Beaufort at Condotta
After
enjoying the Farnborough Bash DBM200 earlier this year I thought I'd give the
format another go at Condotta organised by Phil Jelley at the same venue. This
is themed to western medieval armies and so attracts good honest close combat
armies.
By going it also was a
spur to start getting the lead sorted out in anticipation of John
Graham-Leigh's next themed competition, Lancaster & York. This meant that I
had to buy and paint nearly all of the army. On John's advice I went for
Donnington's new Wars of the Roses range which turned out very nicely indeed,
plus Irregular's mounted longbowman figure which fits in well with the
Donnington figures in size and style.
Although I've always
gone for three commands at DBM200 before this time I went for two this time as
I didn't think the Wars of the Roses army
really works with three. I chose Lancastrian as this allows a few Irish
troops fielded as Ax(O) and Ps(I) to both bulk out the army and give it some
terrain specialists. The army I came up with was:
C-in-C - Henry
Beaufort, 3rd Duke of Somerset - Reg Kn(O)
4 Retinue Billmen - Reg
Bd(O)
1 Shire Levy Billmen -
Irr Bd(I)
6 Shire Levy Archers - Irr
Bw(O)
1 Northern Border
Staves - Irr LH(O)
4 Northern Border Foot
- Irr Sp(I)
3 Irish Bonnachts - Irr
Ax(O)
6 Irish Kerns - Irr
Ps(I)
Sub-General - Reg Kn(O)
1 Men-at-Arms - Reg Kn(I)
6 Mounted Retinue
Longbowmen - Reg mtd Bw(S)
1 Northern Border
Staves - Irr LH(O)
1 Shire Levy Staves -
Irr Cv(I)
I reckoned to all
intents and purposes in a real game this structure meant that the large command
had to go down to take the army, although mathematically it isn’t quite true.
Game 1
Gave me a Lancastrian
civil war against David Ford on a table with a river on one flank and a marsh
on the other, the latter in the defenders half of the table. As I assumed that
David's army would be broadly similar to mine the invader would have a
significant advantage as he could better determine initial matchups and whether
to start the Knights mounted or dismounted. I invaded - hooray :-)
David deployed his C-in-C’s
command of Retinue and Shire longbowmen and billmen supported by Northern
Border spearmen and a few Irish beside the marsh with the Irish poised to enter
the marsh. Opposite these I placed Beaufort with the Irish ready to attack
through the marsh, the billmen opposite David’s archers and spearmen and my
spearmen and Shire longbowmen at the end. David then placed his second command
of dismounted Men-at-Arms supported by
some Irish and Northern Staves C-in-C and the river. I put my sub-general’s
Staves these and the rest of the command across the river to go on an
outflanking manoeuvre.
The battle saw my
mounted wing ride round the flank of David's army and the
longbowmen dismount and
cross the river forcing his Irish to run away or be shot down, his LH to flee
and the Men-at-Arms to turn round and head towards the base line to try an stop
my troops getting at the baggage. However, nothing much else
happened here as the
battle was decided elsewhere.
The two C-in-C's
commands advanced towards each other at a reasonable pace
with my Irish rushing
for the marsh to outflank the opposing battle line. This forced David to drop groups
of troops off to cover his flanks. However, at the other end of the line he had
billmen facing my Shire longbowmen which could get rather tricky until I 6-1ed
2 dead which rather relieved the pressure there. This fluke now meant that I
outflanked both ends of David's line. With Henry Beaufort leading the way my
billmen got into the archers and weaker foot and caused quick casualties - in
fact the first 5 or 6 of David's elements to be destroyed all went down to
6-1's and he rolled many more 1's as well. With gaps appearing I was able to turn
flanks and David's C-in-C's command went down and so the army. I had lost only
a single element of billmen in the process. 32-0 but the luck was very one
sided.
Game 2
Tim Stubbings' Medieval
Scandinavian Union army invaded me on a table with
a waterway and village
on my left and a marsh on the right in Tim's half of the
table. Deployment
looked obvious with Beaufort on the left next to the waterway
and the sub-general on
the right where I expected Tim to have his mounted troops. I
deployed the Irish in
the village to cover my left flank. I decided to put my billmen 1 deep and risk
that if Tim had deployed knights opposite I would have to do some fancy
dancing, but I needed the frontage. The Shire archers finished the line off. Opposite
these Tim placed a command of fast, lightly armoured, halbardiers supported by
a few skirmishers and crossbowmen but also a block of Landsknecht pikemen - the
last opposite my archers, ouch! My mounted longbowmen extended my line with lighter
horse on the end. Tim obliged by putting his knights facing the longbowmen - 6 elements
including the C-in-C- with poor quality spearmen next to the marsh and some
cavalry as a reserve.
A straight forward game
ensued. Tim pushed his sub-general’s command forward
quickly including sending
his halbardiers into the village to try and clear a route to my
baggage and flank ASAP
as he felt that his knights were going to have a short and
nasty meeting with my longbowmen
so he needed to do something quickly. Of course I pushed the archers at his knights
as quickly as possible shooting one dead and disrupting the rest a little . Tim
managed to control his knights but eventually had to let them spontaneously
advance when they were disrupted and the inevitable low PIP roll arrived. As he
guessed the result was quick and nasty. He supported their attack as best he could with the his spearmen but
this was not enough. Meanwhile the halbardier attack into the village had made
little progress, although they were working their way around the line. Unfortunately
for Tim, Beaufort led his billmen in counter attack and the casualties he cause
combined with the C-in-C breaking took the army. I hadn't lost anything this
time. Another 32-0.
Game 3
Again I was invaded
this time by Matt Haywood's Early Burgundians. I had an
orchard on my centre
base line and a gulley on my right flank. A small rough hill was on Matt's
right and played no part in the game. I placed Beaufort on the right with the Irish
ready to go into the gulley and my mounted command went on the left, the Men-at-Arms
starting mounted for a change. Matt placed a command of dismounted Men-at-Arms,
I decided my best bet
was to attack Matt's C-in-C with my sub-general hoping
that my Retinue
longbowmen and the dismounted Men-at-Arms could beat him before his masses of Men-at-Arms
plus French could beat my C-in-C. Matt advanced strongly across the front and I
sent my light troops on the right into the gulley to threaten his flank and,
hopefully, cut down the numbers who would attack me there. I had some luck here
as Matt had poor PIPs with this command and his pikemen pretty much stayed put
and I got some Kerns into the flank of some crossbowmen who had no recoil. Unfortunately
even though I went in with overlaps the crossbowmen beat me off killing a
couple of Kerns by shooting. On my right I got the better of the shooting as I
was able to pick off a couple of archers and my dismounted Men-at-Arms got a
couple more. However, Matt's PIPs held up here and he was able to pull back his
archers in front of my advance. Meanwhile his attack in the centre contacted
and Beaufort’s command started to suffer in a heavy infantry slog. What was
decisive here was Matt getting Men-at-Arms, including his C-in-C, into my Shire
longbowmen. However, despite us both having chances to win the game we ended up
with a draw - the only unfinished game all weekend I think. 16-16.
Game 4
Defending again against
Phil Jelley and his Lusignan Cypriots and playing
for 1st
place. I had a village on my left base edge whilst Phil had a
small patch of scrub on
his right and a small shallow hill on his left, neither of
which really influenced
the game. I deployed assuming that Phil would have
his massed crossbowmen
on the village side of the table and his smaller mounted command on the other.
Therefore, I deployed with the Irish in the village and the billmen, longbowmen
and spearmen extending the line from there and then the mounted command deployed
beyond that with the longbowmen as the outermost troops. The Irish in the village
were to delay as I was sure Phil had something
suitable to attack this
with so I expected to lose most of these. Phil obliged by putting down his
C-in-C’s command of massed crossbowmen with Catalan and skirmisher support
facing Beaufort and knights and light
horse opposite my sub-general with the Knights on the base line well away from
my longbowmen.
This proved to be
another straight up and down game. Phil came on at speed
with his crossbow mass
and I advanced cautiously towards him with Beaufort whilst
pushing strongly with
the mounted command, although it was soon mostly on foot as the Bw got close
quickly and the Knights dismounted as there were Bw to their front. Phil's
archery proved fairly ineffective against my billmen and spearmen, however, I
shot a few of his crossbowmen down - as we were both 2 deep when the front rank
went down it became difficult for the remaining element. I then got the sub-general
and the Sp(I) into the end of Phil's line with the longbowmen strung out 1 deep
most of the way to the table edge daring Phil to bring up his knights. In short
order I'd taken some more crossbowmen and Phil felt he had to bring the knights
up - and no reason why not, with his army structure the whole sub-general
command was essentially expendable. Phil also now attacked the village and
quickly killed or fled off table 5 of my Kerns, however, my Bonnachts remained to
cover my flank and so I was happy enough. The final act of the game was for my billmen
to take out the necessary elements for Phil's C-in-C's command and the army to
collapse in rout. 30-2 and 1st place was mine - which got me a nice prize as
well :-)