28mm Fantastic Battles - Beerenburgers at the Battle of the Pike-staves

This week's hobby time saw a 1,000 point negotiation between the halflings of Beerenburg and a mercenary force raised by a trade competitor to discuss the price of pike-staves. Beerenburg's reluctance to buy at the price demanded had led to a bottleneck in the supply chain and a surplus of pikes sitting around un-wielded - a fact the mercenaries obviously chose to rectify.

Andrew's landsknechts were the attackers, deployed in accordance with his linear tactical doctrine. My halflings were the smaller army and made use of the defender's deeper deployment zone to form up in two lines with flanks protected by a wood on the left, and fields on the right. Note the plague doctor (rogue) off by himself at the bottom of the picture. Both those rounded hills contained troll-hoards and I planned to make the most of them.

There were relatively few mishaps following deployment with just a touch of disease here and there. The halflings' giant was overly enthusiastic, and the mercenaries' giant was late. The early battle saw the mercenaries advance slowly in the centre, and more quickly on either flank. The halfling captain on the right bring up his skirmishing urchins to support the giant and the halfling plague doctor get in and out of the nearest troll-hoard unscathed, managing to find a magical tome of revelation that he hoped to pass to one of the army's magic users.  

Sadly, the magical book's revelation turned out to be pretty nihilistic as the mercenaries' steam-powered tank came barrelling over, catching the rogue in the open and promptly removing him from the battle.

The halflings angled their archers on the left to fire a volley at the advancing knights, while on the right the urchin slingers supported by the hackbuts on the hill pounded away at the mercenary giant reducing his resolve to 0. He would have collapsed had the mercenary rogue (a rogue halfling at that!) was not attached whispering encouragement in his ear. On both flanks, halfling captains issued the order to unleash the rat swarms!

On the left the rat swarms were quickly ridden down by the knights, but they had prevented the knights from charging into the Tailor's Guild archers, thereby facilitating another round of shooting. On the right, the mercenary rogue took one look at the rats, decided to leave the giant to his fate and ran to join the ogres. Without the attached rogue, the giant collapsed and fell while the ogres engaged the rat swarm. The mercenary handgunners kept up their advance, angling towards the Brewers' Guild archers.

Now covered in rat blood and peppered with arrows, the mercenary knights, supported by the steam tank, not charged the Tailors' Guild archers, only to be charged in turn by the swordsmen of the Cutlers' Guild. Empowered by the songs of their bard, the Tailor's proved far more formidable than expected. In the centre, the halfling burghers-at-arms formed into column to negotiate the messy melee on their left, and advanced towards, but not into the oncoming pikemen. The captain in the middle of the halfling line summoned forth another rat swarm to block the advance of more pikemen against the Brewers archers. On the right, the hackbuts and slingers now turned their attention to the mercenary ogres. The ogres charged, forcing the slingers to evade, but allowing the halfling's giant to charge them in turn.

However, melees could not be avoided forever, and as fights broke out across the field, the halfling rallying and blessing needed to be divided between more and more units. The Tailors and Cutlers were both overwhelmed by the knights who proceeded to charge into the single company of halfling mounted burghers. In the centre, advancing pikemen now engaged with the burgher column, preventing it from reforming into line, and also with the Brewers. Only on the right were things going to plan for the halflings as their giant easily scattered the ogres facing him.

The halfling mounted burghers could not withstand their larger and more numerous foes and scattered, leaving the flank of the foot-burghers dangerously exposed.

But the giant had now made his own way into position to attack the flank of the mercenary pikemen.

The pike block fighting the Tailors and the giant broke, just as the knights and a third pike unit both fell upon the flank of the burghers. The burgher-meister fell under the hooves of the charging knights, sending a ripple of panic through the halfling lines. The steam tank attempted to join what looked to be a massacre, but was destroyed by the hackbuts, firing from the hill. 

The battle now hinged on the column of burghers who were now joined by the Tailors' Guild archers, charging into the centre pike unit's flank, while the giant fell upon the rear of the pikemen. At this point, the mercenaries were two companies away from their breakpoint, while the halflings were four companies away from breaking.

But the burghers just couldn't cope with the continued attacks to front and flank and finally broke. That would have opened up the knights to a final volly of hackbut fire, sure to scatter them ... except that the ripple of resolve loss from the breaking burghers caused the halfling's giant to lose heart. As he fled, the halfling army reached its breaking point and the battle was one by the mercenaries. Looks like the halflings of Beerenburg had better prepare themselves for inflation in the pike-staff market!