White Beard's Shame And the End Of A Campaign

 Beerstein finally attacked the Bogavanian capital. The castle was defended by two units of long bow men, a unit of crossbowmen, one of chain mailed warriors, a heavy infantry unit, another of peasants who had fled from Beerstein and six Ebons who had fled Beerstein when their Fezian invasion force was defeated. The King, himself was armoured, ready to fight off any who breached the walls.

The Beerstein army included four units of matchlock men, three units of mercenary mounted archers and a small understrength unit of the same. There were also two mounted units of crusaders who carried ladders ready to climb the walls. Two units of peasants were equipped with shovels and refuse to fill in the moat. Two cannons, a half strength unit of mercenary Hillmen with spears arrived from reserve.

The Beerstener army, in the absence of General Tobias the Slow (who had marched part of his army East) the wizard, White beard was left in command.

The Beersteiner artillery unlimbered at long range and failed to damage the walls.

                           Ebons who had been captured when with a Fezian army but who chose to give service to Beerstein.

                                 Bogavanian troops in the castle courtyard prepare to repel Beersteiners. The king is with white and blue plume.

                  Bogavanian crossbows. They placed themselves in a corner tower and shot from the slit windows.

                                                           Beersteiner crusaders

   White Beard, the commander of the Beersteiner force attached to a depleted matchlock unit.

                                 Beersteiner peasants successfully fill a section of the moat.

    Bogavanian heavy infantry, actually Patrans or Caspians in Fezian service lent to the Bogavanians.

                                                                 The courtyard

                                                             Bogavanian longbows

                                                            Beersteiner peasants

                                 Beersteiner matchlock men and mercenary mounted archers

                                                                  Beersteiner peasants

                                                          The Beersteiner besiegers

The Beersteiner strategy was sound. A solid line of matchlock men gave covering fire to the two units of peasants in front of them. Behind them the mounted archers provided more fire power, once they were in range. This eventually nullified the greater range of the longbows and the cover saves they and the crossbow men enjoyed, there was just too much fire power. White Beard added to the devastating fire power when he added his magic missile.

The one blunder? White beard joined the depleted unit of matchlocks. The long bows on the facing wall were eliminated but the crossbow men in the tower were instrumental in the disaster about to befall the Beersteiners. They shot into the depleted matchlock men reducing their numbers below 50%. 

White Beard was a powerful level three wizard and even his battlefield intelligence was superior but he was no leader. Nor was he courageous. When the unit of matchlock men fled so did White Beard, all the way off the field.

Although White beard followed The Lore of Light, the crusaders muttered darkly about burning him at the stake. They had witnessed the successful progress of the battle and were ready to cross the filled section of moat and to scale the walls. Now all had been for naught. For now, the leaderless army retreated back to the village of Luckivick.

NOTE ON THE RULE FOR LOSS OF A COMMANDER

Normally the loss of a commander means his death. This occurred once before in the campaign but never the single minded retreat of the commander! In any case it was treated the same, once he left the field. We rolled a six sided dice and consulted the table of results; these ranged to very dire to temporary halt to any advances and selection of a new commander to retreat or surrender, depending on circumstance). So I rolled a '1' which meant the retreat of the army! (The army, at least was not cut off from withdrawal or liable to being run down by cavalry, which could lead to surrender).

END OF THE CAMPAIGN

Next we rolled to see if the campaign continued. It stopped! presumably the Beersteiners had other borders to concern themselves with. Any hexes I had failed to have a resounding victory or where I had been less than one move had to be abandoned. 

This meant that the siege of The Hounding castle in the North had to cease, even though another round of battle would have seen it captured. Another Fezian castle, captured without a fight, due to lack of a garrison also had to be abandoned because occupied for one move only.

On the other hand, the Beersteiner armies had captured Fezian supply wagons and both Bogavanian and Fezian border territory. Bogavania was virtually cut in half.

THE CASPIAN REBELLION

The territory of Caspia is a desert region under Fezian control. The people there have affiliations with the Patrans further South. Their armies are largely of ancient character and technology. The Fezians should have enough troops being sent from the capital and regional centre to suppress the insurgency. We shall see.

NEXT STEP

When we have totalled the countries' treasuries armies will be formed or topped up and distributed in strategic areas. THEN we will roll the dice to see if, next campaigning season Beerstein and Bogavani/Fezia are again at war, whether there is a period of peace or whether third party countries invade all two or three countries.