BatRep: The Battle of Mighty Armies: Ancients!

The Battle of Mighty Armies: Ancients!

This is a short battle report I did. It features the following Feudal English armies of the mid 13th C. era. Note that I am using some red beads to indicate where the fighting losses are occuring. I even leave a tipped over stand to show this.

Also, I based the armies on a list I made for the Feudal English armies of the 13th C. If interested in this list, let me know. I plan on doing a large number of lists as well.

The Kings Army (Deployed on BOTTOM of board)
General: 1 x Vet. Hvy Cav, Cav Charge, General
Knights: 4 x Seasoned Hvy Cav, Cav Charge
Merc. Knights: 1 x Seasoned Hvy Cav, Disciplined, Cav Charge
Scouts: 2 x Com Lt Cav, Scout, Mobile
Flem. Spears: 3 x Com Hvy Inf., Disciplined
Welsh Long Bow: 3 x Com Lt. Inf., Shoot I, Long Range

The Rebels Army (Deployed on TOP of board)
General: 1 x Vet Hvy Cav, Disciplined, Cav Charge, General
Knights: 4 x Seasoned Hvy Cav, Cav Charge
Merc. Knights: 1 x Seasoned Hvy Cav, Disciplined, Cav Charge
Levy Spears: 8 x com Lt inf
Merc. X-Bows: 3 x Shoot II

The Battlefield
The layout was pretty simple as this was a play test game featuring the Feudal English army list I designed the previous night.

A small hill dominates the layout, with a small wood on the left flank of the Kings army.

A single building lies on the Kings right, but played no role in the battle to come.

The Armies Deploy!
Both sides rolled for deployment, and the Kings Army deployed first. As you can see from the pic above, his army consists of THREE groups: Left flank made up of a group of 3 Knights, and 3 Flem Spear, a pretty solid formation for sure!

The King's middle was made up of a single group of himself, the Merc. Knights, and the 4th unit of normal Knights.

The Kings Right was made up of the three units of Welsh Longbows!

The final group was the two Scout units, which would be deployed last after the rebels completed their deployment.

As for the Rebels, they deployed one group of six Levy spears, and one unit of Merc X-Bows on their right, three groups in their middle (a group of four Knights, a group the remaining two X-Bows, and the final group in the rear made up of the Rebel General, and the Merc. Knights). The Rebel left was made up of the final two units of Levy Spears.

Lastly, the Kings Scout units (2) deployed on the Rebels right, just out of sight of the Rebel right flank units (thinking they could get a good shot on the flanks of the enemy once they began marching forwards!).

The Battle Begins!

Turn 1
The Rebels started things off, and began the march forward towards the Kings line. On his right, he assigned the single unit of X-Bows to face off against the two oncoming enemy scout unity!

Soon, the Kings Army replied with a general advance of their own! A sneaky move was for the King's group to deploy a unit of Knights forwards to stall any charges by the enemy knights facing them in the middle. This was followed by some VERY effective Long Bow fire on the Rebel left flank spear group (they were slaughtered to the man from such fire!). The pic above depicts their loss with a tipped over stand, and a RED blood marker :)

Turn 2

Revenge was due the Rebel side to be sure! With grim determination, the Rebels again moved forwards, charging their knights in the middle against the lone enemy Knight unit, advancing their X-bows on top of the hill, and diverting a unit of Knights from the middle to help the X-Bows covering the Rebel right (upper left corner of pic above)!

The carnage was deadly! The Rebel Knights did in the lone enemy unit of Knights who did their job well it is imagined, as they slowed the enemy advance a turn. The Rebel X-Bows on the hill were extremely accurate, killing off all but one of the Kings Longbows! (The red blood markers showing these results in the above pic).

Ahhhh... but now the Kings army was poised to strike! And strike indeed they did...

The forces of the King did indeed strike, and strike hard! as his entire army left out battle cries and charged the Rebels on all fronts! The Scouts (upper left of pic) struck hard on the rebel X-Bows, destroying them! The Kings Left flank group of Flemish Spears and Knights charged home against the surprised Rebel Levies! Although the bloodshed was small, the levies decided they were done for the day, driven back into friendly knights supposedly protecting their rear!

The Kings group charged as well against the Rebel knights deployed ion front of them. Their plan of pinning the Rebels in front of them and following up with a deadly charge worked indeed! The Rebel knights stood little chance and were destroyed to the man! This, even after some desperate enemy attempts to slay the King himself with X-Bow fire from the hill!

The battle was WON! The rebels losses were so high, that they stood little chance of victory.

(Note: At this point the game was ended in a victory for the King!, having eliminated 11 enemy units - 9+ were needed to secure a win. However, we decided to play out one more rebel turn just for fun).

Final Turn (Rebels)

With their fate sealed, the Rebels did their best to consolidate their forces for at least an escape (or last stand perhaps)! Their middle was all but gone, so the remaining Rebels Knights gathered around the Generals banner behind the hill, with the Merc. X-Bows doing their best to slow down the enemy (they did manage to kill off the Kings Merc. Knights)!

Meanwhile, the Knights covering the Rebel right, seeing the fall of their X-Bows to the enemy Scouts, let loose their banners and charged home on the flank of these dawgs, killing every last man!

However, such was fate, that the battle was over... :)

My Thoughts...

What can I say, the game was very fast moving indeed! Turns went by very quickly, and this being my FIRST game, I was very happy with that.

The game can be very bloody, very quickly (as you can see). Ranged combat is a killer to be sure. Like DBA, shooting effects are either ALL or NOTHING really. Which is cool with me.

Melee was a bit more deadly I think due to some faulty moves on the part of the Rebel side. The melee between the Levy Spears and the charging Knights was actually close (the Levy only suffered one unit loss). It was their Drive Back that carried them into the friendly knights unit behind them that did them in.

The Kings tactic of sacrificing a unit of Knights from his group to slow up the enemy Knights so they couldn't charge him payed off. For the loss of but a single Knight unit, he was able to charge the Rebels next turn and destroy them! better then being charged himself.

All in all it was a very good game. Finished less then 30 mins (5 player turns I believe?), and it took a little longer due to having to double check rules as I played (being my first game). Also, I have to note that this game was played the day after I bought the rules and created the army list. So either I am an amazing example of an awesome wargamer... or these rules are that easy to get into and learn! ;)

I definitely plan on playing this game on a regular basis, and posting many army lists I will be working up.

Well... that's all for now.

Go back to the Wall of Shields Battle Reports page.