TTS AAR: Crusades Game 3: Venetians Abroad vs Early Feudal Spanish
My third and final game at the recent Crusades event at the Games Bunker in Weston Super Mere was against Sid and his Early Feudal Spanish: the El Cid lot!
Rather than risk boring you with my usual report, I actually have a report from the other side of the table: Sid posted the following on his Facebook page. As you would expect, it is full of “fake news”, lies and propaganda, but it saves me the trouble of writing a report of my own!
Sid says: “My third and final game at The Bunker for the TTS Crusades Competition was against Robert Avery’s Venetians.
The armies line up. The open left flank beckons me.
“Rob and his army are hardened veterans and winners of this year’s TTS at BRITCON. The Venetians are an interesting combination of Spear or Bill and Light infantry. The main striking force are Knights supported by unusual Light Cavalry who have crossbow for that three-box range or lance to be an offensive Lights unit. He had two camps which are fortified.
“Robert Avery and I have played a few times over the last couple of years and I seem to be his personal kryptonite: when we play my cards are average but his are invariably ‘pants’. I was hoping this would play on his mind. I know, it’s a terrible thing to do to a lovely chap like Robert Avery.
“As with every game that day, I won the scouting, so I could match my commands where they would be most effective.
“Rob deployed his two infantry commands in the centre and split the cavalry equally on the wings. His left looked more exposed, so I concentrated two commands against that flank. My right flank only had one cavalry command but it was my veteran cavalry so I thought I had a chance to take him on frontally. My infantry might be raw but had extra bow so could impact him without getting too close. I also had a horde of raw Light Infantry to clog up the works.
The filthy raw peones look across at the heavily armoured Venetian infantry. At least there are plenty of monks in the camp to administer the last rites.
“My activations started well, I managed to rush my mounted troops right into Rob’s grill. The kryptonite was working and Robs right wing activated one unit before stopping.
“The Venetian infantry then ground forward, and I was in no position to stop them but did delay them and pushed back the mounted wings.
The right wing, not so open but still opportunities. I rushed forward to close down the opposing knights. You can see that the Venetians are down to a single unit of knights, but with LIGHT CAVALRY support which was whittled down. The Venetian infantry assault can be seen to the left.
“On my left I took down Rob’s Light Cavalry and the Knight unit closest to the centre.The loss of that Knight let me push cavalry through to hit his exposed Crossbow unit who were very unhappy at tangling with lance-armed cavalry. This exposed the Spear next to the Crossbow who were flanked and destroyed leaving a gap in the line.
“The only good thing for Rob was the survival of his far right Knight unit, although it was disordered so reluctant to get involved. In the end, Rob had a f*** it moment and charged them forward anyway. Unusually for Rob it worked, and they destroyed the Caballeros Villanos matched against them.
The success of my main effort on the left. I managed to make ground as Rob failed activation after activation.
You can see the surrounded Venetian knights, which oddly survived and fell back. The Venetian knights not surrounded, were the ones who fell to the two Spanish cavalry units who double teamed them.
At the back can be seen a crossbow unit, which were screaming to be ridden down. Just to the top right can be seen the only raw unit in the Venetian army. Identified by the fat cook in the front rank. They drew me like moths to a fame.
The final knight unit injured and fending off repeated attacks.
My cavalry with the red standard are occupying the ground formerly held by the now deceased Venetian crossbows. The now disordered Venetian raw spear have drawn the attention of my cavalry. I’m still loving that fat chef in the front rank. The camp is beckoning.
“In the centre, Rob’s infantry were pushing my raw Shieldwall back and I was pulling them back just to keep them in the game. But the success of this meant that they became isolated and exposed to my hordes of raw Light Infantry. Meanwhile my cavalry who had taken out his Spear, went through the gap and took one of the camps.
The camp is seized and my cavalry have the option to turn to drive the LI out.
“On my right, my elite Cabaleros Hidalgos rushed Rob’s Knight command and were outrageously lucky, taking down one unit of Knights and disordering the other. I followed up and had his Knights pinned against the table edge with another Light Cavalry pinned next to them. This unit just held on, which as it had the Army Standard kept Rob in the game. I could have pushed the Light Cavalry off the table but held on until he would be down to his last coin. On the same flank I had supporting Light Cavalry ready to hit some Light Infantry on a hill in the flank.
Meanwhile on the other side of the table.
My far right cavalry have pinned their opponents and throwing javelins at the trapped knights. My left shieldwall are driven back, but raw LI are flanking their opponents. The right side peones are disordered By the unit of billmen.
More detail of the centre
“After I cleared out another unit, I pushed the Light Cavalry off table for the win.
The far right. You can see how my right side cavalry are simply holding place ready to drive the LC off table.
The Venetian knights with army standard are disordered, the Spanish cavalry with army standard are also DISORDERED SO a stand-off but I am throwing the odd javelin. My LC are facing into,the centre ready to flank charge some LI on a hill just out of shot.
The knights break out of the trap, but are flanked by LIGHT CAVALRY.
There are also crossbows to the left peppering the knights.
Just after this, I drove the Venetian LC off the table for the win.
“As always with Rob, a great game, full of chat and banter. Yet his cards hated him and I’m not joking when I say that. Maybe he was distracted as I spent the entire day trying to nag him into going for an Ancient Spanish army for his next project.”
An excellent report from Sid, sadly accurate in that I lost the game 5-13, which meant that I finished the event in 5th position.
What Sid doesn’t mention is that in my last turn before he won the game, I had an excellent opportunity to rout two of his Shieldwall units with my infantry, which would have meant the game finished something like 9-13 or the like, which meant I would have placed higher overall…but I drew an Ace for my first actuvation and that was that!
Sid’s pictures are interspersed with his report, here are mine in a picture-only gallery:
So a great game but a disappointing end to the day. The event had been most enjoyable overall, and my thanks to Don and team at the Games Bunker, and my opponents, for a great day’s gaming.