Karl looked over at Friedrich, and spat. "Hey Fried, yanno how we're
always stuck at the back, guarding the tents and digging latrines". "Yep"
"Well, how come today we're stuck out in the front line, right opposite
all them bow-armed gits over there?"
"Dincha listen to tha Bishop's sermon last week? According to the Edicts
of Barker, we aint 'camp servants with cheap weapons and little confidence
in their ability to use em' - nope, now we're 'armed with weapons specialised
against heavily armoured mounted troops'"
"Bloody hell! All I did was buy a new hoe!"
They both looked at the hoe for a moment, then at Friedrich's trusty scythe, still bearing the blood of countless(1) mongol horsemen.
"So what difference does it make?"
"According to the Edicts, we have to walk faster, dodge arrows better,
and we can fight 3 times our weight of pikemen to a standstill - oh, and
we're not too shabby at karking Knobles and Knights."
"Hell an' Fury! all that? Who's gonna tell ol' Albert One-leg over
there, that he can dodge arrows?"
They both laughed a bit, then looked around nervously.
They were in the middle of an enormous line of Heerban, all brandishing their pitchforks and scythes fiercely. Away off to their left was a big wood, and covering the gap between the wood and their flank was a thin line of nervous-looking Hungarian horsemen. Off to their right was a small bloc of mercenary spearmen and some Knights, with the Duke of Saxony beyond them, leading another long line of knights. Behind them were a couple of wedges of Knights, and some Genoese crossbowmen, looking absolutely petrified.
Across the field, standing in front of a steep Berg, was a big bloc of archers, with a few swordsmen standing behind them. To each side of the archers were big deep blocks of cavalry, with hordes of infantry with sharp sticks behind them.
Friedrich muttered to Karl, "I reckon we could do some damage if we got amongst them boys with sharp sticks!", and Karl giggled, "Sure, let's hop on our broomsticks and fly over there".
A sudden silence fell on the Heerban, and everyone stared at Karl. He looked around nervously for the Inquisitors, and protested, "It was just a joke, lads! honest! What would I know about magic, a god-fearing Christian boy like me?" Noone said anything, but everyone shuffled their feet, and stood a little further away from Karl, even his brother Friedrich.
Daunted, Karl squatted on his heels. "Come on, come on, what's the hold up? lets get this battle going, already" he muttered. The rest of the Heerban obviously felt the same, as the whole line surged and bulged, but the Duke rode forward repeatedly, ordering them to hold still.(2)
The Japanese, opposite them, started moving forward cautiously, the cavalry initially keeping pace with their archers, and leaving the supporting foot to hold the hills. The only Germans showing any will to move forward were the Hungarians, who pranced out to face the cavalry of the Japanese right, then started dancing back towards where they came from: the Japanese cavalry, after some doubt, started chasing them back, aiming to push between the wood and the end of the line of Heerban once the Hungarians ran off.
Karl watched the approaching archers loom up to a couple of hundred paces away, and turned, trying to take cover behind his hoe-handle. For an instant, the sky turned black, then arrows fell on the line of Heerban like sheet metal poured from the sky: great holes were rent in the lines, and the screams reminded Karl briefly of his old job at the Ducal hoggery(3). The Heerban, torn to splinters, none the less charged forward impetuously, casting off the restraint of the Duke's orders, and ignoring the Hungarians flitting past their exposed left flank.
Meantime, away on the German right, the Japanese cavalry had dismounted, drawing out their bows. In response, the Saxon knights had dismounted and shortened their lances into spears, and started advancing on the dismounted cavalry.
Another massive volley of arrows cast back and slaughtered more of the Heerban, who trembled for a moment on the edge of dissolution (4), then charged home into the archers. Karl saw Friedrich rush over, waving a copy of the edicts, and heard him screaming "Eh! We're elite f***ing troops, you arent allowed to slaughter us like that!" Karl waited till the Japanese stopped and bent their heads over the pages of the Edict, then whacked their leader in the back of the head with his fresh-sharpened hoe.
Off to his left, he caught a glimmer of sun on metal, and squinted for a moment: he saw the banners of the Archbishop of Mainz emerge from the depths of the wood, as 2000 knights charged forward into the flank of the Japanese cavalry, crushing them into ruin almost instantly: then he turned his attention back to his own struggle, swinging the hoe in wide, deadly sweeps.
A counter-charge of Japanese swordsmen, experts in warfare, was brushed aside by the infuriated remnants of the Heerban, and then crushed under the hooves of the Ducal bodyguard, as the Duke led his wedge of knights through the swirling melee.
As the Japanese centre dissolved, Karl squinted against the sun and peered around again: off to his right, the Japanese cavalry had led the Saxons astray - remounting and riding away safely, to kill a few over-enthused Clerical knights. To the left, the knights of Mainz, supported by the Hungarians, had made mincemeat of the Japanese cavalry after catching them from ambush in the wood. Behind, at the German camp, the Inquisitors were streaming out, ready to inspect the prisoners for deviationism.
Karl thought quickly, and burrowed under a pile of Japanese dead. Hopefully
when he emerged the Inquisition would have moved on, far away - the farther
the better.
(1) As they can only count to one, this is not a great claim!
(2) Due to some mental aberration, we both thought that irr BdX were
impetuous ...
(3) BwS shooting at BdF, killing 4 elements out of 10 targets on the
first round, and another 4 on the second round.
(4) 1/2 element from demoralisation!
Result: 9-1 to the Germans
Reflections:
1. I thought I had it made, getting my BdX to face his archers on deployment:
but some great dice rolls almost blew my centre apart.
2. The battle-winner was actually ambushing 4 wedges of KnI in the
side of the wood, then luring the Japanese cavalry past, just inside charge
reach.
3. I got suckered by the Samurai dismounting - once I'd dismounted
my KnO, and advanced, they had the mobility (& luck for Pips!) to remount,
and ride away (mostly just fled on contact with the Sp(S). However, he
managed to regroup, redeploy away from the Sp, and chew up the mercenary
KnI with bowfire, costing me a command.