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.