Club Night July 6th

Before the Tannenburg terrain gets revamped and modified for next years game (you'll just have to wait and see what it is) I though it was worth using it in its current form one last time, so found my armies and decided to try them with Hail Caesar as something different. Luke and I lined up with the Teutons while Steve and David took a mixed force of Polish and Lithuanians. We set up with the Brother knight and their Sergeants on the left with the militia peasants in the woods on their far flank while mixed knight and sergeant units made up the centre and right with our own foot sergeants on the far right. The Poles set up with Lithuanians on their right flank, poles on the left and their infantry in the centre with a large reserve under the king with their best troops behind them.

Above: Teuton starting positions, below: Polish-Lithuanian starting positions

The Teutons advanced forward slowly, but the Poles were even slower meaning their reserve was stuck behind their main line. The open shooting belonged to the Poles as they fired at some Confrere knights and panicked them into routing immediately. One major combat unit gone already!

It was not looking good, the enemy cavalry was beginning to move round our flank and the Brother Knights were procrastinating! However we then saw the difference between knights and the medium cavalry of the Lithuanians as they were swept away and their infantry began to look exposed as the militia in the wood began to get enthused and rushed through the woods to harry the surviving Lithuanians who had taken shelter there.

On the other flank the massed foot crossbow, with some additional Genoses mercenaries was forcing the Polish cavalry off wide and they were keeping their distance. This prompted us to try our luck against the enemy infantry and despite casualties drove them back. The enemy reserve then counterattacked and destroyed or drove off a large quantity of the battered attackers. However this opened up a gap for the Brother Knights to charge through and we saw how this veteran and well equipped warriors performed as they swept through the enemy knight. Even the sergeants seemed to be more than a match for anything they faced.

Although some of the Polish left had moved past the infantry they were in turn being flanked and with the Teutonic Brothers having swept most of the reserve away it was declared a Teutonic victory.