Early Northern Song at Ice & Fire - Part 1

 

My newly finished Early Northern Song army made the trip to the Ice & Fire competition at Battlefield Hobbies in Daventry.

I was unsure how well it would do, so read on to see what I found out ...

Followers of this blog will know that over the last few months I have replaced figures for use as Early Northern Song, and the Ice & Fire competition was the first proper chance to test them out, although I had played two games with them between Christmas and New Year.

For those who want to see my posts on the renewing of the army the posts are here and here.

My army list was:

The general plan for this army is that the infantry are the main arm with the cavalry supporting, which is a bit different from my usual horse archer armies. The Vanguard Swordsmen provide capable combat infantry whilst the mixed units have some combat ability and effective shooting. The Guard Cavalry can provide a punch. I anticipated that the competition would see a reasonable number of mounted armies, many being horse archers, and this combination should be reasonable - well it should be, after all the real Early Northern Song army was set up to fight the Qidan (albeit, it was a close thing) and it would be a poor reflection on the rules if it could not have some success against that sort of enemy.

My first game was against Dave Parish who was using a Khwarazmian army (the list can be found here with all the others used in the competition). I think this was one of Dave's first forays into the wonderful world of steppe type armies. His army was a eclectic mix of lancers, horse archers, elephants and some "warband" type infantry.

Dave won the PBS dice roll with a Skull which allowed his a Strategic Intercept if he desired. He chose to invade, however, as defender I then won the first card and so could choose the territory type and I chose Standard. We ended up with a Mountains/Forest secure flank, a village and 2 vineyards on table - the latter both ended up on my side of the table which was useful.

Dave outscouted me - can't recall by how much - and after deployment the table was as follows:

My infantry are using the terrain as much as they can, although I am quite willing to push them out as needed, and apart from the guard the cavalry are really a reserve. Dave has aimed his "warband" at my right wing as they are capable troops for the terrain, his lancers in the centre and various horse archers on the flanks.

As usual, some gratuitous pictures of the armies at the start.

The first move was quite cagey. Dave advanced most of his army but without over-committing, whilst I made modest moves to advance whilst retaining the terrain advantages. I was seeing how far forward I could tempt Dave.

It looked like this:

Move two saw more of the same cagey stuff as we waited to see who would blink. I was a little concerned that Dave's right could overwhelm my left though.

Spot the differences from the previous picture ...

Next move and, yes you guessed it, still caution from both of us. However, I do advance one of my crossbow units on my right to tempt Dave in and he obliges with the "warband" pushing closer. He may have done this anyway but I felt I had to hang something out as bait. I also push troops out of the terrain on my left to start something happening there - even the somewhat rubbish militia archers advance out of cover.

So we're now like this:

After all the caution the next move sees a rush to get in each other's faces.

Dave's "warband" get disjointed as one unit is heavily slowed by my shooting and he hasn't the cards to push through fire - but his other unit is right up and personal.

In the centre Dave's lancers come up close supported by horse archers on their right, whilst on my left I move troops to be able to shoot whilst in general not being shot at. I am pleased that in this I have got quite a few shooters in range of Unprotected cavalry and so will have a number of shots on Green Dice.

Because I was remembering to take pics here are some closer shots of where we were at this point:

Then inevitably just as the action really started I forgot to take some pictures, so the next one is the position two moves later.

On my right one of the "warband" rolls over my infantry unit facing it in very short order, however the second one is getting worn down by crossbows and slowed again so it has still not yet got into combat.

On my left Dave has learnt just how vulnerable Unprotected cavalry can be, especially in units of 4 as I have shot one of them away in two moves - the poor militia archers heavily involved in the destruction fully justifying their inclusion (and not downgrading their shooting skill).

In the centre Dave charged his lancers. The had the advantage in the charge but after that were on equal dice against the Vanguard Swordsmen they hit and down a colour against my Guard. They did very little in their charge and suffered quite badly in the melee with both units losing 2 bases and getting another wound in addition. Harsh.

Next move is a disaster for the Khwarazmians. Both lancer units break and another horse archer unit and a "warband" unit is shot away. They are now just one unit loss from the army breaking.

The militia archers with a cavalry unit close in on a suitable victim and the following move it is shot to oblivion breaking the Khwarazmians.

All Dave can get in addition to the infantry unit he has already broken is to force my skirmishing horse archers off table.

So it ended 15-3 to me which was a very satisfying start, but harsh on Dave.

The fact Dave was new to this style of army and that I know a lot about how to use them and so have insights into beating them was a significant factor in my view. Dave was, as always, the perfect gent during the game no matter how it went against him.

The second game will follow at some point.