Mortem et Gloriam - Game 50 - 2019/12/06

Hello!

In the second game of MOAB 2019, I was about to play against Andrew and his Medieval Walsh. We have attended many events before but we have never had a chance to play against each other for some strange reason. Fortunately, this time we finally got the opportunity!

I would also like to add that Andrew is one of the heroes of the Australian Mortem et Gloriam community, as he is often the person organising the events. playing a role of umpire during those, keeping track of the results and making sure people know their opponents in time. For that I would like to thank Andrew and I am sure many players would do the same!

In addition, I would also like to thank Alvaro Erize from The Wargame Spot FB Group who donated a fantastic Arid Land Battle Matt produced by Cigar Box Battle Store. All my subsequent games during MOAB were played on this fantastic gaming matt!

For this tournament Andrew brought the army of Medieval Welsh. It is probably the most numerous army I have ever played against, with a break point of 9! Here are the details:

Medieval Welsh - Army List

Not only this army has a high breaking point, it also has a very dangerous ranged attacks abilities. I had to expect that the Phalanx would be delayed and the casualties would be inflicted during the long march. Cavalry in particular would be vulnerable due to Long Bows so I would not be able to use them as fast elements to tie enemy shooters. 

I needed to see what kind of terrain we were going to have to finalise the plan. Here is my army list for reference:

Early Seleucids - Army List

Pre-battle

We had mountains as a secure flank and I was an invader in this game. There were a few pieces of the terrain on the left flank as well. However, quite a large field was simply open which was really good for the Welsh Archers as they had clear line of sight to pretty much my entire army.

Once again, scouting did not really help here as I had to deploy majority of my army after Andrew placed just a fraction of his. And it was all Archers anyway!

Deployment

Early Seleucids vs Medieval Welsh

I would like to start with the apologies to Andrew as despite my best efforts, I was not able to recall which units in particular were deployed where. To proceed I decided to simplify the diagrams and only distinguished between spearmen and archers in general. I hope this will not take away too much from the game but it helped me to re-create the battle to some extend.

I expected Archers to form first line and that is why I deployed Phalanx with cavalry in between and on both flanks. The plan was to advance Phalangites as quickly as possible and hopefully get into fights in a shape that would allow to do some damage. Cavalry was there to help when Phalangites engaged already. In this way I hoped to limit the damage due to shooting and to break the Archers faster. Cretan Archers were to engage in shooting duel, if I were to succeed in such exchange, even better!

That obviously meant I would need a plan on how to delay Welsh Knights and outflanking forces. As Andrew decided to deploy all mounted units on my left together with almost all his Spearmen, I thought I may have a chance to to do with two SuG's of light horse. First, it seemed like this group would have to go through or around some terrain. Second, as many of Welsh infantry is unprotected, I actually had a chance to do some damage with shooting myself, while staying out of trouble with fast mounted SuG's.

Deployment of the armies.

Seleucids - Turn 1

Turn 1 - Sequence of Actions

Phalangites advance towards the long line of enemy Archers.

Seleucids advanced at the double on the right flank, eager to get to the fight with the enemy archers as soon as possible. The units on the centre left also moved forward but at slower pace, closely observing a huge mass of the enemy spearmen and knights.

Some of the Welsh Archers also moved forward in order to be able to shoot at their enemies as soon as possible.

First manoeuvres

Welsh - Turn 2

Turn 2 - Sequence of Actions

Surprising first clash between Phalangites and Archers.

It seemed that in their eagerness, some of the Archers advanced too close to their enemies. Veteran Silver Shields, further encouraged by their commander, made it through the hail of arrows and hit the enemy Archers. They were not able to to hold under the pressure from the elite Seleucid infantry and were routed soon.

In the centre, Cretan Archers engaged in a shooting duel but the rest of the Phalangites started taking casualties. Fortunately, light cavalry on the right was doing a good job in slowing down the enemy infantry.

First break through on the right flank.

Seleucids - Turn 3

Turn 3 - Sequence of Actions.

Light Cavalry in action.

Seleucids pressed forward to widen the breach they have just created on the right flank and Silver Shields attacked Welsh Spearmen. Nearby cavalry manoeuvred to move into created space.

The light horse on the opposite flank kept shooting at advancing enemy infantry as the Welsh Knights were still manoeuvring around the nearby forest and were not an immediate threat yet.

The centre under the fire

Welsh - Turn 4

Turn 4 - Sequence of Actions

Advancing under the storm of arrows

Seleucids' Companions also joined the fight and managed to get into combat without suffering too much damage from the deadly longbow fire. The phalangites in the centre also kept moving forward, although one unit had to be left behind for now. It suffered significant casualties and was slowed down to a halt.

Meanwhile, the light cavalry requested support from Charging Lancers as enemy knights appeared on the extreme left flank.

The fight intensifies.

Seleucids - Turn 5

Turn 5 - Sequence of Actions

Seleucids press hard on the right flank.

Seleucids kept adding more units into the fights and that resulted in a few more Archer regiments being routed. Seeing that their attack was not well coordinated, the commanders of the Welsh army sounded the retreat as they did not want to risk further casualties.

The situation just before the armies disengaged.

Summary

Turn-by-turn animation summary

After-battle

Many thanks to Andrew for a great game! It was fantastic to finally play against each other and I hope it is just the beginning. I am already looking forward to any new opportunities!

As we discussed the outcome after the battle, that one situation where Archers moved a bit too close to Silver Shields and when I had the right card to prompt them through fire, was a crucial moment of the game. Not only Andrew was not able to properly focus the fire of his Archers on the Phalangites there, but the breach was created and I was able to send my cavalry there as well.

Otherwise, I would have suffered similar casualties as in the case of the units on the centre left, where one of the Phalanxes was almost wiped out.

I was very happy with the light cavalry in this game as I managed to slow down the infantry contingent and even rout one TuG completely!

It was also very interesting to notice, that the successes I achieved amounted merely to half braking point of the Welsh army! That's a very different experience to what I have had so far and definitely made for a great game as well.

Thanks for reading!