Had
an interesting game at Bob’s with his Hungarians which I hadn’t seen before.
The
scenario involved a Turkish raiding force meets an Hungarian force sent by King
Mattias Corvinus. The Hungarians are led
by mounted knights and heavy cavalry, backed by heavy infantry with 2-handed
cutting weapons. There was also a unit
of crossbows. Since the game is set in
the late 1450s the Hungarians also had a "brigade" of Hussite
mercenaries - 2 units of handgunners and 1 of flailmen - actually flail 'women' as
Bob ordered the wrong figures. Not that
it helped the Turks as you will see later.
2 units of Pechenegs served as Cumans for the Hungarians.
The
Turks for their part as well as the usual suspects: levy infantry and Janissaries,
they also had a unit of Wallachs and another of early Turkish amoured swordsmen.
Bob
commanded the Turks who outnumbered the Hungarians.
I
took control of the Hungarians who although fewer in number, in their Knights
were a ‘tank force’.
The
Hungarians took the initiative with all except the Hobilars on the left flank
moving forwards to the Turkish lines
The
‘Cumans’ moved forward and started to move and fire along the front of the
Turkish levy causing some disorder.
Basically paralysing Bob’s left wing
The
Bob moved his right wing towards the village on the right in an attempt to
outflank the Hungarians taking advantage of his numerical superiority.
Again
the Cumans rode forward to pepper the Ottoman left. However this time they found themselves
facing a large force of archers who hit back disordering one unit of
Cumans. Despite shaking one of the large
units of levy infantry it managed to pass its break test.
In
the centre, Bob launched his heavy cavalry in a charge against the Hungarian
knights.
In
the ensuing melee one unit of Muslim knights was forced to retire whilst the
other held its ground surviving a break test but things looked grim for the
next round.
Bob’s
horse archers swept across the front of my troops firing as they went ending in
the village.
After
2 rounds of doing nothing, my Hobilars got going and blocked the exits to the
village on the left. The archers found
themselves trapped and were broken in a one sided melee. Meanwhile, with all this happening around
them a fearless (hapless) knight is getting his ‘do’s and don’ts’ campaign
orders from his wife.
Things
were going well for me with my heavy infantry with their two handed cutting weapons
following up on the Hungarian knights.
That was until they got a blunter test.
Fortunately, it only resulted in a move to the left but still left Bob
pleased with my inconvenience.
All
the while my unit of crossbowmen had been doing excellent work supporting the
Knights and hitting the supporting Turkish cavalry units.
Amazingly
the Turkish levy infantry continued to pass break test after break test. Whilst seemingly a good result this infantry
which was supposed to absorb some hits and run stood preventing the best
Turkish infantry getting into the game.
Eventually it was one test too many and the levy broke and the large
body of archers were forced to retire. The Janissaries were finally free to
advance.
On
Bob’s right the village was proving to be a bottleneck
The
Hobilars saw off the first of Bob’s levy units and still the list of ‘do’s and
don'ts’ was being given out.
On
the right my infantry had been moving taking advantage of Bob's inability to deploy his troops because of the levy infantry blocking them for so
many moves. My hand gunners and Flailmen
(women) flanking them. Finally the
failwomen launched a charge taking on some Hungarian mercenaries and roundly
beating and breaking them.
The
final unit of Turkish heavy cavalry was thrown in in a vain attempt to swing
the game. They failed and bounced off
the Hungarian knights, but enough damage was down to force one of the units of
knights to retire.
One of my units of heavy infantry with two handed cutting weapons took on one
of Bob’s Janissary units whilst it held was the final writing on the wall.
The
Sultan final ordered a general retreat
It
was a good game, the Hungarian Knights were just too powerful for the opposing
Turkish Heavy cavalry and with a stamina of 6 they just kept on going. There were some lovely looking units on both
sides which I hadn’t seen before. The Wallachs,
although they never got into the game, looked superb in their resplendent red uniforms. More learning of the rules as we went along
and a realisation after the event that we got things wrong, but not enough to
spoil an enjoyable time.
The
bulk of the figures are Lancashire Games 100 year War French, with a few Old
Glory knights. The Hussites and Pechenegs are from Kingmaker with a unit of
Irregular Miniature handgunners.
The
large blocks of Turks are Lancashire Games, the rest are an assortment of makes
including Essex, Kingmaker and Irregular miniatures. The unit of Wallachs are from Warlord
Miniatures.
