The Bretons Are Coming

Welcome dear reader to our first attempt at live blogging a battle. Since the blog has beemer shamefully neglected of late, we thought we'd try writing it as we go along.

Wayne is bringing his new Breton army out for the first time,

Despite lower aggresion the Bretons are coming to the jungle.

Somewhere in Burma

W. The new average Joe Bretons are so excited on their first day out that they have gone mad, abandoned the terrain plan and gone and invaded Burma.

B: Wayne doubled me on the time of day first so he got to deploy first. We've both set up pretty linearly. Wayne's line of horde on the hill look impressive, but he's just remembered his mounted can't pass through them. My plan at this point is to advance and win.

He's shifting a whole bunch of cav from his right to his left. Glad I put my elephants on that side of the wood.

W: we picked the weak point and aim elements of three commands at it. The rest are just to shield and protect rears.  The plan of only playing groups of a command comes into play.

Turn 2
B: Just pushed up as much as I could. Took three marches on the left to press his light horse with my levy bows.  The LH seem to be running away. Lot of Bretons concentrating on my right. Think they are trying Russian wave tactics

Action on Burmese right

 Holy cow a bunch of Franks have just turned up from behind the hill on my left. Guess I should have read his army list.

And on the left

W: oh no, that's not expected, the inferior peasantry (not "O" like ours) have charged us on our right. Luckily we have maintained composure ( 5PiPs) and its time to release the Franks hidden behind the hill on the right of our line.  They to are ready (5 PiPs also) to wheel and charge.  

On the left it the first taste of engagement as the cavalry start the run into bow range per charge. 

Turn 3
B: Shooting didn't go as well as I'd hoped but his Franks are now in four groups. On my right low pips may have stymied his charge, so I'll just sit and shoot some more
On the other side the franks are charging my bows, but only one can reach. These levy archers have seen off massed Khmer Elephants so a few French guys in tinfoil shouldn't be a problem.

W: no pips on the left put us in a holding pattern taking arrow fire. We survived.  On the right the Franks weren't so lucky , one dying to bonfire and the only one to make contact dying to double overlap and a 2. We also lost a cv to bowfire on a 1.

And we now need to endure another bound on incoming arrows.  Horsemen hate shooty things.

Turn 4
B: Firing from the elite levy bows has broken the Franks. On my right the Bretons have charged in along the line lead by two generals. See how that goes, but if I can hold for a while my Elephants should make a mess of his cav.

Franks charge into Burmese Bw I, but only one makes it, and he dies horribly. 

Shooting dispatches the rest

W: damn, and now the franks shatter with nay a casualty caused!!  On the left were made contact along a good part of the line but failed to win a combat.  Still no casualties to the Burmese .

No matter what I have thrown at Bobs Burmese BwI over the last three years they always die.

Turn 5

B: Elephant charge just killed one cav

W: our right flank is a mess and pip starved so will be of no help and is just got to slow the enemy from turning to our centre.

On the left we're making a fight of it but towards the centre our cav isnt doing much of a job holding up the El.  And we've got holes in the line and it's Bobs bound so he'll exploit them.

B: Elephant charge stalled to a second successive one pip, but on the right my bows exploited the gap to bag a couple of elements with hard flanks, and the Cav (I) rose to the occasion and killed a general.

Turn 6

W:  casualties mount, sub command goes from broken which disheartens the CnC command but that's not important as the damage to the CnC takes the army to exactly broken,  Burmese casualties 1 ElS, 1CvI, 3 AxO, 1 AxI = 5ME.  

 The terrain plan was the loss, the was no maneuver on this table and Bob sensibly closed me down as quick as possible as well.  The plan didn't get to be tested at all. Even where I fought I didn't do well in the combats and once more suffered to Bws in a way I can never reproduce when I use them. 

But good lessons learnt. As with many armies they need use, practice and some experimentation to get it right.  and it's an army that needs to preserve its generals, don't fight with them!!