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Bouvines 1214

Started by MengJiao, October 29, 2013, 06:03:33 PM

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MengJiao


   This is a new edition of a game from 2002.  Now it has cardboard counters and rules in English.

   The Holy Roman Emperor, Otto has attacked with a superior force.  Phillip II, King of France must have agreed with this assessment; his army has been retreating
from the Emperor for days.

    But, when the Ottonians first push foward, the Hospitalers on the French right counter-attack.  Otto advances a seemingly invincible battering ram of high quality pikemen  to support his threatened flank.  The next (and final) move of the first turn is up to Phillip:

bayonetbrant

Meng - I'm going to totally steal this for the front page and direct people here to discuss :)
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

MengJiao

#2
Quote from: bayonetbrant on October 29, 2013, 06:22:58 PM
Meng - I'm going to totally steal this for the front page and direct people here to discuss :)

  Sounds fun.

  So anyway, at the very end of turn one, Philip shifts himself and the Oriflame to his right to back up the Hospitalers (Knights of St. John, eventually Knights of Malta after they are forced out of the Levant -- where they held Cyprus and/or Rhodes for a while), some of whom are already fatigued.  This shift to the right may be a mistake since the bridge the French may be routing to is on the left and the sneaky English are on that side with some very good archers.  A feature of the game allows the army leader to move all troops in his radius even if they have moved already.  So the Bretons (between Philip's banner in the center and the Hospitalers) set up in their banner's move, and then charge as the last move of turn one:

MengJiao

#3
Quote from: MengJiao on October 29, 2013, 09:28:39 PM
Quote from: bayonetbrant on October 29, 2013, 06:22:58 PM
Meng - I'm going to totally steal this for the front page and direct people here to discuss :)

  So anyway, at the very end of turn one, Philip shifts himself and the Oriflame to his right to back up the Hospitalers (Knights of St. John, eventually Knights of Malta after they are forced out of the Levant -- where they held Cyprus and/or Rhodes for a while), some of whom are already fatigued.  This shift to the right may be a mistake since the bridge the French may be routing to is on the left and the sneaky English are on that side with some very good archers.  A feature of the game allows the army leader to move all troops in his radius even if they have moved already.  So the Bretons (between Philip's banner in the center and the Hospitalers) set up in their banner's move, and then charge as the last move of turn one:

   Start of Turn 2:

   Things look really bad for the Holy Roman Empire at this point.  The charge of the Dude called Eudes with his knights (Chevaliers in game terms), ripped a huge hole in the already shaky Imperial left.  He rolled moderately well and used his initial charge to rout (deroute in game terms) some militia, his pursuit to rout another militia and his dispersion to rout the commander of the Imperial left and all his knights.  So the Imperial left is a mess.  And worse is to come.

   At the start of turn 2 the French roll a perfect 9 for command while the Holy Romans roll a 4.  Philip is one better in command than Otto already (this is a game made in France and historically Otto seems to have been a bit surprised to face the French on a Sunday.  He and his buddy, John King of England had both been excommunicated once already so, Otto decided to attack despite it being Sunday).  Anyway with a 6 differential, the French get to pick any command to move first and they get to force which command the HRE moves first.  The French will do an Army command move to rescue Eudes and the Hospitalers who seem to have charged too far and they will force the HRE to move the English who are dismounted and lurking around Gruson.  Then the turn will alternate normally and Otto should be able to get things under more control:


MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on October 31, 2013, 07:45:29 AM


   Start of Turn 2:

   Things look really bad for the Holy Roman Empire at this point.  The charge of the Dude called Eudes with his knights (Chevaliers in game terms), ripped a huge hole in the already shaky Imperial left.  He rolled moderately well and used his initial charge to rout (deroute in game terms) some militia, his pursuit to rout another militia and his dispersion to rout the commander of the Imperial left and all his knights.  So the Imperial left is a mess.  And worse is to come.

   At the start of turn 2 the French roll a perfect 9 for command while the Holy Romans roll a 4.  Philip is one better in command than Otto already (this is a game made in France and historically Otto seems to have been a bit surprised to face the French on a Sunday.  He and his buddy, John King of England had both been excommunicated once already so, Otto decided to attack despite it being Sunday).  Anyway with a 6 differential, the French get to pick any command to move first and they get to force which command the HRE moves first.  The French will do an Army command move to rescue Eudes and the Hospitalers who seem to have charged too far and they will force the HRE to move the English who are dismounted and lurking around Gruson.  Then the turn will alternate normally and Otto should be able to get things under more control:

   Middle of Turn2 -- Otto counter-attacks!

   This might work.  Eudes III may be heading for the dustheap of history and Otto IV is in there somewhere under a charge marker  (Say it aint so William Longsword):

   

MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on October 31, 2013, 10:22:17 AM


   Middle of Turn2 -- Otto counter-attacks!

   This might work.  Eudes III may be heading for the dustheap of history and Otto IV is in there somewhere under a charge marker  (Say it aint so William Longsword):




   Beginning of Turn 3 -- Otto advances.  Eudes survives.

bayonetbrant

so I guess once the horsemen are on the defensive, it's a bad day for them, eh?
The key to surviving this site is to not say something which ends up as someone's tag line - Steelgrave

"their citizens (all of them counted as such) glorified their mythology of 'rights'...and lost track of their duties. No nation, so constituted, can endure." Robert Heinlein, Starship Troopers

MengJiao

Quote from: bayonetbrant on October 31, 2013, 08:36:33 PM
so I guess once the horsemen are on the defensive, it's a bad day for them, eh?

  The Knights and Sergeants can counter-charge, so the defensive in itself isn't a big problem.  What's been happening,though is that, I've pushed every charge I could as far as it would go and the Knights and sergeants end up fatigued (after 3 the three maximum moments of the charge: the initial charge, the pursuit and the dispersion).  So the horsemen have shoved a lot of people around and both armies are in some disarray, but not all that much damage has been done and even stranger -- all rallies were passed at the end of turn 2.  So the overall offensive power is dropping and all-in-all, nobody is much the worse for it.  However, Phillip has a few reserve Knights left and the archers and crossbowmen are getting into position so things may get bloodier soon.

MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on October 31, 2013, 07:55:43 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 31, 2013, 10:22:17 AM


   Middle of Turn2 -- Otto counter-attacks!

   This might work.  Eudes III may be heading for the dustheap of history and Otto IV is in there somewhere under a charge marker  (Say it aint so William Longsword):



   Otto rolls some good command numbers.  Pulls himself back to reorganize his wrecked flank and almost kills Eudes III.  The French are forced to move their far left as some crossbowmen rout.  So we are a few moves into Turn 3.


   Beginning of Turn 3 -- Otto advances.  Eudes survives.

MengJiao

#9
Quote from: MengJiao on November 01, 2013, 03:29:02 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 31, 2013, 07:55:43 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 31, 2013, 10:22:17 AM


   Middle of Turn2 -- Otto counter-attacks!

   This might work.  Eudes III may be heading for the dustheap of history and Otto IV is in there somewhere under a charge marker  (Say it aint so William Longsword):




   Otto rolls some good command numbers.  Pulls himself back to reorganize his wrecked flank and almost kills Eudes III.  The French are forced to move their far left as some crossbowmen rout.  So we are a few moves into Turn 3.


   Beginning of Turn 3 -- Otto advances.  Eudes survives.


  Beginning of Turn 5 -- Eudes III takes heart from the Oriflamme and returns to the valiant state (units unmarked by discouraged or routed tokens are considered valiant); the French throw another killer command roll.  This could be the beginning of the end for the Imperialists:

MengJiao

Quote from: MengJiao on November 01, 2013, 07:11:48 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on November 01, 2013, 03:29:02 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 31, 2013, 07:55:43 PM
Quote from: MengJiao on October 31, 2013, 10:22:17 AM


   Middle of Turn2 -- Otto counter-attacks!

   This might work.  Eudes III may be heading for the dustheap of history and Otto IV is in there somewhere under a charge marker  (Say it aint so William Longsword):




   Otto rolls some good command numbers.  Pulls himself back to reorganize his wrecked flank and almost kills Eudes III.  The French are forced to move their far left as some crossbowmen rout.  So we are a few moves into Turn 3.


   Beginning of Turn 3 -- Otto advances.  Eudes survives.


  Beginning of Turn 5 -- Eudes III takes heart from the Oriflamme and returns to the valiant state (units unmarked by discouraged or routed tokens are considered valiant); the French throw another killer command roll.  This could be the beginning of the end for the Imperialists:

  One impulse into Turn 5 and its all over for the Holy Roman Empire.  call the Hohenstaufens.

  What happened was that Otto (I thought rather cunningly) left his top household knights holding the center sort of all alone while he got things reorganized.
This might have worked, but the French have thrown two perfect 9 command rolls in the last 3 turns and on two of the others got to move first and force return moves.  There was only one turn that alternated normally.
   So Phillip led a big frontal attack on Otto's household knights.  They routed and then a cross-front blow by Pierre, Count of Auxerre, wiped them out and routed a whole line. (see the line of charge markers below for the course of Pierre's charge):