Anglo Danish v Early Byzantine 1500 pts

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Bob Stradling
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Anglo Danish v Early Byzantine 1500 pts

Postby Bob Stradling » Sat May 13, 2017 8:00 pm

This was played on an 8' x 4' table in preparation for the Pompey Pillage (apply now!)

The terrain was all on one side of the table, two woods, a small hill and a building.

The Anglo Danes had 8 units of Huscarl/Fyrd with DHW, Stubborn, Riding Horses etc, One unit of open order Vikings and some allies from the Welsh list. Open order archers, mounted Teulu and two lots of skirmishing bow.

The early Byzantine had 7 units of dismounted cavalry, 1 dismounted light cavalry in skirmish and two Goth Cavalry units.

Both armies deployed mainly on the side without terrain, the skirmishers went into the woods. The Huscarls used their riding horse move to get a good way across the board. There were two units without this that hung back close to the terrain end of the board. It was a little cramped at the other end of the line with Vikings, Archers and Teulu all looking to occupy the same space.

The Anglo Danes then proceeded to cross the remainder of the table in Shieldwall. The Byzantines shifted position of a couple of their units to concentrate fire on a single Huscarl unit. The first round of shooting did nothing, you would have thought that they all had large shields and heavy armour the amount of saves that were made. Then one round of shooting meant the unit lost a base and needed to take a cohesion test. It failed and subsequently took a nearby viking unit with it due to fleeing friends. These did eventually rally due to the generals intervention.

Meantime in the skirmish war at the other side of the table, the Anglo Dane skirmishers managed to get a shot on one of the Goth cavalry units. It lost a base and the commander.

With the Anglo Danish battle line now in some disarray it was possible to concentrate fire more effectively and one unit of Huscarls lost a base of troops in each of two turns. This proved important in the ensuing combat as the unit had lost its depth bonus. Whilst this was the most successful shooting in removing stands, momentum tokens were earned fairly steadily from shooting.

With the two fleeing units now rallied, but a long way behind the main battle line the rest of the Anglo Danish troops were nearly ready to charge, but then the Byzantines got lucky and won initiative and were able to respond to the Anglo Danish movement. This meant they were able to sneak a unit into the gap which the unit had fled from and on to the flank of one of the Anglo Danish units.

The next turn proved decisive, one of the Byzantine units took heavy casualties and had to take a cohesion test which they failed. In turn the Byzantines disrupted three of the Huscarl units. Who was going to charge first! The Anglo Danes won the initiative and charged. Four units got in, but another charge failed when the Huscarl unit had a charge declared against its flank. It then failed its cohesion test for being charged in the flank. The Byzantines had more momentum tokens to allocate then the Anglo Danes and this gave them an edge. The Anglo Danes lost 3 of the 4 combats, but line of battle meant that only one huscarl unit had to fall back.

Then the rolls for characters - Anglo Dane general rolled a double six. He had died. Two nearby units fled immediately, then at the start of the next turn the Teulu, all the Welsh archers and another unit of Huscarls with a commander all fled. This meant that there were now 7 units and 3 commanders fleeing without any chance to rally and of the remaining 5 units 3 were in danger of being flanked in this turn or the next and the Byzantines had a significant advantage in momentum tokens. It was all over .

Even if the general had not died his unit would have been flanked next turn and the outcome is likely to have been the same.

Key lessons - apart from not rolling double six.....

Concentrate fire where you can.

Threat potential (Goth cavalry 16" charge range) can be effective in pinning multiple units.

That both lists could be tweaked to make them slightly more effective.

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Wayne Richards
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Re: Anglo Danish v Early Byzantine 1500 pts

Postby Wayne Richards » Sun May 14, 2017 5:59 pm

Nice write up Bob. Cheers W.

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A Lot of Gaul
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Location: USA

Re: Anglo Danish v Early Byzantine 1500 pts

Postby A Lot of Gaul » Sun May 14, 2017 7:21 pm

Very nice battle report. Thanks for posting it here!

Cheers,
Scott
"Experience is the teacher of all things."
~ Gaius Julius Caesar

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guard
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Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2016 6:07 pm

Re: Anglo Danish v Early Byzantine 1500 pts

Postby guard » Mon Jun 12, 2017 6:37 pm

Thank for the report, enjoyed, my first army for Swordpoint is a AD so its nice to see how others get on with it

Bob Stradling
Posts: 393
Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2016 10:46 am

Re: Anglo Danish v Early Byzantine 1500 pts

Postby Bob Stradling » Mon Jun 12, 2017 8:23 pm

Since then the Anglo Danes have had their revenge. The list was similar etc they dropped some of the whistles and bells and were able to afford an extra unit of Huscarls and Fyrd.

The Anglo Danes got the better of the Early Byzantines, who suffered from poor deployment that allowed the Anglo Danes to maximise the benefit of the terrain. As things started to go wrong they went very wrong..............


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