Ancestors of the French : A Tournament in Normandy, 2023
Norman vs Sicilian Norman
Game 1 Norman vs Communal Italian
Game 2 Norman vs Komnenan Byzantine
Game 5 Norman vs Sicilian Norman
With another lunch of Jamon, pain, fromage, pork-based coleslaw and of course a big bag of crisps and a Normandy tart behind us, the last game finally hove into view like a cross channel ferry returning full of post-Brexit Duty Free Is The Only Upside
The opposition this time? Mr Bennett, co-passenger in the Normandy landings this weekend and purveyor of a Sicilian Norman army which I already knew had a LOT of elite Knights, a fair amount of skirmishing Light Horse and a lone spearman.
Sicilian Norman is arguably the Roll Royce of the Norman family of lists, with a near-endless variety of troop types and an ability to upgrade a list-busting "more than 4" Knights to Elite status as well as tempering the impetuosity with a smattering of standard Impact Knights too. The option for a Strategist with a dramatically French sounding name rounds out the offering in moustache-twirling style
The lists for the Norman and Sicilian Norman from this game, as well as all the other lists from the games at Normandy can be seen here in the L'Art de la Guerre Wiki.
This would be a tough one, and so my plan from the off was to try and cut down all possibilities for skill and movement by narrowing the board as much as possible. A key part of this plan also then involved securing a village to guard one flank, and more importantly to allow me to put on table a 15mm Norman-style church which I had brought over especially for this competition.
Creme de la menthe! With the waterway and village anchoring my left, and the churchyard stuffed with the two ambushing javelineers of the Bretonic allied contingent my Norman army then stretched neatly across the open space on the table with Knights, spearmen, more Knights and finally the block of bow units facing off against Mike's rather more monocultural wall of high quality knighthood.
The Normans in Sicily
The battle commenced with waves of Arabic-Sicilian light horsemen riding forth from the Sicilian lines to harass and hurl insults and javelins at Guillame's wall of mounted steel
Or, more accurately, to outnumber my own much less numerous light horse scouting screen and then pepper it with far more accurate shooting to boot.
Pont L'Eveque! himself was riding forth with half of his knights at the left hand end of the line.
Standing tall in his saddle he urged his brave men forward, mace in hand, to see if they could sweep up and put enough pressure on the right hand end of the Sicilian line to give pause for thought to the powerful block of aggressively advancing Knights that made up the entire Sicilian centre
Bain Marie! The ambushing Breton javelineers had been discovered by an unlucky Saracen archer, who had then been caught and swiftly despatched while attempting to flee from the javelineers attack. This did rather hang the charging javeleer out to dry, but at least it would distract the Sicilians for a while, and with them being a smaller army with lots of Elite knights, trading Light Infantry 1:1 wasn't the worst idea in the world after all.
The Saracen skirmishers had however done their job effectively, and with blood rushing through his ears one of the Norman sub generals decided to try and charge the pesky light horsmen away, despite the clear instructions from Guilliame to hold position
Andouillette Enorme! The Norman Knights had blown away the Vikings this very morning and confidence was clearly still high - they charged forward, scattering the Saracen horsemen to the four winds
Unfortunately though, the Normans had picked up momentum coming down the hill on which they were resting, and their galloping charge continued way beyond the range of their supporting infantry, leaving them suddenly exposed and isolated, impossible to protect from the Sicilian charge that now was surely coming in the next turn
L'Art de la Guerre hint - All troops who charge at an enemy who evades get to make a random roll to see how far they go - "long" or "short". Normal soldiery can extend their charge if this roll allows them to, but can also choose to stop after a short distance too, but the headstrong nature of Impetuous troops means they always charge the full extent of this random move. In this case, that means they have "gone long" - exactly what the Sicilians were hoping for.
With a thundering of hooves and a fluttering of banners the Sicilians countercharged, with the two lines of Knights meeting in a battering bustup of epic proportions in what was still the very early stages of the game time. This one would very much not go the distance
Steak et Frites! As expected the slightly better quality, and certainly more numerous Sicilians came off best, with the Norman knights taking a couple of hits and only dishing out one in return.
The Norman army's infantry were still far behind their over-eager and now demonstrably over-confident Knight-shaped betters, and so this initial advantage engineered by Sicilian quality and Norman impetuosity would be very difficult to retrieve from hereon in.
Stinking Comte! As the Sicilian Knights had charged forward, their better-drilled caparisoned lancers had hinged out, refusing the flank and posing a challenge that the headstrong combat-eager Normans were finding hard to unpick - so half of them just charged home against the end of the Sicilian line anyway. Highly effective slingshot shooting had also added extra complexity by damaging others among the Norman knights before the inevitable combat could be joined on this flank too.
The headstrong Norman command suddenly faltered and realised the position it had foolishly gotten itself into.
Panic ran through the ranks of mounted Milites like wildfire, an conflagration who's flames were further fanned by the dramatic death of their commander, unhorsed by a savage blow from a Sicilian mace
This was now a huge hole in the Norman line, and a huge problem which only the thin skirmish screening capabilities of the Breton allied contingent were in any position to try and fix.
Flushed with confidence that the battle was inexorably tipping their way the Sicilians launched another punishing charge into Guillame's line of spearmen, crashing into the wall of densely packed warriors at incredible pace
On the extreme left the Sicilians were also now pushing forward to engage the disparate elements of the Norman force, as combat was suddenly joined all along the entire battle line (well, the bits that still had Normans in it anyway)
The Sicilian charge was devastating, the force of the mounted charge rocking the Norman spearmen back on their heels as huge military-bred steeds broke into their formation allowing their mail-clad riders to smite about themselves with swords and maces to deadly effect
The Sicilians less dramatically flamboyant Knights on the extreme left were also operating in a ruthlessly effective manner, taking advantage of the Normans confusion and incipient despair to claim the upper hand in that matchup as well
Calvados in a Cupcake! This had been a round of combat in which the Normans had contrived to lose almost every battle - apart from the dramatic moment Guillame had led his Knights straight through the middle of the enemy line to create a hugely exploitable gap!
The Norman knights burst out into the middle of the Sicilian army, smashing into the flanks of already engaged enemy Chivalric cavalry in a move which really should have delivered spectacular and immediate redress to the Sicilians. But, somehow, incredibly, the Sicillians held firm against this supposed hammer-blow, halting the Blitzkreig breakthrough in its tracks !!
Bonnet de Douche! This was now desperate stuff - with the supposed counter-punch breakthrough stalled, and the Sicilians continuing their deadly attacks the game now seemed sufficiently lost that Norman thoughts turned to eking out a few more turns to try and do a little more damage to the enemy army in the hope of recording some more points from a losing position. The battered Bretons rode forth to try and distract the enemy knights just a little longer
Roger, The Great Count (careful...)
The battle raged on - and the Sicilians continued to resist against all the odds as Guillme himself exhorted his men to achieve a statistically highly probable victory which could in theory open up the entire centre of the Sicilian army to more of his enraged Milites
But the Sicilians had clearly not read the tapestry-embroiderers script in sufficient detail, as they again shrugged off the Norman flank attach to yet again hold firm, using their fists, elbows, and even their helmets to bludgeon their opponents into submission in intense close-quarters combat, ignoring the rules of etiquette that dictated they should only fight with their swords and should not really manage to roll three consecutive turns of 5:1s or 6:2s when fighting from at least 4 factors down
Mr Grimsdale! The Sicilians widened their gap in the middle of the Norman line, riding down spearmen and chasing away the irritant Bretons
The Normans now had literally nothing left in the heart of their army to stem the tide of orange-growing feudal overlordship on horseback which was ruthlessly giving the Atlantic and Channel coast dwellers a torrid time
More Norman knights lost the will to fight on, and were trampled underfoot by the almost Germanically efficient Sicilians. Suddenly the Normans realised that their most effective combat unit in this supposedly sweeping outflanking force was an injured unit of bowmen locked in a losing combat against the only enemy heavy infantry unit on the entire table
Finally the end of the Sicilian line collapsed, but it was way too late.
The Sicilians had tempted the Normans into rash charges, suckered them into engaging in a disjointed way, and (ask Mike, he'll confirm) soundly out-diced the Norman army at almost every opportunity as well to record a decisive last round victory
The Normandy adventure, or at least the toy soldiers related component of it, was now over for William Le Partial Conquerer, with 3 wins and 2 defeats to his name
Read on for the post match summaries from the Generals involved, as well as another episode of legendary expert analysis from Hannibal, or just go straight to our tourism in Caen, Rouen and Dieppe on the way home
Post Match Summary from the Norman Commander
Well well well well well Mr Grimsdale! A defeat to end the weekend of battle, this time the annals of Norman Wisdom will tell of a game lost due to the impetuosity of my sub-commander's Knights and their enthusiasm to "roll long" and end up totally disconnected from the rest of my army.
Advancing into the face of the enemy in a totally unsupported (and unsupportable!) fashion is hardly going to surprise anyone as an example of poor battle management, but at least they were keen for battle and tried their best
If only the enemy Milites had crumbled a little faster when hit in the flank by my own Knights, then perhaps we would have been ending the event on a high with a bigger trophy than the one for 7th place, but not everything is perfect
Except perhaps the croissants that were on offer every morning. They were bloody good indeed.
Hannibal's Post Match Analysis
Oh, how Duke William of Normandy hath tasted the bitter fruits of defeat! Thou art a cowardly and incompetent commander, whose foolish ambition hath led thee to disaster. Dost thou not see the folly of thy arrogance, in thinking that thou couldst conquer a land as proud and fierce as Sicily?
Thou art a gluttonous pig, who dost gorge himself on the delicacies of France whilst leaving thy army to starve and suffer. If you can cast your mind back to Game 2 when your partly-Elite Knights happily took on a load of non-Elite Byzantine Knights, how confident were you that your Elite guys would win through for you? But in this game you chose to believe the exact opposite - you hapless dullard !
Thy incompetence doth insult the very honor of thy soldiers, who hath followed thee blindly into battle, only to be humiliated and defeated. Thou art a disgrace to thy rank and thy nation, who shall forever be remembered as a hapless buffoon.
Remember, oh William, that a true leader must be wise and cautious, and must always put the needs of his army before his own. Thy mistakes shall haunt thee forever, and thy defeat shall forever be a stain on thy honor and thy name. I can only now look forward to more tourism, for that is something that even you cannot surely mess up? Let's get out of here and see the photos please
Click here for the report of the next game in this competition
That's the end - so why not go back to the Match Reports Index and read some more reports?
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Game 1 Norman vs Communal Italian
Game 2 Norman vs Komnenan Byzantine
Game 5 Norman vs Sicilian Norman
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