Joe Breton Has Some New Friends

Average Joe and his new friends Olaf the Ordinary and brother Ieric the Inept have a great day in the field.  

After another dismal performance where the Franks, general excepted, were more interested in apple picking than in fighting, they have had their contract terminated.  This week saw the arrival of the much anticipated Viking ally.  Finally the configuration that was always envisaged for the all average Bretons was useable.

Originally I always wanted to play them with the maximum iLhO and this was possible using an Frankish ally.  It was also possible with the Vikings but it restricted the Vikings to a smaller than ideal 18ME size.  After a previous exchange of messages with Benny in the old country who has recently spent many months perfecting a Breton fighting force, and in line with his experiences, I decided, at very late notice (that is 3hrs before heading to the game), to modify the Order of Battle and expand the Vikings involvement.
This was achieved by dropping the maximum iLhO criteria and dropping the CinC back to 24ME.  Now I had three 24ME commands including the Vikings and a Lh command at 16ME.  All magic numbers!!

However the toys were already in the truck, packed by the old command levels and with a few spare elements added in the baggage drawer along with the secret Viking weapon – technology.  This pre-packing lead to a later oversight.

Game on and the Greco Bactrian’s, following a new eastward nation tradition, invaded Brittany.  Terrain and deployment were without drama.  It is worth noting that this was the first Bactrian outing with the full pike complement and as such were as untried from Bob’s side of the table as the Breton + Viking configuration was untried on mine.  The unexpected Viking technology – palisades – caused some consternation from the opposite side of the table when the finger counting gave the uphill blade defended palisade a combat factor of +9.

We didn’t mess up the deployment this week, Vikings front and centre, the BdI on a hill (with local HdO supports sharing the TF) and the BdO in a area of boggy ground so that they were unaffected but the enemy mounted would be at a disadvantage.  As the right wing looked a bit terrain difficult it got a holding command with plenty of HdO and PsS as terrain slowing options.  The more open left wing got two commands including plenty of outflanking iLhO.  Bob’s heavy KnX elements were on the right (his left) so I was okay with maintaining the holding pattern on that side where our numbers made up for his quality killing power.  On the left we also had both numbers and a quality advantage in a Lh vs Lh lottery plus we had CvO support where the Bactrian’s didn’t.  However in the inner left flank aimed at the Vikings were the massed pike and some rAxS and a couple of elephants that would be the battle's point of concern.

The Bretons have a clear and simple plan.  Move to position and hold only on the right.  Outflank and fight on the left.

The plan was to do nothing on the right wing, have the Vikings stand and receive, outflank and outnumber on the left wing while trying to get into the flank and/or rear of the enemy infantry as they went past on the way to hit the Vikings.  Bob’s low PiP allocation turned out to be on the right so that was clearly not going to be much action from either of us on that side of the table.

But on the left side his Lh turned away when we advanced in mass but the AxS, PkF, PkO and ElO all went full-on across the table where the AxS, PkF and maybe the ElO would cross the bog on the way to contact with both groups of Vikings.

With my iLhO being forward and his foot troop's aggression Bob had left his AxS’s flank open to a LhO attack.  I smelled a trap, a big trap but couldn’t see it.  I got enough PiPs, but still dithered as it seem such an opportunity that it had be a trap.  I moved all the other elements.  I dithered some more.  Then I attacked his flank, with double overlaps as despite still thinking it must be a trap, I just could not see how.

Taking the risk - lucky the trap didn't exist.

No trap, Bob thought I’d attack frontal with flank lock rather than all on the flank and he thought he'd fight me off as my mounted would be in the bog.  I felt he made an error with that choice at this point.  Combat was won and the enemy flank held up in ZoCs.  This would give flank and rear options in the bog as the enemy rushed forward into the Vikings.

 

Olag the Ordinary commanding the bog defending Huscarls against El, PkF and AxS.

It turned out that the iBdO Vikings didn’t need the help as they destroyed an elephant themselves and threw back the foot.  Further back on the flank the enemy general was sucked into combat, surrounded and dispatched.  However the large PkO block in the open carried on past the bog unopposed while aimed at the hill defended by iBdI.  Some CvO sent out to hassle the right flank of the pike block was chased away by some rKnX and a KnF wedged general.

At this point we were happy with events and expected to get into the pike block’s rear in a few bounds and in anticipation of this started to put some pressure on Bob’s troops on our right wing to use up his PiP options.  This optimistic outlook proved premature as Bob successful held up our left wing despite having a broken command, by clever use of the remaining elephant and some psiloi, all the while his pikes steaming onward into the hill defending Vikings while our mounted went impetuously out of control.

Bactrian Pikes start to push the Hird (iBdI) off the hill.

As he had avoided the palisades the fight was hard, our line thin and the pike eventually chewed their way through the Vikings (although as some of the increased Viking command size were still lurking unnoticed in the draw*, with the baggage which also inexplicably wasn’t on the table, the second line was missing**) it turned out it wasn’t in time or causing enough damage to break any Breton commands and the pikes did take casualties.  

Despite being disheartened the Viking general assisted the hard flank death of the Bactrian’s CinC which broke the command and army.

Final Actions.  Breton plans executed as intended.  Resultant victory.

Victory to the Breton and Viking mix 22-3.  A victory achieved by returning to the clear plan of hold and annoy the enemy while striking the flanks or rear if possible where the numbers gave clear local superiority.  Better planning and execution this week also influence the combat dice which rewarded us with good rolls when it counted.  The Vikings proved solid even if eventually disheartening and will remain the Bretons standard ally option.

*  Discovered on packing the figures away immeadiately after the Bactians broke.  There should have been a second line on the hill so not effect to the outcome.  Alternatively a late deployment would have seen them placed on the rear table edge again without influencing the outcome.

** Or as Bob said "there would have been more for the pike to kill".   I suspect not as he won't have broken the line and turned to the hard flanks that caused the Vikings to dishearten.

*** As for the Greco Bactrians, despite a decisive defeat this week, they are clearly a strong mixed arms style army and should be dangerous in most situations and I hope Bob will use them regularly as they will always be challenging to oppose.  I wouldn’t mind having an army from that list myself.