[custom scenario] Surrounded!

Moderators: rbodleyscott, Slitherine Core, Gothic Labs

Post Reply
StuccoFresco
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 590
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:10 am

[custom scenario] Surrounded!

Post by StuccoFresco »

Fourth scenario of my custom campaign; previous one: viewtopic.php?f=320&t=98108

The crushing defeat at Panhala Bridge sowed discord among the Bengali Confderation, that soon started to fall apart. The Bengali Kingdom was one of the strongest successor states, and as such, the rising Marathi Kingdom moved to challenge it immediately. Sure in the strenght of his Pikemen, King Chatrapati Shivaji moved north with his army, and when he saw the Bahmanis King forming a fortified line in one of his castles, he decided to attack him. He didn't send his men blindly forward, however: he sent his Marathi Raiders in the woods on his flanks and thought it was enough.He was wrong. As soon as he committed his army against the enemy lines, the Bahmanis reinforcements descended on his army from all sides.

Scenario starts in a difficult position: I am surrounded and the bulk of my infantry is already committed. I decide to try to power through enemy lines with my pikemen while forming a defensive perimeter against incoming enemy reinforcements. Enemy cavalry starts swarming around, with Misl Irregulars taking potshots with their carbines at my units, but I manage to contain the enemy action on the left flank, pinning a lot of units down in melee. Unfortunately, my frontal assaults on enemy positions mostly failed, except one melee between a Mansabdar infantry holding off two of my pike blocks thanks to higher ground and rough terrain.

Image

Image

Image

In Turn 4 I managed to get a unit of Marathi Raiders behind enemy lines, and realign a pike block to threaten an Archer unit manning the fortifications. I hope that the combination of frontal assault and rear charge will force them to rout or at least flee, opening a gap in the enemy line. Fortunately, it worked and by Turn 5 I have a foothold over the fortifications. Unfortunately, enemy units are taking down my defense perimeter: in the right flank an enemy Irregular unit charged and routed my Longbowmen, and on the left flank enemy infantry coming from the woods and Irregulars preparing to charge from the opposite side risks collapsing my lines with a two-pronged attack.

Image

Turn 8: mixed results, but mostly bad. My attack near the castle is still stalling: the enemy infantry refuses to back off. Remember my foothold behind enemy fortifications? It got pushed back by enemy Nawab's own guard, so I decided to pull back entirely and try to salvage the situation in my backfield, where enemy cavalry is running amok. The left flank saw my cavalry being mostly wiped out or chased off in the fields, but the pikemen and my own personal guard managed to wreck everything the enemy came up with, so it's not too bad. The real problem is the total collapse of my right flank, where my cavalry got floored and a rear charge of a unit of Misl Horsemen routed my only pike block in the area. Enemy cavalry rode forward and overran my artillery and remaining Longbowmen.

Image
StuccoFresco
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 590
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:10 am

Re: [custom scenario] Surrounded!

Post by StuccoFresco »

Things get better the next turn, when I manage to finally rout that stubborn infantry that was blocking my way and push my Pikemen behind the castle. I am also able to form a strong concentration of infantry and cavalry roughly in the center of the battlefield to hold enemy units at bay. In the fields, sadly, the remains of my left flank's cavalry is being killed off.

Image

Image

The penetration of enemy lines near the castle sort of works: one pike block starts to flank the enemy units still manning the fortified line, while the other tries to get rid of another infantry on the hill (with very poor results). My Rajah runs through the gap to help dealing with the fortifications. Meanwhile, my pikemen are pushing back enemy cavalry, but more cavalry are closing on them from all directions.

Image

My infantry manages to clear the enemy off the fortifications, and is chasing off other enemy units in the south, but the rest of the battlefield is a mess: my cavalry has been killed off to the last man, and two pike blocks in the north are isolated and surrounded by enemy cavalry, that is decimating them with gunfire. Fortunately, I have routed enough enemy units to hit the 60% threshold so I got awarded a victory!

The battle has been very very tense: it was a close victory and this time the AI used his cavalry really well, whittling down my units with debilitating gunfire and setting up a lot of flanking and rear charges. Enemy infantry put up a valiant fight thanks to fortifications and rough terrain, proving that in the right conditions even the fearsome pike blocks can be beaten. Really satisfied with this battle.

Image

Image

Image
Athos1660
Major-General - Elite Tiger I
Major-General - Elite Tiger I
Posts: 2561
Joined: Wed May 29, 2019 3:23 pm

Re: [custom scenario] Surrounded!

Post by Athos1660 »

Nice and interesting ! :-)
StuccoFresco
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 590
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:10 am

Re: [custom scenario] Surrounded!

Post by StuccoFresco »

Thanks, I'm having a blast with this custom campaign, experimenting with evolving weapons and tactics. This time the AI played really well. After every AAR I usually try to change something to make it more challenging to a human player, but this time it wasn't necessary.

I'm also trying the "Field of Glory Flank/Rear charges" and it feels good.
StuccoFresco
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 590
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:10 am

Re: [custom scenario] Surrounded!

Post by StuccoFresco »

I'm also posting all AARs on Reddit, trying to get attention to this game, it really deserves it.
Athos1660
Major-General - Elite Tiger I
Major-General - Elite Tiger I
Posts: 2561
Joined: Wed May 29, 2019 3:23 pm

Re: [custom scenario] Surrounded!

Post by Athos1660 »

StuccoFresco wrote: Thu Apr 09, 2020 3:40 pm I'm also trying the "Field of Glory Flank/Rear charges" and it feels good.
Less domino effect when a flank charge starts.
Longer games. More realistic charges, I guess.
Nice!.
StuccoFresco wrote: Thu Apr 09, 2020 3:42 pm I'm also posting all AARs on Reddit, trying to get attention to this game, it really deserves it.
Indeed :-)
Athos1660
Major-General - Elite Tiger I
Major-General - Elite Tiger I
Posts: 2561
Joined: Wed May 29, 2019 3:23 pm

Re: [custom scenario] Surrounded!

Post by Athos1660 »

StuccoFresco wrote: Thu Apr 09, 2020 3:42 pm I'm also posting all AARs on Reddit, trying to get attention to this game, it really deserves it.
btw the number of P&S players has increased lately, according to steamcharts.
Ok... we're few but the recent growth is nice for a 2015 game :-)

Image

PS : this is not the total number of those who keep on playing the game at the present time, but only the average number of ppl playing the game on Steam at the same time at a given time; and the max one.
StuccoFresco
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 590
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:10 am

Re: [custom scenario] Surrounded!

Post by StuccoFresco »

Good!
Post Reply

Return to “After Action Reports”