Fall In '08 Round One

My Teutonic Knights vs. Ethan Zorick's Ghaznavids in the Field of Glory 15mm Open Tournament.

I felt pretty good at deployment. I knew my right flank was outmatched by the strong medium foot and elephants deployed against it, but  I thought I could delay the enemy long enough for my knights to take down his cavalry. I had two units of light cavalry to buy time against his elephant/infantry wing.

The map and units aren't 100% accurate, but they give you an idea of how things were set up.

Ethan's left wing. I have two light foot units in ambush. Two light cavalry will shortly run onto the scene. I have to delay this wing as long as possible.

My left wing. My javelin armed light horse and crossbow armed cavalry are going to hold the flank while the knights charge to victory. (That's the plan.) I have two units of superior knights (four stands each) and one six stand unit of average knights.

The Right: My light horse have their work cut out for them.

The Left: My cavalry (protected, average, crossbow/sword) will fight like heroes this battle. The won't kill much, they just refuse to die.

The Right: My light cavalry are barely hanging on. The flank is folding. Unfortunately, my knights are having a hell of a time trying to catch Ethan's cavalry on the left.

The Left: My light horse have been chased off by a unit of superior armored cavalry. The crossbow cavalry now hold the flank.

Behind my left flank:

Late in the battle:

The Left: The mounted crossbow are playing hell with Ethan's plans. They just won't die. And the knights are arriving on the scene.

The Rear: Ugh. A unit of light horse on the right flank evaded short and were caught by some elephants. They rout long. (Great-evade short and rout long.)

The Center/Rear: What a mess. In order to buy time I had to send my superior knights into a unit of elephants. They hang on long enough to get hit in the rear by some light horse. They then hang on long enough for my spear to hit the elephant in flank. They then hang on long enough for my spear to get hit in flank by some impact foot. It doesn't end well for me.

The Left (Too little too late): My army has almost broken, but I get a few good whacks in before I go down. The mounted crossbow have finally been destroyed, but the armored cavalry that took them out get slammed by my mercenary knights.

The final result....

Ethan broke my army 11/11 attrition points. I took him for 6/11. (Maybe 8? It's all getting fuzzy now.)

Ethan was an excellent opponent. I learned a lot from him as we played. I look forward to playing him again in the future.

I don't think I made any huge mistakes. I took some risks late in the game, but it was desperation time. The first half of the battle was marred by a series of awful cohesion rolls. My luck turned later, but it was too late. I don't think I would have gained any points if not for the immortal (nearly) mounted crossbows tying up his forces.