Swiss vs Samurai

 Anton and I managed to get together recently for another one of our WRG 6th (7th?) edition games.  Finally the dice proved kind and ordered up the third book of army lists for our choices.  Finally because I have spent the last four months acquiring and painting a Samurai army and then testing my patience waiting to play it.  Anton selected the early swiss as his force.  As usual, my army is in the background and Anton's is in the foreground.  I outscouted Anton 26:0, so he deployed first.  The terrain gods were kind to me and all but one of the four forests Anton tried to place diced off.  Here are our initial deployments.  

 

 

Our gentle readers are asked to kindly excuse the fact that the ENTIRE Swiss force is proxied troops (Gauls rather than 1300's Swiss) My Later period Swiss are poorly treated under the rules and I was wondering how an earlier force would fare. Continue reading to see how things turned our.

Anton's army is something of a "one note symphony", but it is quite a note.  From left to right it was ...

   Unit Matthew, 36 x Irg A, LHI/LMI (mixed but I do not recall specific numbers) with 2HCT

   Unit Mark, 36 Irg A, LHI/LMI with 2HCT

   Unit Luke, 36 x Irg A, LHI/LMI with 2HCT

   Peter his CinC with one Irg B body guard (Paul), both SHK L, Sh

   A front edge of town Unit Thomas, 24 x Irg B, LI, CB

   Left side in town Unit John, 36 x Irg A, LHI/LMI 2HCT

   Right side in town Unit Stephen, 25 x Irg A, LMI, 2HCT

My army, again Left to right was as follows.

   Unit Flying Dragon, 24 x "Mtd" (dismounted) Samurai, Irg B, "HC"/(EHI), 2HCW, LB

   Unit Skunk Cabbage, 32 x Ashigaru, Irg C, 18 LHI 14 LMI, 2HCT

   CinC with three Body Guards and PA Standard, EHI, 2HCW, LB, Pavise

   Unit Flying Crane, 32 x Samurai, Irg B, EHI, 2HCW, LB, Pavise

   Unit Lucky Crane, 32 x Samurai, Irg B, EHI, 2HCW, LB, Pavise

   Unit Corpse Flower, 32 x Ashigaru, Irg C, 18 LHI 14 LMI, 2HCT

   My Cavalry, CinC and one of his bodyguard began the game dismounted having sent their horses          away.

Instead of Anton's customary move of skipping the photo of the initial deployment, this time he skipped a photo of turn one, so the above photo shows the situation after turn two.  My unit Flying Dragon has moved forward as their bows have less range than the foot samurai associated and my unit corpse flower has moved out to the left flank wheeled and expanded into position.  Anton's Units" Matthew, Mark and Luke have raced forward along with his CinC.  Meanwhile his unit John has proceeded out of the left side of the village to reinforce his main thrust.  Unit Stephen has proceeded out the right side of the village and advanced up the hill.  Finally, Unit Thomas has proceeded out of the village and forward to fire on my stalwarts.  Up to this point there has been only some missiles have been exchanged.  

 

Here is the situation after turn three.  Anton continued his advance on the left and missile unpleasantries were continued.  

 

 

On Turn four, Anton's Unit Matthew with many vigour charged my Flying Dragons.  However in the resultant combat my Flying Dragons broke (I rolled up Two to Anton's even) Unit Matthew on contact.  In the resultant pursuit, my MUCH slower EHI (d6 plus 1 for pursuit) managed to stay on Anton's MUCH, MUCH faster  troops (d6 plus 4).  Meanwhile, Anton exploited a silly rule which allowed his cowardly units Mark and Luke to cower in the woods edge unseen as they had not "chosen" to reveal themselves.  However, reports from the Lucky Cranes alerted my CinC to their cowardly actions and my CinC adjusted the Flying Cranes frontage appropriately and joined the Lucky Cranes redeploying them to flank the cowardly Unit Luke in its woodland hideout.  

 

 

On turn Five, Anton's unit Mark found its courage, when their CinC joined them, went impetuous and charged my Unit Skunk Cabbage.  In the melee, Anton Rolled up on and my skunks rolled down two.  The result was that my skunks routed on contact.  Anton's CinC survived the combat.  The only positive being that they even ran slowly and Anton's Unit Mark stayed in contact.  Anton's Unit Luke continued to cower in the woods as my units of cranes continued deploying.  My CinC, having issued new orders to the cranes last turn now left the cranes and issued new orders to the Corpse Flowers.  Anton's Unit John Proceeded into the woods to support his cowardly brethren.   

 

On turn Six,  Unit Matthew finally broke contact with my Lucky Dragons who also managed to avoid going impetuous despite the obvious temptation.  My CinC now ordered the Flying cranes to retrograde to deal with the failure of the Skunks and the Lucky Cranes began deploying in line simply ignoring the casualties from Anton's Unit Thomas.  My Corpse flowers advanced as Anton's Unit Stephen went impetuous as it advanced.  

 

On turn seven, my skunk Cabbages managed to run off the board, and unfortunately Anton's Unit Mark failed to follow them off.  Meanwhile my Flying Dragons rallied facing the woods.  Anton's Unit Luke continued to cower in the woods while Anton's Unit John moved up to the edge of the woods on my side to see how the battle was going.  Unit Thomas continued shooting at the Lucky Cranes and the Lucky Cranes continued ignoring them.  On the right, Anton's Unit Stephen charged impetuously into my Corpse Flowers, who lived up to their name and rolled a down three in melee to Anton's up one which combined to shatter the corpse flowers on impact.  

 

On turn Eight, the impetuous Unit Mark turned and charged my Flying Cranes.  In the resultant melee Anton rolled even and I rolled Up two, which along with three disorders (two previous rounds of fighting and one facing change) broke Unit Mark on contact.  Anton decided from his wooded hideaway to have his general join Unit John and turn to face the Flying Dragons while moving to the left woods edge.  Not knowing what evil Anton was up to I had the Flying Dragons left face and begin marching backward to try and stabilize some sort of line.  

 

On turn Nine Anton decided to charge the Flying Dragons with Unit John and his CinC, both of us did some expansion, although Anton did more because I had to turn to face his charge.  However, in melee, the Dragons rolled Up THREE and Anton rolled even shattering Unit John on contact.  Anton's CinC survived the carnage once again.  My Lucky Cranes tried moving closer to the woods edge to see the enemy, but the cowardly Unit Luke continued to "Lurk" out of sight, although they did turn toward my Cranes.  The Cranes continued to largely ignore Unit Thomas, although they did deploy their pavises to that flank.  My CinC advanced toward Unit Thomas both to obtain the morale advantages of an advancing standard and threaten Unit Thomas.  

 

On turn Ten my Skunk Cabbages managed to pass their morale test and began the process of returning from routing off board.  Anton's Unit Luke finally decided to expand out of the woods and charge my Lucky Cranes.  My CinC joined the Cranes to bolster them in combat.  In the resultant combat The Lucky Cranes went  rolled up three.  Meanwhile Anton rolled up one. The combination of better dice results and more figures broke the cowardly Unit Luke.  

 

However, when the casualties were assessed Anton's cowards managed to strike down my CinC.  

 

For my army, the good news was that apparently my CinC was both despised by ALL of the samurai and was owed money by ALL of my samurai.  In the resultant morale checks, both the Flying Cranes and Lucky Cranes not only passed, but went impetuous as well.  

 

 

With only one unit of functional troops plus the crossbowmen left, and facing three units of impetuous samurai and a returning unit of Ashigaru, Anton's still alive CinC decided to concede the game.