Fearing nothing and fully expecting to be nominated posthumously as a Christian martyr my General goes forth into a place where no sane man should ever venture. He found himself and his retinue outnumbered, overlapped, outflanked and plain and in simple terms in dire straights. His quality factors brought the contest to an 'even dice roll' but if the Turk rolls higher than my dice, the General and thus his whole Command were lost outright (see below) by the "DBx: Shutting the Door" mechanism. Note: The blurred photograph aptly depicted my jittery state of mind at this point:
And I rolled a "1". Goodnight Vienna hello Constantinople, but wait there is no hooping or great "huzzah" from the Turk, is he being gentlemanly and discrete? No the Ottoman too rolled a "1", so in fact 'snake eyes' - a stand, the Hungarian General lives to fight another day (well phase at least). Statistically that's my luck for the year gone then!
Granted a surplus of PiPs from my C-inC this enabled my Knight Lancers to mow down the Light Horse (Fast) that stood in my way. This time it was Ottoman Light Horse (Fast) suffering a (-1) modifier and mortally hurting them. From an initial force of ten they were now down to two survivors (see above). 4 VP's to me and given that previously the Ottoman also lost a Spahi Cavalry element from a fluke "1"-"6" Artillery fire from my supporting infantry (see previous posts) it was the Turks turn to look "peaky" (5 VP). One more element lost and the Ottoman's Command was 'gone'.
It was now the Turks phase:
The Light Horse (Superior) fought an uncharacteristically static battle above "milling around", while the Spahi formed up against my overstretched Knights. Hoping for a quick kill they desperately attacked, a kill would crush the Hungarian command, so would "Lady Luck" smile for the Ottoman (see below, the Spahi attack with an overlap on my normal Knight Lancer):
No. A simple recoil, not a kill, which allowed my Knights in turn to retaliate in force (see below). Knight Lancers like fighting Spahi on 'their' (as in the Knights) phasing turn. Taking it to them means they only need to score greater than the Spahi to kill the Spahi. Going in with an overlap on one side and the Hungarian General on the other certainly gave the Hungarians the statistical 'edge':
Te result was statistical, drawing in one combat (LHS) but winning with the General (who was in the process of making quite a name for himself) and in the process taking down the Ottoman Left Wing of Horse, "huzzah". from near certain death to resurrection in a matter of a few dice rolls (see below and the advanced blue flag of the Hungarian General)!
The only other actions was the combat and containment of the Ottoman Light Horse (Superior), by pinning them frontally in combat and restricting their possible retreat from positioning a Light Horse (Fast) behind them (see below):
This combat dice produced two Ottoman recoils (see below):
However this still pinned or bagged the Ottoman Light Horse (Superior) for next turn, but as the Ottoman Command had broken this is academic, as it was more than likely that the Light Horse would just "flee the field" as they were already counted as lost for VP purposes. The Ottoman would be concentrating on saving the bulk of the remaining Spahi in the now 'demoralised' Ottoman command.
Redcar House Rule: "Closing the Door":
If the above combat seemed slightly cumbersome, especially since Light Horse and 'mounted' in general have large movement allowances to quickly get into the rear/flank, I should explain that a 'House Rule' is in effect. Closing onto a flank, "closing the door" in DBx terms, as in prohibiting the attacked unit from retreating and thus killing the element was/is deemed too easy under DBx rules by the Redcar gamers. Myself I am quite happy with the normal DBx mechanism but when in Rome (or Redcar) I play under the House Rule. To close the door you must start already behind the flank of an enemy unit. This makes for much more linear slugging matches and does reduce the DBx movement "fiddles". However IMHO one house amendment does not redeem what I consider ultimately as a flawed system, more 'competition' based than 'historical simulation' biased. As stated this is only "my opinion" and carries no weight to other gamers whose experiences and preferences differ, but allows me with clear conscience to re-base my figures for my preferred rule-sets Impetus or Fields Of Glory (FoG).
Next: But what of the other Hungarian Commands?
Please post some 20th Century armour for cripes sake. This is far to historical!
ReplyDeleteAh but Paul, I have to report that Renaissance is the only game in town for me at the moment
ReplyDeleteGetting to see my fellow "tread heads" is just too hard to arrange at the moment
A bit of ECW is scheduled for next week followed by WWI aeroplane action the following week I might get the chance to game a bit of WWII in February
I still might manage a 'clanky tank' posting or two though ;)
That would be most welcome Geordie.
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