Talomir Tales Battle Analysis

Back on June 26th and 27th my brother and I played out a battle from Ruarigh's Talomir campaign. You can read the narrative AAR here.

This was a battle between Seniira, listed as comparable to a Roman client state, and Treyine, listed as comparable to 100 years war English. The starting Armies were:

Seniira (attacker)
2 Veteran Inf.
3 Infantry
4 Aux. Inf.
1 Foot Skirmish
1 Merc. Knights Cav
1 L2 Mage

Treyine (Defender)
1 Foot Knight
6 Archers
1 Merc. Arquebusiers
1 Cav. Skirmish
1 Hero
1 L2 Mage
The Spear of St. Lindorf (+1 to all reaction tests)

Since my brother is not a wargamer per se I figured that he should defend. We played on one of those plastic picnic tables you can get from Costco and set the playing area to 4ft by 30". We then used dice to help us grid out the battle area into 9 roughly equal sections. He rolled for overall rough terrain, but when we rolled for specifics it was only impassable in section 4, a gully in section 8, and a river running from 1 through 7.

You can see the dice to make the grid.

 We calculated that he out scouted me He got 2 for the Cav. Skirmish and I 1 for the foot skirmish, so he doubled me. So for every three he placed I put out 6. We rolled for deployment and he rolled Static Defense while I rolled counter attack.

Seniira initial deployment.

So I was to place 60% in the center with 10% in reserve. I placed the two veterans and one Infantry in the first rank and then the two remaining Infantry in support. My thought on this was to try and shield the second rank from bow fire. The Mercenary Knights were the reserve in the center. On my right flank I placed three of the Auxiliary Infantry and on the left the skirmishers with the last Auxiliary closer to the center. My leader was with the Veterans smack in the middle of the center and my Mage was with the Auxiliaries on the left flank.

Treyine initial deployment.

Here we see the Foot Knights with the General and the Spear of St. Lindorf on the left flank (very close in). The center is all the Archers arrayed in a line with the Cav Skirmishers and the Hero in reserve, and then the Merc. Arquebusiers on the right with the Mage. The Mage on both sides was placed unbeknownst to the other player.

After turn 1.

Since Seniira only had a war rating of three I moved my right flank straight forward, my center forward but out of missle range and terror range of the Muskets and broke off the Aux. Infantry on the left to get the Mage into position. We played no moving and shooting/ magic. I had intended to at some point move the Skirmishers into the impassable terrain, but never did. I probably should have just kept them in a body with the Auxiliaries. Treyine's Archers deployed stakes, wheeled the Foot Knights to face the flank and had the hero come up to support the Knights. As the Seniira player I was worried about the hero, especially after reading one of Rurigh's AAR's. Heroes are tough killing machines and it would seem the best defense is your own hero.

End of Turn 2.

The same from the Treyine side. (Clearer)

The Seniiran right flank charged home into the Foot Knights, only realizing too late that they could not hurt them in their heavy plate (AC6). Since in the rules you need to roll one more than the AC to score a hit. [I just had an epiphany! When we first went in to combat I was thinking in terms of each die, I had two to roll. I think that combat is the sum of all dice then multiples of the number needed to hit. So I could have conceivably hit in the first round.] Any how the Auxiliaries were ineffectual and the Knights dished out some hits and forced the one unit to retire. The hero just outright routed the third unit.

In the center my Veterans and Infantry assaulted the stake line, I took the -1 but otherwise moved over it (no clue if that was right). My brother thought that was suspect but allowed my to do it. His contention was the stakes should make you unable to charge. I saw no basis for that in the rules, just the -1. I also gave him a +1 in melee, counting the stakes as a defensive position. My line dealt out some hits but the Arehers held the line. They then proceeded to open up point blank on my line and forced the Infantry on the right of the formation to retire. It couldn't because of the second rank of Infantry so my second unit had routed. And finally the Treyine Cavalry Skirmishers made full use of their ability to interpenetrate the ranks and rode through the lines to harass the 2nd rank Infantry and dish out one hit.

Finally on my extreme right my Mage successfully used a blast spell on the Arquebuiers and gave them a hit and forced them to retire using 9 out of 20 magic points (bad time to roll a 6). I think I may have duffed this one as I was targetting only that unit but not scrupulous about the Area of Effect being 3". I'm not sure if other units would have been in that area. Any how my brothers wizard attempted to blast my center formation but the extra units in the AoE gave too many dice and he rolled fewer successes so the spell did not work. Thus confirming what I had read that magic is hard in RRtK.

So here we have the magic question, should I have succeeded and I wondered if the Archers should be firing or if they were forced to melee. I let them fire because my brother was starting to mutter about broken rules and going first as too much of an advantage. (Does anyone roll for initiative in RRtK?)

End of turn 3.

I did nothing with the remaining Auxiliaries on my right (picture left, you see they don't exist anymore) and tried to hold the Treyine left. The Hero maneuvered to charge from the rear while the Foot Knights dished out damage and then followed up, causing the second to rout. Goodbye right flank.

In the Seniiran center the two Infantry in the second rank expanded the line and the Infantry routed the Archers in front of them while the rest just dealt out hits. In response the Archers routed the Seniiran C-in-C and his Veterans and caused some hits. The other Archers wheeled backwards (again not sure if this is allowed) to face the threat from the center right. The Cavalry Skirmishers rode around to get in front of the gap made by the routed Archer and gave a harassing fire. (I don't think I said it before but we played skirmishers could move and shoot).

My Mage blasted the Arquebusiers again causing them to rout. (I'm a little fuzzy on the sequence here, lack of notes, I seem to remember having one ineffectual round of magic myself. Perhaps that was later.)

Finally I moved up my Mercenary Knights from their hiding place in the gully. My brother always knew they were there, but for game purposes they could not be seen.

Boldly running away!

I wish I had taken a picture of my move instead of after my brothers reaction. I was drooling at having a chance to run down his Foot Knights in their flank with my Mercenary Cavalry. But I failed my charge test and the Cavalry stooped one inch from their target. In his turn the hero and the Knights easily routed the Mercenary Cavalry, it was now officially over. Seniira routed the Archer on the right of the Treyine center by enveloping its flank. But the Treyine Archers routed the last Veteran and the other Infantry unit.

As a final move the Auxiliaries with the mage wheeled around and headed for the table edge, we called it there. I think it was 7 - 3 units routed. I'm also not sure if I used the War rating right, again poor notes. I want to say that I did not spend points for units that were in melee, but I'm not sure a week after the fact.

So a little longer of a post than I usually like to give, hopefully it was informative and there weren't too many errors.