Battle of Ucles 1108

Thursday saw Mark and Tony face off in a large, two-player game refighting the 1108 Battle of Ucles in Spain.  Mark took command of the Almoravid Army while Tony took command of the Christian Spanish Army.  First player activation saw a modification in this contest where the initiative winner no longer received automatic first activation.  Instead, initiative winner added one extra activation die into the activation pool.    

Initial deployments

Almoravids form up in front of Ucles.

Let's get straight into battle!

As the two battle lines begin a cautious advance toward one another to close the distance, Tony's Christian heavy cavalry can contain themselves no longer.  Striking off in a long charge, one body of knights slams into one of the Almoravid large, mixed infantry units comprised of both long spear and archers.  Failing to slow the Christian horsemen with an effective volley of arrows, the impact sends the Muslims reeling back.  The horsemen continue on in pursuit and scatter the enemy as they cut them down from behind.  Tony is quite pleased with this first result, as he should be!

Having dispatched the enemy to its front the cavalry continues on in pursuit.  Next target offers a large body of veteran spearmen.  Here, Tony's cavalry is stopped cold suffering heavy casualties.  The horsemen recoil deep behind enemy lines but not before a large hole opens between the Almoravid Left and Center.

First cavalry charge of the day...

sees the enemy dispatched...

but pursuit is stopped short.

Cutting a hole in the Almoravid line!

Seeing this early success, Sancho Alfonsez, himself, leads two bodies of heavy cavalry forward into the enemy line.  Hitting enemy cavalry with great force, Sancho sees a similar result.  The unfortunate Muslim cavalry to Sancho's front turns and flees.  Even with Sancho leading the charge, his horsemen refuse to pursue.  The second body of Christian heavy cavalry attacks the enemy cavalry to Sancho's left.  In this second attack, the enemy stands firm and the Christians recoil.  To Sancho's right, yet another body of Christian cavalry plunges into the Muslims in front of Ucles.  The Almoravid infantry are driven back to the gates of Ucles!  Neither player can believe the success.  Great start for Tony!  

Sancho leads a cavalry charge...

driving the enemy back...

but the Muslim Center holds.

Almoravid Left in tatters.

While much of the Almoravid Left is gone and the Center is under pressure, these earlier Christian successes leave the Spanish heavy cavalry vulnerable since they are no longer supporting one another and their ranks have been depleted.  Time for a counterattack!

Beginning on the Muslim right, heavy infantry advances down from the high ground to drive away enemy light cavalry.  

Heavy infantry on the move!

Overview as the Muslim counterattack begins.

In front of Ucles, Muslim heavy infantry attacks the now exhausted Spanish cavalry with Ibn Yusef leading the way.  Even with support from Sancho and his knights, the Spanish are scattered.  Sancho falls back.  Ibn Yusef follows up to confront Sancho.  In very heavy fighting, the Spanish horsemen finally succumb.  Sancho is forced to seek shelter within the ranks of Spanish infantry to the rear. 

Ibn Yusef attacks!

Ibn Yusef's heavy infantry destroys two Spanish cavalry
 and sends Sancho searching for safety. 

Seeing two bodies of enemy cavalry dispatched, Arab camelry sets off from the center to engage a body of weakened Spanish cavalry in the center.  The Spanish are driven back with heavy loss.  The camels pursue, catch the Spanish horsemen, and dispatch them.  The Spanish bring up another body of heavy cavalry to intercede but they are driven back!  The camels keep on coming.

Caught from behind, the Spanish horsemen are scattered even though a nearby body of spearmen offers support.  The spearmen fall back in sympathy.  As the Spanish infantry falls back, the camels pursue.  The retreat turns into rout as the camels destroy the routing infantry as well as capture the Spanish baggage.  Oh, the humanity! 

Camels trot forward.

Spanish knights are driven back and then destroyed.

Pursuit and disaster!

Spanish baggage captured!

In only a short time, the battle has been turned on its head.  In the Almoravid counterattack, the Spanish have seen four heavy cavalry and one heavy infantry units destroyed.  Oh my, but Mark is not finished yet!

With the Spanish Center hollowed out, Mark shifts his attention to his Right.  Harassing the enemy with his two bodies of horse archers, the Almoravid heavy infantry move forward.  First body of Spanish encountered is heavy spear.  The Spanish are driven back and then finished off in pursuit as the supporting infantry falls back.  Working around the Spanish Left, a second body of Spanish infantry is contacted.  The Spanish hold!

The Muslim heavy infantry regroups and attacks again.  This time, the enemy is driven off and the Spanish Left has collapsed.  With the Spanish Left turned, the Almoravid Center conducts a sweep to pick off any wavering Spanish still clinging to the field.  The Spanish Army has broken! 

Almoravid attack against Spanish Left.

One Spanish destroyed and the other driven back.

Pursuit!

Repulse!

Success on a second attack.

Mopping up.

Wow!

What an exciting game to watch develop and unfold.  Congratulations to both Tony and Mark for making this contest such a riveting game.  Mark comes away with victory but in the early going, it looked like Tony might run away with it.  In Tony's early cavalry charges, the Spanish laid waste to the Almoravid Left and part of the Center.  Amazing how Mark picked himself off the floor after the first two turns to come roaring back to secure an impressive victory.  The historical outcome was not overturned.

The game was really a tale of two halves.  In the first half, Tony controlled the narrative.  After a brief intermission, Mark came back in a most impressive manner.  Unbelievable turn around in only a couple of turns.

In total, five turns were played and the game lasted just under three hours.

What great fun!  Thanks guys!

Spinning the Wheels of Progress

Last Thursday saw a doubleheader at the gaming table.  Two games in one day is a rarity even for me.  The first game of the day saw the 1108 Battle of Ucles fought out on my gaming table in a remote game with three UK players.  The battle saw another hotly contested clash on the fields in front of Ucles.  The battle ended in a close decision and, as always, great fun. 

Emerging out from the other side of an exhausting weekend, I have yet to muster the energy to piece together a battle report.  My wheels of progress are spinning but I am getting little traction.  For a teaser, Colin (Battle of Ucles Remote Reconquista), has published a series of screenshots of the game on his blog.  Thank you, Colin!

Battle of Ucles

The second game of the day saw me joining into a Zoom session with Peter (Grid based Wargaming) in Australia.  Peter hosted a Samurai battle as we test drove the latest amendments to his OHW variant.  Peter's battle report can be found at the link above.  Again, another fun game with the introduction of messengers adding to the decision matrix.  I may have come out on top but only just.

What is up next on the gaming front?

Well, the Battle of Ucles takes to the field once again this week with a game seeing a different group testing their mettle on the field of battle.  Ucles may see action in other contests too before I pack the Reconquista armies away and move onto something else.  Matt and I may see action at the remote table after a very, very long hiatus as we ponder returning to the AWI campaign.  I have forgotten exactly where we are in the campaign!

Finally, Peter and I are discussing a possible return to our Home-and-Away game series first seen in our battles of Lake Trasimene.  Since we both enjoyed the format, we are entertaining a return to this series.  Peter's report from his hosted Trasimene game is here.  The report of my hosted Trasimene game is here.  In that battle, we each took our interpretation of Lake Trasimene using our favored rules and presented the battle.  I enjoyed seeing the battle from different perspectives using different rules and different scenarios.

What is the battle for this next series?  Well, we are considering a dip into the ECW with a look at the Battle of Cheriton.

Thoughts on a variety of topics are percolating away in the background including a few more units to parade out from the painting desk.  Now, I simply need to gain some traction to bring some of the topics to print. 

Sumer of '69

It was the Sumer summer of 2569 BCE, that is.  Thanks to Ray for the catchy post title!  Last week, four of Postie's Rejects gathered for a remote game on the plains of Sumeria to test their hands at running battle cars (I use "chariot" synonymously).  Attendees were Ray and Steve commanding the Blue Army while Richard and Lee took command of the Red Army.  Army and player dispositions illustrated in the map below:

This Reject foursome has seen action fighting with chariots in an earlier Egypt vs Hittite clash but this would be their first attempt at running the bulkier Sumerian battle cars.

Let's see how they got on in driving battle cars.

As the battle opens, both armies move forward to close the distance with the enemy.  Skirmishing erupts all along the battle line as skirmishers attack and then fall back.  Lee moves up his massed archers to bring the enemy under fire.  After softening them up, Lee crashes into one of the skirmishers who cannot evade.  Ray's skirmisher is dispatched but Lee fails to pursue.  Or did Lee choose not to pursue into the waiting enemy battle line? 

Battle lines close...

as skirmishing begins.

Lee moves the Left Wing forward...

and prepares an attack.

Ray's skirmishers scatter in the face of heavy infantry.

On the other wing, with enemy skirmishers cleared from his front, Steve sends his battle car in against Red Army's Right.  This is a bold move since both archers get a chance at defensive fire before the chariot closes.  Both bodies of massed bowmen let loose their arrows.  Little damage is done but the chariot is disordered on the approach.  In the clash, the missile fire must have made the difference.  Richard's bowmen stand firm and the chariot is driven off in retreat.  

As Steve's chariot veers to the left, Richard brings forward his battle car.  Richard engages Steve in a chariot-on-chariot clash.  Richard comes out the better as Steve's car continues its retreat.     

Steve attacks!

The enemy stands strong.  Steve is forced to retreat.

Richard opts to pursue.  Without having the maneuverability to turn about to follow the retreating chariot, Richard's chariot plunges ahead.  Straight into enemy archers!  Surprised at seeing an enemy battle car bearing down upon them, the archers put up a stiff, nonetheless.  Still, after a protracted battle, the archers are scattered.  Richard pursues again but fails to reach the enemy's second battle line.

Richard pursues...

cutting through the enemy's first line.

Seeing the carnage to his left, Steve, pushes his large spear block forward to engage the enemy and, perhaps, steady the ship.  Steve's spear block crashes into Richard's spear block.  In the initial contact, Steve manages an impressive number of hits to which Richard responds by scoring no hits and then failing his Cohesion Test.  Richard's back rank is destroyed.  What remains retreats.  Steve pursues.  Steve's spear catches the retreating spear and again send them packing.  Even Richard's archers offering some support reel back!  Steve continues his pursuit as he catches Richard's skirmishers in the open.  They are dispatched.  Steve stops there, probably exhausted.  The line joining Richard and Lee's commands is severed.

Steve's spear block attacks...

and attacks...

and attacks!

Perhaps over-extending the pursuit in all of the excitement, Steve's spear block is taken by surprise when Red Lugal's chariot turns about and strikes these spearmen from the rear.  Well, being hit from the rear is no good and Steve's spear rout away.  That score has been settled!

Revenge!

With the center outcome settled for now, focus shifts to the Red Army's Left Flank.  Lee starts off the action by sending his chariot in against Ray's spear block.  Not surprisingly, Lee's attack is repulsed as Ray's spear stand firm.  Lee's chariot veers off to the left heading back to his own line.  As a counterpunch, Ray sends his chariot forward against Lee's spear block.  Ray's result is much different!  Ray overpowers Lee's spear block and sends it back in retreat.  Ray continues on, trampling the spearmen as they run. 

Ray and Lee's battle cars in action.

Seeing the collapse of his spear block, Lee wheels his chariot around to take up the chase on Ray's chariot rampaging in the Red Army's rear.  Making the turn around his own bowmen, Lee catches Ray in the flank.  Nice maneuver!  Ray may never have seen this coming.  In the clash, Ray loses the melee and is forced to retreat.  He routs!  With the enemy chariot dispatched, Richard and Lee's routing spearmen may have a chance to rally.

Ray's chariot caught in flank!

Red Army survivors can breathe a bit easier.

At this point in the battle, both armies have seen significant casualties.  Both armies teeter on the breaking point.  The next army to suffer loss would likely be pushed over the brink to destruction.

In the time-honored tradition of mythic heroes, the two Lugals wheel about to face each other and decide the issue once and for all.  In the crash of chariots, Blue Lugal gains the upper hand and Red Lugal is forced to veer away in retreat.  While Red Lugal avoids destruction, his retreat opens a line of sight to Richard's routing spearmen.  Ray pursues and catches the spearmen in the rear.  It is all over 'cept the crying. 

Clash of Titans!

Red Lugal veers off...

opening a path to destruction!

Victory to the Blue Army with Ray and Steve leading the way!

The battle really came down to the last combat (and nearly the last die roll) in a fitting fashion.  That is, with the two Lugals facing-off in singlehanded combat.  Richard and Lee fought hard throughout with victory up for grabs until the very last.  

Very exciting clash and very fun to watch unfold.  There was much laughter and good-natured ribbing along the way. 

Fantastic session, guys!  Thank you!

After three Sumerian games, time to switch periods.  Next time, expect to see action set during the Spanish Reconquista.

Spanish Infantry: Burgos and Espana

The recent spate of record-breaking heat has forced a modest time shift in daily activities. Each morning, I am out on the bike before the temperatures rise to uncomfortable and sometimes dangerously exhausting levels.  Same situation arises for yardwork.  Even with the early morning routines, the efforts and heat tend to bring on fatigue.  Often I end up spending some of the remaining afternoon in recovery and rehydration mode.  What is the rule of cycling recovery?  Don’t run when you can walk.  Don't walk when you can stand.  Don’t stand when you can sit.  Don’t sit when you can recline.  I want to get back downstairs to the game room where it is cool and put some time in at the painting desk but motivation slips away as I am simply exhausted.  More often than not, reading or computer work in the line of fire of a fan takes the place of painting.  Much of the week will see triple digits on the thermometer.

Despite these excuses, work progresses on the hobby front with the mustering out of two, 23-figure Spanish regiments of foot for the 18mm SYW/WAS project.  Regiments marching out today are Burgos (red facings) and Espana (green facings).  Figures are Old Glory foot led by Eureka mounted colonels.  Flags are by David from Not by Appointment.

Gaming continues even though the Dog Days of summer approach.  Last week saw the Rejects take to the field in a remote Sumerian clash.  That battle report still awaits chronicling.  I need to brush up on my cuneiform translation skills to get the details of the battle correct.  This week sees two or maybe even three battles on the docket.  The two confirmed games fall both on Thursday.  I may regret double booking myself by Thursday's close.  Luckily, I am only hosting one of the games.

Below is a teaser from the Rejects' Sumerian battle.  What is the caption for this photo?

More 15/18mm figures are in work at the painting desk including the start on a FPW Prussian Army.  I know.  I have been pondering this for a few years now and finally pulled the trigger.  Will it last?  Stay tuned.

Finally, I really appreciate the interest and feedback on the GWS Least Liked post.  The post has received a lot of great responses.  Thank you!  With such encouragement, I may next test the waters with a similar analysis on the Most Liked wargaming aspects.