Poland vs. the Inca

A Headless Body Production
 

Location: Lancaster Host Convention Center

Event:      Cold Wars 2108

Venue:     L'Art de la Guerre 25mm Team Event, Round 1.

Players:   Phil Gardocki, Steve Turn, List 241, Medieval Polish

                 Bill Sierichs and Nicholas Inca

Game:      L'Art de la Guerre, 300 points
Description: A battle report between Poles and Incas

Polish forces:

The Forces:
7 Winged Hussars, Heavy Knight impetuous, mostly elite
6 Medium Cavalry Crossbow
4 Lithuanians, Light Cavalry, Javelin
4 Tartars, Light Cavalry, Javelin. elite
2 Handgunners, Light Infantry, Firearm, elite.
2 War Wagons, Crossbow
3 1/2 Heavy Spearmen 1/2 Crossbowmen
1 Heavy Cavalry Impact


Breakpoint 30

Incan Forces.
The god of the sun, Atahualpa, son of Huayna Capac, was generous with the information of his forces, his list was was delivered in Quipu.

And we think Block Chain is new technology. 

The Board:

The Polish win the initiative and elect to attack in the plains.  A large bald hill dominates the right side of the field.  The Incan left has has 2 plantations and a field.

Deployment:

The Polish are organized into 4 commands. on the far left is a large cavalry command of 6 Medium and 4 Light Cavalry units.  Next to them is the Attack command, led by Vytautas Didysis with 5 Winged Hussars, 2 Lights and a Heavy Cavalry unit.  Next to them, Józef Kostecki with 2 Winged Hussars and 3 lights.  Holding the flank is Konrad Wallenrod with his 2 War Wagons, 3 Spearmen/Crossbow and a Handgunner.

The Inca was dismayed by the lack of terrain, and clustered his army on his left flank, around 6 ranks deep.

Turn 1:
It seems like the Inca is forting up, and possible not going to move much. 

Karaim is going to take his command of shooters and sweep right, and just shoot at the Incan's in the field.  It's just going to take a while to get there.

Vytautas will take his command and wheel in as well.  But a bit slower as he doesn't want to fight in the field.

Konrad's command will largely wait.  Their mission is described as "Anchor".

The big question is what will the Inca do?

Some of their troops are advancing through the plantation areas.

The die is cast!  The Incan's are not staying put.  They rush across the board, securing the bald hill, and look like they are going to try to crush the Polish Infantry Command.

The Incan left begins their sweep.

Turn 2:
The race is on!  Both sides are throwing left hay makers at each other.

Initial contacts are made, with the Tartars taking multiple hits.

Józef's knights break off from the sweep.  There may be flank shots available with the advancing Incan forces.  Already one opportunity has presented it self.  as the Lithuanians (LC, Javelin) charge the flank Incan column.

Konrad begins forming his lines.  Crossbows shoot, but fail to disorder the advancing Incas.

I don't think these guys are going to be all that impressed with our firesticks. 

The Tartars are also having a bad day.

So are the sacrificial Lithuanians.  But the column they attacked is broken up, facing multiple directions, while the lead element has two hits from missiles from the Polish Spear/Crossbowmen.  If only the Hussars can get there in time to capitalize on it.

Turn 3:

On the far left flank, the mass of crossbow armed cavalry has not yet entered missile range.

Nor are the center Hussars going to be able to take advantage of the disorder caused by the Lithuanians.

But the pressure has been reduced on the infantry command.

The Incan's continue to form up their lines.

The Incan center as well.

There is a shoot out going on with the infantry command.  The commander is ordinary, and has had the command points to tun the war wagons to optimum fighting position.

Turn 4:

4 turns in, finally the massive horse missile barrage begins.

The Hussars start their charge as well, but only one actually makes contact.

The shootout by the hill is not going in the Pole's favor, but their job is to hold, not to actually win.

An ugly shot, but an important one.  The Incan's decide they are not going to just stand there and be shot at turn after turn, and charge out of the field.  The exchange against Medium Cavalry followed predictable numbers, with the Incan's losing 3 out of 4 fights.

In the center, the Incan's do not close in on the Knights, so only the commanders element is still engaged.  And that fight was a tie.

On the flank, the shooting continues, but it is only a matter of time now.

Tune 5:

This turn went both ways.  An Incan warrior unit was destroyed by the Crossbow Cavalry, but so to a Crossbow Cavalry was lost in trade.  On the far left, and off panel, another Lithuanian Light Cavalry, Javelin took a flank of a Warrior, with a plus 2 - zero advantage.  But the dice flipped plus 2 in the Incan favor.  On the right, The Knights Zielony I Czerwony, catch a bow unit with it's edge out of the field, destroy it, then pursue into it's partner in the field.

The rest of the Winged Hussars crash into their opponents.  The Incan's were prepared, as these were the only Medium Spearmen in the army, and so the Incan's gained impact.  In the end, the Hussars did not do well in the exchange, with 2 of the Knights Pointa Z Lanca being disordered.  But the commanders knights destroyed their opponents and pursued into the next Incan Warrior unit.

A minor victory for the Poles here as an Incan Skirmisher is shot away.

Incan warriors charge the War Wagon, which holds it's ground.

This fight looked favorable to the Pole's initially, but now the tide has turned. 

In the center, the fights are split.  on the left, the Poles are not doing well, but on the right, the Incan line is about to collapse. 

The first War Wagon is destroyed, but overall the infantry command still holds.  And that is all it needs to do.  Notice the Heavy Cavalry on the left.  If the game had gone another turn, it would have had a beautiful flank shot.

In a last hurrah, the Incan's sweep the fortifications.  And while the path to the camp is clear, it is a long road.

The final score was a winning draw for the Incan's,  21-18.

So what went wrong here.  This match up should have been our dream scenario.   Nothing but medium foot, where even our Medium Crossbow Cavalry hits with a +2 on impact.

First, we have to give a lot of credit to our opponents.  Our battle plan was based on there being some Incas on the left side of the board, and that is where our strength was.  The battle plan didn't consider that there would be zero opposition on the left.  So the Incas were able to generate 3-1 (in points and numbers) on our right flank.  Our knights were not able to complete their swing until turn 4, and by turn 5, the clock had run out.

On turn 1, we misjudged the Inca's intentions as well.  We thought they were going to stay forted up between the field and plantation.  So our first moves were made with the idea of arriving in sync, and not in a hurry.  We knew what we were doing and moving quickly, and would have taken only 20 minutes to go 3 turns to get to the final approach.  Then the Inca came out to fight, which burned up the clock.

That and we are getting used to knights.  They move slower than cavalry, and considerably slower than light cavalry.  Not getting them into any fight until turn 4 killed our opportunity to score points.