the slightly outnumbered Grey forces, but having only to hold the footbridge until the end of turn 15.
As the defender, I had to set out my forces first, and we soon discovered an unexpected problem - stability, or rather the lack thereof.
The figures had stood up perfectly well on the table in my hotel room in Olomouc, but they showed no such desire to do the same on a green cloth, no matter how flat it appeared to the naked eye.
We tried using small blobs of Blu-Tack under each figure's base, but this did not make much difference.
In the end we agreed to dispense with the green cloth, which is why this has become a medieval winter scenario.
The battlefield is much the same as in my previous post, but the ground is now considered to be covered with snow - enough to hide any signs of grass, but not enough to affect movement or combat. Also, there is no high ground to the north.

The Grey forces, with the figure of Baron Spital, holding a pennant, in the right-foreground

I placed the bombard west of the ruined building, so its crew would have a largely uninterrupted view of the Black forces' advance. An engine needs a minimum crew of two to fire, but I have given it three so it can continue in action even if one man falls.
I put the crossbowman in position to cover the footbridge, and spread out the rest of the men to try to minimise casualties from the Black catapult.
Then it was Lord Hall's go to lay out his troops - anywhere north of the larger pile of logged trees.

Looking from behind the Black forces, with Lord Hall of Vaux holding a pennant bottom-left

He put the catapult on the eastern side of the battlefield, with the figure of himself well to the rear. His cavalry were placed directly opposite my bombard.
The Rules
Movement
Knights on foot: 6"
Knights mounted: 12"
Engine: 3" (minimum crew of two)
Crossing the river slows movement by half
Engine Shooting
An engine can fire one shot in any turn in which it has not moved and its crew are not involved in a melee. It can be pivoted 45 degrees right or left before firing.
Crossbow Shooting
A crossbowman can fire in any turn in which he has not moved and is not meleeing. He can pivot 45 degrees right or left before firing.
Range............Score needed for a hit
Under 12".....4 or more
12-24"...........5 or more
Target behind cover: -1
If a hit is scored, roll a second die, needing a 4 or more for a kill.
Target 0-6" away: +1
Target 18-24" away: -1
Target has no shield: +1
If a mounted knight suffers a kill, roll a die to decide if the horse or the man is out of action. A riderless horse can be mounted by another knight, taking half a turn to do so. A mounted knight can continue on foot if his horse is killed.
Hand-to-Hand Fighting
When enemy figures come into contact, each rolls a die. A difference of two or more is needed for a kill. A difference of one means the loser falls back 3". An equal score means the melee continues next turn.
Modifiers
Two-handed weapon on the first turn of a melee: +2
No shield: -1
Behind cover on the first turn of a melee: +1
Meleeing while in the river: -1
Meleeing within 3" of own flag or banner: +1 (this takes the place of any other morale rule)
A mounted knight rolls two dice if fighting a dismounted knight. Similarly, two dismounted knights roll two dice if fighting one enemy (larger odds are not possible). Two dismounted knights versus one mounted fight on equal terms.
To be continued

A Knight To Remember - medieval skirmish scenario

IT has been more than a month since I bought the Knight Playset in the Czech Republic, but we are at last ready to do battle with it.
I am taking on the persona of Baron Spital, while my opponent, who is my regular wargames adversary, has sunk his identity into that of Lord Hall of Vaux.
The Battlefield
One army will defend a footbridge over a river. It runs through what was heavily wooded land, but has been cleared.
On the south side of the river is a ruined building and a pile of logged trees. The northern bank of the river is partly hedged, and there is another pile of logged trees at the bottom of higher ground to the north, which is where the attackers will come from.
The river is fordable by foot and horse at half-speed; the hedges are made of thick thorn and are impassable.

The battlefield viewed from the south

The Armies
You may recall from an earlier post (http://timspanton.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/czech-out-these-knights.html) that the two armies, Black and Grey, are unbalanced.
Black has 16 dismounted figures, two mounted figures, a flag depicting a lion or (gold) rampant on a field of gules (red), two mounted figures, and a large catapult.
Grey has 16 dismounted figures, a flag depicting a lion vert (green) rampant on a field of or (gold), and a bombard.
The Set-Up
The two players will dice for the right to either a) defend the river crossing, or b) choose which army to have.
Victory
The attacker has to capture both ends of the footbridge by the end of turn 15.
Technical Information
The table is 6ft by 2ft 6in.
The river is made from blue tissue paper from Ryman, the logged trees are Charlie Dimmock willow edging from Poundland, the hedges are from the 4D model shop in Tower Hamlets, and the footbridge is a 10mm-scale wooden bridge from Pendraken. The ruined building is the remains of the deer park I built from model bricks for our refight of the Battle of Chotusitz.
To be continued

Miniature Wargames - October 2017

ISSUE 414 of Miniature Wargames was waiting for me today when I returned from a trip to Bradford.

Plenty of gloss for £4.50

I cannot say there was anything to greatly interest me in this month's edition, but there are some nice pix of real wargames...along with the usual posed dioramas,

War On Error

HERE is a fun find - well I think so, anyway.

Pack of six Army Men erasers

I came across this £3.99 pack of erasers while browsing today in Blackwell's bookshop in High Holborn, Central London.
In time they may serve as an elite commando squad, perhaps operating behind enemy lines with instructions to rub out a high-ranking Tan general.
For the moment they are helping my Prussian jäger band to guard my collection of wargaming books.

Green is the colour...guarding is their game

The erasers are made in China for the London-based Mustard, who seem particularly po-faced - each pack comes with a predictable swipe at American foreign policy and a warning: "This is a novelty item and not a toy." The erasers are not for children under 14 "due to small parts, choking hazard."

Wargames - Soldiers & Strategy

I PICKED up the September/October issue of WS&S at WH Smith in Torquay.

Britain in the Napoleonic Wars is the theme of WS&S issue 92

The most interesting article, to me, is James Morris's on an Iberian ambush of ancient Romans.
I like WS&S but it I find it stunning that a wargames magazine can be published without even ONE battle report.
It also has the common glossy wargames mag's fault of printing photos that are implied to be of wargames when they are really posed dioramas.