Battle of the Flemish crossroads

[econ21]

Originally posted by TinCow


The Battle of the Flemish Crossroads - 1326 AD

Athalwolf von Salza ordered his army to prepare to move north to Bruges. His plan was to aid the Danish in capturing Wolfgang Hummel’s capital, and then ambush the rebel Swabian as he rode east to re-take the city. However, riders from the south informed the Count that reinforcements were being sent north for him from Duke Hans. Within a few weeks, three regiments of Armoured Spearmen arrived in Rheims, bearing greetings from the Duke and a request. Duke Hans had sent 5 wealth with the men at the request that it be used to hire engineers and a pair of Grand Bombards. It took a few days for the arrangements to be completed, ensuring that the money would be spent properly and the artillery dispatched to Duke Hans when they were ready. Altogether, this delayed Athalwolf’s departure by several weeks.

At the same time, news of the Danish siege of Bruges had reached Wolfgang Hummel outside of Caen. He immediately readied his army to march, not willing to lose his Capital and the loyal citizens within. He took with him the professional soldiers garrisoning Caen and left some of the more poorly trained Flemish volunteers behind in their place. As soon as he neared the border, he put out a call to all Flemish men with military experience. Two full regiments worth of men met him along the road as he marched and pledged to serve him. Wolfgang used 4 wealth to have them outfitted in the proper manner of Flemish Pikemen.

The swift march of Wolfgang’s army, and the slow start of Athalwolf’s force, resulted in an unintended meeting engagement at the crossroads south of Bruges. The scouts of the two armies stumbled into each other slightly southwest of the actual intersection. Both groups refused engagement and retreated quickly to their respective generals to report on this most unexpected encounter. Athalwolf and Wolfgang both assumed that the other had prepared an ambush for them along the road, and quickly assembled their columns into battle formation. By the time they realized that it was an mutually unintended encounter, the defensive deployments had been completed and there was no way to disengage from the battle without risking great loss in a retreat.

The Setup:

Since both players previously used a ‘table-top’ style battle instead of multiplayer, I am assuming you will do so once again. If you both would prefer to fight it out in online multiplayer, please let me know.

The terrain of the battlefield will be determined by econ21, who will also manage the battle as he has done before. Both sides will be limited to a defense-oriented formation in the deployment phase, to mimic the events I described above. This will be a full-scale battle for control of Northern Swabia. If either player attempts to disengage at any time, they will lose a significant portion of their army and may even be captured. One way or another, the conflict between Athalwolf von Salza and Wolfgang Hummel is going to be decided here, on this field.

The Army of Athalwolf von Salza:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The Army of Wolfgang Hummel:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[econ21]

The battle of the Flemish Crossroads

This thread is to resolve the player vs player battle of the Flemish Crossroads between Hummel and von Salva. Changes from the battle of Normandy rules will be marked in bold.

It will be played out in a similar, but simplified, style to that used in the Will of the Senate PBM Civil War. There are two examples:

Battle for Rome:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=75664

Battle for Ancrya

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=74303


How the battle will be played:

1. I will umpire the battle. Ignoramus will control Wolfgang Hummel and his the Army of the Prinz; Warluster will control Athalwolf von Salza and his Swabian Defence Force. No other players should advise them or communicate with them during the battle.

2. I have cut and paste all the icons of the units onto a word document.
http://www.totalwar.org/patrons/pbm/...crossroads.zip

3. The terrain is that visible in the Death Track custom battle map for M2TW. I have sketched a simplified representation in deathtrack.jpg included in the zip.



Basically, the battlefield is divided in two by a sunken road that forks at the western side of the map. Hummel will deploy on the north, von Salza on the south. On the western side of the map, the area becomes lightly wooded, with small hills either side of the sunken road. Units deep in the woods or hidden behind the small hills, can be masked from view - but there are fewer possibilities for concealment than in the Normandy battle.

4. The battle will have five phases.
(i) deployment
(ii) morning
(iii) early afternoon
(iv) mid-afternoon
(v) late afternoon
If the battle is inconclusive, there may be evening, night and even second day phases.
At the start of each turn, each player will use Paint to mark his planned maneouvres and send me any accompanying in character orders.

5. Phase I: deployment. Both players should download the flemish_crossroads.zip. They should copy each unit icon from the word file and paste it onto the deathtrack.jpg to indicate where they wish it to deploy. They should then upload the modified jpg and PM a link to me. They may send accompanying notes, but do not need to submit any orders at this stage.

When I have the deployment orders, I will inform both players what they can see and then they can begin to give orders in phase II: the morning. There will be no movement nor combat during the deployment phase.

6. Players should act like historical army commanders and not try to micro-manage too much. Orders may get lost and things may slip up. The position of the general will be particularly important in determining the outcome of any fine maneouvring - if he is far away or locked in combat, he may not be able to control events. (Best avoid the bad habit of using your general as a spearhead.)

7. I will put the orders together. Execution of movement will be simultaneous, so I will work out the result of any clashes arising based on my judgement - informed by common sense, unit stats, history and experience of M2tW. I will upload an end-turn file showing the state of play together with a brief gamesmaster narrative.

Further notes:

Depict the facing of your units by drawing a coloured line for the front side of each unit icon. Units may be able to change their facing autonomously so if you want a flank attack, make sure you pin the enemy first. Units next to a general may be able to do even more in reaction to an enemy move so make sure you place your general where he needs to be to control things.

Please don't ask me to align unit x to fight unit y - I don't think a real medieval general would get into such a level of micromanagement (unless he was adjacent to unit x). Orders should be given at a formation level.

On the realism of fog of war - a general can only see through line of sight. He does not have a helicopter or interactive total war style map laid out. Once the lines have met in combat, I doubt he could see much - particularly on level ground. He would have to use riders to keep in touch with his divisons, but riders can be lost, reports garbled and orders can be misunderstood (think Balaclava).

Divisional structure and giving orders

To simplify this, please give orders only to groups (“division”) of your army. You may have a maximum of 6 “divisions” in your army.

I have currently assigned units to division based on function (a cavalry division, an archer division etc). You may regroup your units into different divisions before the battle. If you do, please upload a zipped word file with the new groupings. You may also regroup units into new formations during the battle, but there is a risk this will cause disorganisation and unit paralysis.

Please draft your orders in character, as if given by a real general. They should be clear and simple. The more confused or complicated, the more likely the divisional commander will mess up. Ideally, I would like to publish these orders in a battle report (after the battle is concluded – so they will be confidential until then).

You should allow for some contingencies, but if the orders are too complex, the divisional commander may become confused or feel constrained from acting on his own initiative. You can trust your divisional commanders to execute their orders in a competent way (you don’t need to micromanage them and tell them how to fight – I may let the AI control them to see how a division vs division fight would play out). But they will have limited initiative to respond to new developments.

What orders should cover:
- where to move, inc. facing
- which formation to engage or screen (this will help me determine facing)
- for missiles: whether to fire at will or who to target
- for melee units: whether to charge or prepare to receive a charge
- whether to pursue or hold ground once in place
- issues of sequencing (e.g. do you soften up the enemy with missiles before charging? do you wait till the enemy are committed before executing a flank charge etc)

DEADLINE for orders for Turn 1: 24 hours hence.

If you can get orders to me faster, so much the better. I will always allow 24 hour intervals between orders, but if I get both sets of orders sooner, I will move on sooner. If I get no orders within 24 hours, your units will be on autopilot - typically not moving except defensively. If real life issues mean that you cannot make a 24 hour deadline - e.g. if you are out of touch over the weekend - please PM me in advance and I will arrange an extension.

[econ21]

Deployments received, thanks.

Feedback has been supplied by PM. Please PM me orders for turn 2 (morning phase) within 24 hours.

Ideally, supply another jpg of where you expect your units to be at the end of your move.

[econ21]

The deadline for the morning turn orders has expired.

I have received no orders from Warluster.

EDIT: Feedback now sent to the protaganists.

Deadline for submission of orders: 24 hours from the editing of this post.

[econ21]

Deadline for early afternoon orders has expired. No orders received from Warluster.

Feedback to both generals:

The two armies enjoy a hearty lunch.

Deadline for mid-afternoon orders: 48 hours from this post.

If there is no combat by that time, I'm inclined to autoresolve the battle.

[TinCow]

This is very disappointing. If Warluster does not submit orders for next turn, I authorize you to resolve the battle in whatever manner you see fit, with the exception that Athalwolf von Salza must lose, preferably in a complete rout. I will not allow Warluster any chance at victory when he consistently fails to submit orders. I have checked his profile repeatedly and he has been on the forums for both of the last two days during the time when orders were still pending on each day. Indeed, he has posted numerous times in other forums. Thus, he was active and aware of the situation and simply failed to respond. That is unacceptable.

[gibsonsg91921]

how are we planning on resolving this is iggy wins the war? is the principality of swabia going to be an independent protectorate, granted piece and land in exchange for service?