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Ladder battle versus Rheims
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| Author |
File Description |
| Gaius Colinius |
Posted on 04/29/08 @ 05:25 PM
| File Details |
|---|
| Game Version: |
Standard Edition |
| Number of Players: |
2 |
| Player 1's Name: |
Gaius Colinius |
| Player 2's Name: |
Rheims |
| # of Florins: |
12000 |
Arsuf map
12k
Gaius-Moors
Rheims-Spain
His cavalry wiped out mine and while my infantry were competitive, once they were flanked-they were dead. |
| Author | Comments & Reviews ( All | Comments Only | Reviews Only ) |
|---|
el_bandito
Official Reviewer |
Posted on 05/22/08 @ 04:50 AM
(You will love Musketeers after this review.)
Map Arsuf, denarii 12000
Settings, Large
Gaius Colinus(Gaius) : Lamtuna Spearmen, Desert Archers, Dismounted Christian Guards, Christian Guards, Granadine Jinetes.
Rheims: Musketeers (Game Breaker), Swordsmen Militia, Sword and Buckler Men, Dismounted Conquistadores, Mailed Knights, Chivalric Knights, Knights of Santiago.
Gaius had arrayed his usual army of Moors which would undoubtfully benefit the desert bonus of Arsuf map. He also upgraded the morale of some of his foot units. Against him, Rheims had gathered an impressive army of Spanish Knights complemented by expert swordsmen, with Musketeers in front. Although the two sides began without facing each other they quickly adjusted their battle lines so they can see face to face. The Musketeers opened fire as soon as they got into range while the Desert Archers, hiding behind the safety of Gaius’ infantry, began to shoot over their heads in reply. The arrows were correctly directed to the Musketeers since they carried no armor but the damage paled against what Rheims’ musketeers had done to Gaius. Rheims directed his fire towards the Lamtuna Spearmen, no doubt the biggest threat concern to his cavalry heavy army. Lamtuna Spearmen have only shields to defend themselves from missile fire but since musket balls ignores shield defense, the result was lots of dead spearmen. However, the Musketeers have done even greater damage to Gaius in which I was ignorant at the time.
Seeing how Gaius lost enough Lamtuna Spearmen, Rheims began to encircle him in a wide arc with his knights. Gaius sent all his Granadine Jinetes to harass one wing while he sent his Christian Guards to parry the other wing of the encirclement. The Jinetes led away the threat to Gaius’ left flank while his remaining spearmen collapsed at the first engagement with Rheims’ knights. The Christian guards firmly embraced the knights on Gaius’s right flank but without spearmen support they were far few in number. I was puzzled by the small amount of the Christian Guards when I suddenly saw this. It seems the devious Rheims had sent quite a lot of musket balls to the Christian Guards in the early engagement, without me realizing it. At least 1/4th of Gaius’ Christian guard therefore never left the original post to join their comrades in battle. The Dismounted Conquistadores, Swordsmen Militia, and Sword and Buckler men meanwhile met the Charging Dismounted Christian Guard head on and swiftly contained them in a firm embrace.
The battle now entered its most critical phase. The Jinetes still lead the Spanish knights on the left to such a merry chase that they were of no factor in the battles brewing in the middle and the right. The infantry of Gaius was holding out remarkably well but it had a weakness in one unit of Lamtuna Spearmen which couldn’t stand against swordsmen head to head regardless of upgrades. On the right side Gaius’s Christian Guards finally buckled to the numerically superior knights and were routed. Rheims wasted no time to bring those knights on the right flank straight into the backs of Gaius’s infantry struggling in the middle. That decided the center battle in an eye blink and Gaius lost all his infantry.
All was not lost since Gaius had better advantage in the left when he finally turned his Granadine Jinetes onto the knights of Rheims which were worn down by the tiring chase and javelins. From Rheims’ mop up scene of middle and the right flank, we can appreciate just how extensive was the damage caused by the musketeers in the initial skirmish. Leaving the foot units to chase the routers, Rheims then sent all his knights straight towards the remaining engagement on the left. To my surprise and admiration, Rheims didn’t charge straight into the melee as most players would have done. Instead he split the reinforcement into two and began an envelopment of Gaius’ Jinetes. Once he had them completely surrounded, he charged. The Jinetes were overwhelmed in seconds and the match was decided. Only unit now available for Gaius was a handful survivors of Desert Archers and they were simply smashed like an egg under a stampeding Spanish bull. Thus the battle was finally over and Rheims won not only the match, but the admiration of Gaius and me with his superb control of heavy cavalry.
There were many factors which decided the outcome of the match; such as the vast superiority of the gunpowder vs. bow and arrow in flat landscape and high maneuverability of cavalry in such an open ground which greatly helped Rheims. Gaius might have thought he chose the map well when he played on Arsuf but it was actually a death trap intended for him. Things might have turned out differently if Gaius had harassed Rheims’ Musketeers with his Granadine Jinetes early on, thus disrupting its deadly volleys while his archers did their job. It was Rheims’ Musketeers which decimated Gaius’ spearmen and reduced his Christian Guards to such extent the knights overcame the right flank with ease and fell on the backs of Gaius’ infantry. Perhaps Gaius can gain more insight if he read military history on how the English had defeated the Scots with their missile and cavalry superiority and how the Scots were able to counter them with the use of terrain and numbers.
[Edited on 05/22/08 @ 04:51 AM]
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Gaius Colinius
Staff
File Author |
Posted on 05/22/08 @ 05:56 PM
As for the result, I'm not very good at all am I! :)
Good review though. You pretty much distilled the essence of the battle. |
| Rheims |
Posted on 05/23/08 @ 06:53 AM |
HGDL v0.8.1 |
| Statistics |
| Downloads: | 545 |
| Favorites: [] | 0 |
| Size: | 66.08 KB |
| Added: | 04/29/08 |
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