Rodensfeld: 1377

Laurie arranged a Medievals game with me for a week or two ago, and as I'm in one of those catch up phases on the blog, I'm only just around to posting the report.  Spurred on by our recent big game, Laurie had been rebasing and freshening up his collection of Teutonic and early High-Medieval troops.  To make use of my own forces I set up a scenario to pitch them against my Low Countries forces, of the Duchy of Luxembourg.

The Scenario was CS Grant inspired, from old faithful*,  A dawn attack on the camp of a Holy Roman Empire army.  Laurie commanded the HRE and had four pickets on patrol at the start of the game, he could choose where, so long as one was within three inches of the bridge over the fast-flowing river Roden.  The rest of his force was asleep.

At the start of each turn, he had to pick one of four coloured tokens, each corresponding to the four arriving battles of Low Countries troops, therefore the LC army could not be sure of the coordination of it's army.  Units were represented only be a counter marking their centre, until a patrol moved within 12 inches of them, or they themselves attacked the enemy.  The first LC force to arrive was that over the river from the camp.  and these quickly moved to engage the HRE crossbow piquet.  In the distance other troops moved unseen.

In some confusion the patrols moved first towards the camp, and the Crossbows sent back a runner.  However he was captured before he could raise the alarm.  The LC cavalry appeared out of the gloom and charged the slowly aroused Germans.  (Each turn once the alarm was deemed raised, Laurie could raise 2D6 worth of troops in Stamina points, carrying over to the next turn any remainder).

A pair of fierce engagements around the camp developed with the LC mounted troops pushing some of the HRE knights through the camp, but by then being in too uncoordinated a condition to stand a counter attack by roused troops.

FLemish infantry failed to cross the bridge, covered in the pre dawn light by German crossbows.  By now infantry were tumbling out of the camp in some order, and the LC general was setting off to look for his remaining men, still lost in the darkness.

At this stage LC handgunners came out of the woods to try to disorder the enemy, who had just routed one of their allied infantry formations.  This they did so with some success.

But with losses mounting the LC commander was finding the initiative had passed and the HRE commander was ranging his men further away from the camp in a hunt for opposition.

Late in the engagement the LC general as able to rush one unit of pie into the battle, but they were too late to swing the battle, in which the other LC commander had lost his heaviest troop in an ill advised attack on German infantry to the west of the camp.

The moment lost the Flemish forces began to withdraw before the Germans could become well enough arrayed to pursue.

The battle reflected a sharp defeat for my Flemish forces, who weren't able to coordinate a swift enough attack; though they did come within a whisker of achieving it.  Another fun little game facilitated by the Hail Caesar rules.

*If you don't know by now: