Photos by Mike W & Ollie
Friday night's game was a follow on from last week's Baltic Crusades games, put on by John, with his 15mm collection.
Again we used John's version of the club's in-house ancients wargame rules, originally devised by Rupert.
Russians were played by Mike N, Rupert and Mike W, whilst the Germans and their allies were played by Steve (Germans), Ollie (German Crusaders) and Phil (Danish).
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| John's Battlefield Map, from the scenario pack |
Turn one and Steve threw out his Teutonic Knights to threaten the Russian lines, the Russians played a waiting game, and in turn two a largish Danish infantry force arrived on eth Russian right flank. Immediately a unit of Russian Horse Archers responded to harry their exposed flank.
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| Russian Army before initial deployments |
The German knights pressed forwards and so the Russian Heavy Horse (Russian right flank) deployed out to counter the knight's move. Additionally a second German allied force arrived on their right flank, this time it was the German Crusaders.
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| The deployed Russian Army |
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| Close-up of the same! |
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| German Teutonic Knights (in the distance) ride forth to engage with the Russians |
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| Danish infantry complete a flank march, arriving on the German left flank |
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| Russian Horse Archers ride out to engage flank of surprise arrivals - Danish Foot |
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| German Crusaders arrive on the Russian left flank |
The German Crusaders pressed forwards to attack the Russian left flank in support of the German knights in that area. Meanwhile on the German left flank the Russian Heavy Horse charged a unit of Knights and accompanying Light Horse and a melee ensued.
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Teutonic Knights approach Russian infantry lines whilst to their right
allied German Crusaders Light Horse engage |
The melees on both flanks continued for a number of turns, with the superior German & German Crusaders forces gradually getting the better of the situation. It came to a head when the Russian General on their left flank was killed, after loosing a melee round and Russian units broke in each flank melee.
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| On the Russian Right, Heavy Horse engage with the Teutonic Knights |
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The cavalry melee escalates as the Russians
throw in more and more units |
Spurred on by their allies success on their right, the German Knights charged home, only for their German Crusader friends to loose their melee round and then break along their lines as they thought better of scrambling further through the marshy areas to fight emplaced troop. In an instant the whole German right flank had disintegrated!
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Over time the Cavalry melee becomes more and more involved,
with both sides loosing units |
With that success the Russian infantry line was advanced forwards to threaten the mow weak German centre and on the Russian right, the Danish foot units were being disrupted by Russian cavalry and the terrain.
The melee on the German left continued, with various units being fed in to the fray, the German knights fought well but then weight of numbers began to tell and there too units began to break in the German lines and suddenly that flank looked exposed as well.
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Sneaky German Mounted Crossbowmen attack Russian Heavy Cavalry in the flank,
only to be themselves hit in the their flank by another Russian Heavy Horse unit |
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| The Russian infantry line advances |
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The Russian Horse Archers break-off and swing
towards the ongoing cavalry melee |
And so it was a clear Russian victory as the German commander in chief turned tail and abandoned his troops, shouting that it was all over and they wee done for (or something similar!)
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| View of the tabletop, Russian lines to the left and Germans to the right. |
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| Teutonic Knights advance towards the Russian lines |
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| Lots of Germans and Crusader allies. |
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| Close-up of German Crusader flank commander |
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