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The European forces start arrayed in line along one long map edge, with the left and centre much stronger than the right. There are five leaders with their troops. From right to left: a large contingent of worthless rabble infantry; the Greater Poland force, being mostly conscript infantry with some heavy cavalry; in the centre Henry of Silesia’s varied force, with rabble and men-at-arms infantry (+ archers if using the optional rules), Silesian knights, Templar and Hospitaller knights, and light cavalry; and on the right Poppo with his large force of Teutonic Knights, supported by the Duke of Oppeln with more conscript infantry, optional archers, and heavy cavalry.
The Mongols main force starts on the last six hex rows, under two commanders and two overall commanders. The Light Cavalry leader can command the Light cavalry, but on any given activation must choose one of the three lines into which it is divided; likewise, the Heavy Cavalry leader may activate one of the two HC lines. The Vanguard is a small force of light cavalry under its own leader that starts a few hexes ahead of the main force. The overall commanders may activate any units within their command range, but have a lower activation rating than the subordinate leaders, and must be activated in turn, i.e., one overall commander may not be activated a second time unless the other has been activated in the interim. The Mongols start, and the Vanguard must be their first activation.
The Mongols started by advancing their Light Cavalry: the Vanguard headed for the Euro right, aiming to destroy the gaggle of infantry and come up on the flank of the stronger units in the centre. The first line LC headed forwards in the centre, supported by the second line HC under one of the overall commanders. The third line LC shifted to the right under the other overall commander, but this is a longer route and took time to implement.
Very early on, Henry’s Templar and Hospitaller knights both went Aggressive, and charged the nearest LC. The enemy of course withdrew and caused some damage with their avoidance fire. The Templar and Hospitaller light cavalry moved up to support the knights, and Henry tried to move other forces up as well, but was hampered by the troops’ reluctance to move. He did manage to restore some semblance of order to his formation, only to see the knights go charging even farther forward in response to the Mongol’s hit-and-run missile attacks. This left the Templars and Hospitallers well ahead of the line, and very exposed.
The Mongols then committed their second line heavy cavalry to an attack on the right of Henry’s main line, hoping to envelope the entire command before the Euros could bring any further forces up. This turned out to be a mistake, since although they succeeded in eliminating an infantry and a light cavalry unit, they then failed their next activation roll, and the Euros activated the Greater Poland command. The infantry refused to budge, but the heavy cavalry attacked the forward Mongol HC, forcing most to withdraw and eliminating one that failed to make the withdrawal roll. This also helped secure Henry’s flank, a situation that was only improved as the Euros had a long run of successful activation and capability rolls. They were therefore able to advance the whole of the leftmost three commands and form a solid line with archers and crossbowmen interspersed with stacks of infantry and cavalry (to gain the benefit of the modifier this gives the Europeans on the defence). They were even able to lessen the Templars’ and Hospitallers’ bloodlust and bring them back to join the line, albeit somewhat the worse for wear. The two sets of infantry on the right steadfastly refused to leave their original positions, leaving themselves exposed to a flank attack by the Vanguard, and meaning that the Christian right was unsecured.
The Mongols decided at this point to change to a two-point strategy. The Vanguard advanced on the right and wiped out the first infantry command there in two activations (after a very expensive lesson in the desirability for light cavalry of avoiding shock combat with infantry). In the meantime, they advanced the remainder of their light cavalry to positions from which they could launch hit-and-run attacks on the Euro line, while holding the heavy cavalry slightly farther back, ready to respond to the hoped-for Christian charges.
At this point the Mongols had killed units for a total of 20 victory points of the needed 85, while the two units they had lost gave the Europeans 12 towards their target of 55 points. The infantry formation on the European right flank represented another 20-odd points, so the Mongols had high hopes of reaching the half-way point very soon.
Things were made slightly less attractive for them though, as on the next activation the Polish infantry finally bestirred itself and pivoted to form a line covering the flank of the main Euro line. The Christian position now had an L shape, with the long leg being the main line and the short leg leading back from the right flank to the rear map edge. However, although this was an improvement, and the Polish heavy cavalry moved to bolster the infantry line, it was still potentially very vulnerable to missile fire, and had no archers of its own to respond. In addition, the Polish cavalry had taken significant damage in their efforts to rescue the Templar knights.
The Mongols now activated two light cavalry formations and used missile fire against the knights on the Euro left and centre, with very little effect. The next Christian activation saw a change, though, as the Polish cavalry stormed forward uncontrollably towards the nearest enemy units. Two of them charged the Vanguard LC to their right, but no damage was done by either side as the LC refused combat; the third headed for the heavy cavalry facing the centre and scored a notable victory, as the Mongols failed to manage to withdraw, and in the ensuing combat took serious damage while inflicting no casualties on the attackers. (This heavy cavalry was under the direct command of Kadar, one of the overall commanders, and so far he had not exactly distinguished himself—his command had lost one unit, had two others disordered, and had two take losses). However, the Polish cavalry was now scattered and exposed, with one of the units out of command. The Polish infantry, no longer covered by the cavalry, fell back slightly and shortened its line in an effort to provide as much cover as possible for the rear of the main European line.
The next Mongol turn went much better though, as they hit out against the Polish cavalry, eliminating one unit and hurting another (although this latter combat saw them take losses too). They also managed to goad one of Henry’s knights to charge, and weakened it severely with missile fire. Suddenly the centre and right both looked weak.
Reacting to this, and fearing the attrition process would favour the Mongols, Henry activated and launched his knights in a mass attack against Kadan’s HC, eliminating another two units, although at fairly heavy cost. Immediately after this, Poppo activated on the right, and his Teutonic knights promptly went berserk. Tired of being held in check, all six units now thundered forward. Two hapless light cavalry failed to withdraw, and were eliminated in short order.
Seeing this, the Euros threw caution to the winds and rushed forward the Oppeln troops (though hampered as usual by the infantry’s reluctance to advance) in an attempt to close the gap between Poppo on the left and Henry’s stretched centre-right. At this point, the Mongols were on 25 points, the Europeans on 37.
After a few more Mongol activations spent on hit and run attacks, whittling down the Polish cavalry, Poppo activated again, and again couldn’t hold his knights, who swept on after the LC—another two enemy failed to run fast enough and ended up disordered. Poppo’s leading units now had nearly reached the opposite map edge, and he had abandoned any pretence of a link with the rest of the Euro army.
A fact that the Mongols now took advantage of, and the heavy cavalry which so far had been sitting on the right, abandoned their spectator status and poured through the gap, moving to flank the entire main Euro line and surround the Oppeln contingent. The pressure was piled on by light cavalry in the centre, using missile fire to kill an infantry unit, and threatening to cut Henry off rom the majority of his force.
A few activations later, with most of the action having taken place in the centre, Henry’s position looked even worse, having lost 2 of his knights while on the attack, and the Euro line breaking up into separate struggling groups. Mongols 46, Euro 37.
Poppo continued his private battle on the right, killing another LC; this was not enough by itself to turn the tide, however. The battle was fast turning into a race to see whether the Mongols could crush Henry’s centre and pick up the needed points before Poppo could do the same on the left. A potential turning point occurred now, though, as the lead elements of Wenceslas’ reinforcing army were spotted approaching the battlefield (three HC and one knight would enter on the next Euro activation).
The Mongols redoubled their efforts and had almost surrounded the Oppeln contingent, cutting them down with missile fire, while more Silesian infantry were slaughtered in the centre.
Wenceslas now activated on the Euro right (automatically Aggressive) and charged, as the enemy light cavalry on that flank hadn’t been able to pull far enough back from the map edge. One failed to withdraw and was contemptuously disposed of. This put the Euros on 50 points, 5 short of victory, with the Mongols on 61.
The end came almost as an anticlimax: Kadan took his HC to try and polish off a weak knight, but rashly went too close to the Templar crossbowman, and lost a unit to very good shooting. This took the Mongols over their acceptable losses threshold, and they abandoned the field as best they could.
This was something of an upset, as the Mongols are definitely favoured to win. The main lesson is probably that the Mongol should be wary of engaging in shock combat, but should use his missile fire more aggressively than happened in this game. It might also be worth his concentrating his forces, rather than engaging all along the enemy line—the European capability status rules mean that there is a good chance any units not attacked will have trouble moving fast enough to close with the enemy, giving the Mongols time to try and wipe out one or two Euro groups at a time. The game has a lot of replay potential, as so many things can turn out differently, even if the same strategies were to be used again.
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