Mamluks vs. Longbows - what can possibly go wrong ...

 

The last weekend in November saw me back in Preston for a MeG competition, this one based around the Plantagenets and their enemies - with a few liberal additions.

Last competition there I won, but that seemed unlikely this time. To find out why, and how I did, read on ...

The reason I say that I was unlikely to win this time is because the armies allowed in the competition, and likely to be popular, were late medieval armies with a good number of longbowmen in them. As I had, perhaps a bit perversely, decided to take Mamluk Egyptian - allowed thanks to a "generous" reading of history - the longbowmen would be tricky to face.

Oddly, Robin Spence also chose to take Mamluk for pretty much the same reasons as me - to be different and give myself a challenge to see how well I could do with a sub-optimal choice.

My army list was as follows:

Obviously a strength of the army is significant numbers of Skilled shooters who are able to skirmish, however, the Royal Mamluks are also effective combat troops and fairly resilient - although you don't want them standing around in front of longbows for too long. The Turcoman units provide extra support shooting and the Bedouin can move rapidly to threaten flanks, raid camps and the like. The infantry skirmishers were there to mainly increase the scouting cards from 4 to 5, but can occasionally add some shooting and can be used to screen the cavalry from enemy if needed (although they'll die quickly doing that).

First game was against Sam Street who was using Medieval Burgundian with 100 Years War English allies. 4 units of longbowmen plus a couple of crossbowmen along with men-at-arms on foot and horse, and even some pikemen. Tough as tough can be for my army.

We ended up invading Burgundy but ended up with a mostly open field with a couple of large areas of rough ground on my left. I outscouted the Burgundians by 100% and so got to see the whole of Sam's army before I had to deploy any of mine.

We deployed thusly:

The Burgundians deployed from the rough, but put no troops in there trusting that it would at least partly cover their flank. However, as Sam deployed pikes at the other end of the line I decided that in fact weighting my army to the flank with the rough going was the best bet. The Turcoman and Bedouin being Flexible cavalry can operate pretty well in rough ground after all, although they get slowed a bit. I have 2 small units on the right to distract the Burgundian left.

The initial moves go as you'd expect. I push round the Burgundian right which drags a mounted unit to cover in case my Bedouin get into the backfield, whilst on my right my small units do indeed distract some enemy. Elsewhere I am advancing to start shooting whilst being suitably wary of longbows.

It looked like this.

A move or so later and with the Burgundian line breaking up a bit I have engineered some possible flank attacks on dismounted men-at-arms units, whilst the best (4 base) unit of Burgundian mounted has been drawn out and a reception committee of horse archers prepared.

A picture from the other flank this time shows where we were at. My right wing is doing a sterling job of distracting 3 Burgundian units.

The flank attackers were a bit disappointing and one was destroyed, however, damage was done and opportunities remained. Likewise the shooting at the Burgundian cavalry was mostly ineffective, but I felt my time would come. The main outcome was that after breaking-off, one of my Royal mamluk units was again in a flank charge position - in fact, it had 2 options. Situation as per this picture.

The Royal mamluks chose the nearest opportunity, broke them immediately and pursued into a longbow unit which meant that this could not shoot. Although after the charge phase the mamluks were just a wound off breaking.

The Burgundian mounted remained untouched, but I had a unit behind them now and also a unit behind the flank of an already damaged men-at-arms unit.

Pleasingly I took out 2 units, however, we then ran out of time. The end of game looked like this.

The score was an 8-8 draw. Good game.

Next up drew me against Ian Crosby who was also using Medieval Burgundian with 100 Years War English allies. Turned out to be a slightly different composition, but essentially the same army.

As in the first game I invaded, ended up on a nearly empty table with some rough terrain on my left and outscouted the Burgundians by 100%. Deja vu all over again as they say ... Deployment looked like this:

The Burgundians have deployed compactly with their right protected by the terrain and have crossbowmen and artillery in the terrain. Thus, this time I choose to attack the left end of their army - this is held by the English ally with Burgundian cavalry in support who I suspect will dismount.

As before I have a couple of small units on my left to delay, and my strong units on my right. I think I have an opportunity with the 2 units of Royal mamluks against the English longbowmen who are 2 units next to each other backed by a unit of men-at-arms. If I time it right the longbowmen will only get one shot.

The opening moves go as predicted. I am basically messing around on my left but advancing strongly on my right. I get my Royal mamluks to 4 BW away from the English whilst holding a disc for each for pushing through fire if needed. The English men-at-arms are still behind their longbowmen and so could suffer multiple KaBs if I can break the archers, As expected the Burgundian cavalry has dismounted. This works for me as whilst they are harder to shoot down they can exert little pressure on me.

The mamluk charge does the job and breaks both longbowmen units. However, one of them lost 2 bases to shooting in the charge (the other just a single wound) and was subsequently broken by the English men-at-arms after pursuing into them. The surviving mamluks pursued off towards the Burgundian camp - you can just see their banner below Ian's arm in this picture.

Now it became a matter of shooting down a load of dismounted men-at-arms - thankfully my shooters were all Skilled and so still rolling White dice, but it takes time.

I was aided by the Royal mamluks quickly sacking the Burgundian camp, and the subsequent KaBs all rolled Wound or Skull for every unit apart from the Poor one where the Red dice rolled an S, inevitably. Ian now had quite a few damaged units looking vulnerable.

Alas the game ended just before I could break the army. I basically missed by 1 wound. Its the way it goes. 12-6 result to me.

Round 3 on Sunday morning saw me facing another similar army led by Pete Entwistle - this time 100 Years War English with Burgundian allies. Again somewhat similar but with more longbowmen, 2 units of which were Skilled shooters - horrible.

Once again the Mamluks invaded but the terrain wasn't as kind as the first 2 games. There was deep water on my left flank and vineyards in the English half of the field, including one near the water that was not on the base edge.

I outscouted the English by 50% (I think) and they deployed between the deep water and the vineyard on their right, the Burgundian ally was more or less in the centre. Pete placed a couple of ambush cards as well.

I had to decide to push either on my left or right and went with the left as there were fewer shooters on that flank - but it was going to be challenging. As usual, a couple of units on the flank I was not pushing on - this time the Bedouins and a mamluk unit.

The English advanced to create a strong position assisted by the vineyards. The Burgundians in the centre pushed furthest froward, but only just. I was cagey and only advanced a short way. I felt I needed to draw the English further forward.

Pete was also a bit cagey on his right as I had quite a lot of Skilled shooting and the Royal mamluks are a threat which can ride down a longbow unit in the open. Thus I concentrated what I could against the Burgundians.

My shooting is pretty effective, especially the Nafftun - even though they are Unskilled they kept inflicting casualties; against the odds but I wasn't complaining, although Pete was less impressed. On my right I got the Bedouin into a position for a bit of a shot against a longbow unit. Although they start behind the flank the archers will be able to countercharge but that means the Bedouin will have a charge advantage.

The Bedouin do OK, but not great and end up in a pretty even fight - does stop a longbow unit getting round my right though. Meanwhile my shooting continues to wear down the Burgundians quite effectively.

Thanks to the Nafftun over-performing the Burgundian men-at-arms are destroyed. Shortly afterwards the Burgundian pikemen will go the same way. However, the massed shooting also takes out some of my units as well - can only avoid all that shooting for so long.

Again the game ran out of time before either of us could engineer a victory. 8-8 as in my first game.

Last game sees me face off Cid (Laurence Donohoe) - we play most competitions it seems, and usually have good games with honours pretty much even between us. Cid is using an Anglo-Irish army and will be very tricky.

For the fourth game in a row I invade - a shame as in this one I really, really wanted to defend, but it was a straight 50:50 so could have gone either way. I am then outscouted by 20% - the Anglo-Irish has as much scouting as I do due to lots of cavalry. Ho hum ... To be honest, not sure how much difference it made as the terrain fell well for Cid with terrain on both flanks giving him an obvious deployment location.

On the basis I think Cid will push troops through the terrain on my right I put my heavier troops on my left and plan to slow down and contain the expected push. Cid deployed as I expected (well, it was a sensible approach) and had fewer longbowmen on his right which suited me. However, I still had no real chance of getting round his right due to terrain.

So as expected Cid's left advances through the terrain - but isn't that rapid as they are somewhat slowed. Elsewhere he his suitably cagey. I advance but am also a bit cautious. I am happy I can contain his left wing's advance but feel I can't rush on the right.

Things continue quite cautiously for a few moves.

I then have a couple of moves of really poor cards just at the point I want to make quite a few manoeuvres. Only my delaying right has any useful cards. This isn't fatal, however, it does mean that Cid can start to pile on some pressure with longbows on his left.

As a result I push fairly bluntly at Cid's right and line up a load of mamluks to charge a unit of longbows which have emerged from the wood. Cid has to bring out a unit of cavalry to support them so i do have a few targets. We will draw a polite veil of what is happening in the centre of my army.

The mamluks on my left charge in and success followed reasonably quickly and I break the longbowmen and a cavalry unit. I also shoot down a skirmisher unit.

However, that is the high point for the mamluks. I failed to take any more pictures, however, shortly after the one above I started to lose units and was heading for defeat. Although we had not used up all the time available all the other games had finished and so we agreed to finish and score it as 7-15 as Cid would have undoubtably have won but he felt I'd have picked up another cavalry unit that could not get away from my Royal mamluks. This let everyone get away at a good time.

Cid won the competition and I finished 5th from 8.

Given the armies I faced I was pretty happy with how things went and all the games were good fun - which is ultimately what it is about.

That concludes my competitions for the year as there are none in December. Next one will be Ice & Fire in mid-January - already looking forward to it.