28mm Fantastic Battles - Beerenburgers bring bows to a pike-fight

Following their recent defeat by an army of landsknechts, and the subisquent unchecked inflation in the pike-staff market, the halfling burgers of Beerenburg took to the field of battle again to try to moderate the market more in their favour.

The Landsknecht army (top) was unchanged; from left to right: two two-company units of handgunners, two company unit of ogres, three-company unit of knights, three three-company units of drilled pikemen, giant, and steamtank.  The burgers (bottom) altered their order of battle slightly, running from left to right: four-company unit of archers, single company of mounted burgers, three-company unit of dismounted burghers, three-company unit of archers, two-company battery of hackbuts, two-company unit of slingers, giant, and a two-company unit of fast swordsmen.

Thanks to their quartermaster, the burghers suffered no mishaps ahead of the fight. Among the landsknechts, both units of handgunners were enthusiastic and one unit of pikemen were late. Otherwise there was a light smattering of disease in the ranks, but nothing to worry about. If the early phase of the battle, the Beerenburg left advanced slowly, echeloned to protect the flank, trying to meet enemy knights, ogres and handgunners.

On the right flank, the burgers kept the guild archers back to allow maximum field of fire from the small artillery pieces. The urchin slingers and giant made their way forward in a grand sweeping manoeuvre that mired in the water feature. The halfling drill master-captain moved his swordsmen into a reserve position, ready to dash forwards should the hackbuts be threatened. Dodging artillery fire, the landsknecht's giant started a long march behind the line of pikemen to the far flank.

The giant emerged from behind the pikemen just as the knights closed on the halfling burghers-at-arms. The knights had their mounts and their furious charge, but the burghers had can-openers and a barmaid refreshing them with pints, so it looked to be a more even melee than the landsknechts may have hoped.

Meanwhile, finally emerging from the lake, the halfling's own mercenary giant went toe-to-snow plough with the steam tank, crushing it with the empowering words of the bard to his rear.   

However, being then out of command range and belligerent, the giant turned around to charge the halfling's own slingers. Luckily they could evade and the giant once more became stuck in the muck. While the burgher-knight fight continued in the centre-left, ogres and giant approached the halfling archers on their flank, and landsknecht pikemen lowered their pikes to engage the archers in the centre.

Under withering bow fire, the ogres broke and fled, beginning to spread their panic around the landsknecht ranks.

The pikemen were also fighting in the proverbial shade, taking volley after volley of halfling bow fire as they slowly advanced. The mounted burghers had been moving into position to secure the flank of their dismounted brethren, but the pikemen in the very centre of the battlefield changed into column formation to fit into the gap between units and hold them back.

Having previously dispatched the ogres, the archers on the left now turned their bows against the landsknecht handgunners who returned fire.

The line of pikemen finally clashed with the halfling bowmen. They were mighty warriors, but badly bloodied by the earlier archery. At this point I remembered that I had a rat swarm to bring on. It emerged, but nowhere near where it would have been useful!

The burghers and the knights held on in the centre, while the pike column charged forward into the mounted burghers. The archers on the left continued to have a shoot-out with their handgunner rivals. The battle was fierce, but the landsknechts' resolve was crumbling faster than the Beerenburgers. 

The handgunners scattered and fled, and the halfling archers on the right managed to break their pike-armed foes, to launch forward into the flank of the pike column.

And then the fight for the centre came to a brutal conclusion as both the knights and the halfling burghers (foot and mounted) finally broke. This took the landsknechts to their breakpoint of 11/11, and the Beerenburgers to 4/10, deciding the battle comfortably in favour of Beerenburg.