Juan Valle
United States
Miami
Florida
-
Hi Folks,
Owing to a rainy afternoon here in Miami FL, I had the chance to recreate the battle of Najera yesterday, and it was a blast!
According to the Battle Book the Castillian player had slim chances to win and the English side will have a slaughter fest (I was playing solo).
At the end the Castillian player won a clear victory (English 47 Flight Points, Castillian 31 FP). That is reason why I put as subject 'The Beauty Of Wargaming', since in 3 hours you can recreate a historic battle and compare it with its real life outcome.
Sorry for not uploading pictures, but my camera was out of hand. I played the game within the 'historical' version and here are some comments about it, which would like to share with my fellow wargamers:
1-Genitors: it was first time I played with genitors, and although the rules and battle books did not show them in a favorable way, I found them a lethal asset. Since there are 3 groups of 8 genitors each in the Castillian forces, what I did was to used 4 or 5 within an 8 units group, so next time their battle underwent activation I always had 3/4 genitors armed and ready. I used them to attack the English DMA and they managed to dispatch some of them; against the English LB the genitors were not that effective. Since the genitors are basically light cavalry, they attacked the DMA and retired before standing a counter attack. And do not use them for shock attack, used them only as missile troops.
2-Numbers: the Castillian player army is larger than the English one; I managed to contain the English onslaught from the map NE and when unleashed the Carillo battle with its 30 pike and 6 CB, it was enough for the English.
3-NE Map Entrance: I felt the English units entrance from the NE only kind of constricted their movement; unit to unit the English had better fighting men than the Castillian, but the limited entry space did not allow them to bring their full power to bear.
4-Castillian left wing (Don Tello battle): this wing played a pivotal role in the battle; they attacked with all they had he English vanguard and some casualties that came as retired were eliminated instead due to the English standard was not in the map yet. Conversely, this battle suffered most of the Castillian casualties.
It took 3 hours to complete the scenario and sorry for the dryness of this report, but any comments or observations are always welcome.
Jumval
-
Will Green
United States
Alameda
California
-
Thanks for the AAR on this battle. It's always nice to hear how the underdogs win a hard-fought battle.
-
Juan Valle
United States
Miami
Florida
-
Well, since I played solo my idea was to approach this battle as objective and unbiased way as possible, and according to the battle book supposedly the English side was favored here.
Personally I think as mentioned in the previous posting, that man-by-man the English are really superior but the fact that the Castillian side practically choked the English movement by committing the battles of Don Tello (left wing), De Guesclin (vanguard), Henry V King of Castilla (center) and Carillo (reserve/rear guard) respectively, the English were for all purposes immobilized and unable to give their men the room they needed so their superior fighting qualities could be accounted for.
In fact the English came close to make a break through in the Castillian lines, but the activation of Carillo reserves with 30 Pk and 6 CB was more than enough to seal the gap; and the fierce counter attack by Don Tello left wing with his genitors and charging MMA, which caused several English retired units to be eliminated due to lack of standard in the map, was IMHO the action which decided the battle outcome.
At the ends the Castillian numbers prevailed, so much that Castillian right wing under Denia was uncommitted to the fray, and the English reserves under the King of Majorca were unable to enter the map.
Like I said earlier, the possibilities to 're write' the history in a few hours is what deserves to be titled 'The Beauty Of Wargaming'.
Jumval
-
Ralph Shelton
United States
Bellevue
Washington
-
I am glad you enjoyed the battle. I too have seen some rather tough going for the English if the Castillians can get thier Genitors going using "Sycthian" hit and run tactics.
-
Juan Valle
United States
Miami
Florida
-
Hi Ralph,
Thanks for your good wishes.
You grabbed exactly the point about Genitors: if used for hit and run attacks, they could be lethal. Realizing their potential whenever I committed them to attack, I did it only with 4 or 5 of them within a wing or battle (8 genitors per wing/battle) so as to be sure when their next activation, 3 or 4 of them would be combat ready while the 'spent' ones were rearming. Then the MMA would charge against those units disordered by the genitors attack, and no coincidence the Castillians prevailed.
Also I found it was worth to attack the English DMA than LB units, since the later were able to reaction fire which generally hampered the genitors attack. There were only two moments during the session, when a genitor (thanks to their mobility) could attack a LB from behind, and the results for the LB were not too good.
All in all, a really nice rainy afternoon spent on an excellent game :-)
Jumval
-
|
|
