Cold steel on the plains of the Eastfold

Hear ye! Hear ye! Here follows the account of a battle (not part of th mini-tourney series) in which my valliant Rohirrim took on the pretentious Faramir's insolant Godorian troops (fielded by Teutonico). In what is turning into a prolonged quarrel between the Steward of Gondor and King Theoden of Rohan, Faramir has been tasked with leading a raid on the Eastfold. Theoden swiftly mustered a defence force, centred around his loyal Royal Guard, to contain the threat.

Pitched battle. No special rules. The battle ends when one sid falls below 50% of its initals numbers.

Reinforced by 5 men at arms from Dol Amroth and three Archers of the Citadel (represented here by 3 elves), the army of Minas Tirith decided to adopt a formation with 2 distinct ifantry columns in 3 ranks (swordsmen, spearmen, pikemen), supported by archers on the flanks and a squadron of knights on their left.

Opposite, I set up my Rohirrim infantry in one continuous battle line, choosing to drop my usual Saxon wedge formation in favour of having the flexibility to react to my enemy's moves; this was the first time I'd been up against someone using those tactics. Behind my infantry line, I placed my cavalry. My archers took a position up on the hill on my far left.

While either side'sarchers traded arrows in the face, Gondor's two infantry blocs advanced and close together, allowing just enough room for an infantry figure to pass between them. My main line advanced to envelop the men of the White City. This tactic Teutonico was employing may seem somewhat strange, but there was a very coherent logic behind it. One of the main weaknesses of large infantry blocs ranked three deep is that the men can block each other's movement, creating unnecesary casualties (see Agincourt 1415, amongst others, where the Frenchmen in the rear ranks pushed their firends in the front rank onto the English blades). Divided his formation into two blocs allowed Teutonico a certain freedom of movement, whilst maintainng the advantage of a 3-rank block.

Gondorians and Rohirrim fell in equal numbers; my Royal Guards took some punishment, whilst Teutonico's flanks suffered. When I sent my riders around his right flank, he did something incredible; his spit his cavalry! Against what I thought to be sound advice (this was only a friendly, after all),he sent three knights to tackle my 6 riders led by a fully armoured Theoden and his three other knights against my javlinists. I was gobsmacked at such foolhardiness. Both Tonico and I moved our archers in at a steady pace, sensing that some well-placed reinforcements could well swing the deadlock.
Given the situation and the presence of cavalry amongst infantry, some heroic actions were called for. As you can see from the above dice, I lost both my heroic charges and had to suffer the cavalry charges and inconvenient fights as a consequence of this. In spite of this bad luck (no doubt payback from my previous fight against Teutonico, in which the roles had been the other way round), my men stood their ground. This did nonetheless mean that Theoden's riders were held up by 3 knights and some infantry for a turn. What insolence!
As things hadn't moved on during that turn, another turn of heroic actions was inevitable... and once again, I lost the rolls for the order of the actions. As a result, Theoden's group was blocked for yet another turn! The audacity of it all! What gaul these French have! (Get it? Gall/Gaul...groan) The archers from both sides gradually joined the fray, to the great misfortune of more than one brave soldier. The troops were still dying in equal measure in both armies. I've never been in such a closely fought battle before!
At long last, Theoden managed to hack his way through the enemy lines to charge into their rear, accompanied by his remaining two riders.This allowed me to take control of my left flank, using the newly arrived archers to block Teutonico's two knights in that area. On the other hand, his archers, supported by two other knights, dominated my right flank. Despite the losses, Gondor's two initial formations were still clearly visible.

But, Alas!, all good things must come to an end. Although the battle had been fairly balanced all the way through, Teutonico managed to put me below 50% of my initial strength, thus winning the battle with a cool margin of 4 men. Congratulations to him; he deserves it. Throughout this game, he managed to prove the effectiveness of his new formation in 2 blocks, as well as show me the exeption to the rule "never divide your cavalry if it's in small numbers". I'm grateful to him for the lesson.

A small note as to the perils of static grass battlefields; the dice actually can land on an edge, as we saw with this jaw-dropping roll which came at a crucial moment!

Joe the Barbarian, hoping this batle rep' proved entertaining.

The story continues

We continue the saga of our 4-player tourney with one of the second heat battles. I’m counting on Shas’El’Hek’Tryk to write up a battle rep for his stage 1 fight against Teutonico.

Scenario 2: "Take and hold"

In this scenario, each side vies for control of the 3 static objectives on the battlefield, as well as trying to capture its opponant’s banner by carrying it off the field by any edge possible.

Teutonico Vs BarbarianJ

This match saw my humble Rohirrim taking on the steel-clad might of its former overlords of Minas Tirith, led by Faramir. The Steward’s cadet son sought to bring the former vassals to heal, whilst Theoden of Rohan intended to prove himself the last of the great kings of men of the Ouest.

I set my Rohirrim up in a continuous ligne, in the centre of my deployment area, with the riders behind my right flank. Teutonico adopted a classic Gondorian formation, with a central bloc in two raks, swordsmen, then spearmen, with his standard and heroes in the middle. Hi archers were opposite my very sparse left flank, whilst his knights were behind the cabin. The three objectifs are represented by the piles of rocks along the centre of the battlefield.

The Gondorian archers immediately advanced, both out of a lack of targets and in order to seize control of the objective on my left flank. I dispatched a small group of warriors, led by Eowyn, to hide behind the hut, where they would await the opportune moment to contest the objective. The two amry corps opposite each other in the centre went forth, the troops of the White City occupying the ruins, my left flank anchored by the cabin. Teutonico decided to divide his cavalry into two groups of three; one going behind the cabin to threaten the group hidden behind the hut, the other passing in front of the cabin to launch itself at my main battle line. Relieved by the absence of archers opposite them, my riders straight away made the most of their freedom of movement to take the objective on my right flank and threaten the flank of Faramir's soldiers, who were hiddenamongst the ruins.

The Gondorians brought the fight to my left flank, attacking the group behind the hut, reinforced by the three knights on that side. Eowyn and the handful of peasants were set for disaster. The knights of the White City who had thrown themselves towards the central battle line suffered the peril of massed javlins; thrown fom their saddles, they were quickly put to the sword. This allowed my main battle line to push back the soldiers of Minas Tirith towards the ruins, on the defensive. My riders, on the right flank, managed to outflank the enemy, one of them fighting his way through to the standard bearer, slaying him and stealing the banner of the White Tree. Some lucky dice trows contributed towards my victory in the centre of the battlefield... but that luck was nothing compared to the jinx Teutonico suffered on the left flank! Despite the charge of his three other knights and the great superiority in numbers which his men enjoyed, Eowyn held her position with her feeble escort of javlinists.Incredible given that I'd counted the loss of the flank as a foregone conclusion and necessary sacrifice in favour of the other two objectives. It is important to note, however, that although my lucky dice rolls held back Teutonico's men on the left flank, Teutonico never allowed me to be a threat to his control of the objective held there by his archers.

At the end of the battle, I held the centre and the right flank, one of my riders had made off with the enemy flag and Teutonico was reduced to less than 25% of his initial numbers. Teutonico's archers were too far away from their .

I think that Teutonico's main mistake was in dividing his cavalry forces into two groups, thus dissipating their power. I learnt threwpast experienes to avoid such a move... but in another more recent battle, he showed me he exception which makes the rule.

RESULT: 2 objectives (2 x 3pts) + Standard stolen (4pts) + Enemy brought under 25% of his initial numbers (2pts) = BarbarianJ 12 - 0 Teutonico = MAJOR VICTORY for BARBARIANJ

A good game; Teutonico suffered greatly from poor luck.